Unification of Italy period Sicily was merged with
Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860 following the expedition of
Giuseppe Garibaldi's
Mille; after the
Dictatorship of Garibaldi 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 once again took possession 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.
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 the years between 1889 and 1894, there were labour agitations, through the radical left-wing, called
Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Workers Leagues). The proprietors and landowners asked the government to intervene, and Prime Minister
Francesco Crispi declared a state of emergency, dissolving the organizations. The suppression of the strikes also led to an increase in emigration.
Mafia Ongoing government neglect in the late 19th century ultimately enabled the establishment of organized crime networks, commonly known as
Cosa Nostra. 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. on 10 July 1943.
Early 20th century and Fascist period The
Sicilian mafia during fascism was fought by the government of
Benito Mussolini, who sent the island in 1924 the prefect
Cesare Mori. 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, during
World War II, once the
Allies freed imprisoned Mafia leaders under the mistaken notion that they were political prisoners. 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 the
invasion of Normandy.
Post-war period Following some political agitation of the
Sicilian Independence Movement, Sicily became an autonomous region in 1946, with its
own Statute, 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). Cosa Nostra remained a secret criminal organization with a state-like structure until the 1970s. It utilized violence as an instrument of control and executed members who broke its rules as well as outsiders who threatened the organization or failed to cooperate with it. The
1960s Sicilian Mafia trials took place in response to a rise in organized crime violence around the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1984, the Italian government initiated an anti-Mafia policy that sought to eliminate the organization by prosecuting its leaders. The early 1990s were the scenario of the dramatic death of
Giovanni Falcone and
Paolo Borsellino, anti-mafia magistrates, which triggered a general upheaval in Italian political life. In the second decade of the 21st century, Sicily has become a destination for migrants coming from Africa and Middle Eastern countries, as well as Bangladesh, on their way to Europe, mainly Germany, Northern Italy, France and Sweden. ==See also==