History of San Marino - Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

When French emperor Napoleon I completed his conquest of Northern Italy and began to push his armies towards the edges of the northern territories of the Papal State, San Marino found itself forced to choose between maintaining the alliance with the Papal State or creating a new one with France. An alliance could have meant the loss of its liberty so a prudent course of action was taken: not to take sides until it became inevitable.

San Marino finally had to make a choice on February 5, 1797, when, with the arrival of a letter from General Louis Alexandre Berthier addressed to the Regents, it was required to arrest and consign the Bishop of Rimini, Monsignor Vincenzo Ferretti, accused of instigating crimes against the French, who fled with all his possessions to San Marino. A refusal would have resulted in the immediate intervention of French troops.

The Government of San Marino replied that it would do everything possible to fulfill the request, even though, in reality, the bishop was able to flee across the border.

A solution was found by one of the Regents, Antonio Onofri, who managed to gain the respect and friendship of Napoleon. Thanks to his intervention, Napoleon, with a letter delivered to Gasparre Monge, scientist and commissary of the French Government for Science and Art, promised to guarantee and protect the independence of the Republic offering to extend its territory according to its needs. The offer was declined by San Marino, in fear of future vindications on the territories annexed, which would threaten San Marino's independence.

Napoleon issued orders that exempted San Marino's citizens from any type of taxation and gifted them with 1,000 quintals (over 2,200 lb or 1,000 kg) of wheat and four cannons, which, for reasons unknown, never arrived.

The state was recognized by Napoleon by the Treaty of Tolentino, in 1797 and by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In 1825 and 1853, new attempts to submit it to the Papal States failed; and its wish to be left out of Giuseppe Garibaldi's Italian unification in the mid-nineteenth century was granted, since it had offered a safe refuge to numerous supporters of unification in earlier years.