The Italian aristocrat who bankrolled global anarchism before losing his mind and fortune

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Carlo Cafiero was a wealthy nobleman who abandoned his status to lead the Italian anarchist movement. He financed Mikhail Bakunin, funded failed insurrections, and synthesized Marxist theory with anarchist communism. Yet, his radical life ended in isolation, mental decline, and death within the walls of a state asylum.

Born in 1846 to a landowning family in Barletta, Carlo Cafiero initially trained for the priesthood before rejecting the Catholic Church. His revolutionary path began in earnest after he moved to London, where he encountered Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Initially serving as their agent in Italy to organize workers, Cafiero eventually grew disillusioned with the authoritarian tendencies of the Marxist General Council. His ideological shift was cemented after meeting the charismatic Mikhail Bakunin in Switzerland in 1872, leading him to champion the anti-authoritarian principles of the Jura Federation.

Cafiero became the primary financial engine for the movement, liquidating his family estates to fund anarchist congresses and purchase weapons for uprisings. He famously bought the villa La Baronata in Locarno to serve as a headquarters for Bakunin. However, this devotion came at a personal cost; he felt exploited by his mentor and was left destitute as his insurrectionary plots, including the 1874 Bologna attempt and the 1877 Benevento insurrection, repeatedly failed. These setbacks, coupled with constant police surveillance and the collapse of his revolutionary network, pushed him toward extreme isolation.

In his later years, Cafiero attempted to reconcile his radical past with the changing political landscape. He moved toward social democracy, even endorsing the reformist Andrea Costa during the 1882 Italian general election. By this time, however, his mental health had deteriorated significantly. He was eventually committed to a mental asylum, where he spent his final years battling illness. He died in 1892 from gastrointestinal tuberculosis, leaving behind a complex legacy of anarchist-communist theory that continued to influence Italian activists well into the 21st century.

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