Francesco Crispi

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Francesco Crispi (4 October 1818 – 11 August 1901) was an Italian revolutionary, statesman, and politician. During his tenure as Prime Minister, he pursued an anti-French foreign policy, promoting the Triple Alliance and the colonial expansion of Italy, while domestically he cracked down harshly on social protest movements. Between 1887 and 1896, Crispi led a total of four governments. Born in Sicily into a family of Italo-Albanian origin, Crispi became a leading figure of the Risorgimento and was one of the organizers of the Sicilian Revolution of 1848. In the aftermath of the revolution he was forced into exile before returning in 1860 to participate in the Expedition of the Thousand. Initially a follower of Giuseppe Mazzini, he converted to royalist ideals in 1864. Anticlerical and hostile to the Vatican, he served four times as Prime Minister of Italy after the unification of Italy: from 7 August 1887, to 6 February 1891, and then from 15 December 1893, to 14 June 1896. During the first...

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