By Alberto MENGONI
(THE GLOBE)
�Perhaps one day it�ll be usefull to remember all this� were the words pronounced by Eleonora De Fonseca Pimentel while climbing the steps of the gallows, to find her death, on August 20th, 1799. A moral will which referred to the 144 glorious days of existence of the Neapolitan Republic, one of the Jacobin republics born in the peninsula on the wake of Napoleon�s first Italian campaign of 1796.
By far Naples� republic was the most illustrious since it was not granted by the advancing French troops or established after their taking over. The republic in Naples came into being prior the occupation of the city, by the declaration of some 30 patriots, on Monday, January 21st, 1799. They had found shelter few days before, ready to defend their newly acquired liberty, at St. Elmo Castle where the new institution was established, when, monarch left, the �lazzari� (peasants) ignited a dangerous period of unrest.
The French army, still fighting the 50,000 lazzari of the city, had not sieged power yet. It took general Championnet�s troops 4 days to crush their resistance (20-23) before being able to make his triumphal entry through Porta Capuana.
Also that day Eleonora De Fonseca Pimentel had something to say: it was the �Hymn to Freedom�, composed for that exciting event.
But how and why had the Neapolitan Republic been established? The French Revolution of 1789 brought a full bowl of new ideas: concept such as libert�, egalit�, fraternit� were striking noise for the monarchs of Europe used to their dispotic way of life: no citizens in their domains, only subjects.
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, of which Naples was the capital, was no way different, with one more ingredient to make it worst, it was, in fact, in those last years of the century one of the most economically depressed areas of the Old Continent. Quite naturally, specially thanks to the city Masonic lodges �Philantropia� and �Della Vittoria�, such ideas started spreading up finding a fertile humus constituted by the brilliant middle class, and the open minded noble families of the city which were in perennial odd terms with king Ferdinand IV of Bourbon. A man that Italy�s greatest philosopher of this century, Benedetto Croce, marks with a lapidary comment: �It was given him mich honour by calling him a tyrant�!
Ferdinand�s wife Mary Caroline was the sister of the French queen Mary Antoinette, beheaded by the French Revolution. A replica in Naples of what happened to her sister�s family in Paris was no way tolerable.
Of course, the royal reaction against masons, middle class and patriciate - neo Jacobins -was heavy with many jailed (among whom Eleonora De Fonseca Pimentel) in 1794, some executed (De Deo, Galiani, Vitaliani), some others exiled (Russo, Pagano, Lauber): still very mild compared with the reaction that the monarchy offered after the republic collapsed and the king got back in Naples. The Neapolitan Jacobinism was the sparkling blend of liberalism, democracy and early socialism, the seed from which the tree of independence, unity and freedom would have grown into the Italian Risorgimento.
Solved temporarily the matter by applying those coercitive measures, Ferdinand IV however failed to get rid of the problem and when Napoleon, still in Egypt against the British, seemed to have become a minor problem to deal with, the king of Naples found vigor to move at war, badly adviced by Lord Acton, Horatio Nelson and the queen, against the French in the peninsula. The Bourbon�s scheme was to expand his kingdom further north, and to reinstate Pius VI on his Rome�s papal throne.
The campaign launched by Ferdinand on November 22nd, 1798 after the initial success of the conquest of Rome 7 days later, brought him back to Naples on the 14th of December � chased by the French Arm�e � looking for a way to escape defeat and, possibly, abdication.
The royal family left Naples on Nelson�s ships 2 days before Christmas for Palermo. A truce was signed on January 11th, 1799 at Sparanise which forced Naples to pay 2.5 million ducats and to surrender Capua fortress to the French forces. At the same time some of the jailed Jacobins of 1794 were freed: Fasulo, Paribelli and Eleonora De Fonseca Pimentel among them, who joined forces with the exiled Lauberg, Russo, Vitaliani, Pignatelli di Strongoli and Baffi, who followed the French troops to Naples.
No longer guarded by a royal garrison, Naples became prey of the lazzari who fought a senseless battle against French and patriots alike. It was in this context that those 30 patriots established the Neapolitan Republic.
That beautiful example, whose meaning fed the ideals of Italy�s unity , had only a short life, spanning a mere 7 months from January to July, but it left an indeleble mark since it gave access to all strata of population to participate to the life of the republic, a right that many countries still do not enjoy 200 years later!
For sure Naples and her republic was the battlefield of two concepts: Enlightenment vs. obscurantism. Powerful interests were at stake against the Jacobin republics tide that Napoleon brought along all over Europe. In the cities the reaction was far better organized than insurgents and patriots, just the opposite of what was happening on the battlelfields of the continent were the French Arm�e for few years had no rivals.
Back to the Neapolitan Republic, the patriots were establishing those tools and symbols of self-determination: a flag (yellow, blue and red), a National Guard of about 4,400, the �Hymn of the Neapolitan Republic� (lyrics by Luigi Rossi, music by the famous composer Domenico Cimarosa). And Mario Pagano wrote a Constitutional Project based on the American Constitution of 1787 and the French ones of 1793 and 1795, but the republic short life prevented the project to be implemented. A provisional government was also appointed, presided over by Carlo Lauberg even if, quite understandably, the real levers of power remained in the hands of the French military.
So while the patriots were setting their republic, the king, still in Sicily, was organizing his counteroffensive. Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo was nominated Deputy General of the Kingdom on 1/25/1799 and with only 7 men he landed at Bagnara Calabra, on February 7th, to rally an army from the countryside to try to reconquer Naples to the king. Able organizer and eloquent communicator, the cardinal assembled a force named �Army of the Saint Faith� hence its members were known as �sanfedisti�. And in fact on the 24th of the same month he got an army of 10,000 at Mileto. Far to be connected with religious belief, this army was a melange of outlaws, former Bourbon soldiers, peasants all attracted by the cardinal�s promise of tax examption for 6 years and rewards on rebel lands and cities.
Matter of fact a sanguinary group of bandts such as Michele Pezza, alias �Brother Devil�, Gaetano Mammone and Gennaro Rivelli, a personal friend of the king, was leading a horde that on the way to Naples committed most cruel crimes, among which the killing after having abused of 40 nuns at Altamura. In four months the sanfedisti regained most of Calabria and Molise, leaving, like barbarians, no grass behind them. The republic answered with a legion of the National Guard and an army of 6,000 French troops that set to order again the biggest centers of Apulia and Molise. However the increasing activity of the Second Coalition against France, forced the French unit to join its Arm�e in the north. That was the turning point of the republic existence.
For a while the war was on the seas: after the capture by English ships of the islands of Ischia and Procida, on the latter it was reinstated a Bourbon�s government on the 4th of April. Almost at the same time admiral Francesco Caracciolo took command of the republican fleet, and on the 15th of May he engaged the English fleet at Procida obtaining the last meaningful success of the republic.
On the field the situation became increasingly difficult also because the republic remained a bourgeois affair and of an enlightened patriciate, incapable to draw masses to its side. General Schipani�s legion was defeated at Castelluccia in mid April, but, most important, the French army started to withdraw to join in the north general Scherer�s forces. At the beginning of May British forces landed in the continent at Castellammare di Stabia and Salerno, while the French completed the evacuation of Naples on the 9th, leaving in the city a garrison of only 300, posted at St. Elmo Castle, under colonel Mejan.
Gabriele Manthon�, supreme commander of the National Guard tried to set up a plan to defend the city by the incoming sanfediste forces aiming at encircling Naples. He made the mistake of dividing his forces into 6 coloumns to attack Ruffo�s �soldiers� in different positions. This tactics proved faulty so much so that Ruffo himself entered in Naples on June 13th, 1799. The following day, a Friday, the short, exalting experience of the Neapolitan Republic came to an end: the republicans occupied the three fortresses of the city, Nuovo, dell�Ovo and St. Elmo castles. With no defenders around the sanfedisti and lazzari repeated the barbaric behavior shown at Altamura: raping, killing, savageness, looting, even acts of cannibalism, which well explains the reasons of Ruffo�s success in reconquering the mainland.
Finally the cardinal met with Manthon� to reach an agreement that may stop the ongoing carnage. An armistice of 3 days was agreed on June 19th, 1799: the fortresses of the city ought to be evacuated and their occupants would be left unarmed and free to leave on ships to Toulon, in France; an exchange of political prisoners would have also taken place and some hostages would have detained at St. Elmo Castle up to the arrival of the ships in Toulon.
This act of pacification signed by Ruffo and Micheroux on behalf of the monarchy and by general Massa of the Nuovo Castle garrison and colonel M�jan on behalf of the Neapolitan Republic was not approved by Ferdinand IV who sent admiral Nelson to amend it, or better to say, to null and void it in a most brutal way.
Once back in Naples, Nelson rejected all articles of the agreement and transferred to some city jails all republicans already on board of those ships meant to Toulon. On the 29th admiral Caracciolo was hung on HSS �Minerva� as a visible example of the force of the reaction.
Ferdinand IV returned to his capital on July 10th, just to enjoy the surrender of St. Elmo Castle ceded by M�jar to Ruffo.
At the end of the political cleansing the Bourbons will have carried out 181 executions (among them Russo, Pagano, De Fonseca Pimentel, Ciaja, Albanese, Cirillo, Pagliucchella, Michele �O Pazzo, and Luisa Sanfelice), 122 condemned to life imprisonment or shorter terms, 457 exiled forever and 231 expelled or exiled for a period of time. The toll of the reaction, however, was of thousands killed on the way to Naples by the sanfedisti.
Still remained Capua and Gaeta to fight Ferdinand IV�s restoration, but had to surrender to the Bourbons on the 28th and 31st of July 1799. The war was over, the revolution was over, the republic was over. As Eleonora suggested on the gallows, nothing is taken for granted. Remember�
The siege of Naples by Championnet�s troops.
Zinetulla INSEPOV, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics,
Professor of Kioto University,
Kioto, Japan (Specially for THE GLOBE)
From the editorial staff: we present for your attention a series of articles about Japan. The author is a Kazakhstani professor who has worked for several years at one of the leading Japan universities. For most of its history, the country of the rising sun had been isolated from the whole world, until it was discovered by chance by a Spanish corsair. Though for many Kazakhstan citizens Japan is still a mystery and is associated with yakudza and �Sony�. At the same time, the culture of Japan and the traditional life of its people are fraught with many interesting things and contribute to one�s understanding of the nation�s rapid economic growth. As the author, we hope that this series will promote the strengthening of friendly links between Kazakhstan and Japan.
Murat Auezov, former Kazakh Ambassador to China
ALMATY, April 25
(Specially for THE GLOBE)
In the life of any modern state, the role of external factors is getting more and more significant. Kazakhstan is not an exception. Moreover, the country�s substantial natural resources, innumerous population living in its vast territory, complex ethnical-demographic situation, and weak consolidation of the society required to settle the internal and external problems, have all stimulated an especially high interest from some powers. Around Kazakhstan as well as around other Central Asian countries, a new �Great game� is being developed. Z. Bzhezinsky calls Kazakhstan territory �a cross point of the interests of the USA and China� but does not mention the other acting and potential participators of the �Great game�. The author only emphasizes the passions, and determines more definitely, whose stakes he considers higher today.
Being disoriented during the first years of sovereign development, we, at last, face some clarity. The strangers� interests have become obvious. To protect our own interests we should look at the participators of the geopolitical action directed at Kazakhstan more attentively.
Today we will analyze China.
K. Yaspers who was the first who paid attention to the phenomena of �the axis epoch� considered it impossible to explain it reasonably, though he admitted possibility to discuss various hypotheses. Yaspers gives as an example A. Veber�s hypothesis about the decisive role of the Central Asian nomadic tribes which invaded China, India and moved to the West, in developing the self-consciousness of the people in �the axis epoch�. Yaspers criticized Veber�s version and gave the following counter-argument: though China took an important part in the spiritual creation of �the axis epoch�, it was not characterized by either tragic consciousness, nor the epic literature that Veber believed expressed the conception of the nomads-conquerors� world.
Of course Veber�s thoughts to a certain extent, romanticized the world conception of the �sons of the steppe�, and that significantly weakened his position. However, Yaspers is mistaken. It is obvious that the influencing culture does not always create something similar to it in a new environment. Just the opposite, more often such an influence leads to restoration, to a more definite postulation of one�s �original� principles, which are often in opposition to the external influence. The absence of similarity does not prove that there was no influence at all. Rather it confirms the development of the influenced environment to the new levels of self-affirmation and self-consciousness. This ripeness of self-estimation along with the accented self-affirmation were characteristics for the philosophers, prophets of �the axis epoch�.
To the question whom is easier to paint: the devil or a man, a Chinese painter answered: �To paint the devil is easier, as nobody saw him.�
Our article deals with the Chinese-Kazakh relations of the recent time taking into consideration historical contexts, the shape of which we have already determined.
In modern Chinese society a new reality has taken shape in the consciousness and in the will of hundreds of millions people - the willingness to create in the 21st century the great Chinese state. This high objective predetermines the measures required to achieve it, including the quality of people called to implement it. The concrete names in the Chinese government do not have the paramount meaning. In any case, persons whose political actions are to serve the idea of great China will be at the top of the Chinese system. The same may be said about the new generation of potential Chinese leaders, the majority of whom received their education in Western countries. Their modernized consciousness willingly arms itself with the idea of great Chinese self-affirmation. A patriotic pathos is more notable in the words and actions of this generation than of their predecessors. The typical characteristic of people of the new orientation is that they have identified their spiritual world with the 5-millenium Chinese history, and have devoted their lives to the service to the idea, which can be achieved only by their successors in 3 to 4 generations. It is obvious that their belief in the importance of this strategic aim provides them with the strongest instrument required to settle their internal and external problems.
From the beginning of the economic reforms in 1979, China has increased its GNP by about 9 to 10% every year. In 16 years (5 years before schedule), the country�s per capita income has risen fourfold. This accomplishment was achieved without mass unemployment and production fall at the state enterprises, as has occurred in our country. Being influenced by Den Syaopin, who said: �The color of a cat � black or white � is not important, only that it should catch mice.� The Chinese government managed to abandon many dogmas. Catching mice meant care for the prosperity of the people, which was the only communists� dogma, which had not ever been sacrificed to the market. In general, the Chinese policy during the period of shift to the market economy is successive and consists of elements having clear economic meaning. This is connected with the clearness of the objective which was approved with solidarity by the majority of people. By the way, those people live not only inside the country, but also abroad.
A great and constantly increasing number of emigrants, ceasing to be Chzhungzhens (Chinese citizens) are still Hantszuzhens (Chinese people), true to their motherland and its ideals. The two are united by nintszyuili (force of cultural unity), which has not only a spiritual, but a significant material meaning. From 1978 to 1996 the direct investments to China were US$ 172 billion. Eighty percent of the F.I. was provided by ex-Chinese citizens, who did their business all over the world.
China is confidently transforming itself from a regional power to a world one. However, it would be mistaken to say that the political background of the reforms being executed in it is cloudless. The traditional �capital-provinces� opposition trend is being sharpened. The seaside provinces and free economic zones that have gained profit from free business are often against decisions restricting and determining their operations. On the other hand, the discontent of the central and northern-west regions, who considering themselves hapless in the distribution of capital and foreign investments, is becoming more notable for the center.
Despite the reasonable and accurate evaluation of reality demonstrated by the Chinese government, the contradiction between the economic and political systems of the country is sharpening. According to Z. Bzhezinsky, �� at some moment the political and social opposition in China will join forces demanding the widening of democracy, freedom of self-affirmation and the observance of the human rights. It did not happen in 1989 in the Tyananmyn square, but it may happen next time�.
The multi-ethnic content of Chinese population is a long-term and potentially destabilizing factor. One hundred million people (8% of the total population of the People�s Republic of China) of minority live in the territory composing about 65% of the total national space. Almost all of its land borders (more than 21 thousand kilometers) are lined in their historical territories. A large part of these territories was joined to China comparatively recently due to the efforts of the rulers Kansi and Tsyan Lun. The aboriginal ethnical groups not only in the Inside Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan and Tibet, but also in a number of southern and southern-east provinces are still not ready to perceive the official conception of the single Chinese nationality as the final answer to the question about their historical future. The new or renewed neighboring states, such as Mongolia and Thailand are attractive for them, as the example of these countries stimulates development of sovereign ideas, and wide actions of self-protective and anti-Han orientation.
Among the tactical forms of this struggle, the consolidation of the minor nationalities with the local Hans during their anti-metropolis operations (which is, for example observed in SUAR) is supposed to be noteworthy. Social demands proclaimed during these joint manifestations forced the central government to reconsider the existing system �calming down� the minor nationalities. One of the innovations in the government�s stabilization of the situation is its decision to make the underdeveloped northern-west and central territories open to the direct investments of the prosperous southern and seaside provinces.
(To be continued)
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
© 1998 IPA House. All Rights Reserved.