GELA in SICILY 315BC Rare R2 Hercules River God Gelas Ancient Greek Coin i52020

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The history of Sicily has seen
Sicily
usually controlled by greater powers—Roman,
Vandal
,
Byzantine
,
Islamic
,
Norman
,
Hohenstaufen
,
Catalan
,
Spaniard
—but also experiencing short periods of
independence, as under the
Greeks
and later as the
Emirate
then
Kingdom of Sicily
. Although today part of the
Republic of Italy
, it has its own distinct
culture.

Sicily is both the largest region of the modern state of
Italy
and the largest island in the
Mediterranean Sea
. Its central location and
natural resources ensured that it has been considered a crucial strategic
location due in large part to its importance for Mediterranean trade routes. For
example, the area was highly regarded as part of
Magna Graecia
, with
Cicero
describing
Syracuse
as the greatest and most beautiful
city of all
Ancient Greece
.

The economic history of rural Sicily has focused on its “latifundium
economy” caused by the centrality of large, originally feudal, estates used for
cereal cultivation and animal husbandry that developed in the 14th century and
persisted until World War II.

At times the island has been at the heart of great civilizations, at other
times it has been nothing more than a colonial backwater. Its fortunes have
often waxed and waned depending on events out of its control, in earlier times a
magnet for
immigrants
, in later times a land of
emigrants
. Sicily is part of the
Mezzogiorno
(southern Italy, including Sicily
and often Sardinia
), a region historically characterized
by a predominantly agrarian economy, quasi-feudal land tenure, sharp class
differences, and the vendettas and criminal activities of the Camorra in Naples
and the Mafia in Sicily.

Prehistory

The
indigenous peoples
of
Sicily
, long absorbed into the population,
were tribes known to
ancient Greek
writers as the
Elymians
, the
Sicani
and the Siculi or
Sicels
(from which the island gets its name).
Of these, the last were clearly the latest to arrive on this land and were
related to other
Italic peoples
of southern Italy, such as the
Italoi of
Calabria
, the
Oenotrians
,
Chones
, and
Leuterni
(or Leutarni), the

Opicans, and the
Ausones
. It is possible, however, that the
Sicani were originally an
Iberian
tribe. The Elymi, too, may have distant
origins outside of Italy, in the
Aegean Sea
area. The recent discoveries of
dolmens also in this island (dating to the second half of the third millennium
BC), seems to open up new horizons on the composite cultural panorama of
primitive Sicily.

It is a well-known fact that this region went through a quite intricate
prehistory, so much so it is difficult to move about in the muddle of peoples
that have followed each other. The impact of two influences, however, remains
clear: the European one coming from the North-West, and the other, the
Mediterranean influence, of a clear oriental matrix. Complex urban settlements
become increasingly evident from around 1300 BC.

From the 11th century BC,
Phoenicians
begin to settle in western Sicily,
having already started colonies on the nearby parts of
North Africa
. Within a century we find major
Phoenician settlements at
Soloeis
(Solunto), present day
Palermo
and
Motya
(an island near present day
Marsala
). As Phoenician
Carthage
grew in power, these settlements came
under its direct control.

Classical Age

Greek period

Greek temple at
Selinunte
. (Temple dedicated to
Hera
, built in the 5th century BC.)

Sicily was colonized by
Greeks
in the 8th century BC. Initially, this
was restricted to the eastern and southern parts of the island. The most
important colony was established at
Syracuse
in 734 BC. Other important
Greek colonies
were

Gela,
Akragas
,
Selinunte
,
Himera
,
Kamarina
and
Zancle
or Messene (modern-day
Messina
, not to be confused with the ancient
city of Messene
in
Messenia
,
Greece
). These city states were an important
part of classical Greek civilization, which included Sicily as part of
Magna Graecia
– both
Empedocles
and
Archimedes
were from Sicily.

These Greek city-states enjoyed long periods of democratic government, but in
times of social stress, in particular, with constant warring against
Carthage
, tyrants occasionally usurped the
leadership. The more famous include:

Gelon,
Hiero I
,
Dionysius the Elder
and
Dionysius the Younger
.

As the Greek and Phoenician communities grew more populous and more powerful,
the Sicels and Sicanians were pushed further into the centre of the island. By
the 3rd century BC, Syracuse was the most populous Greek city in the world.
Sicilian politics was intertwined with politics in Greece itself, leading
Athens, for example, to mount the disastrous
Sicilian Expedition
in 415 BC during the
Peloponnesian War
.

In
Greek Mythology
, the goddess
Athena
threw
Mount Aitna
onto the island of Sicily and upon
either the
gigante

Enkeladus
or
Typhon
during the giants’ war against the gods.

The Greeks came into conflict with the Punic trading communities, by now
effectively protectorates of
Carthage
, with its capital on the African
mainland not far from the southwest corner of the island. Palermo was a
Carthaginian city, founded in the 8th century BC, named Zis or Sis (“Panormos”
to the Greeks). Hundreds of Phoenician and Carthaginian grave sites have been
found in a necropolis over a large area of Palermo, now built over, south of the
Norman palace, where the Norman kings had a vast park.

In the far west, Lilybaeum (now
Marsala
) was never thoroughly Hellenized. In
the
First
and
Second Sicilian Wars
, Carthage was in control
of all but the eastern part of Sicily, which was dominated by Syracuse. However,
the dividing line between the Carthaginian west and the Greek east moved
backwards and forwards frequently in the ensuing centuries.

Punic Wars

The constant warfare between Carthage and the Greek city-states eventually
opened the door to an emerging third power. In the 3rd century BC the
Messanan Crisis
motivated the intervention of
the Roman Republic
into Sicilian affairs, and led
to the
First Punic War
between

Rome and Carthage. By the end of the war in (242 BC), and with the
death of
Hiero II
, all of Sicily except Syracuse was in
Roman hands, becoming Rome’s first province outside of the Italian peninsula.

The success of the Carthaginians during most of the
Second Punic War
encouraged many of the
Sicilian cities to revolt against Roman rule. Rome sent troops to put down the
rebellions (it was during the siege of Syracuse that Archimedes was killed).
Carthage briefly took control of parts of Sicily, but in the end was driven off.
Many Carthaginian sympathizers were killed – in 210 BC the Roman consul
M. Valerian
told the Roman Senate that “no
Carthaginian remains in Sicily”.

Roman Period

The Roman amphitheatre of Syracuse.

For the next 600 years, Sicily was a
province
of the
Roman Republic
and later
Empire
. It was something of a rural backwater,
important chiefly for its grain fields which were a mainstay of the food supply
of the city of Rome until the annexation of Egypt after the
Battle of Actium
largely did away with that
role. The empire made little effort to Romanize the region, which remained
largely Greek. One notable event of this period was the notorious misgovernment
of Verres
as recorded by
Cicero
in 70 BC in his oration,
In Verrem
. Another was the
Sicilian revolt
under
Sextus Pompeius
, which liberated the island
from Roman rule for a brief period.

A lasting legacy of the Roman occupation, in economic and agricultural terms,
was the establishment of the large landed estates, often owned by distant Roman
nobles (the
latifundia
).

Despite its largely neglected status, Sicily was able to make a contribution
to Roman culture through the historian
Diodorus Siculus
and the poet
Calpurnius Siculus
. The most famous
archeological remains of this period are the mosaics of a nobleman’s villa in
present day
Piazza Armerina
. An inscription from
Hadrian
‘s reign lauds the emperor as “The
Restorer of Sicily”, although it is not known what he did to earn this accolade.

It was also during this period that in Sicily we find one of the very
first Christian communities
. Amongst the very
earliest Christian martyrs were the Sicilians
Saint Agatha
of
Catania
and
Saint Lucy
of Syracuse.^{[citation
needed]}

Early Middle Ages

Byzantine period

As the Roman Empire was falling apart, a
Germanic
tribe known as the
Vandals
took Sicily in 440 AD under the rule of
their king
Geiseric
. The Vandals had already invaded parts
of Roman France
and
Spain
, inserting themselves as an important
power in western Europe. However, they soon lost these newly acquired
possessions to another
East Germanic tribe
in the form of the
Goths
. The
Ostrogothic
conquest of Sicily (and Italy as a
whole) under
Theodoric the Great
began in 488; although the
Goths were Germanic, Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government and
allowed freedom of religion.

Depiction of the
Gothic War
.

The
Gothic War
took place between the Ostrogoths
and the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the
Byzantine Empire
. Sicily was the first part of
Italy to be taken under general
Belisarius
who was commissioned by
Eastern Emperor

Justinian I
. Sicily was used as a base for the
Byzantines to conquer the rest of Italy, with
Naples
,

Rome, Milan
and the Ostrogoth capital
Ravenna
falling within five years. However, a
new Ostrogoth king, Totila
, drove down the Italian peninsula,
plundering
and conquering Sicily in 550.
Totila, in turn, was defeated and killed in the
Battle of Taginae
by the Byzantine general
Narses
in 552.

When Ravenna fell to the
Lombards
in the middle of the 6th century,
Syracuse
became Byzantium’s main western
outpost.
Latin
was gradually supplanted by
Greek
as the national language and the Greek
rites of the Eastern Church were adopted.

Byzantine Emperor
Constans II
decided to move from the capital
Constantinople
to
Syracuse
in Sicily in 663, the following year
he launched an assault from Sicily against the
Lombard

Duchy of Benevento
, which then occupied most of
Southern Italy. The rumours that the capital of the empire was to be moved to
Syracuse, along with small raids probably cost Constans his life as he was
assassinated in 668. His son
Constantine IV
succeeded him, a brief
usurpation in Sicily by
Mezezius
being quickly suppressed by the new
emperor.

San Giovanni degli Eremiti
, red
domes showing elements of Arab architecture.

From the late 7th century, Sicily together with
Calabria
comprised the Byzantine
Theme of Sicily
.^[11]

Muslim period

In 826,
Euphemius
the commander of the Byzantine fleet
of Sicily forced a nun to marry him. Emperor
Michael II
caught wind of the matter and
ordered that general Constantine^{[clarification
needed]} end the marriage and cut off Euphemius’
nose. Euphemius rose up, killed Constantine and then occupied Syracuse; he in
turn was defeated and driven out to
North Africa
.

There Euphemius requested the help of
Ziyadat Allah
, the
Aghlabid
Emir of
Tunisia
, in regaining the island; an Islamic
army of
Arabs
,
Berbers
,
Moors
,
Cretan Saracens
and
Persians
was sent.^[12]
The conquest was a
see-saw
affair; the local population resisted
fiercely and the Arabs suffered considerable dissension and infighting among
themselves. It took over a century to complete the conquest (although
practically complete by 902, the last Byzantine strongholds held out until 965).

Throughout this reign, continued revolts by Byzantine Sicilians happened
especially in the east and part of the lands were even re-occupied before being
quashed. Agricultural items such as
oranges
,
lemons
,
pistachio
and
sugar cane
were brought to Sicily, the native
Christians were allowed nominal
freedom of religion
with
jaziya
(tax on non-Muslims, imposed by Muslim
rulers) to their rulers for the right to practise their own religion privately.
However, the
Emirate of Sicily
began to fragment as
inner-dynasty related quarrels took place between the Muslim regime.^[12]

By the 11th century mainland southern Italian powers were hiring ferocious
Norman
mercenaries, who were Christian
descendants of the
Vikings
; it was the Normans under
Roger I
who conquered Sicily from the Muslims.^[12]
After taking Apulia
and
Calabria
, he occupied
Messina
with an army of 700 knights. In 1068,
Roger Guiscard
and his men defeated the Muslims
at Misilmeri
but the most crucial battle was the
siege of Palermo, which led to Sicily being completely in Norman control by
1091.

Many historians have recently argued that the Norman conquest of Islamic
Sicily (1060–91) was the start of the
Crusades
.

High Middle Ages

Norman period
(1130-1194)

Detail of the
mosaic
with Roger II receiving the
crown by Christ,
Martorana
, Palermo. The mosaic
carries an inscription Rogerios Rex

Palermo continued on as the capital under the
Normans
. Roger’s son,
Roger II of Sicily
, was ultimately able to
raise the status of the island, along with his holds of
Malta
and
Southern Italy
to a kingdom in 1130. During
this period the
Kingdom of Sicily
was prosperous and
politically powerful, becoming one of the wealthiest states in all of Europe;
even wealthier than
England
.

The Norman kings relied mostly on the local Sicilian population for the more
important government and administrative positions. For the most part, initially
Greek remained as the language of administration while Norman was the language
of the royal court. Significantly, immigrants from
Northern Italy
and
Campania
arrived during this period and
linguistically the island would eventually become
Latinised
, in terms of church it would become
completely
Roman Catholic
, previously under the Byzantines
it had been more
Eastern Christian
.

The most significant change the Normans were to bring to Sicily was in the
areas of religion, language and population. Almost from the moment Roger I
controlled much of the island, immigration was encouraged from both
Northern Italy
and
Campania
. For the most part these consisted of
Lombards
who were
Latin
-speaking and more inclined to support the
Western church. With time, Sicily would become overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and
a new vulgar Latin idiom would emerge that was distinct to the island.

Roger II’s grandson,
William II
(also known as William the Good)
reigned from 1166 to 1189. His greatest legacy was the building of the Cathedral
of Monreale
, perhaps the best surviving example of
siculo-Norman architecture. In 1177 he married
Joan of England
(also known as Joanna). She was
the daughter of
Henry II of England
and the sister of
Richard the Lion Heart
.

When William died in 1189 without an heir, this effectively signalled the end
of the Hauteville succession. Some years earlier, Roger II’s daughter,
Constance of Sicily
(William II’s aunt) had
been married off to
Henry VI of Hohenstaufen
, meaning that the
crown now legitimately transferred to him. Such an eventuality was unacceptable
to the local barons, and they voted in
Tancred of Sicily
, an illegitimate grandson of
Roger II.

Hohenstaufen reign (1194-1266)

Henry VI of Hohenstaufen
and
Constance of Sicily
.

Tancred died in 1194 just as Henry VI and Constance were travelling down the
Italian peninsula to claim their crown. Henry rode into Palermo at the head of a
large army unopposed and thus ended the Norman
Hauteville
dynasty, replaced by the south
German
(Swabian)
Hohenstaufen
. Just as Henry VI was being
crowned as King of Sicily in Palermo, Constance gave birth to
Frederick II
(sometimes referred to as
Frederick I of Sicily).

Frederick, like his grandfather Roger II, was passionate about science,
learning and literature. He created one of the earliest universities in Europe
(in Naples
), wrote a book on
falconry
(De
arte venandi cum avibus, one of the first handbooks based on
scientific observation rather than medieval mythology). He instituted
far-reaching law reform formally dividing church and state and applying the same
justice to all classes of society, and was the patron of the
Sicilian School
of poetry, the first time an
Italianate form of vulgar Latin was used for literary expression, creating the
first standard that could be read and used throughout the peninsula.

Many repressive measures, passed by Frederick II, were introduced in order to
please the Popes who could not tolerate
Islam
being practiced in the heart of
Christendom
, which resulted in a rebellion of
Sicily’s Muslims. This in turn triggered organized resistance and systematic
reprisals and marked the final chapter of Islam in Sicily. The Muslim problem
characterized
Hohenstaufen
rule in Sicily under
Henry VI
and his son Frederick II. The
rebellion abated, but direct papal pressure induced Frederick to mass transfer
all his Muslim subjects deep into the Italian hinterland, to Lucera. In 1224,
Frederick II
,
Holy Roman Emperor
and grandson of Roger II,
expelled the few remaining
Muslims
from Sicily.

Frederick was succeeded firstly by his son,
Conrad
, and then by his illegitimate son,
Manfred
, who essentially usurped the crown
(with the support of the local barons) while Conrad’s son,
Conradin
was still quite young. A unique
feature of all the Swabian kings of Sicily, perhaps inherited from their
Siculo-Norman forefathers, was their preference in retaining a regiment of
Saracen soldiers as their personal and most trusted regiments. Such a practice,
amongst others, ensured an ongoing antagonism between the papacy and the
Hohenstaufen. The Hohenstaufen rule ended with the death of Manfredi at the
battle of Benevento
(1266).

Late Middle Ages

Angevins
and the Sicilian Vespers

“Sicilian Vespers” (1846), by Francesco Hayez

Throughout Frederick’s reign, there had been substantial antagonism between
the Kingdom and the Papacy, that was part of the
Guelph Ghibelline
conflict. This antagonism was
transferred to the Hohenstaufen house, and ultimately against Manfred.

In 1266
Charles I
, duke of
Anjou
, with the support of the Church, led an
army against the Kingdom. They fought at
Benevento
, just to the north of the Kingdom’s
border. Manfred was killed in battle and Charles was crowned King of Sicily by
Pope Clement IV
.

Growing opposition to French officialdom and high taxation led to an
insurrection in 1282 (the
Sicilian Vespers
) which was successful with the
support of
Peter III
of
Aragón
who was crowned King of Sicily by the
island’s barons. Peter III had previously married Manfred’s daughter, Constance,
and it was for this reason that the Sicilian barons effectively invited him.
This victory split the Kingdom in two, with Charles continuing to rule the
mainland part (still known as the Kingdom of Sicily as well).

The ensuing
War of the Sicilian Vespers
lasted until the
peace of Caltabellotta
in 1302, although it was
to continue on and off for a period of 90 years. With two kings both claiming to
be the King of Sicily, the separate island kingdom became known as the Kingdom
of
Trinacria
. It is this very split that
ultimately led to the creation of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
some 500 years on.

Aragonese period

Peter III’s son,
Frederick III of Sicily
(also known as
Frederick II of Sicily) reigned from 1298 to 1337. For the whole of the 14th
century, Sicily was essentially an independent kingdom, ruled by relatives of
the kings of Aragon, but for all intents and purposes they were Sicilian kings.
The Sicilian parliament, already in existence for a century, continued to
function with wide powers and responsibilities.

During this period a sense of a Sicilian people and nation emerged, that is
to say, the population was no longer divided between Greek, Arab and Latin
peoples.
Catalan
was the language of the royal court,
and
Sicilian
was the language of the parliament and
the general citizenry. These circumstances continued until 1409 when because of
failure of the Sicilian line of the Aragonese dynasty, the Sicilian throne
became part of the
Crown of Aragon
.

The island’s first university was founded at
Catania
in 1434.
Antonello da Messina
is Sicily’s greatest
artist from this period.

Spanish period

Catania

duomo
.
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini
‘s
principal façade of 1736 shows Spanish architectural influences.

With the union of the crowns of
Castile
and Aragon in 1479, Sicily was ruled
directly by the kings of
Spain
via governors and viceroys. In the
ensuing centuries, authority on the island was to become concentrated among a
small number of local barons.

The viceroy had to overcome the distance and poor communication with the
royal court in Madrid. It proved almost impossible for the Spaniard viceroys
both to comply with the demands of the crown and to satisfy the aspirations of
the Sicilians — a situation that also was apparent in Spain’s colonies in Latin
America. The viceroys secured territorial control and sought to guarantee the
loyalty of vassals through distributing patronage in the form of offices and
grants in the name of the king. The monarchy, however, also exercised its power
through royal counsels and independent entities, such as the agents of the
Inquisition and visitadores or inspectors. Local spheres of royal influence
never were clearly defined, and various local political entities within the
viceregal system competed for power, rendering Sicily often ungovernable.

The 16th century was the golden age for Sicily’s wheat exports. Inflation,
rapid population growth, and international markets brought economic and social
changes. In the 17th century Sicily’s silk exports exceeded its wheat exports.
Internal colonization and the foundation of new settlements by feudal
aristocrats in Sicily was notable from 1590 to 1650. It involved the
redistribution of population away from the larger towns back to the countryside.

The baronage took advantage of increasing population and demand to build new
estates, based mostly on wheat, and the new villages were inhabited mostly by
landless laborers. The foundation of estates was a means toward social and
political prominence for many families. The towns people initially welcomed the
process as a way of alleviating poverty by draining off surplus population, but
at the same time it led to a decline in their political and administrative
control of the countryside.

Sicily suffered a ferocious outbreak of the
Black Death
in 1656, followed by a
damaging earthquake
in the east of the island
in 1693. Sicily was frequently attacked by
Barbary pirates
from North Africa. The
subsequent rebuilding created the distinctive architectural style known as
Sicilian Baroque
. Periods of rule
by the house of Savoy
(1713–1720) and then the
Austrian

Habsburgs
gave way to union (1734) with the
Bourbon
-ruled
Kingdom of Naples
, under the rule of Don Carlos
of Bourbon (later
Charles III of Spain
).

Bourbon period

Sicilian Baroque. “Collegiata” in
Catania
, designed by
Stefano Ittar
, circa 1768

The Bourbon kings officially resided in Naples, except for a brief period
during the
Napoleonic Wars
between 1806 and 1815 when the
royal family lived in exile in Palermo. The Sicilian nobles welcomed British
military intervention during this period and a new constitution was developed
specifically for Sicily based on the Westminster model of government. The
British were committed to preserving the security of the Kingdom of Sicily for
the sake of keeping Mediterranean Sea naval operations open against the French.
The British dispatched several expeditions of troops between 1806 and 1815 is
mentioned and built strong fortifications around Messina

The Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were officially merged in 1816 by
Ferdinand I
to form the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
.^[26]
The accession of
Ferdinand II
as king of the Two Sicilies in
1830 was hailed by Sicilians; they dreamed that autonomy would be returned to
the island and the problems of poverty and maladministration of justice would be
tackled by the count of Syracuse, the king’s brother and lieutenant in Sicily.

The royal government in Naples saw the problem of Sicily as being purely
administrative, a question of making existing institutions function properly.
Neapolitan ministers had no interest in serious reforms. Ferdinand’s failure,
leading to disillusion and the revolt of 1837, was due mainly to his making no
attempt to gain support in the Sicilian middle class, with which he could have
faced the power of the baronage.

Simmering discontent with Bourbon rule and hopes of Sicilian independence was
to give rise to a number of major revolutions in 1820 and 1848 against
Bourbon
denial of constitutional government.
The
1848 revolution
resulted in a sixteen month
period of independence from the Bourbons before its armed forces took back
control of the island on 15 May 1849. The city of Messina long harbored
proponents of independence throughout the 19th century, and its urban
Risorgimento leaders arose out of a diverse milieu comprising artisans, workers,
students, clerics, Masons, and sons of English, Irish, and other settlers.

The 1847-48 unrest enjoyed wide support in Messina and produced an organized
structure, and consciousness of the need to link the struggle to the whole of
Sicily. The insurgents briefly gained control of the city but, despite bitter
resistance, the Bourbon army was victorious and suppressed the revolt. This
suppression resulted in further oppression and created a diaspora of Messinian
and Sicilian revolutionaries outside Sicily and locked Sicily under the control
of the reactionary government. The bombardments of Messina and Palermo earned
Ferdinand II
the name “King Bomba”.

Modern era

Unification of
Italy period

The beginning of the expedition at Quarto.

Sicily was merged with the
Kingdom of Sardinia
in 1860 following the
expedition of
Giuseppe Garibaldi
‘s
Mille
; the annexation was ratified by a
popular plebiscite. The Kingdom of Sardinia became in 1861 the
Kingdom of Italy
, in the context of the Italian
Risorgimento
.

However, local elites across the island systematically opposed and nullified
efforts of the national government to modernize the traditional economy and
political system. For example, they frustrated government efforts to set up new
town councils, new police forces, and a liberal judicial system. Furthermore,
repeated revolts showed a degree of unrest among the peasants.

In 1866, Palermo revolted against Italy. The city was bombed by the Italian
navy, which disembarked on September 22 under the command of
Raffaele Cadorna
. Italian soldiers summarily
executed the civilian insurgents, and took possession once again of the island.

A limited, but long guerrilla campaign against the unionists (1861–1871) took
place throughout southern Italy, and in Sicily, inducing the Italian governments
to a severe military response. These insurrections were unorganized, and were
considered by the Government as operated by “brigands” (“Brigantaggio”). Ruled
under martial law for several years, Sicily (and southern Italy) was the object
of a harsh repression by the Italian army that summarily executed thousands of
people, made tens of thousands prisoners, destroyed villages, and deported
people.^{[citation
needed]}

Emigration

The Sicilian economy did not adapt easily to unification, and in particular
competition by Northern industry made attempts at industrialization in the South
almost impossible. While the masses suffered by the introduction of new forms of
taxation and, especially, by the new Kingdom’s extensive military conscription,
the Sicilian economy suffered, leading to an unprecedented wave of emigration.

The reluctance of Sicilian men to allow women to take paid work meant that
women usually remained at home, their seclusion often increased due to the
restrictions of mourning. Despite such restrictions, women carried out a variety
of important roles in nourishing their families, selecting wives for their sons,
and helping their husbands in the field.

In 1894 labour agitation through the radical left-wing
Fasci Siciliani
(Sicilian Workers Leagues)
led again to the imposition of martial law.

Mafia

The
Mafia
became an essential part of the social
structure in the late 19th century because of the inability of the Italian state
to impose its concept of law and its monopoly on violence in a peripheral
region. The decline of feudal structures allowed a new middle class of violent
peasant entrepreneurs to emerge who profited from the sale of baronial, Church,
and common land and established a system of clientage over the peasantry. The
government was forced to compromise with these “bourgeois mafiosi,” who used
violence to impose their law, manipulated the traditional feudal language, and
acted as mediators between society and the state.

Map of the
Allied landings in Sicily
on 10
July 1943.

Early
20th century and Fascist period

Ongoing government neglect in the late 19th century period ultimately enabled
the establishment of organized crime networks commonly known as “La Cosa Nostra”
or mafia
. These were gradually able to extend
their influence across all sectors over much of the island (and many of its
operatives also emigrated to other countries, particularly the
United States
). After Mussolini came to power
in the 1920s, he launched a fierce crackdown on organized crime, but they
recovered quickly following the
Allied invasion of Sicily
in July 1943 once the
Allies freed imprisoned Mafia leaders under the mistaken notion that they were
political prisoners.

The Cosa Nostra remains a secret criminal organization with a state-like
structure. It utilizes violence as an instrument of control, executing members
who break its rules as well as outsiders who threaten or fail to cooperate with
the organization. In 1984, the Italian government initiated an anti-Mafia policy
that sought to eliminate the organization by prosecuting its leaders.

Although Sicily fell to the Allied armies with relatively little fighting,
the German and Italian forces escaped to the mainland largely intact. Control of
Sicily gave the Allies a base from which to advance northward through Italy.
Furthermore, it proved a valuable training ground for large-scale amphibious
operations – lessons that would be essential for Normandy.

Post-war period

Following some political agitation, Sicily became an autonomous region in
1946 under the new Italian constitution, with its own parliament and elected
President.

The latifundia (large feudal agricultural estates) were abolished by sweeping
land reform mandating smaller farms in 1950-1962, funded from the
Cassa per il Mezzogiorno
, the Italian
government’s development Fund for the South (1950–1984).

Sicily returned to the headlines in 1992, however, when the assassination of
two anti-mafia magistrates,
Giovanni Falcone
and
Paolo Borsellino
triggered a general upheaval
in Italian political life. Italian political life.

Schneider and Schneider (2006) have drawn scholarly attention to the recent
appearance of industrial age technologies and related modernizing trends. They
report a dramatic decline in fertility, with effects on family life and civic
culture. They note the emergence of an anti-Mafia social movement demanding
effective police and juridical restraint of organized crime.

In the 21st century Sicily, and its surrounding islets, has become a target
destination for illegal immigrants and people-smuggling operations.