Abstract

The article analyses the collapse of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860, focusing on the regime's change which took place in its provinces. It investigates the politicization of the southern Italian society and the profile of the liberal movement's local elites, which led the political revolution. The article underlines the important role played by a local political elite, whose experience had been shaped by the participation in the long Neapolitan civil conflict. The article demonstrates that the 1860 revolution combined discontinuity with guarantee of social order. The latter was deemed by the liberal political elite a necessary feature in order to convince important strata to abandon the secular autonomy of the realm and adhere to the new Italian fatherland. The article analyses also the cleavages and clashes between liberals and followers of the old regime - which gave rise to a long and bloody civil war in the south -, and concludes stressing the originality of a revolution, which contribute to legitimize the Italian unification choice.