Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Risorgimento
With the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Ferdinand once again united Naples and Sicily
as the 'Kingdom of the Two Sicilies', taking the title Ferdinand I. For the next 12 years the
island was divided between a minority who sought an independent Sicily, and a majority
who believed that the island's survival could only be assured as part of a unified Italy, an
ideal being promoted on the mainland as part of the political and social movement known
as the Risorgimento (reunification period).
On 4 April 1860 the revolutionary committees of Palermo gave orders for a revolt
against the tottering Bourbon state. The news reached Giuseppe Garibaldi, who decided
this was the moment to begin his campaign for the unification of Italy. He landed in Mars-
ala on 11 May 1860 with about 1000 soldiers - the famous
mille
- and defeated a Bourbon
army of 15,000 at Calatafimi on 15 May, taking Palermo two weeks later.
Despite his revolutionary fervour, Garibaldi was not a reformer in the social sense, and
his soldiers blocked every attempt at a land grab on the part of the ordinary worker. On 21
October a referendum was held that saw a staggering 99% of eligible Sicilian voters opt for
unification with the Piedmontese House of Savoy, which controlled most of Northern and
Central Italy. Its head, King Victor Emmanuel II, aspired to rule a united Italy and had sup-
ported Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily. He was to become the first king of a unified Italy on
17 March 1861.
Sicilian
History in
Print &
Podcast
The Leopard
by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Seeking Sicily
by John Keahey
Norman Centuries
(podcast) by Lars Brownworth
