The humble German charcoal burner of the Middle Ages came to symbolise much greater things during the 19th century. The secret society of the Carbonari, bases around the medieval rituals of the charcoal burners, played an important role in the national unification of Italy.
If you were taking a history quiz at school, one of the trickiest questions might be the following: Is ther a connection between the traditions of 18th-century charcoal burners in the forests of Germany and the desperate struggle wage by Italian freedom fighters to forge a single Italian nation on the Apennine Peninsula from the beginning of the 19th century? Their common name - Carbonari - is the clue, for the word means 'charcoal burner'. In 19th-century liberal and nationalist politics, the making of chrcoal came to symbolise the purification and spreading of ideas of liberty, morality and progress.
The organisation of a secret society
Originally, the Carbonari were the members of a guild - a kind of trade union or craftsmen's association - which probably came into being in the Middle Ages around the same time as Freemasonry. While the rituals of the Freemasons were bases on the trade of stonemasonry, the customs of the Carbonari - which included not only charcoal burners, but also forest workers, carpenters and cabinet-makers - were bases on trades associated with woodwork and the forest. Senior officers would be addressed by the names of trees - for example, 'Brother Oak' or 'Brother Elm'; their conference table was called the chopping block, and their chairs were bundles of brushwood. Similar to the Freemasons, the members wore red leather aprons, and, during their regular meetings, sthey surrounded themselves with objects to which they attributed a certain symbolic meaning; axes, saws, pieces of wood in various lengths and wreaths made from oak leaves.
Freedom fighters in Italy
The reason why this male society, bases on a venerable trade, changed to a secret society with strong political tendencies has never been completely explained. But we do know that the change took place between 1807 and 1812 in southern Italy, when a certain Marghella, who was the Minister of Police in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, became a sponsor of the Carbonari. At that time, the kingdom was ruled by the dashing Joachim Murat (1767-1825), one of Napoleon's leading generals as well as the French emperor's brother-in-law. Marghella had set himself the goal of unifying Italy under a constitutional monarchy, and of toppling foreign-imposed rulers like Murat. e won the Carbonari over to his plans and it was probably this that changed in into a society with a rigid military organisation whose members were armed, and which exerted a strong political influence over the years. Many historians are convinced that the Carbonari were involved in nearly all the unsuccessful rebellions that gripped the Kingdom of Naples and Slicily up to 1835. The early liberation movements were finally subdued around 1850, but the dream of Italian unification survived. These ideas spread throughout the entire peninsula, and were eventually put into action by men such as Camillo Cavour, the prime minister of the sorthern state of Piedmont, and the famed guerrilla leader Guiseppe Garibaldi.
Republican in France
Even in France, where it was known as the Charbonnerie, the Carbonari developed into a political association. While the members supported the establishment of constitutuonal monarchy in Italy, they lobbied for the return of the republic in France, especially after 1820, when the Bourbon kings grew ever more anti-liberal. The French branch of the Carbonari ay have played a major part in the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, but this is uncertain. It is known, though, that they gave assistance to Napoleon III - the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte - enabling him to win power. In Italy around 1870, just as an Italian nation was born, the Carbonari disappeared from the political scene, while the same happened to the Charbonnerie.
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