page_title: Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of the Two Sicilies / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: The Battle of Bitonto by Italian battle painter Giovanni Luigi Rocco. Museo del Ejercito, Toledo.
context_page_description: The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was a kingdom located in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy prior to Italian unification, comprising Sicily and all of Peninsula Italy south of the Papal States, covering most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno.
  The kingdom was formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples, which was officially known as the Kingdom of Sicily. Since both kingdoms were named Sicily, they were collectively known as the "Two Sicilies", and the unified kingdom adopted this name. The King of the Two Sicilies was overthrown by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, after which the people voted in a plebiscite to join the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia. The annexation of the Two Sicilies completed the first phase of Italian unification, and the new Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861.
  The Two Sicilies were heavily agricultural, like the other Italian states.
context_section_description: The Norman Kingdom of Sicily was established on Christmas Day, 1130, by Roger II of Sicily who united the lands he had inherited which included the Duchy of Apulia and the County of Sicily with the agreement of Pope Innocent II. In 1282, following the Sicilian Vespers, it was split into the Kingdoms of Sicily and of Naples by the Peace of Caltabellotta. From 1442 onward Sicily and Naples were in dynastic union, by the Crown of Aragon, since 1516 by the Habsburg Dynasty (since 1556 Spanish line). After the War of Spanish Succession, Spain ceded Sicily to Savoy and Naples to Austria. After the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Austria and Savoy switched Sicily (now to Austria) for Sardinia (now to Savoy, 1720). Austrian rule in Naples and Sicily was ended by a Spanish invasion in 1734. The Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily had been under joint rule from 1442 to 1718 and from 1720 to 1734.
caption: The Battle of Bitonto by Giovanni Luigi Rocco. Museo del Ejercito, Toledo, ca. 1750
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