page_title: History of Sicily
section_title: Bourbon period
hierarchical_section_title: History of Sicily / Bourbon period
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Italien, Sizilien, Catania, Santa Maria dell'Elemosina oder Basilica Collegiata English: Italy, Sicily, Catania, Santa Maria dell'Elemosina also named Basilica Collegiata
context_page_description: The history of Sicily has been influenced by numerous ethnic groups. It has seen Sicily sometimes controlled by external powers – Phoenician and Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Vandal and Ostrogoth, Byzantine Greek, Islamic, Norman, Aragonese and Spanish – but also experiencing important periods of independence, as under the indigenous Sicanians, Elymians and Sicels, and later as the County of Sicily and Kingdom of Sicily. The Kingdom was founded in 1130 by Roger II, belonging to the Siculo-Norman family of Hauteville. During this period, Sicily was prosperous and politically powerful, becoming one of the wealthiest states in all of Europe. As a result of the dynastic succession, then, the Kingdom passed into the hands of the Hohenstaufen. At the end of the 13th century, with the War of the Sicilian Vespers between the crowns of Anjou and Aragon, the island passed to the latter. In the following centuries the Kingdom entered into the personal union with the Spaniard and Bourbon crowns, preserving however its substantial independence until 1816. Although today an Autonomous Region of the Republic of Italy, it has its own distinct culture.
context_section_description: The Bourbon kings officially resided in Naples, except for a brief period during the Napoleonic Wars between 1806 and 1815, when the royal family lived in exile in Palermo. The Sicilian nobles welcomed British military intervention during this period and a new constitution was developed specifically for Sicily based on the Westminster model of government. The British were committed to preserving the security of the Kingdom of Sicily so as to keep Mediterranean sea routes open against the French. The British dispatched several expeditions of troops between 1806 and 1815 and built strong fortifications around Messina
  The Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were officially merged in 1816 by Ferdinand I to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The accession of Ferdinand II as king of the Two Sicilies in 1830 was hailed by Sicilians; they dreamed that autonomy would be returned to the island and the problems of poverty and maladministration of justice would be tackled by the count of Syracuse, the king's brother and lieutenant in Sicily.
  The royal government in Naples saw the problem of Sicily as being purely administrative, a question of making existing institutions function properly. Neapolitan ministers had no interest in serious reforms. Ferdinand's failure, leading to disillusion and the revolt of 1837, was due mainly to his making no attempt to gain support in the Sicilian middle class, with which he could have faced the power of the baronage.
  Simmering discontent with Bourbon rule and hopes of Sicilian independence led to major revolts in 1820 and 1848 against Bourbon denial of constitutional government. The 1848 revolution resulted in a sixteen-month period of independence from the Bourbons before its armed forces took back control of the island on 15 May 1849. The city of Messina long harbored proponents of independence throughout the 19th century, and its urban Risorgimento leaders arose out of a diverse milieu comprising artisans, workers, students, clerics, Masons, and sons of English, Irish, and other settlers.
  The 1847-48 unrest enjoyed wide support in Messina and produced an organized structure, and consciousness of the need to link the struggle to the whole of Sicily. The insurgents briefly gained control of the city but, despite bitter resistance, the Bourbon army was victorious and suppressed the revolt. This suppression resulted in further oppression, created a diaspora of Messinian and Sicilian revolutionaries outside Sicily and locked Sicily under the control of the reactionary government. The bombardments of Messina and Palermo earned Ferdinand II the name "King Bomba".
caption: Sicilian Baroque. "Collegiata" in Catania, designed by Stefano Ittar, circa 1768
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "{{de|Italien, Sizilien, Catania, Basilica Collegiata}}\r\n{{en|Italy, Sicily, Catanaia, Basilica Collegiata}}", "Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K10D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "K10D Ver 1.30", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:06 11:23:47", "Image Artist": "Berthold Werner", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "b'GNU Lizenz f\\xfcr freie Dokumentation'", "Image ExifOffset": "3272", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[37, 30, 19269/1250]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[15, 5, 22097/1791]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "21", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[9, 23, 47]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "333/125", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "GPS GPSDate": "2012:10:06", "Image GPSInfo": "3732", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4020", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4622", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "1000000/90909", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:10:06 11:23:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:10:06 11:23:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1936", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2903", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3989", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "24", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}