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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 17- The Second World War

This will be the last chapter in my review/notes of the book.  

Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Mussolini declared support for Hitler, but knew Italy wasn't ready to enter the war yet. But in 1940, Mussolini sent over a force to Libya to cross into Egypt and attack the British forces there. Despite being greatly outnumbered, the British held their own.  

Mussolini's missteps in Ethiopia, Greece in 1940, and the Balkans had all been disastrous, and by 1943, the Italians had had enough. In July '43, the allies launched an invasion through Sicily. The Americans used a set of Sicilian-American mafiosi to help them navigate the island and make sure their way was cleared.  

Churchill was convinced that getting Italy out of the war was the first objective. Sicily became a prime objective. Once the Allies held Sicily, they could establish supply and airbases from which to attack the Nazis. 

Both the American general Patton, and the British general Montgomery invaded Sicily jointly. These two men hated each other's guts. The island was supposed to have been defended by 300,000 axis troops, but most were Italians who, fed up with the Fascist regime, had little stomach for the fight by now. They surrendered in droves as the Allied armies encountered them, and the deluge of prisoners ended up causing huge problems. 

Mussolini was dismissed in July 1943, then promptly arrested. Italian crowds were jubilant, but on Sicily, the American and English armies were dealing with exhaustion, heat, dengue, sandfly and Malta fevers... and then malaria, which killed over 20 thousand soldiers in the combined armies. 

The armies were welcomed in Sicily as a relief from the dictatorship; plus they brought food and drugs to combat malaria. The Mafia had benefited as well from their cooperation with the American intelligence. As a reward, they were appointed to primary positions in the new Sicilian government positions.  

In 1944, the Allies handed Sicily back over to the Italian authorities. Italy finally granted Sicily a large degree of autonomy, hoping it would give the Sicilians a new sense of political responsibility. Sicily had its own cabinet of ministers, and near complete control over industry, agriculture and mining, as well as considerable control over public order and communications. Italy also finally recognized Sicily could not continue as the disgrace it had been for so long, and voted it a substantial subsidy. This essentially ended all the separatist talk. The Mafia, on the other hand, continued as it always had. 

There is a summary chapter in the book, but I won't bother to recap that since it really adds nothing more to the actual history of Sicily. For my own part, I found myself wishing there were more about Sicily in Sicilian history. But since for nearly all its history, decisions about the island have been made by people ruling from afar, much of Sicily's history is wrapped up in events that don't tell us much about Sicily itself. I am looking forward to several other books on Sicilian history, and maybe there I'll find more about what was happening on the island itself. But it also has to be acknowledged that things that were happening on Sicily were profoundly affected by those external decisions, so any history of what was happening on the island has to reference them. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 16 The Mafia and Mussolini

What book about Sicily would be complete without mentioning the Mafia, right?

Mostly because of the blunders of the ruling class in Turin, Sicilians thought Italian unification got off to a deplorable start. Sicilian's resented the refusal of autonomy, and the badmouthing and dismissal of Garibaldi. For all they did in 1860, their reward was to be annexation to Piedmont?? 

For their part, the Piedmontese officials sent to Sicily expected a poorer, sadder version of Piedmont. They were flabbergasted to find another world, speaking another language and operating on another system.  

One example: Nepotism, far from being considered wrong in Sicily, was considered the duty of any respectable man- that he would do as much as possible for his family and friends.  

After 1870, their bitterness towards Piedmont was directed towards the new Italian government, particularly against taxation and conscription. Taxation, of course, was always a fact of life, but conscription was more serious. Sicily was an agricultural society, where women did not work the fields. Conscripting the men meant livelihoods were put at risk. Desertion, especially in the west, was not seen as any shame, since there was no loyalty to the new state. 

Crime continued to be a problem, with the island boasting a murder rate 10 times Piedmont or Lombardy.  

Given these facts, the Italian government decided to meet force with force and clamped down hard on Sicily. But all measures came up empty and Sicily once again proved ungovernable. 

The Mafia 

In 1863, a play set in Ucciardone, the main prison of Palermo, enjoyed enormous success. It's title was I mafiusi della vicaria, and it gave a new word to the Sicilian, and Italian language. The mafia wasn't itself new, it could be traced to Spanish colonial times, but after 1860, it took on new dimensions. It dominated the island, particularly in the west. But what exactly was the mafia? Some thought it just a manifestation of the Sicilian mindset, rooted in centuries of lawlessness reaching back to the Arab invaders 1000 years earlier. Part of its long-term success was not only avoiding an answer to what it was, but to whether it even existed at all.  

One of the most far-reaching decisions of the Italian government was the dissolution of the monasteries. Since Sicily was already riddled with superstition, the clergy tended to be more popular than other forms of leadership over the lives of average Sicilians. I know this looks like a commentary on the Catholic church in Sicily, but I'm just taking notes on what the author said, take it or leave it.   

Garibaldi, no fan of the Church, had proposed that the Church's land be redistributed among the poor, which, he thought, would create a class of small landholders with something to live for. Instead, the Church lands were auctioned off to the highest bidders, with the mafia stepping in and controlling the process, which: first, made a few men very rich, including the mafia; and second, laid off some 15000 workers who had worked in charities, schools, hospitals, orphanages, and kitchens that made the lives of the poor more bearable. It also made an enemy of the Church, which increasingly turned to the mafia for support.  

On the other hand, military conscription sent more young Sicilian men abroad than had ever before traveled. They returned with an enlarged view of the world and new ideas. They formed fasci, an embryonic trade union. These were often accused of crimes and arrested, but the overall effect was to move the population further to the left politically.  

Around the turn of the century, things began to improve on the island. Social conditions improved in the east, but not so much in the west. There had, by the first decades of the 1900's, been a fair amount of Sicilians who had spent time in New York. There, the crime organizations were more refined and sophisticated, and the Sicilian underworld was bringing new sophistication home as a result.�� 

In 1908, a 7.1 earthquake leveled much of Messina, resulting in a huge emigration. Sicilians were already leaving their homeland in greater numbers than any other Europeans. This emigration could be seen as an indictment of the way things were run in Sicily. But those émigrés sent money home, and the accompanying influx of money brought prosperity, and new ambitions towards education and literacy in the young generation. The concomitant labor shortage also drove wages up. (On a personal note, this is the period when my own ancestors came over from Italy. My grandfather came in 1924, my Grandmother was born in Detroit, but her parents had come over right around the turn of the century. Both came from the northwest corner of the Island, between Trapani and Palermo.) 

After the war, more of those emigrants were returning home. They brought back both money and their experience in the new world, which included a new sense of self-respect, and an inability to accept the old approach to the large landowners. The people of Sicily were learning to look their masters in the face. 

Fascism arrived in 1922. Sicilians were unimpressed with Mussolini, who did little for Sicily. But in 1925, he proclaimed himself dictator, and set about to rid Sicily of the mafia. He appointed Cesare Mori with unlimited powers to accomplish the task. There were lots of arrests, but the underlying structure remained. In 1927, Mussolini gave a five-year update on the state of progress, where he congratulated himself on all the arrests. In 1937, Mussolini visited Sicily for the last time. He promised to eliminate the shantytowns. But the Sicilian peasants wouldn’t leave the homes they had been in for generations. He ended up building new towns the Sicilians wouldn't live in, so he imported peasants from Tuscany. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 15- Risorgimento

Risorgimento is the Italian word for Unification. It literally means 'resurgence', but it is the word that was historically used for this period of Italian unification.

By 1849, The Austrians were back in Venice and Lombardy, the Pope had returned to Rome, and much of Tuscany was under Austrian protection as well. Italy was divided up into several provinces run by kings from outside Italy. The Piedmontese King, Victor Emmanuel II, and his Chief Minister Camilo Cavour, were seeking a united Italy with Piedmont at the head. A deal had been made with Napoleon that would see Nice ceded to France, and Austria would cede Lombardy to France, which would then give it to Piedmont. Cavour also negotiated to get Tuscany. This would grant Piedmont much of northern and central Italy, leaving the papal territories alone. Lots of people were not happy about this, but the angriest of all was Garibaldi, the Italian patriot who had been born in Nice, and now found himself a Frenchman.  

Garibaldi's story is a bit wild. He had gotten into some trouble in Italy years earlier, and fled to Brazil, where he met his wife, Anita, and got involved in guerilla warfare to liberate a small state there. He then left for Uruguay, where he formed a brigade of Italian expats. He won a famous victory in 1846 and his fame spread to Europe. The moment the revolutions of '48, broke out, he headed back to Italy where he took part in some uprisings on the Italian peninsula. But while on a ship in route to Venice, the Austrians intercepted the ship and forced it to the coast, where his wife Anita had died. Distraught, he left Italy for New York for a period of exile. 

A friend of Garibaldi's, Francesco Crispi, a fervant republican and Sicilian lawyer, came back to Italy in 1859, and found that the Bourbons were hated everywhere. He convinced Garibaldi to come with a force and liberate Sicily. In 1860, the Sicilians again revolted, but things went badly as usual. The revolt did spark other revolts throughout Sicily. Garibaldi was collecting guns, when he heard of the insurrection. Always ready for a good liberatory fight, he petitioned Victor Emmanuel, but was denied. Nevertheless, Garibaldi collected a band of volunteers: the Thousand, and they sailed for Sicily without the King's blessing.  

Victor Emmanuel wished success for Garibaldi, but Cavour distrusted him. The King knew it would be dangerous to reveal his sympathies, but at the same time, could not openly disown Garibaldi, the most popular figure in Italy, by far. 

Garibaldi arrived in Marsala in May 1860, and found it completely undefended. He addressed the people and declared himself dictator. He marched inland and met the Bourbon army, where he won. The Bourbon resistance then melted away and he moved straightaway to Palermo. He was expected to come through Monreale, but came around a suburb instead, entering the city with no resistance.  

The Palermitani were unwilling to side with him at first, unsure of what would happen, but when they heard the bells ringing, they joined in and celebrated.  

His men were exhausted, but help and arms were on the way. In early June, the equipment arrived as well as more volunteers. The Sicilian response to Garibaldi's call to arms was disappointing, however. 

Garibaldi led his troops across to Messina and Sicily was liberated from the Bourbons. But of course the island still had to be governed. Garibaldi had been careful to emphasize that Sicily would always be considered a part of united Italy. Here, Crispi helped the effort. He was Sicilian, a lawyer, and highly intelligent. He partitioned the land and set local Sicilian administrations over each.  

Cavour wanted Sicily annexed immediately to Piedmont. Garibaldi and Crispi opposed this on the grounds that Sicily was already a part of the Kingdom. Sicilians had assumed as much. 

Cavour did not want Garibaldi crossing to the mainland, since he knew Garibaldi was much more popular that Victor Emmanuel. If Garibaldi were to do all the heavy lifting of unifying Italy, any 'reign' of Victor Emmanuel would be seen as rather hollow. So Cavour moved to have the Piedmontese army reach Naples first.  

Back in Sicily, the fight for unification was turning into a class struggle. Liberty was never going to be enough for the starving. I mean it's great to have liberty and all, but if you don't have anything to eat, then it's a secondary concern. And while 'liberty' was being proclaimed from the Spaniards, the Sicilian peasants knew that they had some homegrown overlords that were all too willing to oppress them when the Spaniards were gone. While things were all battle-y, why not consider a cause that was a little closer to home for the Sicilians, and turn the anger into a war of oppressed versus oppressor? But this would derail the larger effort, so Garibaldi had to force some order on the island.  

Garibaldi's invasion of the mainland in August 1860, against Victor Emmanuel's wishes, went on, and after crossing the straight of Messina, they landed and marched northward to Naples with little resistance. He was invited in to Naples and delivered a speech thanking the Neapolitans for all they had done in the name of Italy. They hadn't really done anything, of course, but a little flattery wouldn't hurt to get them on board with the whole unification project. 

Garibaldi's next move would be to march on Rome, but that never happened. Had he tried it, Garibaldi's forces would likely have been no match for the French forces at Rome. But apart from that, Cavour and King Vittorio Emanuele had sent the Piedmontese army marching around Rome to cut through the Papal states and unite Italy (other than Rome and Venice, which, admittedly, were two pretty important pieces, but we'll let it go for the moment). 

Garibaldi, when confronted with the possibility of a fight between the two forces that were supposedly trying to unite Italy, chose unification over his own personal glory and voluntarily stepped down and handed his command over to Victor Emmanuel.  

A plebiscite for acceptance of unification was held through the Italian regions, and in Sicily, the vote was overwhelmingly for unification. However, when the Sicilians got wind that Garibaldi had been removed and they would then be ruled by Turin, they were none too pleased about it. Cavour, for his part, concluded "the island needed a good dose of northern discipline." This, as one might imagine, didn't go over particularly well in Sicily itself.  

In March 1861, Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed King of Italy. His chief minister is reported to have said: "L'Italia è fatta: restano fare gli italiani." Which means "Italy is made. All that's left is to make Italians." True dat. Few of the 22 million people in the new Italy thought of themselves as 'Italians'. North and South had virtually nothing in common. People thought of themselves as Sicilians, Lombards, Venetians, Tuscans, or Neapolitans, but not so much as Italians. 

As for the remaining outliers: Venice and Rome; in 1866 Bismark, wanting to unify the German states, made a treaty with Italy that if they helped him attack Austria, he would cede Venice. The battle was won and Venice became an Italian city.  

Rome was captured when the French pulled out their troops in 1870. With no one left to protect the Pope, the Italian army marched in and Rome was then a part of Italy. The Pope refused to acknowledge it, went on a giant pout, and lived in the Vatican another 8 years before he died.  

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 14- The Carbonari and the Quarantotto

Just because I haven't mentioned it since the first post, these chapter recaps are my personal notes taken from reading the book by John Julius Norwich.

Carbonari 

With the French defeated, King Ferdinand returned to Naples in 1816 and reestablished the "Two Sicilies", which once again, relegated the actual Sicily to a secondary province. Things were prospering and going well overall in the new combined kingdom, but there was a rebel group, called the carbonari, or coal-carriers, that had been forming. They started out apparently as a collection of mutually discontented souls- but discontented over different issues. But they had gradually grown, and their objective coalesced into an aim to force the King to grant a constitution. Inspired by events in Spain, they arrived in Naples and demanded the adoption of the Spanish constitution.  

This pissed off the Sicilian portion of the two Sicilies kingdom, who already had a perfectly good constitution from the English. They decided they didn't want anything to do with Naples anymore, and riots broke out, with the Sicilians demanding full independence.   

In 1821, a congress was called to discuss the carbonari revolt and Austria decided to send an army to put them down. Austria sent the Neapolitans an ultimatum: return the former monarchical regime or face war. The carbonari, feeling a bit overconfident, foolishly chose war and at the first encounter were overwhelmed by the superior Austrian force and dispersed. 

Ferdinand was back in Naples by 1823, and died in bed in 1825. 

Then there was a Francis I of the two Sicilies... then a Francis II. 

Francis II started off well. He had been born in Palermo and attempted to rule the island well. But Sicily and the Sicilians were too entrenched. Crime continued, brigandage ran rampant, and protection rackets, the precursor to the mafia, were everywhere. He introduced honest Neapolitan judges, but they couldn't understand the Sicilian dialect, and the Sicilians couldn't understand the  Neapolitan either. Then there was the endemic bribery. 

Sicily was a backwater with no prospects for anyone with ambition. Starvation was close by for the regular people and the governors were unable to do anything about it. 

By 1835, revolution was in the air and Francis, apparently thought: screw reform, maybe a good, ole' fashioned beat-down of the ornery Sicilians would work since they wouldn't voluntarily change their ways. When a cholera outbreak hit in 1837, the government, already unpopular for its heavy hand, and probably just because it was a government..... was blamed and riots ensued. Soon enough that was put down and Sicily settled back into its old ways. 

It was felt that something needed to be done to eliminate the corruption and nepotism that were the bane of Sicilian life. Reforms were proposed, but the land reform would have meant estates being reduced, and thus the influence of the feudal aristocracy.  

Meanwhile, there were political ideas arriving from all over Europe. The trend was towards uniting smaller, similar territories into larger ones; unification, to meet the larger states on equal footing. One of those ideas was Italian unification. Italy had not been united since the days of Rome. But among some intellectuals of Italy, this became the goal: uniting all of the Italian peninsula so it could stand on equal footing with Spain and France and England. The question was: should Sicily be a part of a unified Italy? 

Quarantotto 

Quarantotto means "48", and refers to the year 1848.  

In January of 1848, a revolution started. It began in Palermo and quickly spread all over Italy, and even north from there. Some student riots in Palermo had caused the authorities to close the University there. Several liberal citizens were arrested and a manifesto called for demonstrations on the King's birthday. When the day arrived, the streets emptied, shops closed and houses were barricaded. The government was probably wary of the Sicilians and they're propensity to revolt, and the response was a bombardment of the city. When a shell destroyed a local pawnbroker's shop that many people relied on, all hell broke loose. The infuriated mob sacked the palace and set fire to the state records and archives. A committee declared a new government and called Ruggiero Settimo, an old Sicilian patriot, president. The revolt spread to all the main cities except Messina, which held back mainly just because it hated Palermo. By February, the island was clear of Bourbon troops and Settimo declared the uprising over and a new era of happiness for Sicily. Sure. 

Meanwhile, King Louis-Phillipe had been toppled in Paris and a new republic declared. Liberal constitutions were no longer enough. The landslide had begun. When the king reached out to the rebels, he was informed that Sicily wasn't demanding new institutions, but the restoration of historic rights.  

Sicily had declared itself independent. But it lacked any machinery for self-government. The chaos returned worse than ever. Trade plummeted, unemployment soared, the legal system collapsed. Ferdinand sent an army to restore order. Messina suffered a heavy 8-hour bombardment AFTER it had surrendered...apparently the bombers hadn't gotten the word... or else they just wanted to air out some pent up frustrations. The rebels fought back and the old hatred between Sicilian and Neapolitan brought atrocities on both sides. The British and French were appalled at the bloodshed and persuaded Ferdinand to offer an armistice. But the Sicilians refused every offer out of hand. Even their supporters abandoned them and turned back to the Bourbons out of sheer self-preservation. 

Through their inefficiency, lack of unity, and refusal to compromise, the Sicilians had demonstrated perfectly how NOT to enact a revolution.  

Ferdinand, now known as "King Bomba" clamped down hard on the island in an effort to restore order, making Sicily a police state. Freedom was severely restricted, and observers were horrified at the state of things.  

Ferdinand died in 1859. His son, Ferdinand II succeeded him at 23, but his reign would be dramatically cut short, with the Risorgimento at hand. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 13- The End of the Murats

Meanwhile, on Sicily, Maria Carolina was waiting to get back to Naples. She had made it clear that she considered Sicily nothing more than a temporary refuge until Naples could be regained. But she also knew that her only allies, the English, were no longer interested in recovering Naples, and were focused now on how to keep the French out of Sicily.  

On the French side, Murat had made plans to invade Sicily, but Napoleon was only lukewarm to the idea, fearing the loss the French navy would suffer if they confronted the English. 

The British ambassador to Palermo, William Bentinck suggested that the Queen, Maria Carolina, be removed, and the Sicilian government administered by Sicilians.  

The new ruler then would be the King's son, Francis. He recalled some exiled barons and set about drafting the new constitution. He also needed to abolish the feudalism that had so long held Sicily back. 

In 1812, the new constitution had been drafted. The fifteen articles granted Sicily autonomy. Executive and legislative powers were rigidly separated, and feudal practices abolished. Many of the barons who voted for the thing were appalled to find their former powers and privileges gone forever. Even the people seemed unable to take in exactly what it meant for them. 

In 1813, Maria Carolina made one last attempt to save the monarchy as she saw it. She urged her husband, Frederick, to annul the constitution and take up the reins of government. He reluctantly did so, to the delight of his subjects. But Sicily was declining into chaos once again. So 8000 British troops entered the city to restore order. The barons were furious at the King's turn of attitude, and made it clear they would revolt unless the Queen left Sicily and the King upheld the new constitution. 

Having dealt with the political situation, Bentinck left the island, but was obliged to return soon enough, where he found near total chaos. The full text of the constitution had not yet been published, and there were violent arguments about what it actually said. Bentinck realized he had no choice but to assume dictatorial powers to restore order. 

Back in Naples, Murat had to relinquish claims to Sicily after Napoleon had suffered defeat at Liepzig in 1813. He was eventually forced to flee and arriving in Corsica, was captured and executed. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 12- Joseph and Joachim

The "Joseph" and "Joachim" the chapter title refers to are Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, and Joachim Murat, his brother in law.  

In 1801 the French began pushing the Austrians out of northern Italy. King Ferdinand was under increasing pressure to return to Naples, him being, you know... the king and all.... but, being pissed at the Neapolitans for cheering the French invaders so quickly after they showed up, Ferdinand wanted nothing to do with Naples any longer. He did the next best thing to showing up himself and sent his son Francis and his wife Maria Clementina of Austria in his place.  

Since this part of "Sicilian" history concerns, as we have grown accustomed to, things happening off the island, I'll gloss over much of it.  

Napoleon was hard at work reorganizing governments of the new French republic, as well as governments in Italy, Holland, Germany, and Switzerland. He couldn't afford to continue hostilities with Britain. He then signed a treaty to withdraw from Naples. He sent his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, to oversee the operation, and the Napoletani loved him. This dude was kind of a rock star- big flashy hair, smart uniforms, winning personality. Seriously, you need to look this guy up on wikipedia to see him. After the French left, Ferdinand no longer could put off returning to Naples.  

These years are a tedium of the same types of decisions made about "the kingdom of Sicily" by people who were not there, that has been a hallmark of Sicilian history. During this period, most of what concerned the kingdom of "Sicily" was, in fact, Naples, not the island of Sicily. 

After invading northern Italy, Napoleon proclaimed himself King of ALL Italy; he declared the kingdom of Naples to be no more, and sent his brother Joseph to rule there. Ferdinand split and went back to Sicily, but Napoleon shelved a French invasion of the island.  

The Sicilians by now understood that Ferdinand was a man-child who saw their land as nothing more than "a hunting reserve and occasional funk hole." Once again, most of the administrative posts had gone to Napoletani, leaving the Sicilian noble's sons out in the cold. Had Napoleon and the French invaded, they might not have met much resistance. 

Ferdinand, in the meantime, looking around for some French enemies strong enough to hold them off and protect Sicily, had invited the British to defend the island. The English not only took over the defense, but most everything else too. They also pumped a fair amount of money into the economy, which brought them no small amount of acceptance from the islanders. How to win friends and influence people? Money talks, amirite?

In Naples, Joseph had begun well enough with implementing Napoleon's reforms, but soon enough, Napoleon offered him the juicier post of the Spanish crown. Joseph duly left and Joachim Murat was chosen to take over the lesser Naples, which he and his wife considered beneath them.  

The TL;DR version of this chapter of Sicilian history: Sicily was the place the King of Naples escaped to, when he had to flee Naples. Since the French didn't want to invade the island, Ferdinand could safely stick his tongue out at the French and yell neener-neener-neener at them. The English were there and made things better for a bit. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 11- Napoleon, Nelson, and the Hamiltons

The title of the chapter refers to Captain Nelson, the great English Admiral, William Hamilton, the English statesman, and of course, everybody's favorite rampaging French warmonger- Napoleon Bonaparte. 

There was, at this time in Europe, a new sense of doing away with monarchy. Or if the monarchy was retained, it would be as the head of a more republican state. The idea of an absolute monarchy was losing its grip on Europe and there were discussions.... and more.... about this all over.  

Napoleon had invaded Italy in 1795 and quickly established control over all of Piedmont and Lombardy. He then overthrew the Venetian republic and handed it to Austria. Napoleon decided to attack Egypt but was hung up there after Nelson managed to catch his fleet and win the battle. Napoleon and the French were a terror on land, but the English navy pretty much ruled the sea. 

At Naples, where fear of the French had taken hold, Nelson was held as a hero and welcomed by Ferdinand and the Hamiltons, who were the British envoys to Naples.... er, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 

But the French, back on the European continent after the setback in Egypt, were already threatening Rome and it looked like Naples would be next. Ferdinand and the royal court ditched Naples and fled for Palermo. The nobility welcomed him, but again, the people were largely indifferent.  

When the French troops did reach Naples, they were attacked by a mob, but that was put down after a few months. 

In Palermo, things had gotten steadily worse with the war and food cost was spiraling upward. Frederick knew the barons would act in self-interest. Clearly, the fever for a more democratic type of rule had reached Sicily as well. Surrounded by difficulty, he wrote: "The people and clergy might let us leave if we promised to agree to the establishment of a republic. But the nobility would oppose our departure because they would be ruined and they fear the democratization of the country." 

But a Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo came to the rescue, raised an army and went to Naples to stop both the advance of the French... and Italian republicanism. He was successful and drove the French out.  

Ferdinand, however, had come to grips with the fact that he had enemies in Naples. He therefore refused to ever set foot there again.  

In his greatest gift to Sicily, he invited Edward Jenner, the English doctor pioneering vaccines, to the island in 1802 and had the vaccines made mandatory.  

The chapter was titled Napoleon, Nelson, and the Hamiltons. Much of the chapter was dedicated to the rise of Emma Hart, a renowned beauty (she was painted several times by the artist George Romney, and she was an absolute stunner), from actress to wife of William Hamilton, then to mistress of Admiral Nelson; and the English part to play in the politics between Napoleon, Ferdinand, and Sicily. Much of it I didn't find it particularly relevant, other than in the broader political background. Of course, this is fairly common in a history of Sicily, since the major decisions about the island were usually decided off Sicily by people who weren't Sicilian. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 10- The Coming of the Bourbons

The Treaty of Utrecht was really a series of treaties by which the European powers sought to regulate their mutual relations. The one that concerned Sicily was the decision to transfer the island to the control of Duke Victor Amadeus of Savoy in Piedmont. Victor Amadeus was delighted and in 1713, was crowned King of Sicily. He actually bothered to travel to Sicily and became the first royal presence on the island since 1535. He was welcomed by the nobility, but the people in general received him with apathy. 

The poor guy made a serious effort to improve things and tried hard to understand the character and customs of his subjects, but found himself undercut at every turn, first by the rich- who would not accept any innovations that might cut into their personal profits, and second, by the universal corruption, idleness, and lack of initiative that were the result of four centuries of foreign domination. 

Victor Amadeus wisely treated the barons with caution, but he likely felt the Sicilian cause was hopeless. Family vendettas continued unabated and banditry was everywhere. The people were essentially proving themselves ungovernable. 

On a personal level, he had also failed to gain their affection. Sicilians loved color and display; Victor Amadeus was a natural puritan who liked plain dress. When he returned to Turin in Piedmont, the Pope slapped him with a further humiliation- ordering the church to ignore taxes. Many obeyed and were punished by exile or imprisonment, and the confiscation of their property. The Sicilians, proud of their status as Papal legates, also tended to blame the house of Savoy rather than the Pope.  

Then came an invasion from Austria in 1718. Sicily became a battlefield between Spain and Austria. Spain lost and Sicily was ceded to Austria.  

The Austrian's rule in Sicily lasted twice as long as the Piedmontese, but the result was the same. The Sicilians offered no resistance, but disliked them from the get-go. Piedmontese (which kind of sounds like a Frenchman speaking Italian) was bad enough as a language- but German was even worse. At least Piedmontese was a Latin descendant like Sicilian (which sounds like a Spaniard speaking Italian while chewing bubblegum and tossing in some Arabic and Greek words in just to confuse it some more). And by this time, Sicily was thoroughly Spanish at heart.  

Honestly, I'd bet the Austrians did their genuine best to reform things, but, in a, by now, very old story, were thwarted by the Sicilians at every turn. After 14 years, the Austrians called up Spain and told them they can have Sicily back! 

Charles III, of the House of Bourbon, took the throne in 1737. He did little for Sicily, but could we blame him? Perhaps the Sicilians would have received more attention had they shown the slightest inclination to help themselves, but they didn't. Every effort at reform, as always, was blocked. 

After Charles, the island got a new king, Ferdinand III. Ferdinand chose to reside in Naples. This dude was irresponsible and childish. He was a lover of outdoor sports, and rough horseplay, and never outgrew this as an adult. This may have been in part due to an ambitious overseer who fostered indolence in the kid so he could manage affairs himself. But more on Ferdinand later. 

Towards the end of the century, the French revolution was shaking the foundations of European monarchies. The regicide that had taken place in such a large, ancient kingdom as France left lots of lesser reges wondering if they might be cided next. The French people were proving that there wasn't much to keep a monarchy in power beyond "awe" of the monarchy.  

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 9- Piracy and Revolution

The second half of the 1400's saw two cataclysmic events: The fall of Constantinople to the Turks and the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. Those events saw a proliferation of rootless vagabonds that turned to piracy. Lots of rootless vagabonds appearing in a short time can be a real problem, 'cuz a guy's gotta eat after all, and if your job gets eliminated and your desperate... stealing might start to look like the only viable method for procuring what you need. 

Sicily, due to its proximity, had maintained friendly relations with North Africa. But after the fall of Constantinople, the conflict between Spain and Turks, the two remaining powers in the mediterranean, was inevitable. The ultra-conservative Spanish King Ferdinand refused any kind of dealings with the infidels, so legitimate trade between Spain and Ottoman was out. Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa was the principal pirate threat during the early 1500's. Sicily suffered, because of that aforementioned proximity, and no town within 10 miles of the coast was safe. Charles V, the Spanish king, was bored with the Barbary coast and recognized that 1) it could not be reconquered, and 2) was ruinous in lives and finances to try and protect against it. He left Sicily unprotected and shifted his attention towards northern Europe. 

Sicily no longer had a navy, and given their lack of independence, had little incentive to try and build one. But, in this age of flourishing piracy, they had discovered another highly lucrative trade: slaves. 

Sicily under Spanish domination had remained largely lawless. Brigands ran free in the interior where the Spanish officials never bothered going. The interior peasants lived as they always had. If it was corrupt, it was probably no more corrupt than the colonial governments. If it was violent, it was no more violent than the baronage.  

And then there were the genial fun-lovers instigating the Spanish Inquisition. They were actually separate from the Church, and had their own police force, largely operating without interference. From the author John Julius Norwich: 

"Sicily was a desperately unhappy island. Only once in her long history had she been united and independent, and that was during the time of the Norman kings, whose successive reigns lasted less than 70 years. Since then, thanks to her Angevin and Spanish masters, she had become hopelessly demoralized and deeply corrupt. She had no national pride, no loyalties, no solidarity, no discipline. In consequence, she vegetated, suffering much and achieving nothing apart from the occasional unsuccessful revolution...." 

Sicily's hero in the early 1600's was one Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna. He arrived in Palermo in 1611, was appalled by what he saw, and set about to make some changes. He had cleaned up the streets within two weeks. Then he turned his attention to defense and ordered new ships. After that, he set about reforming the economy. He found one-third of the annual revenue was unaccounted for. So he instituted tight controls and within a few years had restored government credit. But he left in 1616.  

In 1624, an outbreak of bubonic plague hit.  

Almost as disastrous was the Thirty Years War, starting in 1618. It started as a protestant/catholic dust-up, then became an excuse to revive some age-old feuds across Europe. None of this would have meant much to the Sicilians, except Spain was busy scraping them for every penny it could get. 

But, "From bad to worse" being the unofficial motto of Sicily, the economic situation worsened and dissatisfaction grew. By Feb 1648, revolt broke out. Order was restored by the maestranze, guilds that had developed into social networks. 

If the first half of the 1600's were bad, the second half was worse: Chronic food shortages, constant tax demands from Spain, and the refusal of the barons to pay their share. This last lay, perhaps, at the heart of Sicily's suffering.  

The situation was only aggravated by the old rivalry between Messina and Palermo. Messina claimed ancient precedence. Palermo had the old-school aristocracy, while Messina were more merchant/nobles. But Palermo was grander and more elegant. But since times of old, each city had considered itself the more important and had learned to hate the other's guts whenever one got some slight bit of advantage. This self-destructive attitude; rejoicing in the degradation of your rival even if it meant the entire island would suffer, including yourself, could serve as another bullet point for the island's problems.  

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 8- Spanish Domination

The terms of the Caltabellota treaty made it clear that the Angevins had not renounced claims to Sicily. The Spaniards and French went at it again in 1312, but it was always half-hearted. With neither side particularly committed, its inconclusiveness sapped enthusiasm. The Sicilian barons didn't care too much since they thrived on war and were disinterested for Sicilian independence for the sake of indepedence. They're concern was with their pockets and they'd side with whoever bolstered their short-term interests. Some of the baronial families were: the Ventimiglia, mainly around Trapani; the Chiaramonte, around Palermo; the Moncada; and the Peralta. 

Frederick III died in 1337, succeeded by Peter II, who died in 1342. There was a Louis in there too... blah-diddy-blah blah. 

The Black Death arrived in 1347, and although we don't have figures for Sicily in particular, about 1/3rd of the population was lost in Europe, and we can reasonably assume it was somewhere in that neighborhood in Sicily too. 

Frederick IV (the Simple... not a nickname I would have been particularly in love with either) became King and inherited a hopelessly chaotic realm. The barons had split into two main factions: the Latins, led by the Chiaramonte, and the Catalans, represented by the Ventimiglia. In 1371, Fred the Simple went to Naples to see if he could resolve this, which he did, on condition that he pay an annual tribute to Naples. When Frederick died in 1377, he left no heir, so the Island was divided into four 'Vicarates' to be administered by the four principal baronial families: the Alagona fam would govern the east from Catania; Peralta from Sciacca in the south; Ventimiglia for most of the North, minus Palermo; and Chiaramonte in Palermo. 

The only daughter of Frederick, Maria, now become a major pawn among the princes of Europe. Hard to figure out why anyone would have been all that psyched about Sicily by this point, but they were. Lots of European royal families were busy marketing their sons to get married to Maria and grab on to Sicily. I don't know if she was a looker or not, but I'm pretty sure the artist who did this painting of her should have been killed for his efforts. Anyway, while that drama was in mid-season, one of the baronial families, the Moncada, were pissed about being left out of a 'vicarate', and kidnapped Maria. They shipped her to Barcelona where she was promptly taken off the market and married to Martin I, the "Younger", of Aragon. Martin decided then that Sicily was to be subject to him and invaded in 1392. Some baronial families welcomed him, presumably those that thought they could profit from his reign, while others resisted. He eventually grabbed enough control of the important areas, but large swaths of the island remained outside that control.  

Martin revived the parliaments, but they were never, uh, what we would call "democratic". They were basically just assemblies for the parliamentarians to listen to what was being dictated to them from on high. Martin died in 1409 before having children, so his Father succeeded him, but lived only a year longer. Yeah, it's unusual to have a father succeed a son, but hey, it happened this time. 

In 1412, Ferdinand was chosen as King of Spain, and claimed Sicily for himself. The Sicilians didn't object, were probably too tired to care, and figured the new guy would probably never set foot on their island anyway. But Ferdinand died in 1416 and in 1421, Alfonso V was named ruler of Sicily, while living in Naples. Anybody else feel there's just a constant cycle of names here? Yeah, me too. 

The 1400s were a time of constant money problems. Too much of Sicily was enfeoffed (weird word meaning 'given as a fief' or feudal land) to the barons. Alfonso, nicknamed the " Magnanimous", but probably NOT by the Sicilians...) stopped at nothing to squeeze as much out of the Sicilians as possible. In 1458, Alfonso died and his brother John II was given Sicily. Sicily seemed ok with the new guy, and only once, in 1478, when he tried to squeeze them for more money continue his war against the Turks, did the Sicilians stand up to him, because they had a healthy trade with the Turks and the Sicilians needed that healthy trade to not be interrupted. 

His son Ferdinand, who ascended the throne in 1479, was of huge historical importance. He was the same guy who married Isabella, and commissioned a rather insignificant event in world history: the expedition of Columbus to America. But just a touch before that, his pious Catholic sense commissioned another event. In 1487, the Spanish Inquisition arrived, which ordered Muslims and Jews to either convert, or leave the island. Muslims were already mostly gone, but Jews represented a large, and important, minority. Sicily's economy suffered big-time as a consequence of this declaration.  

Meanwhile, through corruption or neglect, many Sicilian lands that were technically Spanish crown territories, had become baronial estates. But Ferdinand wanted them back. A viceroy named Ugo Moncada was appointed to reclaim these lands. When Ferdinand died in 1516, a mob chased Moncada out. But while the Sicilians would occasionally rise and revolt, they lacked cohesion, as well as any positive or constructive ideas for what they wanted to build in place of what they tore down. 

When Charles V of Habsburg arrived in 1517, he was still a Dutchman through and through, which did not make a good first impression. But he was sagacious and shrewd. He did his best, but managing his own countrymen turned out to be difficult. Probably by now, the Sicilians were getting sick and tired of foreigners getting all the good government positions depending, the nationalities of which depended on the revolving door of nationalities making the decisions about their island 

However, it was another event that began to turn the page on the Mediterranean: The discovery of the Americas, and... the route to India around the African horn. The Mediterranean had been THE conduit of trade from East to West. But now, new richer markets had opened up in the new world, and the new route to even the old trade partners in the East, meant the Mediterranean could be bypassed altogether. The Middle sea had become something of a backwater, and Sicily, as always, was the loser. 

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 7- The Vespers

The Sicilian Vespers led to the ousting of the French as rulers of Sicily and the installation of the Spaniards as rulers. 

When Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen house died in 1250, Sicily sank back into chaos and confusion. (yeah, you're going to read that a LOT during this history recap) The barons took over, each fighting to enrich himself and grab as much as possible. (oh, you'll read THAT a lot too) Frederick's son Conrad was crowned emperor in Germany, but was stuck there, so Fred's bastard son Manfred was entrusted with control of Sicily and southern Italy. Pope Innocent IV didn't think bastard sons ought to be ruling anything and suggested Manfred turn control of the kingdom over to someone else... the someone else just happening to be... himself, the Pope. Manfred declined the offer and the Pope excommunicated him altogether. Innocent then declared someone else King, but everyone else just sort of ignored it.   

Manfred was, I hear, an astonishingly good-looking man, intelligent, learned, and had devastating charm. Bastard, indeed! By 1258, Manfred, using such abilities as nature had endowed him with, had convinced the Sicilian barons to proclaim him King. 

In the meantime, another daughter of Frederick, Constance, married Peter, heir to the throne of Aragon. 

The successor Pope to Innocent, however, Urban IV, had not given up on puppeteering in Sicily, and named Charles of Anjou as the man who should be king of Sicily. Charles was cold, cruel, and vastly ambitious, and recognized an opportunity when he saw one. He was crowned King of Sicily in Rome in 1266 by Urban's successor, Clement IV. Charles then invaded and chased out Manfred. 

With this event, the Hohenstaufen line, and Sicily's golden age, was truly ended.  

The Angevin (Anjou family) line showed little interest in Sicily, concentrating more attention on the mainland, but the Sicilians weren't so easy to ignore. They revolted in 1267, and were promptly put back into place. But the severity of the repression left a lingering resentment. Administration of the island was heavy-handed, with landowners needing to prove their ownership. This was difficult for many and if it wasn't done satisfactorily, the land was confiscated and handed out to the new King's friends, all Frenchmen. In what would become a recurring theme, the Sicilians lost out. 

In general, Sicily remained neglected, and the Sicilians themselves could only conclude that they belonged to an obscure and unimportant province that their ruler could not be bothered to care about.  

The Sicilian Vespers  Here we find one John of Procida. A native of Salerno, he had been the personal physician of Frederick when he died. He appealed to Peter of Aragon to overthrow the Angevins. By 1282, the Angevins were pretty thoroughly detested, both for the severity of their taxation and their general arrogance. The incident that precipitated John of Procida's call to overthrow the Angevins was what has come to be called the Sicilian Vespers. When a drunk French sergeant hit on a Sicilian woman on March 30, 1282 as the bells were ringing for Vespers, her husband's pent-up anger boiled over into beating the sergeant, which boiled over to a murder. The Sicilian crowd's anger then boiled over and the murder led to a riot, the riot to a massacre, and by morning, 2000 French were dead. Ya gotta be careful about riling up Sicilians. The rising spread and on August 30, Peter of Aragon and his army landed at the far northwestern city of Trapani. 

By September, Charles was driven back to the northeastern corner of the island at Messina and was forced to recognize that the Spanish conquest was basically a done-deal.  

But Charles was a stubborn bastard and refused to recognize the legitimacy, and actually challenged Peter to settle up mano a mano in a duel. Charles being 55, and Peter only 40, they decided it would be more fair that each would be accompanied by 100 knights. The day was set, but they forgot to set a particular time. 

In a comic scenario, the "fight" went something like this: Peter showed up early in the day, and finding no French, declared them cowards and himself the victor by forfeiture. Later in the day, the French showed up and finding no Spaniards, declared the Spaniards cowards and themselves the victors by forfeiture. I guess they at least saved face and lives this way. 

But neither side giving an inch, the Regno was split with Charles remaining King of "Sicily" in Naples, and Peter calling himself king of Sicily in Palermo. This is the initiation of "The Two Sicilies". 

Charles died in 1285. He had neglected Sicily. The Sicilians had pissed him off with their stubborn rebellion, and he had become bored with them, considering them poor, unprofitable, and therefore useless to him. Moreover, he thought they were a mongrel race of Latin, Greek and Arab, and therefore not to be taken seriously as a people. 

Charles II was the heir, but he was being held in prison. The Angevin Kings in France still wished to recover Sicily, and the Papacy was looking after its own prestige, having granted Sicily to the Angevins. 

Sicilians, on the other hand, preferred Spanish rule, but this had a consequence: it cut them off from Naples, AND... the burgeoning Italian renaissance, which would subsequently largely pass over Sicily. 

The Aragonese, James "the Just" was proclaimed King of Sicily in 1286. He sought Pope Honorius' blessing and was promptly rewarded for his efforts with excommunication. Honorius then, to add injury to insult, ordered an invasion of Sicily in 1287... which was a disaster.  

A number of years passed in which the decisions about who would govern/rule Sicily were made without any concern for the Sicilians themselves. But this was so standard, and would continue to be so, that most of the history of Sicily is really the history of decisions about its government made elsewhere. The machinations behind the scenes are byzantine, and frankly, have little to do with Sicily, so I'm not going to bother to even write them down here. 

In 1301, the treaty of Caltabellota was signed: The Angevins would withdraw from Sicily, and Frederick would call himself King of Trinacria (the ancient Greek name for Sicily) rather than King of Sicily, so that the Angevins could still call themselves kings of Sicily. This is a prime example of European monarchy BS, so that each could feel a little less butt-hurt be the loss of land, by retaining a title. 

The Sicilians themselves didn't care too much about which of these foreigners called themselves whatever, as long as said foreigners didn't inflict themselves on the island itself. The Sicilians had suffered a lot since the Vespers 20 years prior, but they were steadfast on this one point: they would not accept French rule. 

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch 6- Stupor Mundi

Frederick II, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was given this nickname: Stupor Mundi- Wonder of the World.  

He began his rule in 1198 and lasted until 1220. But in 1198, he was only 3, so he didn’t exactly "rule"…. just yet. German regents ruled in his place. But even at 13, he was considered something of a wunderkind, both intellectually and physically. But despite all his gifts, the Sicilians didn't really get him. They loved the more stately, paternalistic style, which Frederick was not. Frederick was more the sporty, bombastic style. 

In 1212, Frederick was called to Germany to take part in the latest election of an Emperor. His administrators and his wife told him not to go, since he had never set foot on German soil, and Sicily was far from secure. But he understood it would be taken as a snub if he didn't, so off he went. 

He was crowned king of Germany in 1212, King of the Holy Roman Empire in 1215, and then he was acknowledged by the Pope. He then took the Cross, meaning he committed himself to the crusades. This was a weird decision, given that he had grown up with Muslims, respected them, and actually liked their religion. He may have regretted the decision too since he showed little eagerness to fulfill it. 

In 1220 he finally got back home to Sicily. While away in Germany, he came to the realization that he was at heart, a man of the south, and felt more at home there. But he was under no illusions about the state of Sicily. Dissatisfaction had increased during his father's reign, and his own long absence made things even worse. 

On his arrival he restored order by recentralizing power. Which essentially meant he had to get tough on the local nobility. 

But the greater issue was the Muslims of western Sicily. They had once been an integral part of the kingdom, but after the collapse of the Norman dynasty, they were no longer appreciated or respected. They had been forced out of the larger society, and had entrenched themselves in the western mountains, where they terrorized Christian communities. Frederick made the move to resettle them off the island in Apulia, where they could enjoy freedom of religion and law. This wasn't just a show move either. Frederick himself built a palace there and often spent time among them. The Muslims weren't just relocated there and then kept under lock and key.  

After 1221, Frederick came under pressure by the Pope to initiate another crusade, something which he was loath to do. He was committed to leave in 1227, and the Pope threatened that any delay would result in excommunication. An outbreak of either typhoid or cholera hit however and Frederick was forced to return. Pope Gregory accused him of reneging on his vows and excommunicated him. But the Pope had overplayed his hand. Excommunicates couldn't lead crusades. Frederick wrote and explained the situation, and the Pope relented. 

The crusade back on, the armies arrived in the Holy Land where Frederick sent word to Saladin's heirs in Jerusalem, promising to leave quickly if they would simply grant him a title. By this time, Jerusalem was itself relatively unimportant, so the Muslims concluded it would be a face-saving effort all around and accepted a light partition of the city and handed out some empty titles, all without losing a drop of blood on either side. This should have been seen as a win-win, but....the Pope was none too pleased about the whole show. It almost looked like this Frederick guy wasn't trying hard enough... 

Frederick returned to his kingdom and found it in a state of helpless confusion. While away, his old buddy the Pope had sought to undercut him both at home and in Germany. But even as Frederick set foot back in the kingdom, things began to turn around. He was able to drive out the Pope's army, but beyond that, the entire thing of the Pope going to war didn't sit well. Even solid Pope-backing Catholics found it alarming that the current pope would declare a "crusade" against a Christian king. While the Papacy still harbored a grudge and sought to undermine Frederick, Frederick had proven that he could not be removed so easily.  

Frederick died, years later of dysentery in 1250. With Frederick, the rule of Sicily passed from Norman to German rule, but while Frederick was German by blood, he truly was more of a Sicilian. Unfortunately for Sicily, from this point on, their affairs would be determined by men who were not Sicilian. Their history would be a history of decisions made in foreign lands by foreign rulers. 

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Ch. 5- The End of the Kingdom

William, 'the Bad', took over in 1154. What prompted the nickname 'the bad'? He suffered from two main misfortunes: the first is that he was not his father, whose shoes it would be tough to fill; and the second, and more pertinent to the question of why he was nicknamed the "bad", is that his biographer hated his guts.  

William was a thoroughly oriental (when you read "oriental", it means "eastern", which for many of us means the far east. But for Europeans at the time, the 'east' was what we now call the middle east.) character, more like a Sultan than a King. Many of the Norman barons, particularly in Apulia, had no real love for his kingdom. They found themselves a leader, Robert of Loritello, who proposed a joint venture with Michael Paleologus of Constantinople, to drive William out of southern Italy. Remember that the "Kingdom" included Sicily, the island, and the territories on the southern end of the Italian peninsula. 

In 1156, Campania and most of Apulia, the aforementioned territories on the Italian peninsula, were in Byzantine hands and it looked as if William would be chased out. But William fought back and the Greeks went chicken, lost the battle... and everything they had gained to that point. The Pope had sided against William, but having chosen the losing side, was forced to sign the Treaty of Benevento in 1159.  

William returned to Sicily with a rather higher international standing than before the war, but internal discontent. His emir of emirs was assassinated in 1160, and less than a year later, a palace revolt took place in which William's young son, Roger, was killed, and William himself was lucky to escape alive.  

When he returned in 1162, Muslims and Christians were at each other's throats.  

He died in 1166. He was not a great king, but then again, following after his father Roger II would have made nearly anyone look bad in comparison. He was an excellent soldier, but he lacked equilibrium, and was unable to maintain the delicate balances on which the safety of his realm depended. 

His 12 year old son William was to be the new King, but until he was old enough to be taken seriously, his mother found a capable administrator, one Stephan du Perche, to run things as Chancellor. He instituted some fair and needed reforms. No small feat in the atmosphere of distrust that existed. It may well be that such a thing may have required an outsider too. It's possible that no one inside would be considered impartial enough to have been trusted.  

In 1167, William moved the court from Palermo to Messina, but the Greek population there would not accept the French, and in 1168, a rebellion broke out that left no Frenchmen alive. Surprisingly, the young 14-year-old king rode out and faced down the crowds. Ballsy move, and the people, when confronted with their king, ditched the attitude and support for the rebellion died away. In the aftermath though, it was decided that Stephen du Perche and the French would be better off out of Sicily altogether. Steve never understood that the nation's strength and survival depended on maintaining unity, and that was by nature heterogenous and fissile, and that unity must be imposed from above.  

This is a relevant bit of history. How does a government oversee a multi-cultural, and easily divided, citizen base? Tolerance and respect are necessary ingredients, certainly. But tolerance and respect for those that are different from us isn't our natural state. We don't understand, and often just plain don't like, cultures that are different from our own. So we will need to tolerate them and render them respect, but if we can't do it on our own, then it needs to be enforced. Anyway... on with the history... 

By 1168, William 'the good' was of age and crowned in Palermo. His reign was marked by peace and security. But...... he lacked some political wisdom. The search to find him a wife had been something of a celebrity thing in Sicily. A few matches were proposed but William wanted to know what they looked like before he'd commit. Joan, an English princess, daughter of King Henry II, but born in France, was a looker, so the marriage was on. They were apparently in love and happy. 

Then the lack of political wisdom showed up. In 1183, Frederick Barbarossa proposed marriage of his son Henry with princess Constance of Sicily. The problem was, that if William and his wife Joanna didn't have any surviving kids, the reign would pass from the Norman Hauteville line to another house altogether. But while William and Joan still hadn't had any kids, they were young and there was time. Except, in 1189, the very thing they were hoping wouldn't happen, happened: William II of the Hautevilles died, and Constance became ruler, giving the kingdom to Henry of Hohenstaufen. This was the end of Norman Sicily. 

[thetldrplace]

Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History Ch. 4- The Normans

With the Normans, Sicily would come into her golden age. Unfortunately for Sicily, that golden age ended 800 years ago. 

In 911, Rollo, a Viking, first rowed up the Seine river in France. By a hundred years later, his followers had most of the eastern half of Normandy (a section of northern France) under their control. The descendants of these men were quick-witted, adaptable, and seemingly blessed with an inexhaustible energy. The early Norman adventurers were also enormously, um.... prolific. They were ready adventurers for the Crusades, and generations made the treks to the Holy Land through the Mediterranean. One of the pilgrimage stops on the way to the Holy Land was at Monte Sant'Angelo on the Italian side of the Adriatic. There, in 1016, a Lombard told the visiting Normans of a considerable territory that was now under Greek Byzantine occupation. Perhaps, e suggested, a joint Norman/Lombard army venture could dislodge the Greeks, such help being the kind of thing the Lombards would not forget. The opportunity proved irresistible to the adventurous Normans. They returned to Normandy to restock and get some more guys, then they came back and made themselves a force in southern Italy. An obscure Norman baron there, Tancred de Hauteville, bore something like 3 daughters and 12 sons. One of those sons, Robert Guiscard, proved himself to be one of the great military adventurers of all time.  

For the first generation of Normans, Sicily was of little interest. But in 1035, a civil war between the Arab clans that had been bubbling, finally came to a boil, and the Emir al-Akhal of Palermo found himself desperate for help. He appealed to Emperor Michael of Constantinople, and Michael, who had considered the Greek speaking population of Sicily a birthright of the Byzantine empire, saw an opportunity to insert himself back on to the island. The Greek force stopped in Salerno to pick up more soldiers, and while there, they attracted the attention of the Normans, who were just milling around looking for something worthwhile to do. 

Around 1038, the Byzantine forces arrived on Sicily, including the Hautevilles. The Greeks succeeded in dislodging the Arabs, but divisions among the Greeks caused problems and, realizing they were in no shape to continue on, they beat a hasty retreat. There was a dispute among the Normans and the Greeks over the fairness of the spoils, the Normans considering they weren't quite getting what they were owed.  

The Normans returned to the mainland disgruntled and even the Pope was concerned by the group of discontented soldiers in his proximity. Pope Leo IX decided the best defense was a good offense and  led an army against the Normans, but the Pope was defeated. The Normans, however, treated them with respect and, for a reward, the Pope awarded Robert dukedoms in Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily.  

Though Sicily had never been under Papal control, that didn't stop the Normans from looking to the island they had now seen and fought over. Roger Hauteville was only 26 at the time, but he was a fighter to match any,  and in 1060 he had forced the surrender of the Greeks across from Messina. By 1072 the brothers had fought their way to Palermo. Robert claimed suzerainty over the island, but his brother Roger would be the one effectively in control. 

Sicily had been in Muslim hands, but would now be transformed. 

The first order of business was establish Norman rule, but with only a few hundred knights, he knew he couldn't just bully his way to sovereignty. He would need to persuade the Muslims to voluntarily accept the new rule. This would require tolerance and understanding. So, Arabic was declared an official language, on equal footing with Latin, Greek, and Norman French. Roger won over the confidence of the people, and many who had fled the island beforehand came back. 

The new Christian subjects, on the other hand presented a more difficult problem. The Greeks welcomed the Normans at first, but found the new guys more uncivilized than the Muslims. That plus they brought in a bunch of Latin priests and monks who were schismatics through and through. Though the Greeks had been promised their language and traditions would be respected, Roger would have to do more to gain their trust. So he rebuilt Greek churches and personally endowed Greek speaking foundations.  

From these earliest days, Roger laid the foundation of a multiracial and polyglot society in which Norman, Greek, and Arab would, under a firm central government, follow their own traditions in freedom and concord. 

By the end of the 1000s, Roger had the most enlightened kingdom in all Europe. We know little about his personal and private life, other than he lived up to the famed Norman fertility, producing between 13-17 offspring. He died in 1102. Sicily had exploded economically and merchants from all over the Mediterranean came to the island. 

His son Roger II took control in 1108. He wanted to increase the size of his rule and make his power and presence felt in mainland Europe, Africa, and Asia too.  

On Christmas 1130, the Pope granted Roger II the royal crown of Sicily, Calabria, and Apulia. 

Roger, at this time, ruled the third largest kingdom in Europe. He was born in the south of an Italian mother, educated by Greek and Arab tutors, and grown up in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of tolerance and mutual respect created by his father. He instinctively understood the complex system of checks and balances on which the internal stability of the country depended.  

While the feudal barons on the mainland would cause problems, things were much easier in Sicily. Feudalism had not existed there. Things depended on mutual respect and religious and ethnic tolerance.  The Arabs were entrusted with the state finances since their math was more advanced than anyone else's. The navy was run by the Greeks since they produced the best sailors. The art and architecture of the time is truly a wonder to behold: Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic traditions blended. 

We can keep in mind that this time period was 100 years after the great schism which saw blood drawn between the Byzantine and Latin church. The Crusades were also in full swing, with both Christian and Muslim blood flowing in the Holy Land. Yet here in Sicily, the three civilizations came together and harmonized. 

The court at Palermo was the most brilliant in Europe. By the 1140's, Roger had given a permanent home to the foremost scholars, scientists, doctors and philosophers, geographers and mathematicians in Europe and the Arab world. Roger himself was famous for his insatiable intellectual curiosity, and could converse in French, Latin, Greek, or Arabic.  

Roger II died in 1154. 

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Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. Chapters 1-3

This book was written by British historian John Julius Norwich. I will attempt to cover the chapters one at a time, other than this first installment, since the chapters are smaller.

1 Greeks  The first true culture we encounter on Sicily is Mycenaean, from around 1600BC. Around 1400 BC, Sicily was absorbed into the Mediterranean trade routes. The Mycenaeans disappeared around 1200BC, no one knows why. There were some tribes that lived on the island: Sicans, Sicels, Elymians, but we know little of them.  

Sicily's earliest historical period people were Greeks who had come over to colonize areas of the eastern and southern coast. The first Greek-Sicilian settlement was Gela around 688BC. The next centuries saw the cities build up through Greek art, philosophy, and civilization. But we must recognize that "Greece" was something like the way we consider "Arab" today. It was a concept more than a particular nationality. 

The Carthaginians had a footing on the western edge of the island at Marsala and Trapani. Carthage was originally a Phoenician outpost. The Phoenicians were canaanites from the Old Testament. They were a seafaring people, who had established trading outposts all over the Mediterranean. Carthage, modern day Tunis, was one of those cities, which had gained independence in 650BC. 

There were occasional clashes between the Greek cities with appeals to Carthage to intervene by whatever city saw itself as undermanned in the looming fights. 

Around 400, an agreement was made between Syracuse and Carthage whereby Carthage would limit itself to the western portion of the island.  

2 Carthaginians  For the next hundred years, skirmishes continued between Greek Sicily and Carthaginian Sicily, but in 272, Rome captured Tarentum and effectively claimed control over the entire Italian peninsula. During the 200's Sicily was going to have to make a choice between Rome and Carthage.  

There were a series of 3 Punic wars (wars between Rome and Carthage) fought between 264 and 146BC. During that time, Sicily became a Roman territory. 

3 Roman, Barbarians, Byzantines, and Arabs.  Roman  By 241BC Sicily was essentially run by the Romans. The Greek speakers were still there, but Greece was in no position to influence much on the Island. Carthage was a power during the first part of the 200's, and indeed, Hannibal was causing all kinds of trouble on the Italian peninsula itself but, Carthage was not the influence on Sicily.

The Romans never considered Sicily more than a province... allies... but they were not considered citizens. The important fact was that Sicilians spoke Greek, not Latin. We know relatively little about the events on the island. But here are some 'highlights'... or lowlights... you can decide....

There were several slave revolts on the island. The slave population dangerously outnumbered the free, and they were terribly abused. (Good combo for an uprising.) The first slave war broke out around 139BC, Rome was slow to react since it didn't take the idea of slaves too seriously, and consequently wasn't put down until 132BC, seven years later. 

A second slave war broke out in 104BC, but this time Rome was quicker to respond. The second war was ended in 100BC after an epic effort by the slaves. 

Gaius Verrus was governor/criminal from 80-70BC, which saw the island suffer terribly under his pillaging. He was excoriated in the Roman Senate by Cicero, who took the case on himself, and Verrus, who saw the writing on the wall, packed up his stuff and amscrayed to Marseille before the trial ended and he was put under arrest.

The final transition of Rome from Republic to Empire left Sicily with a much larger Roman element than before. By decree, all mainland Italians had gained Roman citizenship, but this was not true for Sicily. 6 cities however were included, and their citizens were given Roman citizenship: Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, Tindari, Termini, and Palermo. 

Sicily had become one of the most important sources of grain for the Roman empire.  

Unfortunately, we know little of Sicilian history for the first 500 years of the Christian era. It seems to have prospered, as evidenced by the quality of the buildings that have survived from that period. 

They were largely unconcerned by Constantine's decision to move the capital of the Empire to Constantinople in 330. They were largely unconcerned with the decision to move the western capital to Ravenna in 395.  

Constantine's main contribution was the official status of Christianity, which spread rapidly across the island, replacing the old Greek religion.  

By the 400's there also seems to have been a large influx of Jewish immigration. 

Barbarian  By the late 400s, the barbarians had arrived. Who you callin' barbarian?? I'm sure the barbarians didn't think they themselves were so deficient... after all, who just kicked who's @$$ on Rome's home field? The three "barbarian" tribes of interest to us are the Goths, Huns, and Vandals. Only the Vandals showed any interest in Sicily. 

The Goths, under Alaric, had besieged Rome as early as 408.  

The Huns attacked Italy by 452, but didn't get to Sicily. 

The Vandals however, had gone across Gaul (france), settled in Spain, then crossed into North Africa, attacked Carthage and raided Sicily. 

The Roman empire, these days, is considered to have finally succumbed in 476.  

Byzantine  In 533, Emperor Justinian launched a campaign to recover the western empire. His general, Belisarius, arrived in Sicily in 535, where he was universally welcomed by the Greek-speaking population. Sicily was once again an imperial province,  ruled by a Byzantine governor, hooray! By the middle of the 600's, the Greeks were concerned for their western provinces because of the surge of Islam.  Emperor Constans II decided that a Roman empire without a Rome was kind of pointless, so he wanted to shift his capital westward, but after actually seeing the dump that Latin Rome had become, he decided in 663 on the more familiar Greek atmosphere of Syracuse. This should be good for the Greek speaking Sicilians, right? The next 5 years were a nightmare for the Sicilians, due to the extortions and heavy taxes laid on them. This may have gone on for God knows how long, except in 668 Constans was assassinated. His son picked up again and moved back to Constantinople. 

Arab  Sicily had been left in peace for some time, but Arab raids were continuing. They now controlled the entire north African coast, and in 827, they invaded Sicily when a local governor, Euphemius, was ousted for an affair with a nun. He responded by proclaiming himself Emperor and then, realizing he didn't have enough muscle to actually make that happen, invited the Arabs to come help. The Arabs came, shoved  Euphemius out of the way, and started a slow takeover for themselves. 

Palermo fell in 830; Messina fell in 843; Syracuse in 878. By that time, Sicily was effectively an Emirate of the Muslim world. 

The Muslim conquest made Sicily a major player in Mediterranean commerce. The Arabs introduced terracing and siphon aqueducts, they introduced cotton and papyrus, melon and pistachio, citrus and date palm and sugarcane. Muslim, Jewish, and Christians all thronged the bazaars of Palermo. 

But stability was not part of Arab rule, and there were always tensions between the various factions. 

[thetldrplace]

Clarissa- Samuel Richardson  (1748) 

I believe this was the longest novel in the English language, 1462 pages of small text on larger pages in this version and nearly a million words. But a few people have produced some doozies since then, and it's not the longest anymore. Still, it's a whopper and I've put it off a few times. 

The full title of the novel is: Clarissa. Or the history of a young lady: comprehending the most important concerns of private life. And particularly showing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children, in relation to marriage. 

The story is: Richard Lovelace comes to the Harlowe family to see a pretty older daughter, Arabella, who, it turns out, he isn't the least interested in. But he IS interested in the prettier younger daughter. Arabella turns on Lovelace because he has a poor reputation as a womanizer, but absolutely turns on him when she finds she has been rejected in favor of the younger sister, Clarissa. 

Clarissa, a virtuous young woman, is not interested in Lovelace. But when her brother James comes home, it turns out he knows Lovelace and hates him. James turns Lovelace out of the house and insults him. A few days later, James challenges Lovelace to a duel and is wounded, which brings the whole family's hatred on Lovelace. 

Lovelace is smitten with Clarissa, and in order to remove her as an object of desire, the family decides to marry off Clarissa to a wealthy boorish gentleman who was conceded a fair amount of money to the family if they will give him Clarissa. She resents being sold for money to a man she detests. 

She refuses this proposal and the back and forth of arguments for both sides runs to over 300 pages. 

The basic arguments are: Clarissa detests the man and can't consent to live as a wife that must love him,  the family insists on her obedience.  

As her family won't relent and insists she get married to a man she hates, she is tricked into going outside to see Lovelace, then half tricked/half abducted into fleeing with him. He deposits her in a 'safe house', populated by actresses paid by him to play their parts as noble ladies and convince her to confide in him. She mostly sees through this and more and more despises Lovelace. But she is also informed that her family has fully disowned her. She now recognizes she is 'ruined', and has no place left to turn. 

While Clarissa's best friend, Anna Howe, commiserates with her over Lovelace's villainy, she counsels Clarissa to marry him and accept this as her punishment, since it is the best she can hope for at this point. But Clarissa, seeing more and more of Lovelace's character while being confined by him, refuses his every attempt to persuade her to intimacy. 

She eventually gets an opportunity and runs from her confinement, but is tracked down by Lovelace. He surrounds her with imposters of his family who all work to convince her to reconcile. She refuses still and is eventually carried back, drugged, and raped. 

Lovelace finds though that this has not satisfied him in the least since she had not consented. He continues to keep her imprisoned at the whorehouse, and though she attempts to flee several times, the whores, under the hire of Lovelace, prevent her from escaping. Lovelace insists on subduing Clarissa into marriage, but it is evident that there is nothing left for him but a hollow 'victory'. She clearly hates him and yet he just can't seem to let it go. Lovelace has decided to imprison her and force physical compliance in the hopes of eventual willingness, even if only through being beaten down, and if  that doesn't work, vengeance upon her for denying him. In fact, as time goes on, and he finds himself unable to entreat her any longer, Lovelace threatens Clarissa that if she leave him no hope, he will become 'desperate'. The whores beg Lovelace to leave Clarissa to them so that they can humiliate her and pacify her.  

Lovelace then contrives a scene where he would be able to confront, then rape Clarissa, under the pretense of a bribery attempt, but she threatens to kill herself with a pen-knife and he backs down. 

His uncle is dying, so Lovelace leaves for a few days with orders for the whores to keep her inside, but treat her well. Clarissa does, however, escape, and it is at this point that she is able to correspond with her friends and even Lovelace's family and discovers the true scope of his deception.  

But while her hiding place is unknown to Lovelace, the whores have her thrown into debtor's prison on a false charge, thinking Lovelace would be happy about it. Clarissa grows increasingly weak and sick in her confinement and ultimately gives up and resigns herself to death, feeling that it must be an appropriate consequence of disobeying her father's will.  

As Clarissa draws closer to death, she appoints Belford to put all the letters into a book form as a testament to what really happened, and she appoints him executor of her will. Lovelace grows desperate and threatens to barge in on Clarissa even while she is dying and insist she marry him. Eventually he does go to where she was lodged. He bullies his way into the shop, threatens the owners, threatens the other guests who were lodging there, and then barges into the various rooms. But she has fled elsewhere in fear of his coming. 

He insists that he 'loves her' and just wishes to talk to her. But his entire approach says that he has no intention of being denied, and if that is the case, then what would happen if he were to be refused? Given his past history, he would attempt to force her to do what he wants. He seems completely oblivious to this fact, convinced that since he 'loves her'; e.g.; he must have her for himself, that his intentions must likewise be felt by her too. Again, the selfishness that believes because he feels it, she must too, and if she doesn't, she must be forced until she does! 

1350 pages into the book, Clarissa dies at peace. Her family has finally forgiven her as it the full weight of their own part in her demise dawns on them. During the funeral, the family is mostly repentant.... the brother still tries to dominate the proceedings, but by this time, the rest of the family have recognized what a dismal part he played in the entire affair, so he is largely ignored. The rest recognize they were wrong in their treatment of Clarissa. 

Lovelace is alternatively despondent and defiant, but he is convinced to travel to the continent to avoid Clarissa's cousin, a Colonel Morden, challenging him to a duel in order to seek vengeance. 

Clarissa's will is carried out by Belford. 

At the end, Lovelace is challenged by Col. Morden to a duel, and is killed.  

I don't know if Richardson meant this, but I see a few of the characters as representations of traits. Maybe it's because I've been reading some things recently about symbolism. I don't know that I would want to make the claim that the characters are symbolic, so I'm going with representational, rather than symbolic.    

Clarissa is virtuous... so virtuous that she seems almost too perfect. But she is the representation of the  virtuous woman. And by virtuous, Richardson means Christian virtues. She is living out the Christian faith in as pure a version as she can in this life. This doesn't mean she isn't portrayed with faults; she wrestles with difficult situations where injustice is thrown on her and others use common notions of virtue in order to shame or guilt her into compliance. These are genuinely thorny scenarios where one can argue over what 'virtue' would require. The main scenario is her proposed marriage to Solmes. Her family argues that it is virtue to submit to their will. Typically, this would be true. But we are also given glimpses that they are being unfairly harsh in demanding such a thing. The brother is motivated by greed, the sister by jealousy, and the father and uncles by an unyielding insistence on 'obedience' no matter what. Clarissa's protestations are all met with deaf ears and they all expect that ultimate application of virtue in her life while refusing any investigation into their own motives for forcing her into an unhappy marriage for their own personal gain. For most of us as modern readers, she is perfectly justified in her refusal to submit. But to be honest, the Christian application in her particular case would probably require her to submit. Of course, an argument can be fairly made against each family member's motive too, but they, having the power over her, felt they didn't need to answer to her. 

While Clarissa's virtue is acknowledged by everyone, it really does mature and shine all the brighter as the book goes on. The more she suffers assault, the more she is refined.  

Her friend Anna Howe, with whom she corresponds through most of the story, is the pragmatic woman. 

She has a temper and is far saucier in her responses than Clarissa, but she is also a loyal friend of Clarissa's, so she resents any slight of her friend. But throughout, she counsels a pragmatic course of marriage to Lovelace in order to make the best of a bad situation. 

  Lovelace represents selfishness. He 'loves' Clarissa, in a selfish way- which is to say he desires her and thinks about her. But his desire is to have her for himself at any cost. Indeed, he spends what must amount to a minor fortune in order to secret her away and pay a multitude of actors to try and fool her. He spends all his time thinking about her, and can only think of how he can have her. His running roughshod over her in order to have her ends up giving him no satisfaction, and his worldly 'love' is pure self-interest and ends in utter disregard for her. It is ultimately his pride, stubbornness, and as it becomes clear the longer his chase goes on, his complete disregard for women as a whole, and Clarissa, as the supreme example of womanhood, is the driving force of his action. Because Lovelace believes at his core that all women are obtainable through subterfuge once the right strings are pulled, he feels he must subdue her and ruin her. Lovelace says, "Conquer or die is the determination!" Clarissa stands as the falsifier of his belief as long as she refuses him.  

The more steadfast Clarissa stands in the face of affronts, the greater her virtue shines. Conversely, the greater her virtue shows, the lower Lovelace sinks in his attempts to subvert it.   The picture is muddied because while we get insight into the level of Lovelace's villainy, het gets away with it because he is exceedingly rich, good looking, and charming. People naturally want to believe he is good, because he looks good. Even when they get insight into the truth, they are ready to believe his lies because of his looks and charm. 

In Lovelace's letters to his friend Belford, he provides plenty of insight into his own mindset, by the flimsy justifications he attempts for his actions. The fact that HE believes his own logic is demonstration of his own depraved mindset. 

I will say that in his depraved mind, he thinks he actually loves her; because he sees her as incomparably beautiful and morally perfect. But his desire to possess her and make her his to do his bidding isn't love. It has no concern for her, only concern for what he thinks she might be able to do for himself. 

At the end, Lovelace is in misery, unable to think of any other woman because he acknowledges Clarissa's beauty, but at the same time unrepentant and cursing. Confronted with a virtue he couldn't conquer, he knows he can't find happiness, but can't admit his errors in order to repent and so change. He finds himself imprisoned by his own cage.   

Her brother and sister are motivated by greed and jealousy. Clarissa is adored by her family and their grandfather favors her by bestowing a large property on her, overlooking the natural hierarchy in the process and giving it to the youngest. The brother moves to get that property by marrying her off and making deals to enlarge his own interests. The sister is motivated by jealousy since she was rejected by Lovelace in favor of Clarissa. They each then use Clarissa's virtue against her by demanding that she submit to injustice in the name of virtue. 

Her family in general. Towards the end, we find the family has been generally thought very low for their treatment of their daughter, and they resent the fact that their own part doesn't look better in the eyes of others. Her uncle writes that they can barely stand to look at each other because of what happened. They all apparently contrive to blame Clarissa for what happened, but they clearly aren't happy with themselves. They are also clearly convinced that reports of deteriorating health and conditions are inventions to induce pity, which they reject. 

John Belford is Lovelace's fellow rake and his principal correspondent in the letters he writes expounding the story. Belford changes his stance after meeting Clarissa and adjures Lovelace to give her up. But Belford also has it in his power, through the letters detailing Lovelace's crimes, to free Clarissa, yet he doesn't. But as the story progresses, Belford is clearly a changed person for his interaction with Clarissa, and ends up becoming the executor of Clarissa's will. 

There are a host of people who have apparently been hired by Lovelace to pretend they are one person or another. These are apparently willing to do whatever they need to do to make a buck. 

But one of the interesting things that occurs is that when confronted with Clarissa's purity, almost all have severe twinges of conscience about the woman they are deceiving.  

There are also other women Lovelace has contact with, but they lose their appeal in the contrast with Clarissa. Lovelace now recognizes them as beautiful nothings. They are merely skin-deep and have no real merit to them. 

The length of the dialog is perhaps meant to be as exhausting and relentless as the forces of evil are in trying to beat down virtue.  

One of the morals at work in the story is why such a paragon of virtue has so many enemies. Why would Lovelace be so committed to disgracing her? Why was her brother and sister so hateful? Why did her parents and family all unite against one so virtuous? The most basic answer is that her virtue constituted the strongest contrast to their baseness. In fact, several of the women in the story wonder why she doesn't just accept the advances of Lovelace, since they consider that he is much better, at least on the outside, than most men, and since they themselves aren't as virtuous, they can't understand her insistence in holding out against such an overwhelming onslaught. Some of the women, particularly the whores, are incensed at her virtue since it makes them look all the worse. For this reason they complicit themselves in helping to bring her down. 

[thetldrplace]

risorgimento- Lucy Riall

This is a recap of the first chapter of the book risorgimento By Lucy Riall. Risorgimento is the Italian word for resurrection, and it's the Italian term for the unification of the country. In case you didn't know, Italy was the name for the Italian peninsula, but it had not been a united country since the Romans took over each of the tribes under the name of Rome. But after the fall of the western Roman empire in 476 AD, the peninsula was open to whoever could assert control over an area. That happened to be a wide variety of players: Germany, France, Spain, the Byzantine empire, and Muslim armies were some of the bigger players- and in the north and center of Italy, a host of cities took the surrounding areas and became what we know as city states. In the 1800s, there was a push to unite the entire peninsula, with Sicily and Sardina, into a single country. The first chapter outlines the basic history of how this happened. The subsequent chapters of the book detail what this meant to historians and Italians in the years afterward.  

1 Risorgimento, Reform and Revolution 

Towards the end of the 18th century, many of Europe's most powerful monarchies had suffered setbacks. It is in this Europe-wide crisis of the eighteenth century that we must look for the origins of the changes in nineteenth century Italy. Italy had been ravaged by war and repeated foreign invasion during the 1600s. Alongside that were repeated famines, plagues and popular revolts. Governments throughout Italy attempted to introduce economic and social improvements, and construct more efficient government, but they encountered serious difficulties. Especially in Naples, implementing reform was opposed by the local power-holders, and the poor bore the brunt of the efforts. Outbreaks of violence became commonplace, and were even encouraged by the nobles and the Church in an effort to undermine proposed reforms. 

Many in the peninsula recognized the need for reforms, but successful or not, they unleashed instability throughout Italy. Reformers had weakened the entrenched political system, but had been unable to build new bases of support. There was widespread disillusionment and distrust of the political interests towards the end of the 1700s. 

In 1793, the French revolution invaded Piedmont. In 1796, Napoleon invaded northern Italy and in the treaty of Campoforno with Austria in 1797, gained control of the all Italy. The first of the French occupations led to three republics being established: the Cisalpine republic in the North, the Roman Republic in central Italy, and the Parthenopan or Neopolitan republic in the south. But a longer period of occupation from 1801-14 reflected a more conservative direction taken by Napoleon in France. 

This occupation turned out to be extremely important for future developments in Italy. The breakdown of the old states challenged the traditional authority of the old regime. The French rule also prepared the ground for a more uniform national identity in Italy. It helped spread revolutionary ideas and organizations. The idea of an independent Italian republic gained support as did democratic forms of government. Italian patriots began planning uprisings all over Italy. The French army and centralized government became models that reform minded Italians wanted to see in their country. The peasants however bitterly resented military conscription, and they, encouraged by the Church, fought back against such reforms. 

After Napoleon was defeated by the Austrians in 1815, the Habsburg Empire sought to restore the old order. But restoration in Italy meant different things to different people, from liberal reforms to the reaction. The carbonarist uprisings in 1820-21 were easily put down by the Austrians, but the revolutionaries themselves were at odds with each other. 

In 1831, Giovine italia, Young Italy, caused a series of disturbances, but again, the mass of people remained indifferent or even hostile to the idea of open revolt. But this group was led by Giuseppe Mazzini. The disastrous experiences of these years taught him that an entirely new kind of leadership was necessary to prepare the battle ahead. He was inspired by romanticism and an emotional engagement with the past. Italy's geography destined it to be united and free. It was time for a resurrection, a risorgimento. Mazzini managed to create a broad network of like-minded liberals across Europe to the notion of Italian unification. In the mid 1840's he attracted Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian exile in Uruguay, as the one who could unite and lead Italian forces. But he was at the same time losing ground in the bigger picture. 

In 1848-49, a major revolt broke out in Palermo. The government was easily overcome and the apparent ease of the revolt caused some real concern among conservatives. But the victory also masked some grave weaknesses. Many of the liberals who gained a foothold in the power, proceeded to halt the progress of the revolution in order to keep the masses marginalized. Their general refusal to address the causes of the mass unrest had grim consequences. At the same time, Italian monarchs didn’t want to give an inch to even the most moderate of reformers, and with the church, the piedmont government and other factions jealously guarding their own interests, things came to a near halt of progress. But here Mazzini seized the initiative back from the moderates. He arrived in Rome in 1849 and a republic was declared in Rome. Yet circumstances were no more favorable in 1849 than they had been 50 years earlier. While Garibaldi was a capable general, his forces were too weak and ill-equipped. Austrian domination was reaffirmed with the defeat of the Piedmontese army at Novara. After the defeat, Carlo Alberto, the monarch of Piemonte, abdicated in favor of his son Vittorio Emanuele II. 

The revolution frightened the Italian rulers though and this led to ten years of severe repression. Pope Pius IX and Leopoldo II in Tuscany turned their backs on liberalism. The Austrians in Lombardy-Venetia policed with heightened censorship and crackdowns on political dissent or discontent. Political dissent in the Two Sicilies was even worse, where even the most moderate liberals were arrested and condemned to long sentences. There were, nonetheless a series of failed insurrections: Milan in 1853, Massa in 1854, Palermo in 1856, and Sapri in 1857. Each of these was poorly prepared and under-armed. Mazzini's reputation suffered at home with an air of failure, though his network abroad, centered in London, survived intact. 

The Italian National Society was established in 1857, created by three ex-democrats: Daniele Manin (ex-leader of the Venetian republic), Giorgio Pallavicino Trivulzio, and Giuseppe La Farina. Their belief was that the only way forward for Italian nationalism was through an alliance with Piedmont. After 1849, Piedmont alone took a more liberal direction, confirming the power of the crown and Church, but guaranteeing freedom of the press and of association. From this, the moderate liberals were able to reform the economy and transform political life. This was a marked contrast to the political reaction in the rest of Italy. Much of the credit goes to one man, Camilo Benso di Cavour. Cavour wanted to steer a middle path between revolution and reaction. Economic progress, he saw, would result from free trade, liberal policies, and political stability. This model became the goal for Italian nationalism and eventual unification. Even king Vittorio Emanuele II was persuaded of an alliance with the nationalists.   

Cavour learned from the defeats of 1849 that diplomacy would be the only way to gain allies and isolate Austria. In 1858, an ex-Mazzini operative had thrown a bomb at the French emperor Napoleon III's carriage, and Cavour saw his opportunity. He traveled to France and met with the emperor to expel Austria from northern Italy. They divided up the map of Italy into areas they would rule. This would free Italy of Austrian rule, but not unite Italy in the sense the nationalists had wanted. But Piedmont and France agreed and provoked Austria into a war. The French-Piedmontese won and Piedmont gained Lombardy and central Italy in the process, but failed to get control of Venice. But Piedmont was largely in control of Italy at this point. 

Austrian allies in Italy were greatly destabilized by the change. It had a particularly devastating impact on the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The power vacuum left opportunities and Garibaldi stepped in as the most popular leader of the risorgimento movement. His hometown of Nice had been surrendered to France in Cavour's deal. So he set sail from Genoa and landed in Sicily with a thousand volunteers to overthrow the Bourbon king and unite the south with the rest of Italy. His expedition exceeded all expectations and in less than six months, Garibaldi had defeated the Bourbon army in both Sicily and on the mainland. He assembled an army of 20,000 volunteers, proclaimed himself dictator and reorganized the government.  

His conquest in the south gave democrats a solid power base, and in September 1860, he entered Naples on a train to a triumphant welcome. In October, he defeated the Bourbon army on the Volturno river, which gave him an open road to Rome. 

Cavour decided to stop him from taking Rome and sent the Piedmontese army south to meet Garibaldi's volunteers. A plebiscite in Sicily and the south voted in favor of annexation by Piedmont, and in November, Garibaldi handed power over to Piedmont. In February 1861, Italy was formally united with Vittorio Emanuele II as king and Turin as the capital. 

Venice was still under Austrian control and the Pope in Rome was protected by a French garrison. It was in 1866 that Italy finally gained control over Venice. It wasn't until 1870 that Napoleon withdrew his troops and Rome became the capital of Italy. Pius IX remained implacable and proclaimed himself 'a prisoner of the Vatican'.