Young Italy

Young Italy, founded by Giuseppe Mazzini in Marseille in July 1831, is presented as a movement for independence from foreign rule, national unity, and a republic. Its brief appearance connects the revolutionary hopes of the 1830s to the book’s wider account of shifting regimes in Sicily and the practical consequences those changes bring for trade, taxation, and political autonomy.

Founding and Programme

The movement emerged amid revolutionary upheavals across Europe. In France, Louis-Philippe d’Orléans came to the throne as a constitutional monarch; Belgium secured its independence. In July 1831, Mazzini founded Young Italy in Marseille, setting out a programme that linked independence from foreign powers with national unity and the establishment of a republic.

These aims appear against the longer history of political instability in the Italian states. The Jacobins of the Kingdom of Naples had established the Neapolitan Republic in 1799, only for its defeat to be followed by fierce repression. Later, Napoleon’s intervention displaced Bourbon rule in Naples, while the Bourbon monarch Ferdinand repeatedly took refuge in Palermo under British protection. The novel’s historical framing thus places Young Italy’s programme within a landscape where sovereignty had repeatedly shifted between republicans, Bourbons, and foreign powers.

Revolutionary Context and Defeat

The book does not follow Young Italy’s internal organization or describe particular members beyond Mazzini. Instead, it situates the movement within a sequence of revolutions and failed attempts at political change. The Sicilian revolt of 1812 had produced a constitution based on the Westminster system, sharply limiting Bourbon royal power and calling for the abolition of fiefdoms and reform of government. That constitutional settlement was annulled in 1816, when Ferdinand united the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily under the name of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The later Mazzinian uprisings of 1833 and 1834 also ended in bloodshed. Their failure gives the movement’s republican programme a stark historical setting: aspirations to national unity and independence encountered the coercive power of established regimes, just as earlier constitutional and republican experiments had been reversed or repressed.

Political Change and Commercial Life

The surrounding history shows why political changes matter materially in the novel. After the 1816 union, Neapolitans administered state offices and customs, and Palermo lost its political independence. Heavier taxes, restrictions, and constraints on trade compounded an already severe economic downturn. The Florios’ business therefore operates within a system in which control of customs and commercial rules is closely tied to who governs the island.

That relationship continues later in the story. During the period of Garibaldi’s occupation, Bourbon authorities requisitioned Casa Florio vessels; one steamer was sunk, and three of the five were retained for troop transport. The authorities subsequently disputed interrupted mail services and sought a fine from Vincenzo Florio. The episode shows how a change of regime could reach directly into shipping contracts and commercial liabilities. Young Italy’s advocacy of independence and national unity belongs to this wider political setting, although the evidence does not establish a direct connection between the movement and the Florios’ business or actions.

Significance

Young Italy functions as a concise historical marker for the book’s account of nineteenth-century revolutionary politics. Its programme distinguishes it from the constitutional settlement attempted in Sicily in 1812: it is explicitly associated with national unity and a republic, while the earlier constitution sought to limit royal power and reform Sicilian government. The movement’s appearance alongside the failures of the 1833–1834 uprisings underscores the distance between political ideals and the institutional realities that repeatedly constrained Sicily.