Dopo la rivoluzione nazionale: repubblicanesimo e Mezzogiorno negli anni dell’Italia liberale

The article explores the peculiarities of republicanism in Southern Italy, and suggests how, all the 19th century long, it was largely uninfluential in the local political culture. The example of 1799 Neapolitan Republic did not have impact on the 19th century national movement and the southern patriots, while having a great role in the creation of a pretty Italian political culture, always preferring the perspective of a constitutional monarchy forced Mazzinianism to the political irrelevance. It is true that after the fiasco of Pisacane’s expedition in 1857, Garibaldi, overthrowing the Bourbon dynasty in 1860, opened the way to republicanism in Southern Italy. However, in the following years, the drama of brigandage from one side and the failure in Aspromonte of a second expedition of Garibaldi from the other, seriously undermined the political action of republicanism. When, at the end of the 19th century, Republicanism took a renewed force thanks to Colajanni and Salvemini the social and political context of Southern Italy was by now largely modified