1. Giuseppe Mazzini was born in Genoa in 1807, and he became a member of the secret society of the Carbonari. As a young man of 24, he was sent into exile in 1831 for attempting a revolution in Liguria. 2. He subsequently founded two more underground societies, first, Young Italy in Marseilles, and then, Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-minded young men from Poland, France, Italy and the German states. 3. Mazzini believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. Mazzini’s relentless opposition to monarchy and his vision of democratic republics frightened the conservatives. 4. Metternich described him as ‘the most dangerous enemy of our social order’.