Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780-1860In Naples and Napoleon John Davis takes the southern Italian Kingdom of the Two Sicilies as the vantage point for a sweeping reconsideration of Italy's history in the age of Napoleon and the European revolutions. The book's central themes are posed by the period of French rule from 1806 to 1815, when southern Italy was the Mediterranean frontier of Napoleon's continental empire. The tensions between Naples and Paris made this an important chapter in the history of that empire andrevealed the deeper contradictions on which it was founded. But the brief interlude of Napoleonic rule later came to be seen as the critical moment when a modernizing North finally parted company from a backward South. Although these arguments still shape the ways in which Italian history is written,in most parts of the North political and economic change before Unification was slow and gradual; whereas in the South it came sooner and in more disruptive forms.Davis develops a wide-ranging critical reassessment of the dynamics of political change in the century before Unification. His starting point is the crisis that overwhelmed the Italian states at the end of the 18th century, when Italian rulers saw the political and economic fabric of the Ancien Régime undermined throughout Europe. In the South the crisis was especially far reaching and this, Davis argues, was the reason why in the following decade the South became the theatre for one ofthe most ambitious reform projects in Napoleonic Europe. The transition was precarious and insecure, but also mobilized political projects and forms of collective action that had no counterparts elsewhere in Italy before 1848, illustrating the similar nature of the political challenges facing all thepre-Unification states.Although Unification finally brought Italy's insecure dynastic principalities to an end, it offered no remedies to the insecurities that from much earlier had made the South especially vulnerable to the challenges of the new age: which was why the South would become a problem - Italy's 'Southern Problem'. |
Contents
Naples in the Imperial Enterprise | 129 |
The Costs of Empire | 143 |
The Promise of Change | 161 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780-1860 John A. Davis Limited preview - 2006 |
Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780-1860 John A. Davis Limited preview - 2008 |
Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780-1860 John A. Davis No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
abolished administration ancien régime Apulia army arrendamenti Austrian Bari Basilicata became Bourbon brigandage brigands British Calabria capital Capitanata Carbonari Carbonarist century claimed Colletta Cortese constitution Cosenza courts crisis Croce demands ducats Duke economic emperor estates Europe February Ferdinand feudal Feudal Commission feudatories Foggia forces former France Francesco French rulers Galanti Giuseppe Ibid imperial Italian Jacobin January Joachim Murat Joseph Bonaparte July king Kingdom Kingdom of Naples landowners Laterza Luigi mainland Manhès March Maria Mezzogiorno Milan military Minister Miot Molise monarchy monarchy's Murat Naples Napoleon Napoletano Nation Neapolitan Neapolitan Republic Nicola Palermo papal Paris Pepe Pietro Colletta political powerful Prince principal provinces reform regime Regno di Napoli reorganization Republic republican Restoration revenues revolution Risorgimento rivoluzione Roederer Rome royal royalist Ruffo Saliceti Sicilian Sicily societies South southern Italy Storia taxes Teramo tion towns trade troops University Press Villani Vincenzo Cuoco Zurlo