Mutiny on board. The Anglo-Italian Crimean Legion and military colonization projects in the Argentine Confederation (1856-1857)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35305/prohistoria.vi43.2098Keywords:
Military Colonization, Italy, Río de la Plata, British Italian Legion, War, AtlanticAbstract
Between the end of 1856 and the beginning of 1857 two contingents of troops that had belonged to the British Italian Legion, a corps created through an agreement between the authorities of England and the Kingdom of Piedmont to fight in the Crimean War, arrived in the Río de la Plata. The transport of these soldiers was intended to form a military colony in the Argentine Confederation, but logistical, political and financial problems scuttled the plan before the enclave was founded. The documents we publish here constitute an observatory to analyze the geopolitics of the Atlantic, the motivations of the militiamen, as well as the logistical difficulties in developing a specific type of “armed colonization”.
Downloads
References
Bayley, C.C. (1977). Mercenaries for Crimea. The German, Swiss, and Italian Legions in British Service, 1854-1856. McGill-Queen's University Press.
Blaufarb, R. (2016). “Arms for Revolutions: Military Demobilization after the Napoleonic Wars and Latin American Independence”, En: A. Forrest, K. Hagemann, M. Rowe (Eds). War, Demobilization and Memory The Legacy of War in the Era of Atlantic Revolutions. (pp. 100-116). UK. Palgrave Mcmillan.
Bosma, U. (2009). European colonial soldiers in the nineteenth century: their role in white global migration and patterns of colonial settlement. Journal of Global History, (4/2) 317-336.
Brezzo, L. (1988). Las gestiones de José de Buschenthal ante el Reino de Nápoles: intento de una empresa migratoria. Res Gesta, (24), 23-25.
Brown, M. (2006). Adventuring through Spanish Colonies: Simon Bolivar, Foreign Mercenaries, and the Birth of New Nations. University of Liverpool.
Candido, S. (1990). L'emigrazione coatta in Brasile di carcerati politici presunti affiliati alla «Giovine Italia». Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento (LXXVII), 475-512.
Cossuto, G. (2021). Italians in the Crimean War. En C Baden, (Ed.) The Routledge Handbook of the Crimean War, (pp. 178-188). Routledge.
De Vito, C. y Lichtenstein, A. (2015). “Writing A Global History Of Convict Labour”. En C. De Vito, y A. Lichtenstein, (Eds), Global Convict Labour, Brill.
Duffau, N., Etchechury Barrera, M. (2024). La ‘conspiración de los lombardos’. La inmigración italiana y las redes políticas transnacionales en el Río de la Plata (Montevideo, 1857), Ayer, (136), 181-205.
Etchechury Barrera, M. (2012). La “causa de Montevideo”. Inmigración, legionarismo y voluntariado militar en el Río de la Plata, 1848-1852. Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos. Disponible en: https://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/64670
Ilari, V. (2019). La British-Italian Legion che doveva andare in Crimea e finì in Argentina. Italy on the Rimland. Storia militare di una penisola euroasiatica. Tomo I. Intermarium, 97-108.
Laband, J. (2009). From mercenaries to military settlers the British German Legion, 1854-1861. En S. Miller (Ed.), Soldiers and Settlers in Africa, 1850-1918, (pp. 85-122). Brill, 2009.
Lodolini E. (1978). L'esilio in Brasile di detenuti politici romani (1837). Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento, (LXV), 1978, 132-174.
López, J. S. (1970). La colonia anglo-italiana. Un intento de colonización durante la presidencia de Urquiza (1856-1857), Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. Emilio Ravignnai, (14-15), 24-25, 98-117.
Navarro, J. R. (1985). Carlistas castellano-manchegos sentenciados a Cuba durante la Primera Guerra Carlista, Primer Congreso de Historia de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, 20 de diciembre de 1985, 67-76.
Padilla Angulo, J. (2016). “El carlismo en Ultramar”. En D. Montañá Buchaca y J. Rafart Canals, Josep (Coords.) Fronteres del carlisme: del Berguedà a Ultramar. IV Simposi d'Història del Carlisme, (pp. 209-229). Centre d’Estudis d’Aviá.
Padoin, M., Piassini, C. E. (2016). Os Mercenários do Império (1851): Os Brummer, Navegar. Revista de Etudos de E/Imigraçao, (2/3), 166-189.
Puliafito, C. (2007). La Legione italiana. Bahía Blanca, 1856. El frente olvidado del Risorgimento. s.d.
Saavedra, M. (1985). La colonia anglo-italiana y la política inmigratoria del Gobierno de Urquiza (1856-1857). América Meridional, (6), 7-44.
Wilson, P. H. (2020). Foreign military labour in Europe’s transition to modernity. European Review of History, (27), 12-32.
Zürcher, E. J. (Ed). (2013). Fighting for a Living: A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500-2000. Amsterdam University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Mario Etchechury Barrera

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Copyright of this issue © Prohistoria. Historia, políticas de la historia













