Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: Map & History

History

The Treaty of Casalanza restored Ferdinand IV of Bourbon to the throne of Naples and the island of Sicily (where the constitution of 1812 had virtually disempowered him) was returned to him. In 1816 he annulled the constitution and Sicily became fully reintegrated into the new state, which was now officially called the Regno delle Due Sicilie (Kingdom of Two Sicilies). Ferdinand IV became Ferdinand I.

A few of the deeds under the administration of Kings Joseph and Joachim Murat, such as some reforms to their civil code, the penal and commercial code, were kept (and extended to Sicily). In the mainland parts of the Kingdom, the power and influence of both nobility and clergy had been greatly reduced, though at the expense of law and order.

Military

The Army of the Two Sicilies was the kingdom's land force. It was created by the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty in Southern Italy after the War of the Polish Succession. The army have suppressed rebels some times, including the Calabrian revolution of 1847, and the Sicilian independence revolution of 1848, but collapsed during the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860.

The Real Marina was the kingdom's naval force. It was the most important of the pre-unification Italian navies.

Economy

A major problem was the distribution of land property: most of it concentrated in the hands of a few families, the landed nobility. The villages housed a large rural proletariat, desperately poor and dependent on the landlords for work. The kingdom's few cities had little industry, thus not providing the outlet for excess rural population found in northern Italy, France or Germany. The figures above show that the population of the countryside rose at a faster rate than that of the city of Naples herself: rather unusual for a time when much of Europe was experiencing the Industrial Revolution.

along with 65,225 listed as shepherds. Wheat, wine, olive oil and cotton were the chief products.

Geography

The peninsula was divided into fifteen departments and Sicily was divided into seven departments. In 1860, when the Two Sicilies were conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia, the departments became provinces of Italy, according to the Urbano Rattazzi law.