Southern Italy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Country | Italy |
| Regions | |
| Area | |
• Total | 123,024 km2 (47,500 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• Estimate (2019) | 20,637,360 |
| Languages | |
| – Official language | Italian |
| –Official linguistic minorities[2] | |
| – Regional languages | |
Southern Italy (Italian:Sud Italia,Italian:[ˈsudiˈtaːlja], orItalia meridionale,Italian:[iˈtaːljameridjoˈnaːle];Neapolitan:'o Sudde;Sicilian:Italia dû Suddi), also known asMeridione (Italian:[meriˈdjoːne]) orMezzogiorno (Italian:[ˌmɛddzoˈdʒorno]; Neapolitan:Miezojuorno; Sicilian:Menzujornu;lit. 'Midday'), is amacroregion ofItaly consisting of its southernregions.
The term "Mezzogiorno" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of thehistorical andcultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms ofNaples andSicily (officially denominated as one entityRegnum Siciliae citra Pharum andultra Pharum, i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side ofthe Strait" and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largestpre-unitarian state, theKingdom of the Two Sicilies.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
The island ofSardinia, which was not part of the aforementionedpolity and had been under the rule of theAlpineHouse of Savoy, which would eventually annex the Bourbons' southern Italian kingdom altogether, is nonetheless often subsumed into theMezzogiorno.[9][10] TheItalian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term "south Italy" (Italia meridionale, or justSud, 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 simplyIsole "Islands").[11] These same subdivisions are at the bottom of the ItalianFirst level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for theEuropean Parliament. Nonetheless, Sardinia and especially Sicily are included as "southern Italy" in most definitions of the southern Italy macroregion.
In a similar fashion toFrance'sMidi ("midday" or "noon" inFrench), the Italian term "Mezzogiorno" refers to the intensity and the position of sunshine at midday in the south of theItalian peninsula.[12]
The term came into vogue after the annexation of theBourbonKingdom of the Two Sicilies by the mainland-basedSavoyardKingdom of Sardinia, and the subsequentItalian unification of 1861.
Southern Italy is generally thought to comprise the administrative regions that correspond to the geopolitical extent of the historicalKingdom of the Two Sicilies, includingAbruzzo,Apulia,Basilicata,Calabria,Campania,Molise, andSicily. The island of Sardinia, although beingculturally,linguistically andhistorically less related to the aforementioned regions than any of them is to one another is frequently included as part of theMezzogiorno,[10][13] often for statistical and economical purposes.[14][13][15]
Southern Italy forms the lower part of the Italian "boot", containing the ankle (Campania), the toe (Calabria), the arch (Basilicata), and the heel (Apulia),Molise (north of Apulia) andAbruzzo (north of Molise) along with Sicily, removed from Calabria by the narrowStrait of Messina. Separating the "heel" and toe of the "boot" is theGulf of Taranto, named after the city ofTaranto, which is at an angle between the heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of theIonian Sea. The island ofSardinia, situated to the west of the Italian peninsula and right below the French island ofCorsica, may also often be included.
On the eastern coast is theAdriatic Sea, leading into the rest of theMediterranean through theStrait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of the "spur" of the boot, thepeninsula of Monte Gargano; on theTyrrhenian Sea, theGulf of Salerno, theGulf of Naples, the Gulf of Policastro and theGulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of theSorrentine Peninsula runs theAmalfi Coast. Off the peninsula's tip is the isle ofCapri.
The climate is mainlyMediterranean (Köppen climate classification Csa), except at the highest elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and thesemi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia and Molise, along the Ionian Sea inCalabria and the southern stretches of Sicily (BSw). The largest city of southern Italy isNaples, an originally Greek name that it has historically maintained for millennia.Bari,Taranto,Reggio Calabria,Foggia, andSalerno are the next largest cities in the area.
The region is geologically very active, except forSalento inApulia, and highly seismic: the1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless.
In the 8th and the 7th centuries BCE, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland,Greeks began to settle in southern Italy.[16] Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as the eastern coast of theBlack Sea,Eastern Libya and Massalia (Marseille).
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 andIapyges (the last of which were subdivided into three tribes:Daunians,Peucetians andMessapians). The relationships between the Greek settlers and the native peoples were initially hostilem especially with the Iapygian tribes. The Hellenic influence eventually shaped their culture and way of life.
The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal southern ItalyMagna Graecia ("Great Greece") since it was so densely populated by coastalGreek colonies; the ancientgeographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merelyApulia andCalabria withStrabo being the most prominent advocate of the wider definitions.
With this colonisation,Greek culture was exported to Italy in its dialects of theAncient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independentpolis. An originalHellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the nativeItalic andRoman civilisations. The most important cultural transplant was theChalcidean/Cumaean variety of theGreek alphabet, which was adopted by theEtruscans; theOld Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into theLatin alphabet, which became the most widely used alphabet in the world.
Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful likeNeapolis (Νεάπολις,Naples, "New City"),Syrakousai (Συράκουσαι,Syracuse),Akragas (Ἀκράγας,Agrigento), andSybaris (Σύβαρις,Sibari). Other cities in Magna Graecia includedTarentum (Τάρας),Metapontum (Μεταπόντιον),Heraclea (Ἡράκλεια),Epizephyrian Locri (Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι),Rhegium (Ῥήγιον),Croton (Κρότων),Thurii (Θούριοι),Elea (Ἐλέα),Nola (Νῶλα),Syessa (Σύεσσα),Bari (Βάριον), and others.
Although many of the Greek inhabitants of Magna Graecia were entirelyLatinized during theMiddle Ages,[18] pockets of Greek culture and language remained and have survived to the present day. One example is theGriko people inCalabria (Bovesia) andSalento (Grecìa Salentina), some of whom still maintain their Greek language (Griko language) and customs.[19] The Griko language is the last living trace of the Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia.[20]
AfterPyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread ofRoman hegemony in 282 BCE, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position until thebarbarian invasions (theGladiator War is a notable suspension ofimperial control). It was restored toEastern Roman control in the 530s after thefall of Rome inthe West in 476, and some form of imperial authority survived until the 1070s. Total East Roman rule was ended by theLombards byZotto's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.
After theGothic War (535–554) until the arrival of theNormans, much of southern Italy's destiny was linked to the fortunes of theEastern Empire even though Byzantine domination was challenged in the 9th century by theLombards, who annexed the area ofCosenza to theirDuchy of Benevento. Consequently, the Lombard and the Byzantine areas became influenced by Eastern monasticism, and much of southern Italy experienced a slow process of orientalisation in religious life (rites, cults and liturgy), which accompanied a spread of Eastern churches and monasteries that preserved and transmitted the Greek and Hellenistic tradition. TheCattolica monastery in Stilo is the most representative of these Byzantine monuments. From then to the 11th-centuryNorman conquest the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between the Byzantines, Lombardy, and theAghlabid dynasty. The latter established twoemirates in southern Italy: theEmirate of Sicily and, for 25 years, theEmirate of Bari.Amalfi, an independent republic from the 7th century until 1075, and to a lesser extentGaeta,Molfetta andTrani, rivalled otherItalian maritime republics in their domestic prosperity and maritime importance.
From 999 to 1139, theNormansoccupied 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 NormanKingdom of Sicily underRoger II was characterised by its competent governance,multi-ethnic nature andreligious tolerance. Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native" Sicilians lived in relative harmony.[21] However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades before it formally ended in 1198 with the reign ofConstance of Sicily, and was replaced by that of theSwabianHohenstaufen dynasty, thanks to Constance's marriage toHenry VI, member of this family.
In Sicily,KingFrederick II endorsed a deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of theConstitutions of Melfi (1231, also known asLiber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and a source of inspiration for a long time afterward.[22] It made the Kingdom of Sicily acentralised state and established the primacy ofwritten law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. His royal court inPalermo from around 1220 to his death saw the first use of a literary form of anItalo-Romance language,Sicilian, which had a significant influence on what was to become the modernItalian language. He also built theCastel del Monte and in 1224 founded theUniversity of Naples, now called, after him,Università Federico II.[23]
In 1266, conflict between theHouse of Hohenstaufen and thepapacy led to Sicily's conquest byCharles I, Duke ofAnjou. Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from theByzantine Empire and theCrown of Aragon led to theSicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by kingPeter III of Aragon in 1282. The resultingWar of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until 1302 thePeace 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 toFrederick III of theHouse of Barcelona, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, called Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously butKingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went toCharles II of theHouse of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasystatus quo.[24] 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 theKingdom of Two Sicilies.
In 1442,Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of theCrown of Aragon. At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again divided .Ferrante, Alfonso's illegitimate son, inherited Naples. When Ferrante died in 1494,Charles VIII of France invaded Italy by using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, which his father had inherited on the death of King René's nephew in 1481, as a pretext, which started theItalian Wars. Charles VIII expelled Ferrante’s successor,Alfonso II of Naples, from Naples in 1495. However, he was soon forced to withdraw because of the support ofFerdinand II of Aragon to his cousin, Alfonso II's sonFerrantino.
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 theTreaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. With the Treaty of London (1557), the newclient state ofthe so-calledPresidi ("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 theDuchy of Milan, was run by theCouncil of Italy. The island of Sardinia, which had fully come to be under Iberian sovereignty in 1409 upon the fall of the lastindigenous state, was an integral part of theCouncil 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 theAlpine-basedHouse of Savoy in 1720.
After theWar of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of theTreaty of Utrecht in 1713,Naples was given toCharles VI, theHoly Roman Emperor. He also gained control ofSicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily wereconquered by a Spanish army during theWar of the Polish Succession in 1734, andCharles, Duke of Parma, a younger son of KingPhilip 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 apersonal union under theHouse of Bourbon from 1735 onwards, they remained constitutionally separated.
Being a member of theHouse of Bourbon, KingFerdinand IV was a natural opponent of theFrench Revolution andNapoleon. In January 1799,Napoleon Bonaparte, in the name of theFrench Republic, captured Naples and proclaimed theParthenopaean Republic, a French client state, as successor to the kingdom.King Ferdinand fled from Naples to Sicily until June of that year. In 1806, Bonaparte, by then French Emperor, again dethroned King Ferdinand and appointed his brother,Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Naples. In the Edict of Bayonne of 1808, Napoleon removed Joseph to Spain and appointed his brother-in-law,Joachim Murat, as King of the Two Sicilies, though this meant control only of the mainland portion of the kingdom.[25][26] Throughout this Napoleonic interruption, King Ferdinand remained in Sicily, withPalermo as his capital.
After Napoleon's defeat, King Ferdinand IV was restored by theCongress of Vienna of 1815 as Ferdinand I of theTwo Sicilies. He established aconcordat with thePapal States, which previously had a claim to the land.[27] There were several rebellions on the island ofSicily against the KingFerdinand II, but the end of the kingdom was not brought about until theExpedition of the Thousand in 1860, led byGiuseppe Garibaldi, an icon of Italian Unification, with the support of theHouse of Savoy and itsKingdom 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 meantimem the Piedmontese also invaded the Kingdom from theMarche. The last battles fought werethat of the Volturnus in 1860 and thesiege of Gaeta, where KingFrancis II had sought shelter in thepe of for help, which never came.
The last towns to resist Garibaldi's expedition wereMessina, which surrendered on 13 March 1861, andCivitella del Tronto, which surrendered on 20 March 1861. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the newKingdom of Italy, which was founded in the same year.
At the time of Italian unification, the gap between the former northern states ofItaly and the southern two Sicilies was significant: northern Italy had about 75,500 kilometers of roads and 2,316 kilometers of railroads, combined with a wide range of canals connected to rivers for freight transportation; iron and steel production was 17,000 tons per year. By contrast, in the former Bourbon southern state, there were 14,700 kilometers of roads, 184 kilometers of railroads (only around Naples), no canals connected to rivers and iron and steel production was 1,500 tons per year.
_-_Geographicus_-_ItalySouth-mitchell-1850.jpg)
In 1860, illiteracy rates on the Italian peninsula averaged 75%, with the lowest level of 54% in the northwesternKingdom of Sardinia (also known as "Piedmont") and the highest in the south, and illiteracy in theKingdom of the Two Sicilies reached 87%.[28]
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.[29]
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".[30]
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, specificallyCamillo 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 viewm 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.[31]
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.[32]
The British historianDenis 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 theKingdom 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.[33]
The study by Mack Smith is confirmed by the Italian historian and left-wing politicianAntonio Gramsci in his bookThe 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 theComunes had given a special boost to history and innorthern Italy existed an economic organization similar to that of the other states of Europe, propitious to further development ofcapitalism andindustry, 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.[34]
The living conditions of the people of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are also illustrated by Raffaele De Cesare,[35] who reported that the Jing of NaplesFerdinand 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.[36]
The problem of brigandage is explained in the bookHeroes and Brigands by the southern Italian historian and politicianFrancesco Saverio Nitti, outlining that brigandage was endemic in southern Italy, since the Bourbons themselves relied on it as their military agent.[37]Unlike in southern Italy, there was little brigandage in the other annexed states of Northern and Central Italy, like theKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, theDuchy of Parma, theDuchy of Modena, theGrand Duchy of Tuscany and thePapal States.
According to the southern Italian historianGiustino Fortunato,[38] and the Italian institutional sources[39] 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 writerGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novelIl Gattopardo (The Leopard), set inSicily 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 byLuchino Visconti for his homonymous 1963 filmThe Leopard.
The southern economy greatly suffered after the Italian unification, and the process of industrialisation was interrupted. This situation of persistent backwardness in the socioeconomic development of the regions of southern Italy compared to the other regions of the country, especially the northern ones, is known as thesouthern question. Poverty andorganised crime were long-standing issues in southern Italy as well and it got worse after unification. Cavour stated the basic problem was poor government, and believed the solution lay in the strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result was an upsurge inbrigandage.[40]
Therefore, the south experienced great economic difficulties resulting in massive emigration leading to a worldwideItalian diaspora, especially toNorth America,South America,Australia and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such asGenoa,Milan andTurin. A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of the "Mezzogiorno" after theSecond World War. In the1946 referendum, the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming inCampania. Politically, the region was at odds with the north, which won the referendum to establish a republic.[41]
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.
| Rank | City | Region | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Naples | Campania | 955,503 | |
| 2 | Palermo | Sicily | 659,894 | |
| 3 | Bari | Apulia | 319,482 | |
| 4 | Catania | Sicily | 311,777 | |
| 5 | Messina | Sicily | 231,708 | |
| 6 | Taranto | Apulia | 195,279 | |
| 7 | Reggio Calabria | Calabria | 179,049 | |
| 8 | Cagliari | Sardinia | 154,108 | |
| 9 | Foggia | Apulia | 150,185 | |
| 10 | Salerno | Campania | 132,640 | |
| Sources: 2019 Demo Istat[42] | ||||
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1861 | 9,632,000 | — |
| 1871 | 10,209,000 | +6.0% |
| 1881 | 11,030,000 | +8.0% |
| 1901 | 12,661,000 | +14.8% |
| 1911 | 13,500,000 | +6.6% |
| 1921 | 14,449,000 | +7.0% |
| 1931 | 14,688,000 | +1.7% |
| 1936 | 15,277,000 | +4.0% |
| 1951 | 17,685,424 | +15.8% |
| 1961 | 18,576,001 | +5.0% |
| 1971 | 18,874,266 | +1.6% |
| 1981 | 20,053,334 | +6.2% |
| 1991 | 20,537,484 | +2.4% |
| 2001 | 20,515,736 | −0.1% |
| 2011 | 20,619,697 | +0.5% |
| 2021 | 19,932,825 | −3.3% |
| Source:ISTAT | ||
Starting from the unification of Italy in 1861–1870, a growing economic divide between the Northern provinces and the southern half of Italy became evident.[43] In the early decades of the new kingdom, the lack of effective land reform, heavy taxes, and other economic measures imposed on the south, along with the removal of protectionist tariffs on agricultural goods imposed to boost northern industry, made the situation nearly impossible for many tenant farmers, small businesses and land owners. Multitudes chose to emigrate rather than try to eke out a meagre living, especially from 1892 to 1921.[44] In addition, the surge ofbrigandage andmafia provoked widespread violence, corruption and illegality. Prime MinisterGiovanni Giolitti once conceded that places existed "where the law does not operate at all".[45]
After the rise ofBenito 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.[46] Economically, Fascist policy aimed at the creation of anItalian 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 KingVictor Emmanuel III, who was born there.[47]
In the 1950s, theCassa 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.[48] 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.[49] Employment in the south is ranked the lowest when compared to countries in the European Union.[49] Italians from the south are also ranked the lowest in terms of financial contributions into the economy of Italy from immigrants.[50] 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.[51] 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 organizationSVIMEZ 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.[52] In 2016, southern Italy's GDP and economy was growing twice as much as northern Italy's.[53] According toEurostat 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.[54][55]
In southern Italy, which contains eightcohesion areas (Sicily,Calabria,Campania,Molise,Puglia,Abruzzo andBasilicata), apublic–private partnership known as SMEI Italy serves as a catalyst for private investment and supports economic growth and employment creation.[56][57] Over €1 billion in finance has been catalyzed in these eight locations to far, supporting almost 5 000SMEs and small mid-caps.[58]
Today,Abruzzo is the richest southern Italian the region, andCalabria is the poorest.[59][60]
| Rank | Region | 2017 | % of nationwide average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 |  Abruzzo | 25,000 | 86.51 |
| 14 |  Basilicata | 21,400 | 74.05 |
| 15 |  Sardinia | 20,900 | 72.32 |
| 16 |  Molise | 20,100 | 69.55 |
| 17 |  Apulia | 18,700 | 64.71 |
| 18 |  Campania | 18,500 | 64.01 |
| 19 |  Sicily | 17,700 | 61.25 |
| 20 |  Calabria | 17,400 | 60.21 |
| — |  Italy | 28,900 | 100.00 |
The regions of southern Italy were exposed to some different historical influences from those the rest of the peninsula, starting most notably withGreek colonisation inMagna Graecia. Greek influence in the south was dominant until Latinisation was completed by the time of the RomanPrincipate. Greek influences returned by the late Roman Empire, especially following the reconquests ofJustinian and theByzantine Empire.
Sicily, a distinctiveNorman–Arab–Byzantine culture throughout theMiddle 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 theByzantines,Lombards, andFranks. In addition, theVenetians established outposts as trade withByzantium and theNear East increased.
Until theNorman conquests of the 11th and the 12th centuries much of the south followedEastern 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 theCrown of Aragon, thenSpain and finallyAustria. The Spanish had a major impact on the culture of the south, having ruled it for over three centuries.
Jewish communities lived in Sicily and southern Italy for over 15 centuries, but in 1492, KingFerdinan II of Aragon proclaimed theEdict of Expulsion. At their height, Jewish Sicilians probably constituted around one tenth of the island's population. After the edict, they partially converted toChristianity and some moved to theOttoman Empire and other places in Italy and Europe. In the 19th century, street musicians fromBasilicata began to roam worldwide to seek a fortune, most of them would become professional instrumentalists in symphonic orchestras, especially in theUnited States.[63]
Southern Italy has many major tourist attractions, such as thePalace of Caserta, theAmalfi Coast,Pompeii,Sassi di Matera,Trulli di Alberobello and other archaeological sites (many of which are protected byUNESCO). There are also manyancient Greek cities in southern Italy, such asSybaris andPaestum, which were founded several centuries before the start of theRoman Republic. Some of its beaches, woodlands and mountains are preserved in severalNational Parks; a major example is thePollino, between Basilicata and Calabria, that hosts thelargest national park in Italy.[64]
In recent years, southern Italy has experienced a revival of its traditions andmusic, such as theNeapolitan song and thetarantella.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Edict of Bayonne.
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