The struggle for the freedom of Cuba was one of the great concerns of Italian patriots. From the insurrection led by Narciso Lopez (1848) to the outbreak of the War of the Ten Years (1868), and up to the revolt for independence in Baire (1895), Mazzinian agents, democratic exiles and members of the parliamentary far left supported the revolutionary élites of the Caribbean island and were at work to foster an intense propaganda campaign, to finance clandestine expeditions and to found political association. Inspired by a shared ideal of Atlantic brotherhood, they endorsed Cuban nationalism in the name of universal principles of administrative self-government, racial equality and popular sovereignty. This articles analyzes the evolution of the Italian republicans’ solidarity with Cuba over fifty years, in order to illustrate the global projection of the Risorgimento and post-Risorgimento forces of patriotic tradition during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Keywords: Atlantic history, Cuba, Mazzini, Republicanism, Risorgimento, Historical Left.