History of Sicily

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History of Sicily
Il Tempio della Concordia ad Agrigento

Sicily comes with age historical Greek colonization, which began with the founding of Naxos, Leontinoi the work of Chalcis and Syracuse at the hands of the Corinthians, about half of the eighth century BC, shortly after it was founded Cumae, at the 'Current Naples, and this would found Zancle (Messina), Naxos founded Katane (Catania) and Greeks founded Megara Megarians Hyblaea. In the first half rose Ghelas dell'VII century BC to the work of the rhodium-Cretan and then Akrai Eloro and the work of Syracuse. Selinunte and the work of Megarians Himera, the work of Chalcis-Zanclea, arose in the mid-seventh century. At the beginning of the sixth century Akragas (Agrigento) and Gela was founded by the Syracusans founded Kamarina. Towards the middle of the sixth century BC Greek origin calcidese reached Morgantina. Soon after came the Greeks, the Phoenicians. In the sixth century the west coast of the island belongs to the Carthaginians, who founded Zyz (Palermo), Mozia and Solute while the city of Eryx and Segesta was founded by the Elimi.

The civilization of the descendants of Greeks settled in Sicily (Siceliots) is similar to that of Greece itself. The basic training is the "polis", the city, even when they form the largest states, they are still joined to the city. It does not appear in cities siceliote (as even in those italiote) there was never a monarchy. The landed aristocracy generally held power until the middle of the sixth century, then competed with it the commercial and industrial plutocracy. After the period of aristocratic hegemony there is the struggle between the aristocracy and the people it aims to achieve equality before the law (hence the laws attributed to legendary figures) and participation in political rights. The opposition favored the aristocracy, as in Greece, the rise of tyrants, who around 500 BC we find in almost every town in Sicily.

Sicily was, like the Magna Greece, a center of culture greek: remember Archimedes Charondas, Empedocles, Epicarmo, Gorgias, Sofronie and Stesicoro. Wonderful was the artistic, especially religious architecture. Between the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the first temples were built in Syracuse, Agrigento, for example, during the VI had the great buildings of the Doric temples. With architectural constructions developed sculptural decoration: famous are the metopes of Selinunte. The art was also widely industrial development of high aesthetic value are the coins of the city siceliote.

The first place for political importance was Syracuse in Sicily, which became a forerunner in the fight with the Carthaginians and Etruscans. His ascent back to the beginning of the fifth century under the tyrant Gelo, winner in Imera (approx 480) of the Carthaginians, while his brother and successor Hieron defeated the Etruscans at sea at Cumae (474). After his death came to Syracuse in a democratic revolution, which led to the restoration of the independence of the Sicilian cities subjected by the Syracusan tyrants. Syracuse, however, continued his early maritime activity in central Italy. It was now in Sicily an attempt to break free from the domination of the Sicilian greek and set up a kingdom just below Ducezio attempt that eventually failed (460-440). In the second half of the fifth century Athens was to counter the power of the Doric Syracuse, but the great Athenian expedition of 415-413 BC ended in disaster. Quest'indebolimento the Greeks took advantage of an upturn in Carthage for Sicily, taking in 409 BC Selinunte and Agrigento in 405 BC. Syracuse was to be levied under the tyrant Dionysius the Elder, but not pushed to fund the war against the Carthaginians because of the cities involved in the submission siceliote and expansionist efforts in Italy, where he went far above the Adriatic. After his death came to Syracuse a long period of upheaval, which ended in 343 with the restoration of freedom by Timoleon, who defeated the Carthaginians, he promoted the liberation of the city siceliote and their alliance.

Syracuse shooting the hegemonic policies around 316 BC by the tyrant Agathocles, who subdued the other Greek cities, assumed the title of king (305) and fought against Carthage. He died (289), Syracuse returned to freedom. Pressed again by the Carthaginians, it, along with Agrigento, invited King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who had come up in Italy called Taranto, to fight the Romans. Pirro went to Sicily and was successful, but the disagreement arose between him and his allies, and he then returned to the continent. The Carthaginians re-established their power on the island, while Syracuse had to defend against Mamertini, Campanian mercenaries conquered the Messina. During the war against them was the establishment of a new tyranny of Syracuse Hiero II (270) and the intervention of the Romans, called by Mamertini. Hence the beginning of the first Punic War.

Roman Period

As a result of the Punic War (264-241 BC) the island was conquered by Rome, and became the first province, a territory was considered part of the ager publicus and the remainder was subjected to tax. There is, however, retained, or to be formed, federated cities (including Syracuse, which he held for decades limited autonomy) and Roman municipalities.

During the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) siceliote there were rebellions against the Romans, mainly in Agrigento and Siracusa. Famous was the long siege which it suffered by the Roman army, which culminated in 212 BC with the capture and sacking of the city. The repressive measures that were adopted by the winners went a serious blow to Sicily. Syracuse became a city tax, while the entire population of Agrigento was enslaved, sold and replaced by Sicilians from areas remained loyal to Rome. The confiscation of property and territories led to the development of large estates and a stagnation of the island population, consisting largely of slaves who gave birth to the servile wars. Among the latter is significant that erupted in 138 BC, in which emerged a revival of feelings of independence by a number of hamlets. The fertility of the island made it, since the late Republican era, one of the most important regions cereagricole the Roman world. After Caesar's death, Sicily was ruled for some years, together with Sardinia, Sesto Pompeo. In the Augustan age multiplied the appropriations and veterans of the Roman colonists who favored the process of Romanization of most of the island. It does, however, into the regions of Augustus, was considered as not part of Italy. The general grant of Roman citizenship to be made at the time Antonio was not, however, maintained by Augustus, who otorgò the major cities, however, the status of a Roman town or colony of America.

Sicily enjoyed a relative prosperity until the Antonine period, but in the third century took part in the general process of economic decline and political empire. With the new administrative system devised by Diocletian and maintained largely by successive emperors, Sicily, with the (Sardinia and Corsica), Italy was united administratively. Ephemeral cultural and economic recovery of the Empire in the fourth century, the island remained probably not unrelated: in this era is the famous Roman Villa del Casale di Piazza Armerina, with its 3,500 square meters of mosaics. [2] costiuisce one of the most superb examples of late antique Roman art. Around the middle of the fifth century the Vandals, who settled in Africa, took over the island.
Barbarian and Byzantine Period

In the fall of the Western Roman Empire Odoacer Genserico it obtained the refund on payment of tribute; Theodoric cherished possession no longer pay taxes. The Goths did not do appropriations in Sicily, being actually in the domain of Roman landowners (including the principal bishop of Rome) and this facilitated its immediate membership of the imperial general Belisarius landed there in 535 AD when starting the reconquest of Italy. The island remained for three centuries under the Byzantine rule without being part of the district nor Italian, nor that of Africa, in direct dependence from Constantinople, as a kind of imperial state property. Having great influence continued to the Roman church [citation needed]. The Lombards, who had no fleet, do not ever put foot in Sicily. Instead there began as early as the seventh century Muslim incursions from Africa.

Islamic Period

Chiesa di San Cataldo (Palermo), di epoca Normanna, frutto di maestranze miste cristiane e islamiche.

Church of San Cataldo (Palermo), Norman period, the result of mixed Christian and Muslim workers.

Stable employment on the island by the Muslims did not begin, however, if not with the landing at Mazara del Vallo 827. The conquest proceeded slowly in 831 was captured Palermo, Messina in 843, 859 Enna (Castrogiovanni). He stayed to the Byzantines (but perhaps we should say in anarchy since the Byzantine fleet left Sicily alone) a strip in the East with Syracuse, which fell only 878, and Taormina, yet he held until 902, finally completing Rometta the occupation of Sicily and its islands in 965. The domain of the Muslims for centuries in Sicily was secured from their settlements in southern Italy that formed as the bulwark, the impotence of the political division of Italy and Frankish and Teutonic emperors to unite under their rule.

Norman period

Instead, they were the Normans who settled in the South, even before complete the conquest of the continent, they turned to remove the island from the Muslims. Ruggero d'Altavilla I started the company in 1060 and completed it in 1091 taking the title of count of Sicily as a fief of Robert Guiscard. He was succeeded by Roger II, who met on Sicily and Southern Italy in 1130 had dall'antipapa Anacleto II, and then in 1139 by Pope Innocent II, the crown of Sicily as a fief of the Holy See. Chose as his royal seat, the town of Cefalu, where he built the Cathedral in 1131 as his mausoleum. He was succeeded by his son William the Bad (1154-1166), the so-called because of the hardness with which he, or rather his powerful minister, Admiral Maio of Bari, suppressed the revolts of the great, especially in Puglia. These were addressed to Frederick Barbarossa and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. The Byzantine troops landed in Puglia, Brindisi, Trani researching and laid siege to Brindisi (1156). They went, however, lost the achievements of Roger II.

Success at the second William William the Good (1166-1189), the kingdom went pacifying. In the contest between the papacy and the municipalities on the one hand and the other Barbarossa, Wilhelm II stayed with the first to defend itself from imperial ambitions. After he concluded Legnano in Venice, like the Lombard, a truce with the Barbarossa (1177) and peace in Costanza (1183).

Which facilitated an agreement between the German Empire and the Norman kingdom: William II engaged the only legitimate descendant of the dynasty, Constance of Hauteville, daughter of Roger II, the son of Henry (1184). The marriage was celebrated in Milan in January 1186.

William II died, against Henry VI there was a strong party that opposed the illegitimate scion of a Norman house, Tancred, Count of Lecce, which was recognized by Pope Clement III. A first shipment of Henry VI (1191) failed in the conquest of the kingdom, a second, which occurred after the death of Tancred (February 1194), led to success, and at the end of 1194 Henry was crowned King of Sicily at Palermo. Attempts were directed by him fiercely repressed. He intended to make the kingdom a basis for a great expedition against the Byzantine Empire, but death came suddenly in Messina in September 1197.

The history of Sicily under his son, Frederick II, called stupor mundi, which proceeded to a general reorganization of the kingdom, is told in the entry, and follow it up in the Manfredi. They fell at Benevento (1266), Charles I of Anjou, to whom the pope had sent to the kingdom, he was master, and vain managed the shipment of Conrad (1268), who was beheaded in Naples.

Angevin Period

Sicily was particularly discontented Angevin government, for its first taxation. Some partially lifted in favor of Corradino were fiercely subdued with the extermination of entire nationalities, and many nobles were stripped to give their goods to the French. Sicily also felt postponed to Naples, where Charles had his headquarters. The people were also dissatisfied with the way licentious which the French treated the Sicilian women: discontent that erupted in the insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers, which began March 31, 1282, which followed the intervention of Peter III of Aragon and King of Sicily hailed the so-called war of the Vespers between Angevin and Aragonese.

Aragonese era

With the peace of Caltabellotta (1302), Sicily was Frederick III of Aragon with the title of King of Trinacria. At his death the island would have to return to Anjou, but Fred was recognized for his son Peter's successor. Hence a long war between the two kingdoms lasted inconclusive very damaging, with reciprocal raids and landings on the coasts and with the legislation and the support given to King Robert, Peter was succeeded by Louis (1342-1355). Under him and his successor, Frederick III, Joanna I of Naples and her husband Louis of Taranto intervened, called by several gentlemen, received in Messina (1356) the homage of his subjects for some time were in Sicily and in most of the island . Soon, however, Frederick times over, and peace was concluded in 1372, for which the cadet Aragonese Sicily remained at home as the pope. The island will remain independent with its own royal dynasty until about 1410.

Frederick III died in 1377, the succession of his daughter Mary was not recognized by Peter IV of Aragon of the main branch, which ceded its rights over Sicily to the second-Martin the Elder, who passed them to his son Martin the Younger. The island was divided into factions Aragon and Sicily, where the second stood at the head of the powerful barons Chiaramonte. The Queen Mary was taken prisoner by the Aragonese faction, carried out in Spain and married to Martin the Younger, and this was crowned at Palermo (1392). Even the civil war continued since the end of the century. Dead Mary (1402) and Martin the Younger (1409), Martin, the old king of Aragon was declared heir to the Kingdom of Trinacria, but he died almost immediately after (1410) and the extinct house of Aragon, was followed by a period and confusion of the interregnum, until the Sicilians, like Aragon, recognized the son of the elder sister of Martin, Ferdinand of Castile, thus being to unite the two kingdoms of Aragon and Sicily, the island that lost its independence .

In Sicily, the first king of Aragon many constitutions enacted to protect the rights of the people from feudal and fiscal abuse, and finally formed the institution of parliament, an assembly of Norman origin composed of nobles, clergy and members of the royal cities (ie non-feudal ), which was reserved the right to decide war and peace, to vote taxes, for criticizing public officials. Kings to take to curb the nobility also encouraged the municipal liberties, but despite all this, the landowners acquired a dominant power at the expense of royal authority and municipalities. All this led the island to a profound decline.

Alfonso of Aragon, King of Sicily, son of Ferdinand of Castile, also acquired Naples in 1442. But his death (1458) the meeting was over, because Sicily passed with Aragon to his brother John II of Aragon, while Alfonso of Naples was left as personal purchase, the legitimate natural child, Ferdinand I. With Ferdinand the Catholic son of John, King of Aragon and Sicily, who united Spain under his rule, he was again, for the conquest of Napoletano (1501-03) he made against France, the meeting of the two kingdoms of Spain to the crown, but remained distinct, with the title of the United Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. Mostly in Palermo, lies a viceroy. The Spanish ruled Sicily as in the other provinces of the empire: they were gradually reduced the powers of parliament. Spaniards also monopolized the trade of grain, increasing the economic decline of Sicily. These conditions produced riots, which had a series of Palermo, contemporary to those of Naples, Masaniello and one in Sardinia, that of the Hairy Nino, who was put to death, that of Joseph D'Alesi. The viceroy and the nobles were able to provoke a popular uprising against Alessi, where they were killed, and the people, without a leader, was tamed. Followed by other movements, and finally, at the end of 1649, a conspiracy that had two eloquent leaders to lawyers, and Judge Anthony Joseph Fish: the plot was discovered and the two killed. He was later to rise Messina (1674) by placing them under the protection of Louis XIV, but when they thought to make peace with the alliance Hague ordered the evacuation of the city (January 1678), who returned it under Spain .

By the Peace of Utrecht (1713) The Kingdom of Sicily was given to Vittorio Amadeo II di Savoia in a very short time it became unpopular in Sicily for its exorbitant.

Vintage Bourbon

Spain under the direction dell'Alberoni attempted to regain the Italian domains in 1718 and an occupying army landed in Sicily. The immediate formation of the Quadruple Alliance forced Spain to withdraw from his purpose, and then Sicily was ceded to Austria, which had not ceased to claim her, passed under the power to remember the Peace of Utrecht. The son of second marriage of Philip V, the new Bourbon dynasty in Spain, Don Carlos, when he made the war of Polish Succession (1734) an expedition victorious in the kingdom which he regained in an independent king, although closely linked politically to Spain. Under him (Charles III, 1734-1759) and under his son Ferdinand IV, until the government was Tanucci, there was a reformer address. After the withdrawal of Tanucci and especially after the beginning of the French prevailed a reactionary address: This only served to encourage educated people in the development of new ideas (the so-called Jacobinism). In Palermo in 1795 there was a conspiracy of the Republican Francesco Paolo Di Blasi. In 1799 and again in 1806-1814 Ferdinand III, under pressure from England, granted to Sicily in 1812 a new constitution with the two chambers of Peers and Communities, English type.

Ferdinand III was forced to grant a constitution by the fact that the nobility of dubious piety, had abandoned the monarchy. So, the king had remained almost isolated and could not withstand the pressure of the British representative in Palermo, Lord Bentinck. This explains the abolition of the parliament by the king implemented May 15, 1815, when he was sure of his return to the throne of Naples, and the decree of 8 December 1816 which ordered that all its domains beyond and below the Faro, ie the two kingdoms, until then separate, Naples and Sicily, was to be the only Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Almost simultaneously to abolish freedoms and excesses of Sicily, its laws, its laws, its brand and its magistrates. But such conduct immediately aroused a strong opposition in the island, who led the revolt broke out in July 1820, immediately after the one in Naples: here the Carbonari and Napoleon's military had asked for and obtained the constitution, while in Palermo they wanted the recognition of 'Sicilian independence. However, this request is not being heard even in the new parliament from Naples, and also deputies in the independence of the island saw the perpetuation of feudal privileges more than the guarantee of a free life. So they prepared to submit by force and disavowed the Palermo Convention, signed by Florestan Pepe October 5, inviting Pietro Colletta was soon due to the resistance of the Sicilians.

Particularism Palermo it had not benefited to the Neapolitan revolution, which was indeed due to wear in severe and difficult internal problem. Moreover, even the revolution was quite a thing of the Napoleonic period that anticipation of the Risorgimento, and therefore it could not long resist the Austrian army. In the following years, who were the middle years of the Restoration, Ferdinand I, Francesco I and, especially, Ferdinand II, ascended the throne in 1830, sought to temper them with a paternalistic government, on several occasions that he wanted to appear moderate and willing of new methods. But this does not prevent the succession of conspiracies, including the most famous is that of September 1, 1831, in which the insurgents, led by Domenico di Marco and belonging mostly to the class of artisans (who at that time were linked to the nobility ), traveled to request Palermo. In 1837 another revolution broke out in Catania and Syracuse, favored by the conditions in which those affected by famine and cholera. Less noticed was the need for autonomy in the latter motion, which instead went on to be heard in Palermo, as demonstrated by the revolution of January 12, 1848, a revolution that preceded all the others that broke out that year, but also exercised great influence not just because they are still animated by the spirit of the island independence.

At first Sicily hoped to be able to get a constitution by Ferdinand II separate, but parliament, gather on March 25, had to take note of the specific rejection of the king and then said, in April, the Bourbon monarchy has lapsed, and after have conferred with Ruggero Settimo, head of the provisional government, the regency, making use of the rights of "sovereign and independent state", he chose the new king in the person of Alberto Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of Genoa and the son of Carlo Alberto. Sicily too openly transferred to the Italian plan their aspirations of independence, showing understanding of the fate of the peninsula as a confederation of independent states. Taking advantage of the isolation in which it was Sicily, it was easier to Bourbon, victorious in Naples on the day of the parliament on May 15, lead the fight against Sicily in September, Messina, long bombardment, and by 1848 he had to give the troops Neapolitan completed the occupation of the east coast, then investing in the new year, Palermo. In 1849, the resistance that led this city for some time seemed too much to the patriots who fought again in Rome and Venice in a different light because they felt connected to the same fate and the cause of one was the cause of the municipality. But now there was nothing to be done before the reaction was going to triumph in Italy and Europe: May 15, 1849 Ferdinand II returned to the possession of Palermo and, consequently, of the island. It was a bitter experience, but it paid off in the following decade, when public opinion Sicilian east, as happened in other parts of the peninsula, to Piedmont and Cavour

Italian unification

Some insurgencies revealed what was the mood of the Sicilians, until April 4, 1860, revolt broke out, led by Francis Rice, who was known as the convent of the Gancia. The Bourbon troops there were easily enough reason, but it offered a way to demonstrate Crispi Garibaldi as the island was ready to accept the shipment that they had in mind to do, but after that the Sicilian people had raised. The campaign against the forces Bourbon island was much faster than previously thought: 14 May by Salemi Giuseppe Garibaldi took the dictatorship of Sicily in the name of Vittorio Emanuele II, the next day to defeat the enemy Calatafimi, opening the way for Palermo, where arrived May 27. On June 2 the general form a ministry, in which the figure was the predominant Crispi, and shortly thereafter, drove away from the island's envoy Cavour, La Farina, but accepted the collaboration of Depretis, also sent by Cavour, even naming Pro-Dictator. With the battle of Milazzo, Sicily on July 20 was released and went on the expedition across the continent.

However, a considerable part of the ruling class island, was opposed to annexation pure and simple and wanted to retain some independence, but Cavour, by voting for the merger, these aspirations shattered. The working classes, the transition from feudal society, where they enjoyed rights that alleviate the conditions, the bourgeois society which was introduced in the island violently, had more to suffer, and, therefore, to nourish what was said, the phenomenon of banditry , the social phenomenon of rebellion to the new rule of the bourgeoisie that the laws of the Italian parliament consolidate. This sad situation led to the revolt of Palermo in September 1866, in which they found themselves together to fight the government of the Right and the two opposition: on one side of the reactionary clergy and the popular classes and the other the Democratic and Republican, that collect part of the bourgeoisie disappointed unit. For seven days Palermo was held in check and had to send dagl'insorti General Raffaele Cadorna reason for the revolt.

From 1886 to 1894 the island instead of improving the conditions deteriorated, largely as a result of the breakdown of trade relations with France in 1887 that greatly damaged the agricultural South. In the countryside, the discomfort was exacerbated by the occupation of the peasants by the bourgeoisie, the public lands, which aroused a lively and resistance that led to the tragic episode of Caltavuturo (January 1893), when the troops fired on the peasants, killing eleven, while in campaign and asked the workers in sulfur mines or work or wage increases. Meanwhile, starting in 1890-91, the socialist propaganda had penetrated the island and had sprung up, numerous, the cohort of workers. The movement, which extended more and more favored by the poor economic situation, he was confronted by the second Crispi government by force: it was declared a state of siege and suspended freedom of the press, the beams were broken and those arrested be referred to military courts . The conditions of the island did not improve much, even during the decade Giolittian the contrary, with the industrial protectionism, worsened the situation of the South in large predominantly agricultural. After the First World War in Sicily, as in other regions of the South, were the frequent invasions of land by land-hungry peasants and eager to tear a big piece to the landowner or landowner. But the totalitarian regime could not resolve any of the problems in Sicily (even that of the mafia, who also boasted of having eradicated), so that all the problems they found unchanged after the Second World War. Anglo-American landings in July 1943 caused considerable damage and Sicily is only slowly lifted. The British General Harold Alexander, who in his capacity as supreme commander of the gun was also military governor of occupied areas, but the real culprit was Colonel Charles Poletti, head of Civil Affairs dell'AMGOT. In February 1944 the Allies return the island to the Italian Government of the Kingdom of the South, who appointed a High Commissioner. Meanwhile, however, recovered under the old tendency to autonomy, which in the past century had led the Sicilians to seek detachment from Italy. It developed the separatist movement. It was a movement supported by landowners in particular feared that any land reform [citation], it held troubled life on the island for several years until it went off, even for the establishment, under the Decree Decree. May 15, 1946, the Sicilian Region, which granted autonomy. In April 1947 he was elected the first Sicilian parliament, elected on May 30 that the first regional government.

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