Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions

**An examination of revolutions in the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, Sicily, and Greece in the 1820s that reveals a popular constitutional culture in the South** After the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna’s attempt to guarantee peace and stability across Europe, a new revolutionary movement emerged in the southern peripheries of the continent. In this groundbreaking study, Maurizio Isabella examines the historical moment in the 1820s when a series of simultaneous uprisings took the quest for constitutional government to Portugal, Spain, the Italian peninsula, Sicily and Greece. Isabella places these events in a broader global revolutionary context and, decentering conventional narratives of the origins of political modernity, reveals the existence of an original popular constitutional culture in southern Europe. Isabella looks at the role played by secret societies, elections, petitions, protests and the experience of war as well as the circulation of information and individuals across seas and borders in politicising new sectors of society. By studying the mobilisation of the army, the clergy, artisans, rural communities and urban populations in favour of or against the revolutions, he shows that the uprisings in the South—although their ultimate fate was determined by the intervention of more powerful foreign countries—enjoyed considerable popular support in ideologically divided societies and led to the introduction of constitutions. Isabella argues that these movements informed the political life of Portugal and Spain for many decades and helped to forge a long-lasting revolutionary tradition in the Italian peninsula. The liberalism that emerged as a popular political force across southern Europe, he contends, was distinct from French and British varieties. Contents Acknowledgements Map of southern Europe Introduction. Southern Europe and the Making of a Global Revolutionary South What constitution did revolutionaries fight for? A few introductory remarks The making of a constitutional order and its conflicts: plan of the book Part I. War, Army and Revolution Introduction Chapter 1 Conspiracy and Military Careers in the Napoleonic Wars Secret societies and the planning of revolutions From fighting in the Napoleonic wars to declaring the revolution Chapter 2 Pronunciamientos and the Military Origins of the Revolutions After the Napoleonic wars: economic crisis and an impossible military demobilisation Communicating the revolutionary script: nation, army and constitution The army and popular mobilisation In the name of what nation? Conclusions Chapter 3 Civil Wars: Armies, Guerrilla Warfare and Mobilisation in the Rural World Portugal and political change through military pronunciamientos Fighting in the name of a prisoner king: counterrevolution in Spain Civil war as a war of independence: Sicily against Naples Civil war as a crisis of the Ottoman order: the Greek revolution Conclusions Chapter 4 National Wars of Liberation and the End of the Revolutionary Experiences Introduction The failure of the revolutionary script in Naples, Piedmont and Spain Greece and the nationalisation of the anti-Ottoman conflict Conclusions Chapter 5 Crossing the Mediterranean: Volunteers, Mercenaries, Refugees Introduction: Palermo as a Mediterranean revolutionary hub Sir Richard Church: bridging empire, counterrevolution and revolution Emmanuele Scordili and the Greek diasporas Andrea Mangiaruva: volunteer for freedom and economic migrant? Conclusions Part II. Experiencing the Constitution Citizenship, Communities and Territories Introduction Chapter 6 Re-conceiving Territories: The Revolutions as Territorial Crises Introduction Constitutional devolution and federal royalism in Spain Resisting centralisation: Genoa, Sicily and provincial freedoms Emancipating local councils; creating a new state: Portugal and Greece Chapter 7 Electing Parliamentary Assemblies Chapter 8 Petitioning in the Name of the Constitution Conclusions: political participation and local autonomies after the 1820s Part III. Building Consensus, Practising Protest: The Revolutionary Public Sphere and Its Enemies Introduction Chapter 9 Shaping Public Opinion Communicating the revolution, educating citizens: information and sociability Invasions and conspiracies: rumours and the international imagination Chapter 10 Taking Control of Public Space Revolutionary ceremonies as rituals of concord Rituals of contestation: singing the revolution Secret societies: from clandestine opposition to public advocacy Protest and corporate interests in Madrid, Palermo and Hydra: artisans and sailors Chapter 11 A Counterrevolutionary Public Sphere? The Popular Culture of Absolutism Conclusions: from revolutionary practices to public memory Part IV. Citizens or the Faithful? Religion and the Foundation of a New Political Order Introduction Chapter 12 Christianity against Despotism Religious nations, intolerant nations? Reforming churches: priests as educators Chapter 13 A Revolution within the Church Begrudging endorsement? Church hierarchies and the revolutions A divided clergy Preaching in favour of or against the new order The politics of miracles Conclusions Epilogue. Unfinished Business: The Age of Revolutions in Southern Europe after the 1820s Yannis Macriyannis and the betrayal of the Greek revolution Bernardo de Sá Nogueira (Viscount and Marquis of Sá da Bandeira) and the search for political stability in Portugal Guglielmo Pepe: transnational fame and the endurance of Neapolitan patriotism Antonio Alcalá Galiano and the transition to moderate liberalism Conclusion Chronology Glossary of Foreign Terms Bibliography Index "In most histories of what is often called the Age of Revolution, specifically from the French Revolution in 1789 to the Revolutions of 1848, Southern Europe is largely absent or plays, to say the least, a very marginal role. This book is a new history of the revolutions of the early 1820s, when the desire for freedom and emancipation found expression in uprisings in Portugal, Spain, the Italian peninsula, Sicily and Greece. While each of these revolutions had its peculiar features and belonged at the same time to a global revolutionary South extending from Latin America to Asia, this book will highlight the converging features, exchanges, and connections among them. The book explores practices and ideas that shaped these revolutions, such as the role played by secret societies, elections, the experience of war mobilization as well as transnational circulation of information, individuals, and printed material in politicizing new sectors of society. Maurizio Isabella challenges what he sees as enduring notions of these revolutions as weak or elitist in nature and argues that while their fate was determined by the intervention of more powerful foreign countries, they actually enjoyed considerable popular support in highly ideologically divided societies. The book then revises our understanding of the Age of Revolution, which until now is almost exclusively understood as cantering around the North Atlantic and France, and helps us to rethink the origins of political modernity in Europe"-- Provided by publisher