Southern Italy autonomist movements - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

There are various regional Southern Italy autonomist movements, covering the political spectrum from socialist to Bourbon

House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...

monarchist.

Since the fall of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, Southern Italy often experienced distinct historical developments when compared to Northern Italy

Northern Italy

Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

. As a result, it has developed distinctive cultures and identities that persist to this day. After the Kingdom of Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

took control of the south in 1861, as well as the rest of Italy apart from present day Veneto

Veneto

Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

, Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Friuli–Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,858 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...

and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which were annexed later, it took many years before resistance died down and central authority was established. During World War II there were fresh attempts by Sicilians

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

to achieve independence. Political groups continue to advocate greater autonomy, or sometimes even independence, for southern Italy or regions within it (primarily Sicily

Sicily

and Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

), although the demand for autonomy or independence is now weaker in the South than in the North.

Historical background

After the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

in 476, Italy and Sicily

Sicily

came under the control of successive Germanic

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

invaders such as the Ostrogoths, Lombards

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

and Franks

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

. However, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

continued to retain strong links with Venice, the south of Italy and Sicily. For long periods the southern territories were under Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

control. Following the expansion of Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, Sicily (as with Spain) was progressively conquered by the Arabs from the mid 9th to the mid 10th centuries, and Arab advances were introduced to Europe.

In the 11th century Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

invaders took control of southern Italy, captured Messina in 1061, and after extended maneuvers and sporadic fighting took Syracuse

Syracuse, Italy

Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in...

in 1086. The Normans adapted to the sophisticated oriental culture of the island, which for a while was the wealthiest country in Europe and the main channel for bringing advanced eastern knowledge and ideas to western Europe

Western Europe

Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

. Various dynastic changes occurred in the ensuing centuries, with Sicily and Naples coming under control of the Swabia

Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

n Hohenstaufen Dynasty, then the French Angevin Dynasty

Capetian House of Anjou

The Capetian House of Anjou, also known as the House of Anjou-Sicily and House of Anjou-Naples, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct House of Capet. Founded by Charles I of Sicily, a son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century...

. In 1282 Peter III of Aragon

Peter III of Aragon

Peter the Great was the King of Aragon of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. He conquered Sicily and became its king in 1282. He was one of the greatest of medieval Aragonese monarchs.-Youth and succession:Peter was the eldest son of James I of Aragon and his second wife...

, son-in-law of the last Hohenstaufen king, gained control of Sicily although the Angevins retained control of the Kingdom of Naples

Kingdom of Naples

The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

.

In 1442 King Alfonso V of Aragon

Alfonso V of Aragon

Alfonso the Magnanimous KG was the King of Aragon , Valencia , Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica , and Sicily and Count of Barcelona from 1416 and King of Naples from 1442 until his death...

reunified the Kingdom of Sicily

Kingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...

and the Kingdom of Naples

Kingdom of Naples

into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, commonly known as the Two Sicilies even before formally coming into being, was the largest and wealthiest of the Italian states before Italian unification...

. For most of its existence, the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was ruled directly by Aragon, then by Spain, or was a kingdom subordinate to Spain. In 1713 Spain and both Sicilies passed to Philip, Duke of Anjou

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...

, who founded the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon

House of Bourbon

. Apart from a short period of Napoleonic rule between 1805 and 1815, the kingdom was ruled by Bourbon princes until 1861 when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

after the Expedition of the Thousand

Expedition of the Thousand

The Expedition of the Thousand was a military campaign led by the revolutionary general Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860. A force of volunteers defeated the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, leading to its dissolution and annexation by the Kingdom of Sardinia, an important step in the creation of a newly...

led by Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

.

As a result of its colourful history and geography, southern Italy and Sicily have developed some distinctive qualities. Compared to the northern regions of Italy, cultural similarities to the Greeks, Spaniards and Eastern Mediterranean people are more obvious. Unlike much of the northern regions, southern Italian cuisine has strong Greek, Arab

Arab cuisine

Arab cuisine is defined as the various regional cuisines spanning the Arab World, from Morocco and Tunisia to Saudi Arabia, and incorporating Levantine, Egyptian .-History:...

and Spanish

Spanish cuisine

Spanish cuisine consists of a variety of dishes, which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country's deep maritime roots...

influences and is more typical of the Mediterranean diet

Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy, Crete and much of the rest of Greece in the 1960s....

Languages

Most of the languages traditionally spoken in the southern Italy are grouped as dialects of the Neapolitan

Neapolitan language

Neapolitan is the language of the city and region of Naples , and Campania. On October 14, 2008 a law by the Region of Campania stated that the Neapolitan language had to be protected....

and Sicilian

Sicilian language

Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...

languages. Like the Gallo-Romance languages

Gallo-Romance languages

The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages include French and the other langue d'oïl dialects, Occitan , Catalan, Franco-Provençal, Gallo-Italic, and other languages - Other possible classifications :...

spoken in the north, these dialects are quite different from standard Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, though the Neapolitan variants are similar to the central language group which includes the Tuscan dialect

Tuscan dialect

The Tuscan language , or the Tuscan dialect is an Italo-Dalmatian language spoken in Tuscany, Italy.Standard Italian is based on Tuscan, specifically on its Florentine variety...

(they are similar to Romanesco only because Romanesco use to be a southern dialect, it has been influenced by Tuscan heavily during the 15th century) on which standard Italian is based (with Sicilian influence. Neapolitan is actually more similar to Sicilian than any central Italian dialect). Sicilian and Neapolitan have a very strong Greek substratum, which give the dialects many distinct sounds and flavors not typical of Italian.

French Revolution, Empire, Reaction

The French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

(1789–1799) created a fundamental change in political thought in Europe, establishing the principle of rule by representatives of the people. During the wars to ensure the survival of the French republic

French First Republic

The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...

, the French army led by the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte occupied northern Italy and founded the Cisalpine Republic

Cisalpine Republic

The Cisalpine Republic was a French client republic in Northern Italy that lasted from 1797 to 1802.-Birth:After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte proceeded to organize two states: one to the south of the Po River, the Cispadane Republic, and one to the north, the Transpadane...

with its capital at Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

. After seizing power from the republicans, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy

King of Italy

King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire...

with the Iron Crown of Lombardy

Iron Crown of Lombardy

The Iron Crown of Lombardy is both a reliquary and one of the most ancient royal insignia of Europe. The crown became one of the symbols of the Kingdom of Lombards and later of the medieval Kingdom of Italy...

in 1805. In 1806 Napoleon dispatched a French army to the south of Italy, installing his brother Joseph

Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...

king of Naples and Sicily. Two years later Joseph was replaced as king by Joachim Murat

Joachim Murat

Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...

who ruled until 1815.

Ferdinand IV of Naples fled to Palermo in 1806 and managed to retain control of Sicily under British naval protection. He appointed his son Francis regent, and at the insistence of Lord William Bentinck

Lord William Bentinck

Lieutenant-General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck GCB, GCH, PC , known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British soldier and statesman...

, the British minister, allowed a reform of the constitution on English and French lines in 1812. However, following the defeat of Napoleon, Ferdinand violated his oath and in 1816 abolished the Sicilian constitution, imposing a reactionary system of aristocratic government.

Rebellion of 1820

In July 1820 a military revolt broke out in Naples, the mutineers cheering for the king and the constitution. A simultaneous revolt in Sicily having been repressed, General Guglielmo Pepe

Guglielmo Pepe

Guglielmo Pepe was an Italian general and patriot. He was brother to Florestano Pepe and cousin to Gabriele Pepe. He married to Marianne Coventry, a Scottish woman.-Biography:Pepe was born at Squillace in Calabria....

, who had previously fought for Napoleon, was appointed inspector-general of the army. While Pepe hesitated as to what course he should follow Ferdinand promised a constitution on the model of the Spanish Constitution of 1812

Spanish Constitution of 1812

The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...

. The king, who had no intention of respecting the constitution, went to Laibach

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

to confer with the sovereigns of the Holy Alliance

Holy Alliance

The Holy Alliance was a coalition of Russia, Austria and Prussia created in 1815 at the behest of Czar Alexander I of Russia, signed by the three powers in Paris on September 26, 1815, in the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon.Ostensibly it was to instill the Christian values of...

assembled there, leaving his son as regent. While the regent dallied with the Liberals, Ferdinand obtained the loan of an Austrian

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

army with which to restore absolute power. Pepe, who in parliament had declared in favour of deposing the king, took command of the army and marched north against the Austrians. He attacked them at Rieti

Rieti

Rieti is a city and comune in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of c. 47,700. It is the capital of province of Rieti.The town centre rests on a small hilltop, commanding a wide plain at the southern edge of an ancient lake. The area is now the fertile basin of the Velino River...

in March, 1821 but his raw levies were repulsed.

After the revolt had disintegrated Ferdinand dismissed the parliament and inaugurated an era of savage persecution, supported by spies and informers, against the Liberals and Carbonari

Carbonari

The Carbonari were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in Spain, France, Portugal and possibly Russia. Although their goals often had a patriotic and liberal focus, they lacked a...

Rebellion of 1848

In 1848 fresh tides of revolution swept over Europe. A revolt led by Sicilian nobles broke out in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

on 12 January 1848, the birthday of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand II was King of the Two Sicilies from 1830 until his death.-Family:Ferdinand was born in Palermo, the son of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his wife and first cousin Maria Isabella of Spain.His paternal grandparents were King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Queen Marie...

. The leaders reinstated the democratic constitution of 1812. On 3 September 1848 a naval flotilla shelled the city of Messina for eight hours after its defenders had already surrendered, killing many civilians and earning the King the nickname "Re` Bomba" ("King Bomb"). After a savage campaign, the Neapolitan army under the command of General Carlo Filangieri

Carlo Filangieri

Carlo Filangieri , prince of Satriano, was a Neapolitan soldier and statesman. He was the son of Gaetano Filangieri, a celebrated philosopher and jurist.-Biography:...

defeated the rebels, who capitulated on May 15, 1849.

The head of the state during this period was Ruggero Settimo (Ruggeru Sèttimu in Sicilianu), who escaped to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

after the island capitulated. After the success of the Risorgimento

Italian unification

Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...

movement during 1860 and 1861, he was offered the position of the President of the Senate

Italian Senate

The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

of the newly created Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy

House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...

but he declined for health reasons, dying two years later.

Risorgimento

On May 11, 1860, Garibaldi and a cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers landed near Marsala

Marsala

Marsala is a seaport city located in the Province of Trapani on the island of Sicily in Italy. The low coast on which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island...

on the west coast of Sicily. Near Salemi

Salemi

Salemi is a town and comune in South-Western Sicily, Italy, administratively part of the province of Trapani. It is located in the Belice Valley.-History:...

, Garibaldi's army attracted scattered bands of rebels, and the combined forces defeated the opposing army at Calatafimi on May 13. Within three days, the invading force had swelled to 4,000 men. On May 14, Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

Victor Emanuel II was king of Sardinia from 1849 and, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878...

. After a series of hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced upon Palermo. On May 27, the force laid siege to the Porta Termini of Palermo, while a mass uprising of street and barricade fighting broke out within the city.

Neapolitan general Ferdinando Lanza, arriving in Sicily with some 25,000 troops, bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins. However, with the intervention of a British admiral, an armistice

Armistice

An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...

was declared. The Neapolitan troops departed and the town surrendered to Garibaldi and his much smaller army. Six weeks later, Garibaldi attacked Messina. Within a week its citadel surrendered.

Having conquered Sicily, Garibaldi crossed the Straits of Messina. The garrison at Reggio Calabria

Reggio Calabria

Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...

promptly surrendered. Progressing northward, the populace everywhere hailed him and military resistance faded. At the end of August Garibaldi was at Cosenza

Cosenza

Cosenza is a city in southern Italy, located at the confluence of two historic rivers: the Busento and the Crathis. The municipal population is of around 70,000; the urban area, however, counts over 260,000 inhabitants...

, and on September 5 at Eboli

Eboli

Eboli is a town and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Salerno, on the south edge of the hills overlooking the valley of the Sele....

, near Salerno

Salerno

Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

. Meanwhile, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

had declared a state of siege, and on September 6 the king gathered the last 4,000 troops (with many mercenaries) still faithful to him and retreated over the Volturno

Volturno

The Volturno is a river in south-central Italy.-Geography:It rises in the Abruzzese central Apennines of Samnium near Rocchetta a Volturno and flows southeast as far as its junction with the Calore River near Caiazzo and runs south as far as Venafro, and then turns southwest, past Capua, to...

river. The next day Garibaldi, with a few followers, entered Naples by train, whose people openly welcomed him as has happened before in Salerno and other southern cities

Post-unification unrest and first social improvements

The newly united Kingdom of Italy of 1861 was very poor. The Borbons had left a southern Italy where there was little industry, bad roads, few railways, low literacy, and only a small percent of wealthy southern Italians had the right to vote. Most people in the Mezzogiorno (the former Two Sicilies) lived in extreme poverty.

Because of the 'Garibaldini' war against the bands of Mafia criminals in the sicilian mountains, the economic situation in the island deteriorated in the mid 1860s and an anti-Savoy revolt pushing for Sicilian independence erupted in 1866 at Palermo

Palermo

. The city was soon bombed by the Italian navy. Fourteen battalions of Italian soldiers led by Raffaele Cadorna

Raffaele Cadorna

Count Raffaele Cadorna was an Italian general who served as one of the major Piedmontese leaders responsible for the unification of Italy during the mid-19th century....

landed on 16 September, killing some civilian insurgents and quickly regaining possession of the island. A limited, but long guerrilla campaign against the unionists (1861–1871) took place throughout southern Italy, and in Sicily, inducing the Italian governments to a severe military response. These insurrections were unorganized, and were considered by the Government as operated by "brigands" (brigantaggio): but some historians pinpoint that they were ruled by the Papal State in Rome, as a form of defense until its fall in 1870 (when Rome was conquered by Victor Emmanuel II, suddenly the brigantaggio disappeared). Ruled under martial law for several years, Sicily (and southern Italy) was the object of a harsh repression by the Italian army.

Many public works were initiated in southern Italy in order to build roads and railways that had been neglected by the Borbons. The schools were opened to all the poors, as well as a new sanitary health system with hospitals that boomed the population (infant mortality dwindled in 10 years from 1865 to 1875). The first steps toward the creation of a pension system for all the southern Italians were done, but its full implementation was completed only in the 1930s (while analphabetism disappeared gradually by the turn of the century).Some cities benefited of the early stages of industrialization, mainly shipbuilding in Naples and Taranto.

But faced with competition from northern industry, new forms of taxation and the new Kingdom's extensive military conscription, the economy of the Mezzogiorno partially collapsed, leading to an unprecedented wave of emigration

Italian diaspora

The term Italian diaspora refers to the large-scale migration of Italians away from Italy in the period roughly beginning with the unification of Italy in 1861 and ending with the Italian economic miracle in the 1960s...

related even to the demographic boom The rise of leftist

Left-wing politics

In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

and separatist organisations of workers and peasants known as the Fasci Siciliani

Fasci Siciliani

The Fasci Siciliani, short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori , were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, which arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894...

caused the Italian government to impose martial law again in 1894.

An 1881 census found that over 1 million southern day-labourers were chronically under-employed and were very likely to become seasonal emigrants in order to economically sustain themselves. The 1910 Commission of Inquiry into the South indicated that the Italian government had failed to ameliorate the severe economic differences and the limitation of voting rights to those with sufficient property allowed rich landowners to exploit the poor.

The Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

, a loose confederation of organised crime networks, grew in influence in the late 19th century. The Fascist

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

regime began suppressing them in the 1920s with huge success, although the Mafia regained power in the aftermath of World War II.

The southern problem

Many academics, politicians and other influential people have contributed to "Meridionalism" (meridionalismo), opinions, and research, analysis and policy proposals regarding the south of Italy. Historically concentrating only on the economic gap between the north and south of Italy, the southern problem is now seen in the broader context of Europe.

The historian Pasquale Villari

Pasquale Villari

Pasquale Villari was an Italian historian and politician.-Early life and publications:Villari was born in Naples and took part in the risings of 1848 there against the Bourbons and subsequently fled to Florence...

(1827–1917), the politician Sidney Sonnino

Sidney Sonnino

Baron Sidney Costantino Sonnino was an Italian politician.Sonnino was born in Pisa to an Italian father of Jewish heritage and a Welsh mother...

(1847–1922) and the publicist Leopoldo Franchetti

Leopoldo Franchetti

Leopoldo Franchetti , was an Italian publicist and politician. He was a deputy in the Italian Chamber of Deputies and later became a Senator...

( 1847–1917) were among the first to study in depth the effect of annexation to the Kingdom of Italy. To some of them, the unification was a form of military and economic colonialism. The early Meridionalists, although conservative, did not hesitate to reveal the serious responsibility of the government and the ruling classes, especially landowners.

The solutions the Meridionalists proposed varied considerably due to their different viewpoints and political affiliations. For example the writer and politician Napoleone Colajanni (1847–1921), a positivist and socialist, supported state intervention in the south as the only way to develop the area. On the other hand, Antonio De Viti De Marco

Antonio De Viti De Marco

Antonio De Viti De Marco was an Italian economist. He was professor of public finance in Rome from 1887 until 1931, when he resigned rather than take an oath of loyalty to the Fascist regime. He was a long time editor of the Giornale degli Economisti.He has been described as "an unyielding...

(1858–1943), a liberal economist and radical deputy, accepted state regulation of "natural" monopolies, but believed in free trade and was hostile to state interventionism.

Francesco Saverio Nitti

Francesco Saverio Nitti

Francesco Saverio Vincenzo de Paola Nitti was an Italian economist and political figure. A Radical, he served as the 36th Prime Minister of Italy between 1919 and 1920....

, (1868–1953) was an economist and political figure. A Radical

Radical Party (Italy, 1877)

The Radical Party was a radical political party in Italy.It was founded in 1877 by Agostino Bertani and Felice Cavallotti as a radical-liberal party of what was then considered the "far left", from the name of the parliamentary group the Radicals formed with Andrea Costa, the first Socialist...

, he served as the prime minister of Italy

Prime minister of Italy

The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...

between 1919 and 1920. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia

Catholic Encyclopedia

The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...

("Theories of Overpopulation"), Nitti (Population and the Social System, 1894) was a staunch critic of English economist Thomas Robert Malthus and his Principle of Population.

Gaetano Salvemini

Gaetano Salvemini

Gaetano Salvemini was an Italian anti-fascist politician, historian and writer.- Biography :Salvemini was born in Molfetta, Apulia....

graduated in literature in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

in 1896. He taught History at the universities of Messina (during the 1908 Messina earthquake he was the only survivor of his entire family), Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

and Florence

Florence

. From 1919 to 1921 he served in Italian Parliament. As member of the Italian Socialist Party he fought for Universal Suffrage

Universal suffrage

Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...

for the moral and economic rebirth of Italy's Mezzogiorno (southern Italy), and against corruption in politics.

Don Luigi Sturzo

Luigi Sturzo

Don Luigi Sturzo was an Italian Catholic priest and politician. Known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist," Sturzo is considered one of the fathers of Christian democracy. Sturzo was one of the founders of the Partito Popolare Italiano in 1919, but was forced into exile in 1924 with the rise...

(1871–1959) was a Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

priest and politician. Known in his lifetime as a "clerical socialist," Sturzo is considered one of the fathers of Christian democracy

Christian Democracy

Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...

. Sturzo was one of the founders of the Partito Popular Italiano

Italian People's Party (1919–1926)

The Italian People's Party was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy.It was founded in 1919 by Luigi Sturzo, a Catholic priest. The PPI was backed by Pope Benedict XV to oppose the Italian Socialist Party...

in 1919, but was forced into exile in 1924 with the rise of Italian fascism

Italian Fascism

. In exile in London (and later New York), Sturzo published over 400 articles (published posthumously under the title Miscellanea Londinese) critical of fascism, and later the post-war Christian Democrats in Italy

Christian Democracy (Italy)

Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....

Fascism

In 1922 the Fascists led by Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

took power. The Fascist state undertook a serious program to develop the south. Through organizations such as the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale

Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale

The Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale was an Italian public company set up by the fascist government in 1933 to combat the effects of the global depression on the Italian economy...

(Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) and Istituto Mobiliare Italiano, the government sponsored numerous public works projects in the most deprived areas of the country, gave employment to many people, and promoted trade and investment.

The government improved the ports of Naples and Taranto

Taranto

Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....

, built new roads and railways, drained swamps and marshes, created canals and aqueducts in areas such as the Tavoliere delle Puglie

Tavoliere delle Puglie

thumb|300px|The Tavoliere seen from the [[Gargano]] promontory.The Tavoliere delle Puglie is a plain in northern Apulia, southern Italy, occupying nearly a half of the Capitanata traditional region. It covers a surface of c...

, rationalized and mechanized the grape and olive agricultural enterprises in Sicily. After the Wall Street crash, the Fascist government further increased its financial commitment in the south, founding new factories (particularly for war production industries), purchased agricultural machinery and doubled the size of the civil service. Colonial wars in Africa opened new markets and new lands for settlers, and the growth of the army provided a livelihood for many young people.

The Fascists seriously sought to eradicate the Mafia

Mafia

. Benito Mussolini launched a war without quarter against organized crime, often personally leading the operations. To do so he used harsh methods including torture, mass executions and special laws. He appointed Cesare Mori

Cesare Mori

Cesare Mori was a prefect before and during the Fascist period in Italy. He is known in Italy as the Iron Prefect because of his iron-fisted campaigns against the Mafia on Sicily in the second half of the 1920s.- Early years :Mori was born in Pavia and grew up in an orphananage and was only...

, called the "iron prefect" for his brutal methods, to the post of prefect of Palermo with extraordinary powers over the whole island. However, the Mafia was eradicated and only the top bosses survived escaping outside Italy, but the conflict with the Fascists led the Mafia (radicated in New York and Chicago) to ally with the Anglo-Americans during the Second World War.

World War II and Sicilian Independence Movement

The Committee for the Independence of Sicily (Comitato per l'Indipendenza della Sicilia, CIS) was founded in September 1942 during the struggle between the Italian/German Axis and the US/Russian/British Allies.

The Allied forces successfully invaded Sicily in July 1943, and in general were warmly embraced by the Sicilian population influenced by Mafia gangster like Lucky Luciano

Lucky Luciano

Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...

.

The CIS gained authority following the Armistice of Cassibile

Armistice with Italy

The Armistice with Italy was an armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943, during World War II, between Italy and the Allied armed forces, who were then occupying the southern end of the country, entailing the capitulation of Italy...

of 8 September 1943. In the spring of 1944, the CIS was disbanded and the Sicilian Independence Movement (Movimento Indipendentista Siciliano, MIS) was founded. Although the Allies

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

prohibited any kind of political activity, they tolerated the existence of the MIS.

Italy became a Republic

Birth of the Italian Republic

The Italian constitutional referendum which officially took place on 2 June 1946, is a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, kings of Italy since the Risorgimento and previously rulers of Savoy...

in 1946 and as part of the Constitution of Italy

Constitution of Italy

The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...

, Sicily was one of the five regions given special status as an autonomous region. Both the partial Italian land reform

Land reform

[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...

and special funding from the Italian government's Cassa per il Mezzogiorno
Cassa per il Mezzogiorno
The Cassa del Mezzogiorno was a public effort by the government of Italy to stimulate economic growth and development in the less developed southern regions of Italy. It was established in 1950 primarily to construct public works and infrastructure projects, and to provide credit subsidies and...

(Fund for the South) from 1950 to 1984, helped the Sicilian economy improve.

However, the MIS remained active after the war. One of the best-known members was Salvatore Giuliano

Salvatore Giuliano

Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian peasant. It has been suggested that the subjugated social status of his class led him to become a bandit and separatist. He was mythologised during his life and after his death...

, who formed a band variously described as freedom fighters or bandits, evading capture until he was killed in 1950. Another early supporter was Calogero Vizzini

Calogero Vizzini

Calogero Don Calò Vizzini was a historical Mafia boss of Villalba in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Vizzini was considered to be one of the most influential and legendary Mafia bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954...

, one of the most influential and legendary Mafia

Mafia

bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954, but Vizzini later shifted alliance to the Christian Democrat party

Christian Democracy (Italy)

The political arm of the movement today calls itself the Sicilian National Front, (Italian: Fronte Nazionale Siciliano, Sicilian: Frunti Nazziunali Sicilianu) and is a socialist political party founded in 1964. Its Secretary General since 1976 is Giuseppe Naics. The movement is no longer a significant force. In the regional elections of 2006 the party obtained 679 votes in Palermo, or 0.2% of the vote.

Current parties and groups

There continue to be various political parties and organizations who lobby for greater autonomy in the South, but they no longer claim widespread support.

Movement for Autonomies

The Movement for Autonomies (Movimento per le Autonomie, MpA) is a minor centrist

Centrism

In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...

regionalist

Regionalism (politics)

Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system...

political party in Italy. It demands economic development and greater autonomy primarily for Sicily

Sicily

, but also for other regions of Southern Italy. The party is led by Raffaele Lombardo

Raffaele Lombardo

Raffaele Lombardo is an Italian politician, President of Sicily and former Member of the European Parliament for Islands with the Movement for Autonomies and has sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.He is a substitute for the Committee on the...

, President of Sicily. In the 2008 general election, the party won 1.1% of the vote (7.4% in Sicily) and obtained 8 deputies and 2 senators through an alliance with The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom

The People of Freedom is a centre-right political party in Italy. With the Democratic Party, it is one of the two major parties of the current Italian party system....

and Lega Nord parties. After the election the MpA joined the Berlusconi coalition.

Sicilian Alliance

The Sicilian Alliance

Sicilian Alliance

The Sicilian Alliance is a minor autonomist and national-conservative political party in Sicily, Italy.It was founded in 2005 and was led by Nello Musumeci, a MEP who was elected on the National Alliance's list....

(Alleanza Siciliana) is a minor autonomist and national-conservative

National conservatism

National conservatism is a political term used primarily in Europe to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on national interests than standard conservatism as well as upholding cultural and ethnic identity, while not being outspokenly nationalist or supporting a far-right...

political party in Sicily

Sicily

, Italy. It was founded in 2005 and was led by Nello Musumeci

Nello Musumeci

Sebastiano Musumeci is an Italian politician and Member of the European Parliament for Islands, part of the Union for a Europe of Nations and sits on the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries and its Committee on Industry, Research and Energy...

, a MEP

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

who was elected on the National Alliance

National Alliance (Italy)

National Alliance was a conservative political party in Italy.Gianfranco Fini was the leader of the party since its foundation in 1995, however he stepped down in 2008 after being elected to the nominally non-partisan post of President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was succeeded by...

's list.
On 7 October 2007, the party joined to Francesco Storace

Francesco Storace

Francesco Storace is an Italian politician.He began his career at the right-wing newspaper Il Secolo d'Italia, until entering the ranks of the Italian Social Movement and later of National Alliance . He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1994...

's The Right

The Right

The Right is a national-conservative political party in Italy.-Foundation:On 3 July 2007 Storace announced his resignation from National Alliance in a letter posted on his website, claiming that it had become too centrist and moderate and in protest against the lack of internal democracy in the...

, although maintaining some of its autonomy as a regional section of the party, named the "Sicilian Alliance – The Right", often shortened as "The Sicilian Right".

Neo-Bourbon Cultural Association

The Associazione culturale Neoborbonica, or Neo-Bourbon Cultural Association is dedicated to restoring the history of the Bourbon kingdom, its glory, art, culture and identity, which they consider to have been maliciously falsified by the Piedmontese invaders. They aim to reconstruct the historical memory of the Two Sicilies, reconstruct their pride in being Southern Italian, and work towards the salvation of this ancient nation. Passions are still high. When Prince Victor Emmanuel, head of the House of Savoy, returned to Italy in 2003 after a long exile he met hostility from both the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale

Italian Social Movement

The Italian Social Movement , and later the Italian Social Movement–National Right , was a neo-fascist and post-fascist political party in Italy. Formed in 1946 by supporters of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, the party became the fourth largest party in Italy by the early 1960s...

and the Neo-Bourbon Movement in Naples in the form of posters, stickers and demonstrations.

Two Siciles Cultural Association

The Associazione Culturale Due Sicilie, or Two Sicilies Cultural Association is a website / blog that publishes commentary on the news as it affects the south of Italy. It is highly critical of government treatment of the south, and describes itself as a forum for discussing independence. It supports a Bourbon restoration on the grounds that a monarch would be more impartial than current politicians.

Land and Liberation

Land and Liberation, or Terra e Liberazione is a pressure group founded in 1984 by a branch of the FNS that supports continued autonomy of Sicily with independent development of the economy. The group is politically far to the left, but has recently joined the Movement for Autonomy.

Research Institutes

Several specialized research institutes today study the southern Italian economy in an attempt to better understand the problem and develop well-targeted economic policies. These include the Associazione nazionale per gli interessi del Mezzogiorno d'Italia (ANIMO) based in Rome, the Associazione per lo sviluppo dell'industria nel Mezzogiorno (SVIMEZ) also based in Rome, and the Associazione Studi e Ricerche per il Mezzogiorno (SRM) based in Naples.

Historical background

Languages

French Revolution, Empire, Reaction

Rebellion of 1820

Rebellion of 1848

Risorgimento

Post-unification unrest and first social improvements

The southern problem

Fascism

World War II and Sicilian Independence Movement

Current parties and groups

Movement for Autonomies

Sicilian Alliance

Neo-Bourbon Cultural Association

Two Siciles Cultural Association

Land and Liberation

Research Institutes

See also