Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, created by Ferdinand I of Bourbon in 1816 by merging the former Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily, was the largest and most populous state on the Italian peninsula. Ruled by a branch of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty, it was among the most reactionary states in Europe, relying on Austrian military intervention to suppress the liberal revolutions of 1820 and 1848. Its administration was characterised by corruption, agrarian backwardness, and brutal suppression of dissent. In 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand — a force of volunteer redshirts — sailed from Genoa, conquered Sicily, and crossed to the mainland, dissolving the Bourbon army within months. The kingdom was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia by plebiscite and became part of unified Italy when the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in March 1861.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history