History of Sicily Italy - Travel Guide & Information

This description page of Sicily, will guide you in planning your trip to Italy and help you to find useful travel information about the history of this Italian Region.

Because of its strategic position in the middle of the Mediterranean, Sicily (Sicilia) has always been coveted by leading powers. Its history is one successive wave of foreign domination.

The most striking aspect of Sicilian history is the enormous influence of all the different peoples who have colonized the island. Even the Sicani, Elymi, and Siculi, the first populations to leave traces of their cultures in Sicily (Sicilia), came from other parts of the Mediterranean. These various colonizers and conquerors were European, Asian, and African. There is evidence to suggest that the Sicani were of western European origin, possibly Iberian, while the Siculi may have arrived from mainland Italy, having some of the same roots as certain mainland Italic groups such as the Lucanians.

Both the Sicani and the Siculi may have been indigenous peoples whose art and culture were influenced by an influx of settlers from these other regions. The Elymi probably arrived in Sicily (Sicilia) from the Eastern Mediterranean, and certainly had an early cultural similarity to those of the Phoenicians and Egyptians.

The Elymi were followed by the Carthaginians and then by the Greeks, under whom Sicily (Sicilia) saw its first real period of great splendor. Greek domination ended in 212 BC with the siege of Syracuse, in which the great inventor Archimedes was killed, and Rome took power.

Under Roman rule, Sicily (Sicilia) was prosperous. For the next six centuries, the island became the breadbasket of the Roman Empire and during this period acquired a social system that was to be its distinguishing characteristic for centuries.

Christianity made its first serious inroads into Sicily (Sicilia) sometime after 200 AD, and a number of Sicilians were martyred in the century to follow. In 313, Emperor Constantine lifted the prohibition against Christians as the Roman Empire shifted its focus to the East to Constantinople. Christianity grew rapidly in Sicily (Sicilia) during the next two centuries.

Sicily (Sicilia) endured several barbaric invasions, as Vandals and Ostrogoths sacked the coasts, though these invaders remained for only a few years. Goths also arrived but their influence was minimal.

After the fall of the Roman Empire and the barbarian invasions, Sicily (Sicilia) was ruled by the Byzantines. In 515, Sicily (Sicilia) fell to the Byzantine general Belisarius. Naturally, the Christian Church in Sicily (Sicilia) remained Eastern, which is to say Orthodox. It remained so until the twelfth century when it was next conquered by the Arabs.

By the ninth century, Moors (Arabs) from North Africa were raiding Sicily (Sicilia). In 827, they attacked in force at the western end of the island and another conquest had begun. By 903, all of Sicily (Sicilia) was in Saracen hands, controlled principally by three emirs, and Islam was the official religion. Arab dominion coincided with the rebirth of the island after the decadence of the final years of Byzantine rule.

During the century of Arab dominion, Sicily (Sicilia) was the richest and most tolerant land in the Mediterranean. The governing administration was reorganized, and the arts and culture flourished. Under the Saracens, the city of Panormus became Palermo, and its splendor was said to rival that of Baghdad. For the first time in Sicily (Sici's history, the lemon and the orange were cultivated, complex irrigation systems were developed, and sophisticated mathematics introduced.

In 1061, a Norman lord named Roger de Hauteville crossed the Strait of Messina with his brothers and several hundred knights from Normandy, Lombardy, and Southern Italy, defeating the Saracen garrison and establishing a foothold under cover of darkness. This was Roger’s second attempt to land at Messina and, though it was successful, Palermo was still far away. In 1071, following another epic battle, Palermo was captured, and Sicily (Sicilia) was again part of Europe.

Named the “Count of Sicily (Sicilia)” by his knights, Roger brought the feudal system to his new dominion. His rule also brought with it religious freedom, multicultural artistic expression, and national sovereignty. There was no serfdom and very little slavery. There were mosques, synagogues, and plenty of churches, English bishops, and Saracen imams. Those Sicilians, who 't speak Sicilian or Arabic dialects, spoke Norman French, and court decrees were issued in several languages, including Latin, Greek, and Arabic. Count R's son, Roger II, was crowned King of Sicily (Sicilia) in 1130 and ruled a domain that included most of Italy south of Rome, with Palermo as its capital. At the time, it was the wealthiest realm in all of Europe, and reached its zenith with the splendor of Frederick II’s court.

In 1198, Frederick II von Hohenstaufen, a descendant of the last Norman King of Sicily (Sicilia) through a female line, ascended the throne and ruled for more than half a century. At this point in its history, the Golden Age of Sicily (Sicilia) was in full evidence. From Pal's splendid royal palace, the enlightened Frederick ruled most of Italy and also parts of Germany as Holy Roman Emperor, though he spent little time in Sicily (Sicilia). It was a peaceful era, and very few Sicilian knights took part in the Crusades and the other wars of the day.

Frederic's heirs proved themselves less able than he, and Sicilian independence came to an end with the defeat of the last Hohenstaufen at the Battle of Benevento in 1266. The Angevin dynasty of France ruled the island from Naples until 1282, when a bloody uprising, the War of the Sicilian Vespers, expelled Angevin troops and nobles from Sicily (Sicilia).

The barons offered their natio's Crown to Peter of Aragon. This led to the is's being ruled, except for brief periods, from Spain for the next four centuries.

Owing to various factors, the Chiaramonte family seized a certain degree of feudal power for a time after 1350. Their wealth derived from confiscated estates that had belonged to the displaced Angevin before the Vespers, but with the King so far away, families like the Chiaramonte a'Alagona vied for local power. The situation was only resolved in 1392, when Martin, grandson of the King of Aragon, arrived in Sicily (Sicilia) to ascend the throne and restore order among the unruly barons. Andrea Chiaramonte, the leader of the rebels, was executed at the castle now called the Steri, in Pal's Piazza Marina, and a parliament was called.

The Renaissance and Baroque certainly influenced Sicily (Sicilia) internally, but to the rest of the world it was a colony, a strategic province that the great powers could trade as a bargaining chip at key negotiations. The Inquisition, with all its horrors, was the strongest social force, and prompted the end of the few remaining mosques and synagogues, and the coercive conversion of the last Muslims and Jews.

With the discovery of the New World, Sicily (Sici's importance diminished, though it was still one of the most prosperous parts of Italy. In 1713, Victor Amadeus of Savoy became King of Sicily (Sicilia), though he ruled the island from his fa's traditional capital, Turin. In 1720, the Crown passed to the Emperor Charles VI of Austria, and in 1734 to Charles de Bourbon, son of the King of Spain.

Charles, who actually ruled from Naples, brought a degree of autonomy to Sicily (Sicilia) and also to Naples, which had likewise been ruled from afar for some time. He built splendid palaces in his capital and made it the wealthiest, most opulent city in Italy, but spent little time in Palermo.

His son, Ferdinand I, found himself in Sicily (Sicilia) during the early years of the nineteenth century, but not by choice. The King and his family were forced to flee Naples during the Napoleonic occupation, when British troops occupied Sicily (Sicilia). The Sover's grandson, Ferdinand II, was born at Palermo during this period, but the monarch and his son spent most of their time at their splendid Chinese Villa in a park at the foot of Mount Pellegrino or at the Royal Hunting Lodge at Ficuzza in the mountains near Corleone. In 1812, Ferdinand signed the constitutional decree abolishing feudalism, thus abrogating the last land rights of the nobility. Though cut off from Naples, Sicily (Sicilia) was enjoying an economic boom of sorts with the mining of sulfur.

With the expulsion of the French and the accords of the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), Ferdinand returned to Naples. In 1816, he amalgamated the Neapolitan and Sicilian realms into one state, forming the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

By 1848, disillusion spawned a revolutionary spirit. A riot that started out in Palermo quickly spread across the island and across Europe. Though King Ferdinand II suppressed this revolution by force, he considered the situation serious enough to grant his subjects a constitution. In 1860, a band of mostly Piedmontese troops led by Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily (Sicilia) and paved the way for the unification of Italy. Palermo was one of the first cities to fall, and the rest of the Kingdom had fallen by March 1861. Despite initial neglect by the central Italian government, Sicilians were finally given control of their own affairs.

The decades following 1860 witnessed Sicily (Sici's slow economic decline as important new industries gradually emerged not in the South but in the North. Many long-standing economic and social problems still need to be tackled and resolved, including the continuing presence of the Mafia in Sicily (Sicilia).

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