Young Plotters
Italy was fragmented and largely ruled by absolutist foreign powers in the late 1700s. Consequently, there was much unrest and protest among the people, particularly against the power of the papacy and the Holy Inquisition. Two of these protestors, young university students, were to go down in Italian history: Giovanni Battista De Rolandis and Luigi Zamboni.
De Rolandis and Zamboni were planning a revolution. But Napoleon was approaching the Italian borders, so De Rolandis’ and Zamboni’s friends urged them to wait, in order to receive help from Napoleon's army. Young and impatient, they disliked the idea of perhaps another year or two of grinding oppression… and they also disliked the idea of French interference in Italian affairs.
Conspirators' Cockades
So they continued anyway. They created a network, not only plotting an overthrow of the current government, but also arranging for a new government to be immediately set up. They set a date for their uprising. And to provide a badge of identification, they created a tricolor cockade.
This cockade was based on the French tricolor of red, white and blue, just as their ideals were based on French republicanism. But not wanting to copy the French exactly, they substituted green for blue, as the universal symbol of “hope.” Subsequent records indicate that Zamboni's mother and aunt sewed the cockades.
