Mazzini, conspiracy and the limits of asylum

Mazzini's Ticinese years

Giuseppe Mazzini was born in Genoa on 22 June 1805 and went into exile in 1831 after his arrest as a member of the carboneria. He spent most of his life abroad, about a decade of it in Switzerland: in Grenchen in 1835 and 1836 and, after 1848, repeatedly in Ticino.¹ He had earlier influenced the leaders of Ticinese radicalism, among them Carlo Battaglini, Stefano Franscini and Giacomo Luvini-Perseghini. In Ticino he lived in hiding or under false names, protected by sympathizers who lent him rooms in Lugano and in villas on the lake. Martinola notes that he returned often, with long stays in his old age.² From 1865 one of his refuges was the Villa La Tanzina in Lugano, bought that year by Sara Levi Nathan. Born in Pesaro in 1819, she had married the German stockbroker Mayer Moses Nathan and lived in London, where she became a devoted friend of Mazzini. After her husband's death in 1859 she returned to Italy, was accused of complicity in republican conspiracies and moved with her children to Ticino. The Tanzina became a meeting place of the democratic opposition in exile, and Mazzini stayed there regularly, incognito.³

Mazzini's relationship with Switzerland was ambivalent. He admired its liberal and republican order, wrote for La Jeune Suisse in Bienne in 1835 and 1836 and published L'Italia del popolo in Lausanne from 1849 to 1851. He rejected Swiss federalism and Swiss neutrality, which he regarded as obstacles to a European revolution.⁴ In September 1854, while staying at Küsnacht near Zurich, he addressed an open letter to the Federal Council protesting against the treatment of political refugees, which brought him into conflict with the Genevan radical leader James Fazy.⁵ In 1869, three years before his death, Mazzini acquired the citizenship of Epiquerez, a small commune in the Franches-Montagnes that has formed part of the commune of Clos du Doubs, in the Canton of Jura, since 1 January 2009.⁶ He died in Pisa on 10 March 1872 in the house of Sara Nathan's daughter.⁷

From the Valle d'Intelvi to 6 February 1853

The risings that Mazzini prepared from Swiss territory repeatedly created diplomatic tension between Switzerland and the conservative powers: the Savoy expedition of 1834, the Valle d'Intelvi rising of October 1848 and, above all, the rising in Milan of 6 February 1853.⁸ The plan of 1853 relied on the workers and artisans of Milan, who were to attack the Austrian garrison with knives and daggers. About 400 men took part. The Austrian garrison quickly suppressed the rising. Some 895 persons were arrested, sixteen of whom were hanged or shot between 8 and 17 February.⁹ Mazzini himself had come secretly from London and waited on Swiss soil for the outcome. The Dizionario storico della Svizzera states that the risings were prepared in Lugano.¹⁰

The consequences for Ticino were immediate and are described in the next section. For the law of asylum the episode marked a turning point. Asylum in the Swiss understanding protected the refugee against surrender to his persecutors. It did not protect him when he used Swiss territory as a base for armed action against a neighbouring state. Nor did it oblige the canton or the Confederation to tolerate such action. The distinction between the person of the refugee, who was protected, and his political activity, which could be restricted, had been implicit in the Fremdenkonklusa. After 1848 it became a matter of federal law.

Notes

1. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above). ↩
2. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above), on his influence on Battaglini, Franscini and Luvini-Perseghini; Martinola, "I mazziniani del Ticino" (above): "Poi vi ritornerà sovente, con lunghi soggiorni in vecchiaia." ↩
3. Carlo Agliati, "Nathan, Sara", in HLS, version of 14 February 2025, https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/027479/ (consulted 4 October 2026). ↩
4. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above). ↩
5. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above). ↩
6. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above), giving Epiquerez as his commune of citizenship from 1869. On the present status of Epiquerez see Wikipedia, "Epiquerez", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiquerez (consulted 5 October 2026), used here as a last resort. ↩
7. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above); Agliati, "Nathan, Sara" (above). ↩
8. Moos, "Mazzini, Giuseppe" (above). ↩
9. Wikipedia, "Milan Uprising", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Uprising (consulted 4 October 2026), used here as a last resort for the figures: "only about four hundred craftsmen and workers mustered, armed with knives and daggers" (citing Soresina, 2023) and "895 were arrested, 16 of whom were hanged or shot" (citing Fantoni, 1885, among others). The article names the executed by date, eight on 8 February, three on 10 February, two on 14 February and three on 17 February. ↩
10. Bauer, "Royaume lombard-vénitien" (above): "En 1853, en réponse à de nouveaux soulèvements à Milan, préparés à Lugano ...". Wikipedia, "Milan Uprising" (above), citing Denis Mack Smith, states that the insurrectionary committee persuaded Mazzini to stay in Locarno until the success of the rising was certain. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.