Naples and Paris the real capitals of Europe

(By Marco Cesario) (ANSAmed) - NAPLES, JULY 26 - "Naples and Paris: the two only capitals" is the maxim pronounced by Stendhal in 1817 with which writer and former director of the French Institute of Naples, Jean-Noel Schifano, summarised his latest work, 'Dictionnaire amoureux de Naples'. Published in France and recently presented at the Feltrinelli library of Naples, the 'Dictionnaire amoureux de Naples' is a passionate homage to the city of which he is honorary citizen, a text which presents, under the form of short historical-poetic descriptions, a gallery of personages and places connected to the city: Dumas, Flaubert, Gemito, Pulcinella, San Gennaro, Maradona. "Stendhal observed that in the middle of the 19th century Naples was one of the biggest metropolises together with Paris and London,"Schifano told ANSAmed. "Just think that, at that time, Rome had just 100,000 residents while Naples had 600,000. Naples was therefore the natural capital of a kingdom which lasted for six centuries, Rome became capital only because of a decision which came from above." Schifano speaks freely with his usual volcanic energy. He speaks of the glories of Naples, 'Italy's pearl', where the first railway in Italt was built (Naples-Portici), where Europés oldest theatre rises (San Carlo), royal residences which could compete for magnificence only with those of France (Royal Palace, Capodimonte). A city of which Madame Flaubert said: "A Mediterranean Paris. Such is Naples." Upon entering Naples from the Porta Capuana her husband Gustave was amazed: "As if I'm entering Paris", he wrote in his 'Travel Notes'. The city left a mark also Marquis de Sade: "The turmoil and the daily come and go made Naples a populated and fibrillating city like Paris," he said in 1776. Dumas described Naples 'the flower of paradise' and settled to live there "the last adventure of my life." But all that, the author describes in the text, ended with the unification of Italy. "With the unification the Savoy royals wanted to transform Naples in a provincial city, without success, but plundering it of its immense treasures. Not managing to govern it because it was insusceptible, even using the collaboration of the Camorra and local neighbourhood chiefs. Naples saw itself as deprived, in the years, from space and creativity. The Parthenopean genius took refuge in illegality," Schifano said. For Schifano, the banditry was not your average type, rather resistance against the forced colonisation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Savoy's Piedmont. Schifanòs pen becomes sharper and more pungent as regards 'xenophobia'. Xenophobia is that 'historical' of the rest of Italy towards Naples because of its 'cultural potential' and its 'volcanic nature' and "is reflected in the editorials of journalists such as Giorgio Bocca or Giuseppe D'Avanzo, behind which there is a political will which intends to wipe out Naples' ancient history to make it the scapegoat of Italy's troubles." There is also a place for criticism of Roberto Saviano (author of the best seller 'Gomorra'), guilty of not having inserted his discourse "in a historical perspective, that is that of a city which "was degraded from its role of capital of a central government which did all it could to alienate it" forgetting that "Stendhal considered Naples the real capital of Italy and the only city in Europe which could be on the same level as Paris for history and culture." And he concludes with a cutting remark: "Naples has always made the rest of Italy be fearful, from the point of view of creativity, of culture. It is a hotbed of artists, geniuses, writers and brilliant politicians. Unlike Venice or Rome, whose historic centres have become mass tourism destinations, Naples' historic centre is still popular, a sign that this city remains always alive but most of all has never lost its deep identity."

Napolitano Holocaust - Addressed to U.S. Consule in Naples

Napolitano Holocaust

The emergencies that beset Naples have taken, over time, dramatic proportions. Those have been possible thanks to the connivance between the Camorra and the Italian State; a symbiosis, who was born at the dawn of the so-called unification of Italy, 1861. What is now known as the "liberation" of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from the yoke of Bourbon was, in fact, a fierce war against the annexation of a free and sovereign state, for mere economic interests and international politics.

From that moment the nation Naples, the Neapolitans, stop to have a state that so interests, for a period which now amounts to 150 years.

It was also the moment where the Italian mafias institutionalized.
To date, the Neapolitan population is hostage to this plot the death between the Camorra and local institutions, and the central government, instead of fighting crime, institutionalized (look at the case of Nicola Cosentino) and enacts laws totally ineffective. The consequences of this cruel colonization, are under the eyes of all: in 150 years, Naples has gone from being a great world capital, to become a famous place only for mafia and garbage. It is no coincidence that the two "words" appear together in the same sentence. Behind the garbage in Naples and its degradation is politics. Behind the Camorra's policy. How to determine the Judiciary. On 25/11/2010 was issued by the GIP of Naples, the arrest warrant for Nicola Cosentino, a deputy of the People of Freedom, for collusion with the mob sindacate Camorra. Here are the statements of the anti-Mafia magistrate Raffaele Cantone:

"Without doubt the most interesting part of that decision concerns the role that Cosentino has been in the business waste; his intervention in the activities of the consortium CE4, so that, according to the repentant Vassallo, Cosentino said he would even" The consortium Caserta 4 me ". Based on what emerges from the order, Cosentino would also have a role in identifying the place to raise the incinerator in the province of Caserta. In that decision is then rebuilt another very important story: the creation of a super-consortium, called Impregeco, which would put together consortia of right and left, for a bipartisan emergency management, which had evidently ample blessings. The rubbish is politically colored and manage it as best you create a structure "rainbow" that please everyone.. "# More specifically, it motivation," contributed decisively to the planning and implementation of the project to create a cycle in the region Campania integrated and competitive alternative to the waste managed by the system legitimately Fibe - Fisia Italimpianti, so boycotting companies foster, in order to dominate the entire management of its business cycle and still create, directly controlling the landfills, waste disposal site at last and active in planning the construction and operation of an incinerator, exploiting an illegal managerial autonomy at the provincial level of government activities of the police station for the purpose waste emergency need. "Cosentino # - this is the belief of the judges of the DDA also shared by the magistrate Raffaele Piccirillo, who had signed the protective order, and subsequently by the Supreme Court and Review - have encouraged "the perpetuation of the dynamics of economic criminal, affecting inspection activities of the Committee access to the dissolution of the City of Mondragone for mafia infiltration and procedures for issuing certifications direct prefectural mafia, as in the cases related to the spa and related resolutions Ecoquattro final, decisive for sealing ducts and development of the program. "

Also according to the judiciary, most of the waste illegally dumped in landfills Neapolitan, came from companies in the north, in particular Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont and Liguria. The Judiciary has acquired a sufficient number of "cards" to ensure that diesel fuel, chemical and hospital waste, and all sorts of special waste was spilled illegally for 20 years, under the nose of the Neapolitans, and almost all companies from the center and northern Italy, who paid and recorded those travels regularly to dispose of their waste in the economy. From this traffic we earned all: politicians, companies, banks, the Camorra. All but the unsuspecting citizens. But the documents speak for themselves on the map Contrada Pisani poisons from every corner of Italy, except from Naples itself. Below is an excerpt from a 2008 article by the journalist Conchita Sannino, because no one could explain the situation:

"According to early documents collected by prosecutors, in fact, in the western suburbs of forty dump Naples is not only the mountains of bags came from all over Italy, not only hazardous waste spilled, as authorities speculate parliamentary proceedings, in a subterranean and invisible - and then the second path is no longer verifiable. As of yesterday, instead sticking liability declined by name and geographical origin in the hunt for perpetrators of an alleged negligent disaster caused by the enormous quantity and quality of waste "inadequate" buried in the belly of the Plain. Just take a look at five pages of "official trips", and lawful, drawn from the archives of the Province of Naples in Piazza Matteotti and transmitted by the prosecutors who had made the request, the section coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Rosario Cantelmo, owner of the file, the prosecutor Stephanie Buda.

To scroll through the cards - although incomplete - held in the Province of Serbia, is that hundreds of thousands of tons of medical waste, special mud, asbestos dust, paint residues, expired or spoiled food are finished Contrada Pisani. An activity that would have been duly authorized by the provincial authorities in Naples, even if in violation of the rules protecting the environment in force since 1982. On this the prosecutor is investigating Buda, who recently ordered the seizure of the landfill, and yesterday received the data on the spill. Data for hours for the period 1987 to 1994. The magistrate, who initiated the investigation in cases of illness and deaths have occurred due to pollution of the area, assumed the offenses negligent environmental disaster and epidemics, and is also checking any administrative responsibilities. It should be made, however, a premise: all special or hazardous waste stored, treated, if the second rule, should be considered harmless. The possible lack of adequate reclamation of waste derived their charge so-called "toxic".

The list shows the companies and place of origin: Brindisi, various municipalities of Turin (Chivasso Robassomero, Orbassano), and Opera San Giuliano Milanese (Milan), Cuzzago of Premosello (Milan), Riva Parabbiago (Milan), plateau (Bologna), Parona (Pavia), Mendicino (Cosenza), St. Gregory (Reggio Calabria), and Rome.

Some data among others. In particular, in 1990, arriving 16 tons of waste from the acrylic adhesive of Sicaf Cuzzango of Premosello (Novara); same period, 21 tons of sludge purification plant Ferolmet of San Giuliano Milanese (Milan). Also riding in the late eighties and early nineties, Po is the paradise of special waste: 22 tons of paint sludge, resins and sludge coming from the province of Padua, 25 tons of special waste cosmetic expired Magic Touch of Rome ; another 50 tons of paint sludge from Sicaf of Premosello (Novara). And again, you end up buried 79 tons of industrial waste from Ferrara Robassomero Storage Centre (Turin), 113 tons of asbestos dust briquettes storage Ferrara Robassomero Centre (Turin), 552 tons of paint sludge Ferolmet St. Giuliano Milanese (Milan). And, finally, 1,106 tons of slag and ash from aluminum foundries Riva Parabbiago (Milan). The prosecutor is conducting a monitoring Buda at several public offices (local health authorities, hospitals, Inail, etc.) to verify the relationship between the occurrence of cancers and other diseases, and the situation of pollution. In the coming days, the judge will appoint consultants to various scientific investigations. It is possible that we draw samples of fabric from families of citizens of the tests for comparison with plain people in the area affected by incurable diseases. "

The Italian government does something about this? Promote the Camorra in the Northern League and allows MPs to decide the fate of the Neapolitans. An emergency waste, the Northern League # blocks the decree that would allow waste to be cleaned up in Naples in a few days, moving the garbage in other regions. It is also # news these days that the company has taken from Milan to Naples 50 million euros in taxes on waste (TARSU).

The Neapolitans, is more than obvious, is an internal colony to the Italian state. Therefore, the Front for the Liberation of the Neapolitans, # which aims to make itself independent of the Neapolitans by the Italian State, asking for a massive intervention in American organs Neapolitan territory. Italy has an interest in destroying one of the richest and most beautiful in the world. Nobody listens to us, even the EU. Only the United States, which have bases in Naples and a consulate, and a historical link with the Neapolitans, for the great influx of Neapolitan that the United States have accepted and which are now an integral part of reality 'U.S., we may be interested in .
Always Italian regimes that have occurred in these 150 years are the negatives of the fundamental rights of the people of Naples, so we ask that the right to 'self-determination is recognized Neapolitan people.

The U.S. ambassador in Italy, David Thorne addressed a greeting

The U.S. ambassador in Italy, David Thorne addressed a greeting to Naples and Neapolitans on the occasion of the 215th anniversary of U.S. Consulate in Naples.
That is the oldest embassy of U.S. in Italy, was founded in fact, 16 December 1796 in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies: Video
Maybe this document sent by FLN to the American Consulate is the reason of their care: Neapolitan Holocaust

The Failure Of The Liberal State 1876-1914 - Rufus Pollock

The Failure Of The Liberal State 1876-1914

Introduction

In 1861 Italy was united under a Piedmontese king, Victor Emmanuel II. The creation of a unified Italian State (completed with the acquisition of Venetia in 1866 and the Papal States in 1871) is often 'seen as the culmination of a series of developements stretching back to the first stirrings of nationalist sentiment in the the late 18th century'.1 Yet its creation occurred almost by accident and the Italy that was formed disappointed many of its makers. Cavour, Piedmontese Prime Minister, had only urged Victor Emmanuel to act for unification of all Italy when Garibaldi's success threatened to unite Italy outside of Piedmont's control and domination and on more radical terms than were acceptable. This meant that Italy was united in a rush with little consideration of the finer points of how this should happen; for example, whether Italy should be a single nation state or a federal body, monarchial or republican. As it was, Italy was united by force of Piedmontese arms and therefore Piedmont and the conservative Liberalism present there would dominate united Italy. This is what lies behind B.A. Haddock's assertion that 'from the very outset it [united Italy] was a hollow achievement.'2 The united Italy that was created was simply the 'Piedmontese state writ large', which to many nationalists, particularly the more radical was unacceptable. Piedmont had been allowed to triumph because, after the experience of 1848, most nationalists felt that constituitional and social issues should come second to the unification of Italy and its freeing from foreign domination. Many nationalists were disatisfied because political change had always been associated with social change and 'economic and cultural renewal' while the Piedmontese unification was essentially a conservative one 'designed to accomplish far reaching political changes while preserving the social status quo.'3

Not only did the unification, as it occurred under the control of a narrow Piedmontese elite, enjoy little support among the nationalists, but it also was opposed by the Church (particularly after 1870 when Rome was taken over by the Italian state). This was significant because the Church was much closer to the people at large than the political elite, and the Church's opposition to the new state meant it was deprived of an important popular legitmacy from the very outset. The Liberal political culture which dominated the new state further weakened its legitimacy and support by adopting wholesale Piedmontese law and administrative structures and even the Piedmontese constituition for the new Italy. For a country of such vastly differings regions all accustomed to different practices this was nothing short of disastrous. Coupled with the brutal suppression of civil unrest in the south in 1861-5 which was 'to sour relations between the north and south for generations to come'4 it is not difficult to see why some of the central 'themes [of] .. Italian history ... since the Risorgimento [have been] the incapacity of the elites to establish their hegemony over the classes that lay below them [in fact Italians in general], the weakness and inefficiency of the state ... [and] the enduring problem of the south.'5 It was the challenge to the Liberal state in this period to overcome all the handicaps with which it had been encumbered from the outset and to secure the support of Italians for Italy, to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people for the Liberal state. In this it failed, why and how is what I will discuss in the rest of this essay.

Coercion and Conciliation: The Liberal State 1876-1900

It was only when Agnostino Depretis became Prime Minister in 1876 that the new Liberal State began in any great way to coerce or reconcile the various groups opposed to the united Italy that had been created. Up to this point government had been in the hands of the Right, landowning northern aristocrats, who had done little to gain legitimacy for the new state and little to make Italians greater than vague nationalistic sentiments of 'loving Italy'. The entrance of the Left, professional middlemen and politicians from the South, ushered in an era of low politics, where opposition was bought off, and that which couldn't be was coerced.

In some ways Depretis' 11 years in office were succesful. Large state spending particularly on the navy and railways helped to start Italy's industrialisation and created an economic boom. The creation of a national railway infrastructure would obviously be a massive boost for national unity in such a diverse and geographically divided country. And if Italy were to become a modern nation state it had to move away from an agriculture dominated economy to a modern industrial one. However there were several problems. First the industrialisation in this perod (1876-1887) further exacerbated the north-south divide with the south actually losing industry (e.g. the silk industry). Second the industrialisation failed to take off and in fact after 1887 the Italian economy entered its 'darkest years.' This reversal coupled with free trade, which had been terrible for landowners, led to the adoption of protection in a major way in 1887 which not only did great damage to the Italian economy in the short term but was a measure which favoured certain small interest groups against the population at large. Protection had in large part been demanded by landowners who were being hit by the Europe wide agricultural depression, and again Depretis only satisfied a small but politically powerful group. The peasants particularly in the south had actually suffered from unification through the combination of removal of large tariff barriers, the selling off of demesne land which simply resulted in the loss of communal grazing rights for the peasants, the imposition of large land taxes, and harsh suppression of any popular unrest. Thus in agricultural and industrial affairs Depretis' term did lead to new groups being attached to the regime (namely southern middlemen and the new industrialists) but it stored up problems for the future in other areas and did not gain support from several major areas of the populace.

In other areas Depretis did even less. Education was one of the major areas in which the new state could act to try and make Italians. Most Italians could not speak the Italian language let alone write it. Outside of Tuscany and Rome it is estimated only 0.6% of the population knew Italian and in the 1881 census 61.9% of the population was illiterate. Not only that, these figures disguise the fact that literacy was also a major dividing factor in Italy, with the north in general far more literate than the south. Considering this, one would have thought that the government of the 'Left' would have made a large effort in the area of education. It did little. In 1877 primary education was made compulsory but only for two years which was probably inadequate, and the time was only raised to three years in 1888. Moreover compulsion was a sham: in the south it is estimated that truancy ran at 80%. Despite the intention of the 'Liberal ruling class . . . to make Italians' through state run schools 'primary education enticed so few children into regular attendance that arguably it made little difference what was taught there.'6 The inabilility of most Italians to speak or read the national language was obviously a major impediment to 'making Italians' and gaining legitimacy for the national state. The fact that Depretis' government did so little about the problem is a major failure in any attempt to solve the problems facing the Liberal Italian state.

The other major failing of the Depretis government was that its method of gaining legitimacy (and perhaps the only one in the face of so many opposing forces) was to buy off opposition and politicise the state. The Liberal state felt it could not give too much power away to instituitions over which it did not have control. Thus the police were often used for political purposes (to harry opponents of government candidates at elections) and their powers 'were, at best, illiberal.'7 The judiciary was almost an entirely political instituition and it 'did not form an independent branch of the State. They [judges] could not protect themselves, let alone anyone else from political abuses.'8 The state's instituitions were corrupted into being political tools rather than backbones of a modern legitimate state, and the way these instituitions behaved could only further undermine support for it. Along with the distrust of local government by the central one and the large scale corruption on both local and national scales, and the narrow suffrage (widened in 1882 but still less 7% of the population) it is not surprising the government enjoyed little support from both the general populous and even some of the political classes.

The era of Depretis was the era of the integration of the southern deputies into the political system. Some other groups were also reconciled, for example some of the nationalists including Garibaldi, but many groups were not. With the extension of the vote in 1882, working men in the north could now vote and this would eventually mean the rise of a socialist party opposed to the Liberal state. Depretis failed also to reconcile the most important section of the opposition to the Italian state, namely the church. 'The 1880s were the classic era of trasformismo, i.e. of governments led by Depretis 'transforming' opponents into supporters'9 but it was usually only the support of a small elite and it was not permanent support. In the end the governments of Depretis did little to contribute to the 'legitimizing' of the Italian state, their most important legacy was the corruption of parliamentary rule. Though perhaps given the nature of unification it was inevitable, 'arguably it was better that governments should 'buy off' the Southern elites, rather than simply ignore them, or repress them. This was parliament's real function in the new united Italy: to make Piedmontese rule acceptable elsewhere.'10

Depretis had focused on buying off elites, but the period 1887-1890 saw the rise of popular organisations opposed to the Liberal state which could not be bought off without endangering the whole Liberal edifice. This was in no small part due to Francesco Crispi who became Prime Minister on Depretis' death in 1887. Crispi Prime Minister 1887-1891 and 1893-1896 was a crusader of the Liberal Right, determined 'to abolish corruption, strengthen the executive, reinforce the army, defend Italy's interests abroad and promote social reforms.' But Crispi with little concern for the complexity of Italy, 'succeeded mainly in disrupting the economy, endangering the whole Liberal regime, and provoking far more widespread and effective movements of political opposition.'11

One of the major problematical areas of this period was the economy. With the failing of the boom of the early 1880s the government came under pressure to impose tariffs. The two major groups who pushed for 'protection' were northern: 'it was essentially a North Italian alliance of textile manufacturers and Po valley landowners.'12 The protectionists got what they wanted and in 1887 a new general tariff was introduced. But this was only half the story, since the general tariff did not apply to countries which had a trade treaty with Italy. France, Italy's biggest trading partner, had a trade treaty but it expired in 1888. It was not renewed and in February of that year a trade war between Italy and France began, which was to prove disastrous for Italy. Not only was protectionism bad for the Italian economy but it had several other serious repercussions. The tariff war resulted in the removal of foreign investment from the country. This led to pressure on many banks which had overextended themselves in the earlier boom. Several banks failed and worse, as a result, the government allowed the six note-issuing banks, as a perk of bailing out smaller banks and finance houses, to print money. This resulted in 50 million lire of illegal currency being in circulation, but at the same time did little to save other banks. 'At the end of 1893 the two largest credit instituitions in Italy, the Banca Generale and the Societa Generale di Credito Mobilare, closed their doors. These banks had financed industry, agriculture, commerce and railways as well as property and their fall was an economic disaster.'13 Even the Banca Romana, a note issuing bank, collapsed at the end of 1893. This was not so serious economically as politically. Banco Romana had been in trouble since the late 1880s and had solved its financial problems by simply printing money. In 1889 a report had been commisioned by Crispi which strongly condemned the bank's practices, but the report was shelved because 'many of the bank's losses had been incurred from loans granted to tottering businesses favoured by the governments or politicians . . . [and] the Banca Romana, like other banks, had made large 'loans' to leading politicians, often without expecting any interest.'14 Eventually, though, Radicals managed to get hold of the report. The Banca Romana collapsed, and a new committee in November 1893 reported about the financial irregularities. More importantly the committee also named twenty-two deputies who had received 'loans' from the bank, including Giolitti, who at this point was Prime Minister. The Giolitti government resigned and Crispi, who had been let off by the committee, became prime Minister again. This was not all however. In December 1894 Giolitti handed over documents to the President of the Chamber which showed that not only had Crispi 'borrowed' money from the bank but so had his wife and relatives. Crispi did not resign but simply stalled. It was the defeat of the Italian army at Adowa by the Abyssinians (the first time a European army had been defeated by an African one), that finally brought Crispi down. The economic and colonial failures along with the domestic scandals of this period did not fatally weaken the Liberal state, but they continued to discredit it, particularly in their provocation of a more organised and vocal opposition. It is to the question of oppositon and the government's method of dealing with it that I now turn.

This period saw the rise two major opposition groups to the Liberal state, -the Socialists and the Catholics- the golden age of radicalism/Republicanism and also two major popular insurrections. From the very beginning the Church had been opposed to the Italian state and particularly the anti-clerical Liberal one, but in the 1890s the church increased substantially in secular society, this was due to two factors. First the Liberal opposition to the Church intensified under Crispi and his successors, and the reform of the charities in 1890 in particular 'made it even more vital for Catholics to gain or share control of local government'15. Second, the growth of Socialism was a profound threat to the Church, and one way for the Church to deal with it was to support its own social reform: 'Papal Socialism' was to combat 'Red Socialism'16 (Leo XIII famous encyclical: Rerum Novarum was published in 1891). This led to an increase in Catholic activity. For example a clerico-moderate alliance took over Milan in 1895, and 'this was the great era of the 'Opera' [dei Congressi, the most important Catholic lay organisation].' However the success of 'social Catholicism' led to problems. More and more Catholics felt an inevitable further step must be the relaxation of Pius IX's 'non expedit' which had prohibited Catholics from taking part in the parliamentary (state) elections, but this presented difficulties: 'As the '_Opera_' became more lay and more 'social', it seemed likely to evolve into some kind of a political party. Yet if it did that , would the clergy and the hierachy be able to retain control of it?' The success of the Catholic movement seemed also to threaten the Liberal regime. In 1897 di Rudini, the Prime Minister, decided to crack down, and Prefects were instructed to close down Catholic associations and journals. With the bread riots of 1898, and the participation of a small number of Catholics (e.g. Don Albertario) 'the whole Catholic network of social, educational, and economic bodies, so laboriously built up over the previous decades, was crushed.' Surprisingly the Church did not seem too distressed by the turn of events. In fact, 'the persecution of 1897-98 ....[led] to traditional 'intransigence' [being] quietly dropped'. The Church was scared by the radicalism of its own and felt it more prudent to defend itself by allying with the Right-wing Liberals, 'Catholic politics moved into an era of 'clerico-moderate' alliances at both national and local level; the Catholics threat had apparently been 'absorbed'.'17

The other threat to the Liberal state came from the opposite of the spectrum to the conservative Church, namely the Socialists and the Radicals. Socialism, particuliarly in a grassroots form of local labour organisations had already begun before this period (POI), but there were many different groups all committed to different aims and ideologies. It is only with the national labour congress in 1892 in Genoa that an Italian Socialist Party was formed. The main problem it encountered throughout the 1890s was periodic repression by the state. In 1893-4 there had been widespread disturbances in Sicily by Socialist led Fasci. The disturbances were harshly put down by Crispi, Fasci leaders were sentenced to long terms, all workers' associations were shut down, and Socialists were purged from the electoral roles. Moreover Crispi went further, in October 1894 he dissolved the Socialist party altogether, electoral roles were 'amended', and Socialist deputies were arrested. In 1897-8 it was again repressed by di Rudini, particularly after the widespread bread riots in 1898, and then by General Pelloux in 1899-1900. The result of all of this was to move the Socialists towards Radicals in demands for bourgeois liberties and reform as opposed to revolution, and despite all the government's efforts 'by 1898 the PSI was an important part of the coalition against the government.'18 While the Socialists represented the nascent populist party on the left, the Radicals while more significant in 1890s were on the way out. Nevertheless with the constant emphasis on the failings of the Liberal state and their fight for liberties the Radicals were significant, particularly in the way they influenced future leaders like Zanardelli. The Radicals were the intellectual opinion formers for the centre ground which included the left of the Liberals and the reformist right of the Socialists.

The 1890s had been an era of great turmoil for the Liberal state but what was the result? Strong government where parliament was disregarded and parties were banned with abandon was discredited. The elections of 1900 were a victory for the Left and the constituitional Liberals. At the same time many of the supposed subversive groups had been absorbed into the system - perhaps not altogether but now they were 'the defenders of liberty and the Constituition, against many 'conservative' groups.'19 However there was a flip side to this in that there were now groups of the Right (who had become particularly vocal in the constituitional crisis of 1899-1900) who were opposed to the state in the form it existed. It was out of this 'conservative' disaffection fertilised with the memory of Adowa that the nationalists, the greatest threat to the Liberal state, would spring. Essentially the 1890s had been period where the government had bullied because it could not bribe, and despite the seeming reconciliation of some groups, the Italian state as it existed commanded little if any legitimacy in the eyes of Italians.

The Age of Giolitti 1900-1914

Giolitti was the great conciliator of the Liberal state, he wished to conciliate opposition groups, to reconcile real Italy to legal Italy, but 'in the long run, his policies did not work.'20 Giolitti never resolved the fundamental problem of the Liberal state: that the Liberal elite was never willing to give up real power, and how was it to gain legitimacy if it did not. The people were to be ruled not taken seriously, Giolitti like all Liberals 'had no wish to see fundamental political change, and certainly did not intend to allow the Socialist, of the Radicals, or the Catholics, or the Nationalists, any autonomous role in Italian politics. These groups -or rather, their leaders - had to be bought off',21 not given equality within a democratic pluralistic system.

Giolitti was able to buy off so many groups in part because of the upturn in the Italian econcomy after 1896. Just as troubles in the 1890s had been associated with the depression after 1887 so the tranquility for the decade after 1900 is due in no small part to the improved economic conditions. Firstly the better state of the economy meant that employers were more willing to make concessions to workers, and in agriculture there would be no repetition of the bread riots of 1898. Secondly the state had more money, and for example could spend large amounts on relief for the South, 'designed to promote economic growth or at least buy off unrest.'22 In the North the state subsidized much of heavy industry, particularly indirectly through Navy contracts etc. Unfortunately in the long term none of this was very good. The South despite subsidies was left behind by the North, further increasing the already dangerous divide. Subsidies and interference in the North meant that in 'many leading sectors - steel, shipping, sugar - it was a handful of State-sponsored, tariff-protected, cartelized firms that succeeded; and they succeeded by virtue of their financial connections and their political weight.'23 In other words, major areas of the Italian economy were corrupt, inefficient and dependent on the state for their survival. All of this stored up trouble for the future (for example the steel industry now needed naval orders to survive and thus became a lobbyist for nationalist expansionism).

This was true of most other areas of Giolitti conciliation. He could reconcile groups temporarily with some titbit or other but could never permanently win their support. In fact often recconciling one group annoyed another one, 'Giolitti was a good political juggler but even he could not keep all the balls in the air at once.'24 Perhaps most significantly, Giolitti's conciliation throughout this period of the 'Left' eventually failed as worsening of economic conditions led to a hardening of line among Socialists, while at the same time alienating powerful groups on the Right (e.g. the landowners and industrialists.) Concession is also temporary, concessions lead to more concessions, and not only to the same groups, if one group gets concessions then all groups want them. Giolitti had other problems in that the period saw the rise of the nationalists, a group who could not be absorbed. The nationalists preying on Italians feeling of inferiority among the other European powers and memories of Adowa were extremely successful and with their tendency to right wing authoritarianism they presented a major threat to the Liberal state. With the widening of the suffrage in 1912 which meant the beginnings of a mass Catholic party the Liberal state seemed in dire straits. Giolitti was an extremely able politician but he solved none of the essential problems. In 1914 there was still no central constituitional (Liberal) party, and there were several parties which had little time for the Liberal state and despised democratic liberties. The end of Giolitti marked the end of the Liberal era - the Liberal state. After 1914 'most governments in Italy were either nationalist, or Catholic, or both'.25

Conclusion

This essay is entitled 'The Failure of the Liberal State'. By this I meant that the Italy formed after 1861 -the Liberal state - failed to gained legitmacy for itself, failed to reconcile legal Italy and 'real' Italy, and thus failed to ensure the its own survival. In 1914 the divide between North and South was, if anything, worse, with the South still a agricultural semi-feudal society while the North industrialized. In the 1911 census 37% of Italians were still illiterate, and the proportion was massively higher in the South than in the North, and in the countryside as opposed to the towns. Italy remained a divided country with little agreement among Italians on 'basic ideological, educational or social aims.'26 The Liberal state had bribed or bullied the people, never given them control. The country was still governed by a narrow elite with no legitimacy, which manipulated the people it despised. In the authoritarianism and failure of Liberal rule lay the rise of Fascism and modern Italy's crisis.

B.A. Haddock , 'Italy: independence and unification without power' in Themes In Modern European History, Ed. B. Waller (Routledge 1990). Pg. 92.↩
Ibid. Pg. 92.↩
Ibid. Pg. 93.↩
Ibid. Pg. 96.↩
P. Ginsborg, 'A History Of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943-1988'. (Penguin 1990). Pg. 2.↩
Martin Clark, 'Modern Italy 1871-1982'. (Longman 1984). Pg. 38.↩
Ibid. Pg. 53.↩
Ibid. Pg. 54.↩
Ibid. Pg. 62.↩
Ibid. Pg. 66.↩
Ibid. Pg. 92.↩
Ibid. Pg. 94.↩
Ibid. Pg. 97.↩
Ibid. Pg. 98.↩
Ibid. Pg. 105.↩
Ibid. Pg. 106.↩
Ibid. Pg. 108.↩
Ibid. Pg. 112.↩
Ibid. Pg. 117.↩
Ibid. Pg. 137.↩
Ibid. Pg. 136.↩
Ibid. Pg. 131.↩
Ibid. Pg. 32.↩
Ibid. Pg. 157.↩
Ibid. Pg. 159.↩
Ibid. Pg. 177.↩

Lessons from Italian Monetary Unification

Petition

Terroni: All That Has Been Done to Ensure That the Italians of the South Became "Southerners"

English publication of "Terroni" - A book about the Neapolitan genocide. In my opinion the english title and subtitle sounds horrendous, more horrendous than in italian, it should be "All That Has Been Done to Ensure That the Neapolitans and Sicilians became Southerns", but never mind.
This book can be "a spark that lights the fire" and awaken the old national pride of Neapolitan emigrants. When they discover that they have been cheated because of Italy's unification and the general history of Italian unification is a fake written by the winners.

In his book, Aprile explains, through a series of anecdotes and historical events, how Neapolitans and Sicilians has been robbed, how those people have been transformed to a poor and derided "minority". Napolitania's and Sicily's decline began with the unification of Italy, today resulting in an abyss in comparasion with the socio-economic development experience by northern Italian regions and the rest of Europe. Naples for 150 years ago, culturally and socio-economic development was at same level as Paris, just after London.

The book's title is a political statement. Aprile uses the word "terroni", which is a pejorative term used by North Italians to denigrate Neapolitans and Sicilians. Into the subtitle, Aprile uses the word "Meridionali", which translated means "southerners," and even that word is used by North Italians as a pejorative term, rather than in geographical mean.

Aprile relates events happened for 150 years ago to the present day in a skilful manner, he shows the similarity between the past and current events, or he shows causal connections between the events of the past and the present. He talks about how the government of Piedmont put up the first concentration camps in 1860, where thousands of Neapolitans soldiers loyal to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was deported and left to die of cold and starvation, this happened about 80 years before the Nazi's infamous concentration camps in Europe. The similarities between the Nazis and the Piedmontese soldiers are reported by Aprile, when he describes how villages Pontelandolfo and Casalduni was destroyed by troops from the Bersaglieri, the infantry in August 1861, just as the Nazis destroyed the Marzabotto in September 1944. In both cases, civilians were massacred in response to attacks on occupation troops from irregular troops. Aprile also makes a comparison between the torture used by the U.S. military at Abu Graib with the Piedmontese were doing in the years after the unification of Italy. His comparisons between then and today's events, making it easier for the reader to immediately relate to the horrors that happened 150 years ago.

Aprile is based on an extensive amount of data from official government sources in Italy in order to demonstrate causal relationships between historical events and the current situation in Napolitania and Sicily.

One of the most surprising fact in this book is the value of the Treasury in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, which was in excess of 443 million lire in gold, compared to just 20 million lira in paper money that the invading Kingdom of Sardinia had (as the Piedmont State was known as the unification of Italy ). The kingdom of Two Sicilies contributed with actually 60% of the total aggregate value of the new state of Italy, money that of course was brought to north, and was used to pay the debts of the Royal House of Savoy, the royal family that ruled the newly formed Kingdom of Italy, and who had been involved in wars against their neighbors for years. This money was used also unfairly to finance industrial development in Northern Italy.

Aprile remarks that money from the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, ironically, has been used to modernize northern Italy and to a small proportion has been allowed to rifle back to the South in the form of public aid and loans. In short, Neapolitans and Sicilians had ended up having to borrow their own money.

The book tells the story of pioneer industries in Napolitania, as the unification of Italy either shut down or run out of business due to a bias-driven competition from northern Italy, or as a result of specific political decisions of the newly formed Italian state. Metal Industries in Mongiana and Pietrarsa, shipyard of Castellammare, textile industry in Salerno, and sulfur mines in Sicily was the crown jewels before the unification of Italy and pretended to go over or reduced to second-class activities after the unification of Italy.

The most striking aspect of the book for a Neapolitan or Sicilian is that coincidence with the Italian unification withe mass immigration from southern Italy. The so-called "Questione Meridionale" was only a product of the invasion by Piedmont. Millions of Neapolitans and Sicilians left her occupied and impoverished countries to reach the shores of America, South America, Australia and other destinations.

Aprile says that immediately after the unification of Italy, Neapolitans and Sicilians realized that they were ripped off and revolted, by forming irregular armies, which came to be called "Briganti" of enemies from Piedmont. The book says that these soldiers' heroic resistance against an occupying power that sent 120,000 regular soldiers who fought in more than 10 years to quell the rebellion. The irregular troops were composed of former soldiers from the defeated Neapolitan Army, farmers and idealists who were unhappy over the Piedmontese occupation of their homeland.

Aprile is not particularly generous to the Italian national hero, Garibaldi, who made agreements with local criminals to conquest the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

Aprile's book is a call to action for Neapolitans and Sicilians, with emphasis on theirs proud history, to take their courage to stay up and combat the prejudices and the injustices.

This book has been i bestseller in Italy, and now when it is translated into English, we hope that it will open the eyes of millions of Neapolitans and Sicilians spread beyond the sphere. It would make them understand why they were born in America, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Australia, etc.. They also will understand how heroic their ancestors were when they fought against a brutal occupying force, supported by Britain, France and other major powers who wanted to eradicate the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

1860 News from Europe

Reinforcements for Garibaldi. The Crisis in Naples and Rome. DEBATES IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. The San Juan Dispute and Recall of Gen. Harney. FUNERAL OF PRINCE JEROME. Independence Day in Paris. SPREAD OF THE WAR IN SYRIA.

Published: July 21, 1860

(source: http://www.nytimes.com/1860/07/21/news/interesting-europe-africa-revolution-southern-italy-reinforcements-for-garibaldi.html?pagewanted=print)


The Royal Mail steamship Africa, Capt. SHANNON, which sailed from Liverpool at 10 o'clock, on the morning of the 7th, and from Queenstown on the evening of the 8th inst., arrived at this port yesterday morning.



The advices by the Africa are not so late as those brought by the Connaught and telegraphed from St. Johns; but our correspondence and details from foreign journals are interesting, and are of two days later date.


No movement is reported either in Sicily or on the mainland.


GARIBALDI, in a letter to the Italian Committee in London, points out the urgent need he has for a flotilla, and suggests that they might possibly procure for him a couple of steamers armed with Armstrong guns.


A Naples telegram of the 2d inst., says:

"The state of siege has been raised; the Constitution of 1848 has been proclaimed, the Press laws of 1848 and 1849 have been reestablished, the Chambers are convoked for the 10th of September, and the National Guard has been provisionally reestablished. Naples is tranquil.
Signor FRESCOBALDI, the representative of the Duke of Tuscany, has taken down the escutcheon of the Grand Duchy."


It is asserted that the most violent pressure was being exercised by the French Emperor on both the Courts of Naples and Turin, for the enforcement of a confederation equally repugnant to the one and the other.


The semi-official Opinione, of Turin, in reference to the proposed alliance with Naples, says:


"The Ministry firmly adheres to the national principle, and refuses to enter into any engagement which might carry them away from the line of policy they have always followed. It is necessary to temporize, in order to neutralize the activity of diplomatists, who think that Piedmont, to save the Neapolitan dynasty, should adhere to the proposed alliance. Such an alliance is inadmissible on account of the opposition of public opinion."


The Independence Belge says that Piedmont has placed conditions on the acceptance of the alliance with Naples, which are equivalent to a refusal. For instance, the Government has demanded that the Neapolitan Government not only recognize the annexation of Romagna, but the probable annexation of the Marches and of Umbria. The relations between the Court of Naples and the Holy See renders such a course impossible.


The northern states that the conditions which the Court of Turin desire to impose on Naples were as follows: 1. The Government of Naples shall definitively break with Austria. 2. It shall give, and cause to be accepted at Rome, the counsels which itself has received and accepted. 3. It shall adopt a line of policy tending to the complete independence of Italy. 4. Promised reforms shall be really effected.



A letter from Genoa says the Sicilian loan of 45,000,000 francs was almost concluded. It would be issued at 85, and to be reimbursed in fifteen years by annual drawings.



Provisions, arms and camp materials were being continually sent off to Sicily, and as to men, Genoa contained quite an army of volunteers from all parts.



The French Consul at Genoa had refused to sign the papers of a captain of a French steamer who had engaged to convey volunteers to Palermo. There were 4,000 volunteers ready at Genoa to depart.



A telegram dated Naples the 5th announces that a Commission had been appointed to draw up laws on the following subjects: The National Guard, Administrations, Council of State and Ministerial responsibility.



Naples was tranquil, and the Constitutional party was described as more consolidated.



A telegram dated Naples, July 5, announces that GARIBALDI had marched against Messina.



A rumor was current that a movement of Roman troops towards the Neapolitan frontiers had taken place.



The reforms which the Papal Government had decided upon granting were to be promulgated shortly in a motu proprio. Among other concessions the Pope grants to the Consulta of State a deliberative vote on all financial questions, in which, until now, it had only a consultative vote; but these reforms are to be granted on condition of the integrity of the patrimony of St. Peter being guaranteed.



The state of affairs in Southern Italy had been the subject of debate in both Houses of the British Parliament.



The only additional suspension of importance in the leather trade is that of LAWRENCE, MORTIMORE & CO., of Liverpool, the corresponding firm of STREATFIELD, LAWRENCE & CO., of London, with liabilities estimated at £300,000. Efforts were being made to avert forced sales and thereby avert any extravagant depreciation in the value of hides and leather. The London Herald believes that 12s. to 14s. in the pound may be obtained all round from the suspending firms if moderation be shown.



The British steamer Bulldog had sailed for the purpose of taking soundings on the projected route of the North Atlantic Telegraph Cable. The late Arctic cruiser Fox was expected to leave Southampton about the middle of July for the same destination.



The vote of credit, on account of the war with China, required by Government, amounts to £3,800,000 sterling.



The Dublin Evening Post gives a rumor that the Galway line had concluded an arrangement for a transfer of the mail subsidy to a rival Company. The Galway Vindicator says that the negotiations were still pending, and that the Canadian line had offered £200,000, while the London Directors demanded £240,000 for the interest of the line. The Irish shareholders were averse to the transfer.



The Russian Ambassador at Paris had officially notified the French Government of the adhesion of Russia to the proposition for the assembling of a European Conference at Paris on the Savoy question.



The session of the Corps Legislatif, which was to be concluded on the 14th inst., would be prolonged to the 21st on account of the amount of business remaining for discussion.



It is confirmed that the Neapolitan Minister at Paris had sent his resignation to Naples.


The American residents in Paris gave a fete champetre on the 4th of July. Mr. COBDEN was present.


The Paris Bourse was firm and animated. Rentes closed on the 6th at 68.95.



It is asserted that the leading members of the Council of the Empire had agreed to advise the Emperor to grant a Constitution to his subjects, and that a motion to that effect would soon be formally brought before the Council.



Messrs. BARING BROTHERS & CO. had announced that the subscriptions in Amsterdam and London to the new £8,000,000 Russian loan amounted to £5,000,000, and that the allotments for that amount had been issued. Russia engages not to offer the remaining £3,000,000 before January, 1861, and then not below the prices or conditions of the subscription just closed. The new stock was quoted in London at par to 1/2 premium.



Prince BARIATINSKI had undertaken an expedition against a tribe of the mountains near the Caspian sea, who were giving trouble to the Russians.



The civil war in Syria was raging with unabated violence at latest dates.


The Druses had attacked the town of Zahli, the last refuge of the Christians, and burnt it down. It is said that 1,000 Christians were murdered.



Upwards of 60 villages are reported to have been destroyed.


The Bombay Mails of June 7th, and Melbourne of May 18th, reached Marseilles on the 6th.


The only items of news telegraphed are -- that disturbances had taken place at Bansweera, and that Gen. OUTRAM's protest against the amalgamation of the two armies in India had been published.

Interview held with Arrigo Petacco

Here is an interview held with Arrigo Petacco, author of "Il regno del Sud" (The Kingdom of the South). One thing is certain, namely that everything we were taught and that our children are being taught in school is false. We are living in a historical never-never land called the “Risorgimento” without ever having risen the first time around and we are about to enter into another new era, that of Padania, something that has never before existed. As they say, the important thing is to believe it.



A.Petacco: "Cavour, Garibaldi and Mazzini are acknowledged as being the fathers of the Homeland but, if the truth be told, they hated each other, all of them hated each other with a passion. Cavour played Garibaldi, he exploited him, and Garibaldi defended himself. Mazzini was hated by both of them, however, the history books insist on having them side by side because, when all is said and done, all three of them contributed towards national unity."Blog: "It is believed that the Unity of Italy is the fruit of the ideas of the “Risorgimento”, yet it was actually entirely the result of a plot cooked up in a health spa?"A. Petacco: "There are plots everywhere. In actual fact, no one really wanted the unity of Italy. At the time, they were all federalists at heart, including Cavour. Indeed, Cavour was definitely a federalist and Mazzini was the only one that really wanted national unity, which Cavour labelled as “tomfoolery” because he didn’t believe in it. After all, he thought in French, spoke French and had never travelled further south than Florence. But he dreamt of an Italy consisting of three States, a Northern State (see the Savoias), which he claimed would be the wealthiest in Europe, a Central State, a Franco-Italian combination, and he also wanted to retain the Kingdom of the Bourbons. He did everything possible to save the Kingdom of the Bourbons. Unfortunately, Francesco II, the one they nicknamed “Franceschiello”, who was a great fellow but was only twenty years old, didn’t get the picture, the deal that Cavour had offered him, and refused. He refused, putting the fate of his kingdom on the line.



A series of plotsBlog: "Why was General Garibaldi’s expedition set up at a certain point?A. Petacco: "Well, the expedition was a surprise because no one wanted it. Cavour didn’t want it and even tried to send in the Carabinieri. He wanted to send in the Carabinieri to halt the expedition because he knew that by invading Sicily he would be violating his pact with Napoleon III to create a federal Italy. There was actually a whole series of plots because King Victor Emmanuel II, who wanted to enlarge his kingdom instead, secretly told Garibaldi to go ahead while officially ordering him to stop. Garibaldi disobeyed the king’s orders and invaded Sicily. This was incredible because everyone thought, indeed Cavour thought: “They will meet the same fate as Pisacane”, in other words, they would be pitchforked by the farmers as happened before elsewhere. Instead, by some miracle, these thousand men, of whom only 18 were native Sicilians while the remainder were all northerners from the Bergamo area, were almost all grandfathers of the current members of the Lega and they were the ones that went down and conquered Sicily and the entire Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. So he conquered a kingdom and handed it over to King Victor Emmanuel II, saying: “I give you the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies”. Then he went off to Caprera because he was an honest man, somewhat naïve perhaps, and was convinced that he had created a united Italy, and indeed he had because, without him, Italy would never have been united.Blog: "The people hailed him as a hero and a liberator, but the question I have to ask myself, a reality call if you will: what propaganda machine was set up at the time to spread Garibaldi’s message?A. Petacco: "Well, the propaganda at the time was very refined and extremely subtle, because 90 percent of the population was out of reach and because 90 percent of the population was illiterate, they didn’t really give a damn about national unity, so the population did not participate. There were no labourers or farmers amongst the thousand men than went to Sicily, they were all lawyers, doctors, mainly lawyers and students, let’s say all members of the ruling Middle class."Blog: "Who was it that took up arms " A. Petacco: "Those that took up arms were the middle class, on behalf of their king. The general population did not take and was indeed sympathetic to Bakunin che voleva l’anarchia."Blog, who was preaching anarchy."Blog: "In other words, the Italy that we know today is in fact the result of contrivance rather than a natural process?" A. Petacco: "Absolutely not. I don’t know that it was entirely a natural process but, on the other hand, as Franceschiello was wont to say, they call it Risorgimento (Resurgence), but in order to resurge, you have to have surged in the first place, while Italy has never really existed. Poor Franceschiello used to say that “My kingdom has been here for centuries, but since Roman times there has never been a united Italy”. It was therefore somewhat paradoxical to call it Risorgimento”, but the word had a certain attraction."Blog: "Shall we say that, if he were alive today, Cavour would not claim this united Italy?" A. Petacco: "No, it’s a pity that Cavour died accidentally at age 50, just two months after national unity, it was said at the time that it was his punishment from God. The Kingdom was proclaimed in March 1861 and he died in May, so he didn’t actually get to see the united Italy, but he did have some very different plans than those that were later implemented. At that stage Italy was united and he too had become a unificationist by necessity, however, he wanted to create a number of large autonomous regions with large autonomous localities. Instead, the King and his successors chose to centralise, or rather “piedmontise” the whole of Italy and immediately after the proclamation of the kingdom, all of the Piedmont laws were made fully applicable both in Lombardy and in Sicily, including military service, milling taxes and, above all, things that were not particularly palatable, so much so that in the south, ….."Blog: "Shall we just say that they were not perceived as being particularly good for the purposes of creating order?A. Petacco: "But then there was a rebellion, and what was labelled as banditry was actually the actions of partisans, not bandits. These were partisans that occasionally acted like bandits, as often happens in war, however, they were mainly former Bourbon soldiers that had been abandoned by their former generals who had sought refuge. They had fought, they had fought for five years and for five years they had kept some 120-thousand men of the Piedmontese army busy. So these were not merely common chicken thieves, no, this was something very serious.



The federalist Italy and Cavour’s dreamBlog: "Now let’s move on to modern times. Italian politics witnessed the eruption of a phenomenon that had previously been just that, merely a phenomenon, but that has now become an organised regional political party known as the Lega Nord. Today the newspapers talk about a northern bank, northern industry, northern workers and differentiated taxation. Are these merely a throwback to those earlier ideals?A. Petacco: "No, no, that has nothing to do with it. The truth is that, in essence, these two Italies were never really united and they remain two separate Italies: the Lombardy farmer is different from the Sicilian farmer. They have different mentalities, different traditions, different habits and then there is also a kind of racism – if we can call it that – that we have never quite been able to completely eradicate, also because the south does not always set a good example."Blog: "The plans for a federalist Italy, in your opinion, are these merely a resurgence of Cavour’s ideals?"A. Petacco: "Yes. He tended to see things more in a political light than any other, but in the book, I seem to remember that there was a note regarding what he wanted. Each region, he called them large regional airports, namely three or four regions that he wanted to call the Kingdom centrally controlled by the police and the army, with the rest delegated to local authorities, so our world would have looked very different indeed. The South, instead, was not merely an abandoned country as the history of the Risorgenza would have us believe. Naples had a railway system before Turin did. In Naples, they were building the first large steamships well before Genoa did. The Kingdom of Naples already had steel factories, iron, cast iron and they were already building steel bridges! They already had a significant potential industrial system going. The northerners took everything. A man called Bastogi from Livorno came along and created a railway monopoly and essentially the north prevented the growth of the south and so, that is what happened. In a meeting with the young industrialists of Naples, Tremonti himself stated that: “Well, after all is said and done, we are truly indebted to you and you deserve to be compensated”. Tremonti himself said this so, obviously these things really did happen."Blog: "Certain people might classify this as the Lega Nord ideology, but instead I hear you using very different terms."A. Petacco: "Lega Nord ideology you say?! You’re crazy! I sympathise because at the moment, I have to admit that where they are governing, the politicians are different. I have had the opportunity to meet some of them and I must say, they seem to feel that they are better than everyone else and they tend to look down on you. When you ask them a question and they look down their noses at you, like D’Alema for example, who is essentially thinking: “Let’s hear what bullshit this guy wants to tell me!” You can see it! While these people are just like you, that is what makes them likeable, but unfortunately they too will get worse. I don’t believe in perfection and as soon as they manage get their hands on power, corruption will undoubtedly follow. Corruption follows democracy and wherever there is democracy, there is also corruption because politicians need votes and they are prepared to do anything to get those votes. Instead, in a dictatorship, no votes are needed so there is less corruption because there is less of everything, except for pitchforks, hangings and deaths by firing squad. So perhaps it’s better for us to keep these thieves! I don’t know if I am making myself clear."



Blog: "Is the Kingdom of the North a very real risk or is there merely a possibility that it could materialise?"A. Petacco: "If things continue as they are, it could become a very real possibility."Blog: "Can you picture an Italy that splits up? Is this a possibility in your opinion? We have a very rigid Constitution that contains some very specific restrictions ….. "A. Petacco: "I cannot see this happening, but what I do see is that federalism will undoubtedly increase the existing gap between certain regions and others and between the north and the south."Blog: "History is written by the victors. Do you also have a very noble vision of revisionism? I ask because the things that are written in this book are very different from what we find in the school books."A. Petacco: "The fact is that there is one inescapable rule in life, namely that whenever war breaks out, the first casualty is always the truth, because the truth is bothersome and if you wish to demonise the enemy, you also have to tell some lies about him. Once the war has ended, these lies told by the losers are inevitably revealed for what they are, while those of the victors become history. Furthermore, it is not easy to chip away these untruths that have become history. Even my books attract some interest, however, it will remain extremely difficult to erase certain untruths. Let me give you an example: if you care to remember the first War of Independence (1848), when Piedmont very courageously declared war on Austria, Naples and the Vatican came to its aid and took sides in the early days of the war. Also, a number of Neapolitan and Pontifical military units fought in Lombardy.At Curtatone and Montanara, a historical event occurred that went down in history. The schoolbooks tell us that the university students of Pisa stopped the Austrians that were about to outflank the army of Carlo Alberto. In reality, it was not the university students of Pisa. The students of Pisa were indeed there, but they ran away at the first sign of gunfire and all that remained was a Neapolitan battalion under the command of a Neapolitan colonel, who held fast and managed to repel the Austrians. This is an historical fact and indeed the Austrian Army’s war diaries in Vienna also mention the name and number of the commander in question. When the first War of Independence ended and Naples had meanwhile retreated, the Pope and the Piedmontese historians that were writing about the war faced some embarrassment and thought: “Oh dear, the only true and noble act was performed by a Neapolitan. There’s no way that we can give credit to the Neapolitans, it will be a disgrace for us!” So they invented the story that the Pisa students had not only gloriously stopped the Austrians, but also that their commander was Giuseppe Montanelli. They even managed to arrange that the peak of the university hats be cut in half, something they didn’t deserve.This is the story that I told to my friend Indro Montanelli, a descendant of the aforesaid commander. I told him that: “Look Indro, this is the truth” and he answered: “Oh, I know that, but I can’t exactly get upset with my grandfather!” and then proceeded to confirm the affair of the Pisa students in his history book. Get it? That is the way history works! "

The root of Italian racism against Neapolitans

The figure and the work of Cesare Lombroso is of a highly controversial character and a shame for a so called civilized society. His scientific work has been classified not just as worthless but also prejudicial against Neapolitans and Sicilians.

Cesare Lombeoso was born in Verona, as an Austrian subject, on November 6, 1835, and was the second child in a family of five. His father Aron sprang from a Venetian mercantile family, whose origin can be traced back to a colony of North African Jews, expelled from Spain and settled in North Africa.
The name Lombroso or Lumbroso is a Spanish adjective in common use, denoting "clear" or "illuminating".
The formation of the Hapsburg Kingdom of Lombardy and Venice put an end for the time being to equality of civil rights for the Jews and Verona was one of the few towns of the district in which Jewish boys were allowed to attend the Gymnasium (public school), now removed from the control of the freethinkers, and handed over to that of the Jesuits.
When Lombroso's mother, Zefira Levi, married Aron Lombroso in the year 1830, she stipulated that her children must be brought up in a place in which it would be possible for them to attend the higher schools.
Aron's marriage with Zefira Levi, who belonged to a rich family engaged in the higher branch of industrial life, did not suffice to prevent the onset of poverty and the youth of the five children of the marriage was passed in narrow circumstances.

Inspired by Francis Galton's theories about natural born criminality and biological conditions, Lombroso argues that typical reasons for committing a crime don't depend on the socio-economic environmental components but rather on hereditary factors and/or neurological conditions therefore independent from individuals' own will.
Lombroso beliefs were mainly based on the thesis that "the born or atavistic uncultured offender", an individual that presents degenerative features in his physical build that differentiates him from a normal socially accepted man. In the pursuit of fame and in favour of his suspicious and anti-scientific thesis, Lombroso didn't hesitate to skin corpses, cut off and dissect heads, perform the most incredible and cruel operations on men who were believed criminals in order to measure parts of their skulls and bodies, outlining unbelievable theories about the physical features of the natural born criminal. His work was strongly influenced by physiognomy, developing a pseudo-science that dealt with forensic and psychosomatic phrenology inducing him to speculate like a wizard apprentice more than a scientist in a context based on eugenics and a precursory form of the scientific racism, whose consequences would be visible in the following decades during WWII and the advent of nazism. In fact these conjectures were adopted as the foundation of the theories of German doctors about the pureness of the Aryan race, extending Lomroso's false theory to the physical features of the Hebrew and the Rom and so on, justifying their extermination.

Historically the idea that criminality is connected to physical characteristic of a person was present in Iliad of Homer and in some medieval laws that state; when there are two suspects of a crime, the one most deformed must be considered guilty. Maybe it was therefore Lombroso became convinced that the physicality was the most powerful cause of criminality and, in his analysis, he considered the anatomical configuration of the skull a very important parameter. He found an element in the skull that he believed to be a degenerative character frequently occurring in the alienated and the offender. But in reality, from an anatomic point of view, it is a frequent characteristic in individuals and it doesn't have a scientific meaning.

Badly influenced by Darwin's theories, Lombroso came to support "the born offender's" atavistic characteristics, similar to those of animals and the primitive man: these characteristics make it difficult or even impossible to adapt to the modern society and push one again and again to commit offenses. Cesare Lombroso also delineates the legal consequences of his doctrine because "crime is not the result of free choice but rather of an organic disease". The sentence must not be understood as a punishment (because 'it makes no sense to punish those who did not act freely) but simply as a means of protecting society. He always strongly supported the need for the death penalty under the Italian legal system, believing that if the crime was because of his physical characteristics then any form of rehabilitation was not possible.
These bizarre theories were contested also by his pupils (one of all was Enrico Ferri - lecturer of criminal law in Bologna, Siena, Pisa and Rome), and nowadays nobody thinks these still have scientific value. The absurdity of Cesare Lombroso's theories was been ascertained for a long time by now and represent a valid reason to rethink the assignment of the street name to commemorate Cesare Lombroso.

The figure and work of Cesare Lombroso still represent a great vulnus for all Neapolitans and Sicilians, who one strongly offended by his activities. An offence that still now has consequence for majority of them.

After receiving his bachelor in Medicine at the University of Pavia in 1858, in 1859 Cesar Lombroso enlisted himself `in the Piemontese Military, into which he was invited in 1861, to Calabria as a "medical adviser" in the campaign of repression of brigantaggio.

In Napolitania, having an abundant fleet of humans at his disposition, the doctor began a deep and uncontrolled criminology study on Calabria's population hostile to the Piemontese invasion, looking for an improbable delinquent relationship between language - uses - ways of dressing and the physical characteristics of the residents. His theories took form and were applied without concern on poor peasants whose only guilt was having the measures of the skull similar to that of famous offenders of that period. Those were conjectures that, unfortunately, found fertile land in historical context and a military atmosphere very particular: for the army's leaders it appeared really providential to have found false scientific excuses to justify the bloody repression put into effect against populations unarmed and forced to defend themselves from an invasion with devastating effects.

In this way distortions were introduced to create a negative image of Neapolitans and Sicilians: Lombroso, far from being a rigorous scientist, as appeared later, was recruited to prove, on the false and absurd basis, that the southern people were offenders at birth. The doctor from Verona measures the size and shape of the skull of many rebels that were killed or deported from Napolitania and Sicily to Piemonte (caring military doctors sent him, for years, the body or at least the skull of "briganti" - who men and women killed in battle or died in jail - so that he could measure, dissect, study and then try to prove the theory of "the natural offender"), concluding that these atavistic traits related back to the "primitive man". In reality, it was one of the most brutal physical and psychological violence, deliberately put in place against the southern people, an event entirely unworthy of the alleged craftsman of the Italian Risorgimento, and indelible damage to all of humanity as a result of Lombroso's hatred towards Neapolitans and Sicilians.
Nowadays there are a Museum in Turin (Piedmont), dedicated to this freaking figure, and this museum are exposed lots of human rests of "Briganti", the last Neapolitan patriots.

Neapolitan Nationality

Nationality is the status of belonging to a particular nation by origin, birth, or naturalization. A people having common origins, history, language or traditions are often constituting a nation.
Neapolitans have been a people, a nation and have had a nationality for more than 700 years. When the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was formed of a union of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples in 1816 and until 1860, during this period the secular right of Sicilians to have their own nationality was suppressed, so during this period even Sicilians had Neapolitan nationality.

Source:
http://tinyurl.com/68e5tan
http://tinyurl.com/6bps4c9
http://tinyurl.com/65ekrvo
http://tinyurl.com/5vlr4y6
http://tinyurl.com/65flj9k
http://tinyurl.com/5v25ryo
http://tinyurl.com/6ewxgsv
http://tinyurl.com/68dnqe5
http://tinyurl.com/6evxvzr
http://ilnapolitano.com/post/11652643707/i-duosiciliani-non-esistono
* The first image is from: "The boundaries of citizenship: race, ethnicity, and nationality in the liberal state" of Jeff Spinner

The Character of The Neapolitans

Source:http://tinyurl.com/5vkyjkv

It is time to surpass the political doctrine of neo-liberalism, the capitalism has shown it's unsustainability, it's time to implement a real democracy, and extend it to the economic sphere also.
We have not any recipe to apply, but just directions to follow:
1) repudiation of the cultural homogenisation, we have to go back to our roots, consume local products, revalue our culture and our diversity
2) exit all the international schema, NATO, WTO, IMF, EU, etc., we need that people cooperate with eachother directly, through cultural and socio-economic exchanges and unconditional mutual aid.
3) Support the struggle of the people for freedom

New book about Napolitania is out now!

New book about Napolitania is out now! And has the title "NAPOLITANIA", this book is written by Antonio Pagano, born in Naples, graduated in Law and former Army Officer for the paratroopers division "Folgore". Pagano is not a professional historian, but a very deep passionated lover of the South Italian history. Pagano was among the founders of the magazine "Due Sicilie", and for long time director of this magazine.
This book describes detailedly from the origin to nowadays the chains of historically events that have formed the Napolitania.
This book an attempt to fill the void that the Italian historiography systematically demonstrates ignoring or mystifying Naples' long and glorious history, making of "Risorgimento" a state religion.
The Italian historiography has been used like an indoctrination apparatus to spread false myths about the heroes of the unification of Italy and create historical mythological path that confirms the "italianitá".

http://www.booksprintedizioni.it/libroDett.asp?id=585

First National Congress of the Neapolitan Independentists

For first time since 1861, Neapolitan independentists gather in Civitella del Tronto to plan an work agenda for the liberation of the Neapolitan provinces.

The fortress in Civitella del Tronto is one of the most impressive work of military engineering, not only in Abruzzo, but also in Europe. With a length of more than 500 metres and in area of 25000 square metres, it was a bulwark on the northern border of the Neapolitan State for many centuries.
The Aragonese stronghold most probably stood on a pre-existing medieval structure but was completely transformed between 1564 and 1576 by order of Philip II of the Habsurg family.
Thanks to later changes made during the Bourbon dynasty, the fortress put up a gallant resistance against the siege of Sardinia-Piedmontese army in 1860-1861. After the last assault it was demolished and subsequently plundered by the invaders.

Are you italian??

Present and Future

One of the popular Italian newspapers “Repubblica” had a study on the Campania Region that Rosaria Vincenzi, Director of the Imparare Giocando, wished to share, it is concerning the sad state of education and social services in southern Italy, and Naples in particular.

“The European Region with the most poor families, unemployed, women with no jobs, and minors living in misery is the Campania Region. The total is about 2 million and of these 24,000 alone are in the city of Naples. One person out of three doesn’t have enough to live on. Two out of ten eat only three times a week. Eight out of ten can not pay the house rent. 40% of the people are unemployed. Two out of ten people who work are earning less than 1,000 euros per month, one out of ten earn less than 500 euros per month. Over half of the population accumulates at least 200 euros of debt per month. The yearly salary is 16,000 euros compared to 33,000 annual salary in the Northern region of Lombardia. One working contract out of two is a time-contract. 45% of children don’t attend school. Among the 80 poorest regions of Europe, the Campania Region occupies the 68 place on the scale. The poor people of southern Italy number a little less than 6 million.

Today work is concentrated in Northern Italy. In the South the unemployment is four times higher than in the North. In the South there is work but it is “the precarious” (15% of the unemployed people) or the so called black work (black market) and it reaches the 30% in Calabria and Sicily.

The Campania region and Naples also show a poor cultural side. We’re far behind in school education as well as in Universities and in the research field which makes even worse our “social capital” and the life of our youngsters. One quarter of the Neapolitan young people leave school after the junior high level. According to experts, these different social and cultural conditions, starting from preschool children, influence children in a very decisive manner, affecting their learning abilities and their ability to express themselves, to distinguish colors, and to understanding space and shapes. In fact, the grades in math of a student with a high social status is over 25% in respect to that obtained by a student with lower social status. The students of Naples today, even if they study in expensive and prestigious schools, still are less well informed in respect to students living in northern Italy. This is not so because they are less intelligent but only because they are very unfortunate to attend very inefficient and depressed school systems.

In Italy there is a big difference between north and south as far as the school system works. All school teachers, some with diplomas or a University degree, agree that the southern Italian school system is much behind their northern counterparts. Every year there is a study done by the Repubblica newspaper, to rank the best Italian universities and the universities of southern Italy are never among the best ones ranked.

Today this means that if you don’t have a good social/economic base as a child, you’re not going to achieve a better social/economic state in the future. In the modern social society, the poor people have only one way to have a good economic development and that is to have a good school preparation. If the poor don’t even have this opportunity they’ll certainly have no better life in the future.

To be children, young people, women, sick, and old people is often very difficult in Southern Italy. It is a certain kind of “generational poverty” which punished the weak segments of society. The welfare system which in the south is essentially a mix of waste, inefficiency, and bad services. Even from birth, the differences seen between Southern and Northern Italy are stark. In Calabria there is a infant mortality rate of 5.4% compared to 2.79% infant mortality in Lombardia. Finally the help that municipalities give to families and their children is an average of 36.40 euro per family in the south compared to an average of 140.5 euros given to a family in the North."

Looking back at Naples' sovereignty

To have a wide-ranging review of the political, civil, social and cultural history of Napolitania under the rule of the Royal House of Bourbon Two Sicilies (1734-1860) it can be useful to make a short summary of the main "supremacies" which marked in a deep way the Neapolitan and Sicilian civilisation and society in the second half of the eighteenth century and in the first half of the nineteenth.

In fact, this short summary will clearly show how positive and constructive were the works of the Bourbon sovereigns (Charles, Ferdinand and Ferdinand II in particular, as we saw) on one hand, and how misleading and often untruthful is the Risorgimento "vulgate" about the Bourbon rule in Italy.

INDUSTRY:

* At the Paris International Exhibition in 1856 it received the Prize for the third industrially developed country in the world (first in Italy);
* First iron suspended bridge (across the Garigliano river)
* First railroad and railway station in Italy (Napoli-Portici railroad);
* First gas-fuelled lighting system;
* First electric telegraph;
* First network of lighthouses with lenses system;
* Largest engineering industry in Italy, at Pietrarsa;
* Naples shipyard had the first masonry dry dock in Italy;
* First submarine telegraph in continental Europe.

ECONOMY:

* Reclamation of Terra di Lavoro;
* State revenue listed at 12% at Paris Stock Exchange;
* Lower discount rate (5%)
* First bank checks in the history of economics (policies on Credit Guarantees);
* First University Chair in Economics (Naples, A. Genovesi, 1754);
* First Goods Exchange and second Stock Exchange in continental Europe;
* Greatest number of Joint-Stock Companies in Italy;
* Best public finance in Italy; this was the pattern in 1860 (in million gold-lire) [See F.S. NITTI, La scienza delle finanze, quoted in H. ACTON, The Last Bourbons of Naples, (1962) Italian version edited by Giunti, Florence 1997, p. 2.] :
- Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: 443,2
- Lombardy: 8,1
- Venetia: 12,7
- Duchy of Modena: 0,4
- Parma and Piacenza: 1,2
- Pontifical State: 90,6
- Kingdom of Sardinia: 27
- Grand Duchy of Tuscany: 84,2

* First merchant fleet in Italy (third in the world);
* First cruising fleet in the Mediterranean;
* First Italian fleet to reach America and the Pacific Ocean;
* First Italian fleet to reach America and the Pacific Ocean;
* First pension system in Italy (with 2% deductions on salaries);
* Lower number of taxes in all Italian States.

JURISPRUDENCE - MILITARY ORGANISATION:

Inauguration ceremony of the Raddobbo Basin in the military harbour of Naples (15-8-1852), oil on canvas. second half of the nineteenth century, Naples, General Command of the South Tyrrhenian Maritime Military Department S. Fergola Inauguration ceremony of the Raddobbo Basin in
the military harbour of Naples (15-8-1852), oil on canvas.
second half of the nineteenth century, Naples, General Command
of the South Tyrrhenian Maritime Military Department
S. Fergola

* Promulgation of the first Maritime Code in Italy;
* First military code;
* Institutes of justification of judgements (G. Filangieri, 1774);
* Establishment of Military Colleges (Nunziatella);
* Fire Brigade.

SCIENCE AND CULTURE:

* Chair of Psychiatry;
* Chair of Obstetrics and surgery observations;
* Physics Laboratory of the King;
* Vesuvian seismologic observatory (first in the world), with its meteorologic station;
* Papyrus Factory in Herculaneum;
* Highest percentage of physicians per capita in Italy;
* Lowest infant mortality rate in Italy;
* First tourist agencies in Italy;
* Archaeological Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum;

S. Carlo's theatre rebuilt after the fire of 1816 S. Carlo's theatre rebuilt
after the fire of 1816

* Posillipo painting school (among others, G. Gigante studied here);
* The very famous ceramic and porcelain manufactures, among which

Capodimonte manufactures;

* S. Carlo's Theatre (the first in the world), rebuild in just 270 days after a
fire;
* Neapolitan music school (Paisiello, Cimarosa, Scarlatti);
* World success (still now) of Neapolitan songs;
* The royal palaces.

These are just the “supremacies”. Our list do not include all activities carried out in the Kingdom and the success and progress reached in every sector, since we have already outlined them under the previous headings. We just mention here, as a further example, the tapestry weaving school.

To conclude, we think that to arouse controversies is out of place here. We just desire to stress three historical truths so manifest to be incontrovertible: after what described on this website,

1) can we still continue to believe in the Risorgimento “vulgate” presenting the Naples' sovereignty as the most hated and old-fashioned in Italy?
2)How to explain that before 1861 the phenomenon of migration did not exist at all and that after that date almost 20.000.000 desperate people had to migrate?
3) Can all this provide an explanation of the tragic as well as heroic phenomenon of the pro-Bourbon revolution of 1860-1865?

It is clear, now more than ever, that Italians must be informed about their history according to greater unbiased criteria. And this is not to arouse fruitless controversies, but to honour and serve historical truth.

And to serve the memory of the cultural and civil identity of all Italians.

Ferdinand II was surely the King of Naples most loved by his subjects, and for this reason still today he is the most calumniated by history, since history was written by those who stole the kingdom from his son through a treachery invasion of a peaceful and allied State, with a lawful monarch loved by his subjects. It is therefore clear that the winners could justify this action only by accusing the Bourbon Two Sicilies of a disqualified government. In short, to provide a possible historical justification to the assault of the peaceful, allied, lawful and seven-centuries old Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, they had to cast a blot on the memory of its Kings and in particular the best and more recent of them (since Francis II had just ascended the Throne and was still too young to be credibly calumniated).

In the next heading dedicated to Francis II and the historical events that led to the fall of the Kingdom, we will analyse in detail Cavour's policy, Garibaldi's expedition and the heroic Bourbon resistance. Here we just analyse the reformist policy carried out by Ferdinand II, since in this way it is possible to understand why he was the most loved King of Naples. His calumniators, those who directly or indirectly plotted for the fall of the Kingdom, presented his government as the "denial of God", and since then all schoolbooks of history (and not only them) repeat the same old calumnies. We, on the contrary, will leave the floor to some of the most famous old and new historians of the Risorgimento who do not pay a supine obedience to those lies so that they would describe the real character and work of this sovereign.

The historian of the Bourbon, Angelantonio Spagnoletti (A. SPAGNOLETTI, “Storia del Regno delle Due Sicilie”, Il Mulino, Bologna 1997, pp. 80-90) described the fame surrounding Ferdinand II among his subjects. He was surely the most loved Bourbon King of Naples; his constant concern was the easing of the suffering of his people when struck by earthquakes or outbreaks; he personally went to visit the places and was often present in Sicily to directly solve the ever present problems with the difficult local populations (even Louis Blanch acknowledged the love of these people to their sovereign and Niccolò Tommaseo described him as the best of the Italian Princes). While travelling, he lived with his subjects, was a witness to their weddings and baptisms, gave them money, etc. In short, he liked to be seen as a Father of his people, and they were his family. Spagnoletti wrote (p. 88): «Calumny seemed always present in the life and work of Ferdinand II; despite that, the pro-Bourbon environment knew that the King was virtuous and loyal, that he kept the valour, mercifulness and devotion of his ancestors, avoided any involvement of the Kingdom in the risings of 1830-31 and in so doing avoided dangerous foreign interferences, defended the national pride in the matter of sulphur and for this reason the whole population stood with him, a unique soul with their king».

On the innovations made by Ferdinand II, Carlo Alianello (C. ALIANELLO, “La conquista del Sud. Il Risorgimento nell'Italia meridionale” (1972), Rusconi, Milano 1998, pp. 121-126) wrote: «He made roads, harbours, drainages, hospices and banks; he could not put up with presumptuous and greedy middle classes, the so-called learned bourgeoisie, the "gentlemen". And this was his great "fault". He was a King, but not a "Bourgeois King” as it was the fashion in those times. He was a King who served the needs of his people and not the interest of the “intellectuals” who had opened the doors of the Kingdom to the French enemy and then praised Murat the invader. He tried to create a bourgeoisie with sound targets. He was not lucky, because there was no Neapolitan bourgeoisie other than that of professions and studies, “scribblers and students”, those who had thrown out his grandfather from Naples, inseparable from the foreigners due to ideological reasons that the King, as such, did not understand; and the greedy group of landowners».

F. Durelli said (F. DURELLI, “Cenno storico di Ferdinando II, Re del Regno delle Due Sicilie”, Stamperia Reale, Napoli 1859) that «In just four years, from 1850 to 1854, more than 108,950 modii of usurped land were restored into State Property and given to needy farmers»; Alianello wrote: «I quote from the 1854 Royal Almanac of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after a long and detailed list of banks and charity institutes, the following remark: "Besides religious places etc., we count a total of 761 charity associations on continental dominions, more than 1131 wheat banks and other pawnbroker's, agrarian banks and kindergartens" (…) Upon the king's will, new roads were built and their extension increased from 1505 miles in 1828 to 4587 miles in 1855. And they were important roads...». The Amalfitana, Sorrentina, Frentana, whose construction was interrupted by the arrival of the “liberation army” and completed only a hundred years later. Then the Adriatic coastal road, the Sora-Roma, Appulo-sannitica, which connected Abruzzi and Capitanata, Aquilonia, connecting the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic Sea, the Sannita, from Campobasso to Termoli. Durelli added: «In short, from '52 to '56, in just four years, 76 new royal, provincial or communal roads were built. And also many bridges, among which the one over the Garigliano river, suspended to iron chains, the first to use this structure in Italy and among the very first ones in Europe. And the drainages, the canalisation of the Pelino river, the banking up of the muddy lands of Salpi lake, the drainage of marshes in Campania (…) In 30 years, sailing vessels were doubled, steam ships created out of nothing and in 1855 the fleet had 472 ships and 108.543 tons, plus 6 paddle-steamers and 6,913 tons of other boats. And schools, nautical colleges, industries».

Marta Petrusewicz gave an overview of his kingdom and wrote: «(…) the population increases, the customs and taxation systems are better organised and the government is carrying out a clever intervention of construction of roads and railroads, royal factories and modern prisons» (M. PETRUSEWICZ, “Come il Meridione divenne una questione”, Rubbettino, Catanzaro 1998, p. 37).

To understand this King even better, let us read what the Irish Papal Zouave P.K. O’Clery wrote (out of his direct experience) in his famous work on Risorgimento (P.K. O' CLERY, “La Rivoluzione italiana. Come fu fatta l'unità della nazione”, (I ed. 1875, 1892), Ed. Ares, Milano 2000, pp. 95-96). Soon after ascending the Throne, Ferdinand II granted a general amnesty and behaved as follows: «To introduce economy criteria in finances, Ferdinand reduced by a great extent his appanage, abolished some useless offices and some royal prerogatives. He streamlined the procedures in Tribunals, replaced the unpopular viceroy of Sicily and appointed his brother to hold that position and, when he travelled across the kingdom, prohibited the municipalities to prepare costly accommodations and accepted the hospitality of residents or stopped at a village inn or a Franciscan monastery. We therefore must not get surprised by the fact that he was considered a popular King». We must also mention that in 1838 he joined the French and British agreements against the Negro slave trade and in that same year he set up very severe punishments (imprisonment and expulsion from Knighthood Orders) against duels, and the punishments included also the seconds. He granted amnesty to political prisoners in Sicily and great legal and administrative autonomy to that island; he personally followed the fight against feudatories. Economy experienced a continuous growth "despite its swinging, the Boubon economic policy showed a remarkable continuity" (PETRUSEWICZ, “op. cit.”, p. 72), and merchant navy a great development (CONIGLIO, “op. cit.”, pp. 340-342).

For example, let us see what Angela Pellicciari wrote (A. PELLICCIARI, “L'altro Risorgimento. Una guerra di religione dimenticata”, Ed. Piemme, Casal Monferrato 2000, pp. 181-182). In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the expected spending was higher that the real one; no succession duty, joint-venture and loan bank duties were paid; the national debt was low, as well as the land tax; Sicily was exempted from military service, salt tax and tobacco monopoly; moreover, Ferdinand, as reported by the magazine "L'Armonia", had «established wheat banks in the most important towns to provide farmers with wheat to sow and allow them to support their families and in so doing he also cut off usury».

What above is confirmed also by what Giuseppe Paladino wrote about Ferdinand II in the “Enciclopedia Italiana” (Treccani): «He boosted constructions of public utility. The Naples-Portici was the first railroad inaugurated in Italy (1839). It was followed by the Naples-Capua railroad, always in the Kingdom. Under Ferdinand II the electric telegraph network was enlarged (…) The steam merchant navy registered a great increase; in 1848 it occupied the third place as concerned the number and rigging of ships. A series of trade agreements with England, France, Sardinia inaugurated an enlightened system of moderate protectionism (1841-1845). Finances were managed in an admirable way: Neapolitan taxpayers paid less than other Italians…».

As concerns the administration of justice, we must mention that after the revolution of 1848 no capital punishment was carried out in the Kingdom of Naples (apart from that of Agesilao Milano). Tribunals sentenced 42 capital punishments, but Ferdinand II changed 19 of them into life imprisonment, 11 into 30 years imprisonment and 12 into lesser terms of imprisonment (PETRUSEWICZ, “op. cit.”, p. 114 as "Many prisoners, among which De Sanctis and Dragonetti, after some years of imprisonment, were apparently deported to America, but the authorities knew very well that they were to be landed en route to Malta or England and would take refuge in some European country"). In those same years the King pardoned 2713 political convicts and 7181 normal prisoners, and from '48 the statistics showed a reduction of crimes in the Neapolitan kingdom. When the trial against Settembrini and Spaventa was held because they were charged of founding the secret society "Unità italiana", foreign observers, although opposing the Bourbon, had to admit that the trial was held in a fully correct way (M. PETRUSEWICZ, “op. cit.”, p. 107: in the events of '48 in Naples "The prevailing feeling, both in the government and in the public opinion, was nor republican nor anti-Bourbon. Apart from some convinced republicans such as Ricciardi, Saliceti and La Farina (the future strong supporter of Cavour), most leaders (…) thought that Ferdinand II was able to carry out this task"(.

However, here is how the French journalist Charles Garnier described the situation of the Kingdom in his “Memory on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies” (Paris, 1866): «taxes were less burdening than in Piedmont and lower than in post-Unitarian Italy; Government’s credit was sound, the debt low, conscription more bearable; most tax income was used in agriculture and public work, among which we mention the first railroad and the first telegraph as well as the first suspension bridge and the first dioptric lights and the first steamer. Commerce was growing and factories were flourishing». Garnier also provided evidence of how the factories of the South were destroyed in the first years of the unification to favour those of the North.

In general, we can add to these already quoted opinions of historians that Ferdinand travelled a lot across his Kingdom to visit hospitals, prisons, farms etc., since he always wanted to personally meet the needs of his subjects; in order to save money and reduce taxes, besides a reduction of Court spending and his personal spending, he reduced the salary of Ministers and to fight against unemployment he ruled that the same person could not hold two public positions; many royal hunting parks were transformed in farming lands: he developed industry, especially textile industry, built roads and railroads as well as harbours, dockyards, bridges across rivers, cemeteries out of towns, hospitals, conservatories, orphanages, kindergartens for poor children, shelters for the mentally ill (he abolished begging), houses for girls, modern prisons and institutes for the deaf and dumb; in the cultural sector, he established chairs, opened libraries, boarding schools, girls boarding schools, agrarian gardens and free schools; he drained marshes and the island of S. Stefano facing Gaeta and introduced new cultivations in the Kingdom; he established institutes to foster commercial enterprises by rewarding the best ones with medals; on every occasion (royal weddings, special events, etc.) he made donations to the poor and wedding dowries to poor girls; in the event of cholera epidemics he personally visited hospitals and he did the same in the event of earthquakes and natural disasters, and personally and materially comforted the people; on the other hand, he also strengthened the army and military navy, which became one of the first navies in Europe. And we could add much more, but it is clear that Ferdinand II was the highest and most complete expression of that political and social reformism inaugurated by his great-grandfather Charles.