The unification of Italy, also known as the Risorgimento, was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 resulted in the consolidation of various states of the Italian Peninsula and its outlying isles into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the Revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1871 after the capture of Rome and its designation as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
Enosis is the movement of various Greek communities that live outside Greece for incorporation of the regions that they inhabit into the Greek state. The idea is related to the Megali Idea, an irredentist concept of a Greek state that dominated Greek politics following the creation of modern Greece in 1830. The Megali Idea called for the annexation of all ethnic Greek lands, parts of which had participated in the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s but were unsuccessful and so remained under foreign rule.
Southern Italy, also known as Meridione or Mezzogiorno, is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions.
The Expedition of the Thousand was an event of the unification of Italy that took place in 1860. A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi sailed from Quarto al Mare near Genoa and landed in Marsala, Sicily, in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled by the Spanish House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. The name of the expedition derives from the initial number of participants, which was around 1,000 people.
The Movement for Autonomy is a regionalist and Christian-democratic political party in Italy, based in Sicily. The MpA, whose founder and leader is Raffaele Lombardo, advocates for greater economic development, autonomy and legislative powers for Sicily and the other regions of southern Italy.
Cervinara is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy.
Brigandage in Southern Italy had existed in some form since ancient times. However, its origins as outlaws targeting random travellers would evolve vastly later on to become a form of a political resistance movement, especially from the 19th century onward. During the time of the Napoleonic conquest of the Kingdom of Naples, the first signs of political resistance brigandage came to public light, as the Bourbon loyalists of the country refused to accept the new Bonapartist rulers and actively fought against them until the Bourbon monarchy had been reinstated. Some claim that the word brigandage is a euphemism for what was in fact a civil war.
Carmine Crocco, known as Donatello or sometimes Donatelli, was an Italian brigand. Initially a soldier for the Bourbons, he later fought in the service of Giuseppe Garibaldi.
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land area in Italy before the Italian unification, comprising Sicily and most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno and covering all of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States.
In Italy, there are some active movements and parties calling for autonomy or even independence for the areas comprised within the historical Kingdom of the two Sicilies: that is, Southern Italy and/or the region of Sicily. No political movement promoting these ideas has ever been successful in gaining traction among the population. The movement remains on the fringes with no representation in the Italian parliament.
The Fenestrelle Fortress, better known as the Fenestrelle Fort is a fortress overlooking Fenestrelle. It is the symbol of the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, northern Italy. It is the biggest alpine fortification in Europe, having a surface area of 1,300,000 m². The fortress, built by Savoy between 1728 and 1850 under the design of the architect Ignazio Bertola, guards the access to Turin via the Chisone valley and stands at altitudes between 1,100 and 1,800 m. The territory was acquired in 1709 by the Duchy of Savoy after the defeat of the French at Fort Mutin (Fenestrelle).
Li chiamarono... briganti! is a 1999 Italian film, directed by Pasquale Squitieri. It tells the story of Carmine Crocco, a 19th-century Italian brigand who gained recognition when he came to the forefront of the brigandage during the Italian unification, by opposing the army of King Victor Emmanuel II. It stars Enrico Lo Verso, Claudia Cardinale, Franco Nero, Remo Girone, Giorgio Albertazzi, among others. The movie was quickly suspended from its cinema run and it is not available on VHS or DVD. Some people think this was for the censorship of the Italian army.
In the 20th century, and especially since the end of the Second World War, the received interpretation of Italian unification, the Risorgimento, has become the object of historical revisionism. The justifications offered for unification, the methods employed to realise it and the benefits supposedly accruing to unified Italy are frequent targets of the revisionists. Some schools have called the Risorgimento an imperialist or colonialist venture imposed by Savoy.
The Royal Navy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the official term in documents of the era for the naval forces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - it and the Royal Army together formed the Kingdom's armed forces. The modern use of the term Regio for royal was only introduced into the force's title after the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia. It was the most important of the pre-unification Italian navies and Cavour made it the model of the new Italian Regia Marina after the annexation of the Two Sicilies.
Meridionalism is the study and research of the economical and social issues of Southern Italy. It started in the 19th century, after the annexation of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies during the process of Italian unification, and continued over the 20th century. The study of these issues was not only meant for theoretical research, but also to find a solution and to bridge the social, cultural and economical gap between Northern Italy and Southern Italy. The scholars and academics who carried out research in this field are referred to as meridionalists.
The Anniversary of the Unification of Italy is a national day that falls annually on 17 March and celebrates the birth of Italy as a modern nation state, which took place following the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861.
Giacinto de' Sivo was an Italian politician, historian and journalist. De' Sivo was a leading legitimist historian after the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and his books provided the main intellectual support in the struggle to undermine the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Italy.
Bernardino Milon was an Italian general and politician. He was a deputy from May 1880 and Minister of War in the third Cairoli government (1880).
The term southern question indicates, in Italian historiography, the perception, which developed in the post-unification context, of the situation of persistent backwardness in the socioeconomic development of the regions of southern Italy compared to the other regions of the country, especially the northern ones. First used in 1873 by Lombard radical MP Antonio Billia, meaning the disastrous economic situation of the south of Italy compared to other regions of united Italy, it is sometimes used in common parlance even today.
José Borjes was a Spanish general who fought on the Carlist side during the Carlist Wars. Later in his life he sided with Francis II of the Two Sicilies and fought against the unification of Italy.
