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Southern Italy ( , or Italia meridionale ; ; ), also known as Meridione () or Mezzogiorno (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions.
The term "Mezzogiorno" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum and ultra Pharum, i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of the Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.«Con questa denominazione si indica lo Stato costituito nel dic. 1816 con l’unificazione dei regni di Napoli e di Sicilia, che restaurava l’autorità borbonica su tutta l’Italia meridionale; fu mantenuta fino all’ott. 1860, quando, tramite plebiscito, fu votata l’annessione al regno di Sardegna.» «Mezzogiorno, region in Italy roughly coextensive with the former Kingdom of Naples.» «Meridionale: in part.: che fa parte delle regioni continentali e insulari del Mezzogiorno d'Italia (delimitate convenzionalmente dai fiumi Garigliano e Sangro), le quali, in età prerisorgimentale, costituivano il Regno delle due Sicilie.» Battaglia, Salvatore (1961). Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, UTET, Torino, V. X, p.160.«Il regno meridionale, Napoli e Sicilia con 6 milioni e 200 mila abitanti,... pare in principio per certa foga di riforme e per valori d'ingegni filosofici e riformisti gareggiare con la Lombardia austriaca.» Carducci, III-18-21, citato in Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, UTET, Torino, V. X, p.160.«Tra le maggiori novità del secolo ci fu proprio il ritorno all'indipendenza del regno meridionale, che riunì in un unico stato indipendente e sovrano il Mezzogiorno insulare e continentale.»
The island of Sardinia, which was not part of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alps House of Savoy, which would eventually annex the Bourbons' southern Italian kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into the Mezzogiorno. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term "south Italy" (Italia meridionale, or just Sud, i.e. "south") to statistically identify in its reportings the six mainland regions of southern Italy without Sicily and Sardinia, which form a distinct statistical region under the ISTAT denominated "Insular Italy" (Italia insulare, or simply Isole "Islands"). These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for the European Parliament. Nonetheless, Sardinia and especially Sicily are included as "southern Italy" in most definitions of the southern Italy macroregion.
The term came into vogue after the annexation of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the mainland-based Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia, and the subsequent Italian unification of 1861.
The eastern coast is bordered by the Adriatic Sea, which connects to the wider Mediterranean via the Strait of Otranto, named after the largest city on the tip of the heel. On the Adriatic, just south of the "spur" of the boot, lies the Monte Gargano peninsula. On the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Gulfs of Salerno, Naples, Policastro, and Gaeta are each named after major coastal cities. Along the northern coast of the Gulf of Salerno and the southern edge of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast; off the peninsula's tip is the island of Capri.
The region's climate is predominantly Mediterranean (Köppen classification Csa), except at higher elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and in the semi-arid eastern areas of Apulia and Molise, as well as along the Ionian coast of Calabria and in southern Sicily (BSw). Naples is the largest city in Southern Italy, retaining its ancient Greek name for millennia. Other major cities include Bari, Taranto, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno.
Southern Italy is geologically active and highly seismic, with the exception of the Salento area in Apulia. The 1980 Irpinia earthquake, for example, resulted in 2,914 deaths, over 10,000 injuries, and left 300,000 people homeless.
They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. The first Greek settlers found Italy inhabited by three major populations: Ausones, Oenotrians and Iapyges (the last of which were subdivided into three tribes: Daunians, Peucetians and Messapians). The relationships between the Greek settlers and the native peoples were initially hostile especially with the Iapygian tribes. The Hellenic influence eventually shaped their culture and way of life. and their dialect groupings in southern Italy
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The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal southern Italy Magna Graecia ("Great Greece") since it was so densely populated by coastal Greek colonies; the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria with Strabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions.
With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis. An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic languages and Roman civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcis/Cumaean alphabet variety of the Greek alphabet, which was adopted by the Etruscans; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world.
Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful like Neapolis (Νεάπολις, Naples, "New City"), Syrakousai (Συράκουσαι, Syracuse), Akragas (Ἀκράγας, Agrigento), and Sybaris (Σύβαρις, Sibari). Other cities in Magna Graecia included Taranto (Τάρας), Metapontum (Μεταπόντιον), Heraclea Lucania (Ἡράκλεια), Locri (Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι), Rhegion (Ῥήγιον), Crotone (Κρότων), Thurii (Θούριοι), Velia (Ἐλέα), Nola (Νῶλα), Sessa Cilento (Σύεσσα), Bari (Βάριον), and others.
Although many of the Greek inhabitants of Magna Graecia were entirely Latinized during the Middle Ages, pockets of Greek culture and language remained and have survived to the present day. One example is the Griko people in Calabria (Bovesia) and Salento (Grecìa Salentina), some of whom still maintain their Greek language (Griko language) and customs. The Griko language is the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia.
After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Ancient Rome hegemony in 282 BCE, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position until the Migration Period (the Gladiator War is a notable suspension of Roman Empire control). It was restored to Byzantine Empire control in the 530s after the fall of Rome in the West in 476, and some form of imperial authority survived until the 1070s. Total East Roman rule was ended by the Lombards by Zotto's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.
From 999 to 1139, the Normans occupied all the Lombard and Byzantine possessions in southern Italy, ended a millennium of imperial Roman rule in Italy and eventually expelled the Muslims from Sicily. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II was characterised by its competent governance, multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance. Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native" Sicilians lived in relative harmony. However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades before it formally ended in 1198 with the reign of Constance of Sicily, and was replaced by that of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, thanks to Constance's marriage to Henry VI, member of this family.
In Sicily, King Frederick II endorsed a deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and a source of inspiration for a long time afterward. It made the Kingdom of Sicily a centralised state and established the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. His royal court in Palermo from around 1220 to his death saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian, which had a significant influence on what was to become the modern Italian language. He also built the Castel del Monte and in 1224 founded the University of Naples, now called, after him, Università Federico II.
In 1266, conflict between the House of Hohenstaufen and the papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke of Anjou. Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Byzantine Empire and the Crown of Aragon led to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until 1302 the Peace of Caltabellotta divided the old Kingdom of Sicily into two.
The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the House of Barcelona, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, called Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously but Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo. Although the king of Spain had seized both two crowns in the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816, when they were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.
Ferrantino was restored to the throne but died in 1496 and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV. The French, however, did not give up their claim and, in 1501, agreed to a partition of the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin, King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and the Crown of Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, ultimately resulting in an Aragonese victory leaving Ferdinand in control of the kingdom by 1504.
The kingdom remained disputed between France and Spain for the next several decades. The French efforts to gain control of it became feebler as the decades went on, and Spanish control was never genuinely endangered. The French finally abandoned their claims to the kingdom by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. With the Treaty of London (1557), the new client state of the so-called Presidi ("state of the garrisons") was established and governed directly by Spain as part of the Kingdom of Naples.
The administration of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, as well as of the Duchy of Milan, was run by the Council of Italy. The island of Sardinia, which had fully come to be under Iberian sovereignty in 1409 upon the fall of the last indigenous state, was an integral part of the Council of Aragon instead and remained as such until the first years of the XVIII° century, when Sardinia was ceded to Austria and eventually handed over to the Alps-based House of Savoy in 1720.
After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Naples was given to Charles VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily were conquered by a Spanish army during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734, and Charles, Duke of Parma, a younger son of King Philip V of Spain was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV. Despite the two kingdoms being in a personal union under the House of Bourbon from 1735 onwards, they remained constitutionally separated.
After Napoleon's defeat, King Ferdinand IV was restored by the Congress of Vienna of 1815 as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. He established a concordat with the Papal States, which previously had a claim to the land. There were several rebellions on the island of Sicily against the King Ferdinand II, but the end of the kingdom was not brought about until the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, an icon of Italian Unification, with the support of the House of Savoy and its Kingdom of Sardinia with its economic, political and cultural powerhouse in Northern Italy. The expedition resulted in a striking series of defeats for the Sicilian armies against the growing troops of Garibaldi. After the capture of Palermo and Sicily, he disembarked in Calabria and moved towards Naples, and in the meantime the Piedmontese also invaded the Kingdom from the Marche. The last battles fought were that of the Volturnus in 1860 and the siege of Gaeta, where King Francis II had sought shelter for help, which never came.
The last towns to resist Garibaldi's expedition were Messina, which surrendered on 13 March 1861, and Civitella del Tronto, which surrendered on 20 March 1861. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, which was founded in the same year.
In 1860, the southern merchant navy amounted to 260,000 tons, and the northern merchant navy came to 347,000 tons, apart from the Venetian Navy, which was annexed in 1866 and assessed at 46,000 tons. In 1860 the whole Italian merchant navy was the fourth largest in Europe at about 607,000 tons.National unification and economic development in Italy 1750–1913 (Unità nazionale e sviluppo economico in Italia 1750–1913) by Guido Pescosolido pages 95,133 – Italian edition
The southern merchant navy was made up of sailing vessels mainly for fishing and coastal shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and had very few steamships, even if one of the first steamers was built and fitted out in Naples in 1818. Both the merchant and the military navies were insufficient compared to the great coastal extent of southern Italy, defined by the Italian historian Raffaele De Cesare: "… a great pier towards the south".
In the article "This is Not Italy! Ruling and Representing the South", it is clear how the northern elites considered the south. The Piedmontese north felt the need to invade the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and establish a new form of governance based on the northern system, since they viewed the south as underdeveloped and lacking in social capital. Those views of the south can largely be attributed to the letters of correspondents in southern Italy who sent biased letters to leaders of the north, specifically Camillo Benso, urging the invasion and reformation of the south. Although those views of the south were condescending, they also came with a genuine belief that to create a unified Italy, help from the north was necessary. Viewing southern Italy as barbaric served as a sort of justification to allow the "civilized, Piedmontese north" (167) to intervene. Another view, however, was marked by disdain for southern Italy. According to the article, "such manifestations of the south's difference threaten the glowing and gloating sense of northern superiority" (167). These viewpoints clearly indicate the divide between northern and southern Italy in the 1860s."This Is Not Italy!" Ruling and Representing the South, 1860–1861
In an attempt to explain the striking difference between the annexed territory of the former Two Sicilies and the economic and political powerhouse centred in the north, racist theories were postulated, suggesting that such a divide had its roots in the coexistence of two mostly incompatible races.
The British historian Denis Mack Smith describes the radical difference between Northern and the newly-annexed southern Italy in 1860 as both halves being on quite different levels of civilization. He pointed out that the Bourbons in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were staunch supporters of a feudal system, had feared the traffic of ideas and had tried to keep their subjects insulated from the agricultural and industrial revolutions of Northern Europe.Denis Mack Smith (1998). Modern Italy: A Political History. University of Michigan Press. , p. 3.
The study by Mack Smith is confirmed by the Italian historian and left-wing politician Antonio Gramsci in his book The Southern Question by which the author emphasizes the "absolutely antithetical conditions" of northern and southern Italy at the time of Italian unification in 1861, when south and north were united again after more than one thousand years. Gramsci remarked that in Northern Italy, the historical period of the Comunes had given a special boost to history and in northern Italy existed an economic organization similar to that of the other states of Europe, propitious to further development of capitalism and industry, but in southern Italy, history had been different, and the paternalist Bourbon administrations produced nothing of value. The bourgeois class did not exist, agriculture was primitive and insufficient to satisfy the local market, there were no roads, no ports and the few waterways that the region had were not exploited because of the region's special geographical features. ("brigands") from Basilicata, ]]
The living conditions of the people of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are also illustrated by Raffaele De Cesare,Raffaele De Cesare (1845–1918), Southern Italian historian and politician who reported that the King of Naples Ferdinand II had no interest in doing useful works to improve the neglected condition of public hygiene, particularly in the provinces, where scarcity of sewer systems and often water shortages were known issues.
The problem of brigandage is explained in the book Heroes and Brigands by the southern Italian historian and politician Francesco Saverio Nitti, outlining that brigandage was endemic in southern Italy, since the Bourbons themselves relied on it as their military agent.Heroes and brigands (Eroi e briganti) by Francesco Saverio Nitti – (edition 1899) – Osanna Edizioni 2015 – – page 33 Unlike in southern Italy, there was little brigandage in the other annexed states of Northern and Central Italy, like the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States.
According to the southern Italian historian Giustino Fortunato, and the Italian institutional sources the problems of southern Italy had existed way before Italian unification, and Giustino Fortunato emphasised that the Bourbons were not the only ones responsible for the problems of the south, which had ancient and deep origins in the previous centuries of poverty and isolation, caused by domination by foreign governments.
In literature, the period around 1860 was depicted by the Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novel Il Gattopardo ( The Leopard), set in Sicily at the time of Italian unification. In a famous final scene, Prince Salina, when invited to join the senate of unified Italy, tells a high-ranking Piedmontese officer that "the Sicilian will never want to change, because the Sicilian feels perfect...". With theoe and other words, the author underscored the Sicilians' problems of having to change their old lifestyle and remaining on their island. The novel was adapted by Luchino Visconti for his homonymous 1963 film The Leopard.
Therefore, the south experienced great economic difficulties resulting in massive emigration leading to a worldwide Italian diaspora, especially to North America, South America, Australia and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such as Genoa, Milan and Turin. A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of the "Mezzogiorno" after the Second World War. In the 1946 referendum, the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming in Campania. Politically, the region was at odds with the north, which won the referendum to establish a republic.
Today, the south remains less economically developed than the northern and central regions, which enjoyed an "economic miracle" in the 1950s and the 1960s and became highly industrialized.
| +Most populous urban areas in southern Italy | ||||
| 955,503 | ||||
| 659,894 | ||||
| 319,482 | ||||
| 311,777 | ||||
| 231,708 | ||||
| 195,279 | ||||
| 179,049 | ||||
| 154,108 | ||||
| 150,185 | ||||
| 132,640 | ||||
| Sources: 2019 Demo Istat | ||||
After the rise of Benito Mussolini, the "Iron Prefect", Cesare Mori, tried to defeat the powerful criminal organizations flowering in the south with some degree of success. However, when connections between mafia and the fascists emerged, Mori was removed, and fascist propaganda declared the mafia defeated. Economically, Fascist policy aimed at the creation of an Italian Empire and southern Italian ports were strategic for all commerce towards the colonies. Naples enjoyed a demographic and economic rebirth, mainly due to the interest of King Victor Emmanuel III, who was born there.
In the 1950s, the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno was set up as a huge public master plan to help industrialise the south by land reforms creating 120,000 new small farms and by the "Growth Pole Strategy" whereby 60% of all government investment would go to the south to boost the southern economy by attracting new capital, stimulating local firms, and providing employment. However, the objectives were largely missed, and the south became increasingly subsidised, dependent on the state and incapable of generating private growth itself. Presently, huge regional disparities still persist. Problems still include pervasive organised crime and very high unemployment rates.
Southern Italy's lack of progress in bettering the area has had it record numbers of emigration. The most prevalent issue in southern Italy is its inability to attract businesses and therefore create jobs. Between 2007 and 2014, 943,000 Italians were unemployed, 70% being Italians from the south. Employment in the south is ranked the lowest when compared to countries in the European Union. Italians from the south are also ranked the lowest in terms of financial contributions into the economy of Italy from immigrants. In southern Italy, the tourism, distribution, food industries, wood furniture, wholesale, vehicle sales, mineral sales and artisan fields are among the leading areas contributing to the projected employment growth. The south heavily relies on tourism in for its economy and attracts tourists through its rich historical background.
A report published in July 2015 by the Italian organization SVIMEZ shows that southern Italy had a negative GDP growth in the previous seven years and that from 2000, it has been growing half as much as Greece. In 2016, southern Italy's GDP and economy was growing twice as much as northern Italy's. According to Eurostat figures published in 2019, southern Italy is the European area with the lowest percentages of employment: in Apulia, Sicily, Campania and Calabria, less than 50% of the people aged between 20 and 64 had a job in 2018. That is largely due to the low participation of women in the workforce, as slightly more than 30% of the women are employed, compared to a national and European average of 53.1% and 67.4%, respectively.
In southern Italy, which contains eight cohesion areas (Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Apulia, Abruzzo and Basilicata), a public–private partnership known as SMEI Italy serves as a catalyst for private investment and supports economic growth and employment creation. Over €1 billion in finance has been catalyzed in these eight locations to far, supporting almost 5 000 SMEs and small mid-caps.
| + Southern Italy regions by GDP per capita (in euro, at current market prices) | |||
| 25,000 | 86.51 | ||
| 21,400 | 74.05 | ||
| 20,900 | 72.32 | ||
| 20,100 | 69.55 | ||
| 18,700 | 64.71 | ||
| 18,500 | 64.01 | ||
| 17,700 | 61.25 | ||
| 17,400 | 60.21 | ||
| 28,900 | 100.00'' | ||
Sicily, a distinctive Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture throughout the Middle Ages, was captured by Muslims and turned into an Emirate for a period, and elements of Arab culture were introduced via Sicily to Italy and Europe. The rest of the mainland was subject to a struggle of power among the Byzantine Empire, Lombards, and Franks. In addition, the Venetians established outposts as trade with Byzantium and the Near East increased.
Until the Norman conquests of the 11th and the 12th centuries much of the south followed Eastern rite (Greek) Christianity. The Normans who settled in Sicily and southern Italy in the Middle Ages significantly impacted the architecture, religion and high culture of the region. Later, southern Italy was subjected to rule by the new European nation-states, first the Crown of Aragon, then Spain and finally Austria. The Spanish had a major impact on the culture of the south, having ruled it for over three centuries.
Jews communities lived in Sicily and southern Italy for over 15 centuries, but in 1492, King Ferdinand II of Aragon proclaimed the Edict of Expulsion. At their height, Jewish Sicilians probably constituted around one tenth of the island's population. After the edict, they partially converted to Christianity and some moved to the Ottoman Empire and other places in Italy and Europe. In the 19th century, street musicians from Basilicata, especially the "Viggiano", began to roam worldwide to seek a fortune, most of them would become professional instrumentalists in symphonic orchestras, especially in the United States.International Council for Traditional Music, Report from the International Meeting of the International Council for Traditional Music's Study Group on Folk Musical Instruments, Volume 11, Musikmuseet, 1992, p. 54
Southern Italy has many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii, Sassi di Matera, Trullo and other archaeological sites (many of which are protected by UNESCO). There are also many Ancient Greece cities in southern Italy, such as Sybaris and Paestum, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. Some of its beaches, woodlands and mountains are preserved in several National Parks; a major example is the Pollino, between Basilicata and Calabria, that hosts the largest national park in Italy.
In recent years, southern Italy has experienced a revival of its traditions and music, such as the Neapolitan song and the tarantella.
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