History

Early Colonizers

Of the Mediterranean, Plato wrote that conquerors flocked to its coastline like "frogs gathering at a pond" -- an apt comparison for Sicily itself. Much of the history of this largest of Mediterranean islands is unknown. Perhaps many tales from the Odyssey were set in what is now Sicily, adding to its allure as a land of myth and legend.

For 6,000 years, conquerors from both Europe and Africa have tried to turn Sicily into a colony. Sicilians are so used to foreign occupation that the most nationalistic of islanders even today believe they are living under "occupation" by mainland Italy and under the control of Rome.

Archaeology provides much of the evidence of early colonization. Of course, indigenous people already existed on Sicily when the Greeks arrived. The Siculi people, for whom Sicily was named, came from the Calabria peninsula on the mainland, settling in the eastern and southern central parts of the island. Tribes of Sicani from Iberia occupied the western frontiers, and the people of Elimi, claiming descent from the Trojans, inhabited the medieval hilltop town of Erice, on the west coast.

Arriving from Carthage, the Phoenicians -- the last of the pre-Hellenistic invaders -- settled into Solunto near present-day Palermo. The ruins of their settlement can be explored today. The Phoenicians also founded Palermo, the capital of Sicily, calling it Panormus. The Chalcidians landed in the east to establish what is modern-day Messina, and the Megarians founded the colony of Megara Hyblaea, the ruins of which can be explored north of Syracuse, once you pass through an industrial blight.

In time these tribes came in for Hellenization. Naxos, near today's Taormina, was launched around 735 B.C. by mariners, a group of Chalcidians from Greece. You can explore these ruins today. Around the same time (734 B.C.), the Corinthians laid the first stones on the island of Ortygia, calling their city Syracoussai, which in time became today's Syracuse.

North of Syracuse, Megara Hyblaea was founded in 728 B.C., followed in 628 B.C. by the founding of Selinunte, still among the great archaeological ruins of Sicily. The last of the great Greek cities, Agrigento, was founded in 581 B.C., its Valley of the Temples today remaining one of the great attractions of southern Italy.

The growing power of Carthage in North Africa brought fear to Sicily. By the 7th century B.C., Carthage had allied itself with the Phoenicians against the Greek settlers. The colonies of Magna Graceia, or Greater Greece, thrived on trade. As the Greek colonies grew more powerful in Sicily, they fought each other out of greed and jealousy -- all of which laid the groundwork for the "rule of the tyrants."

The Rule Of The Tyrants

In ancient times, the word "tyrant" described men who grabbed power instead of inheriting it, as in a royal lineage. Tyrants ruled over the Greek city-states of Sicily. The year 480 B.C. proved pivotal in the island's history. That was when the Carthaginians mounted a massive attack on the western possessions of Greece, including Sicily. Hamilcar, the African commander, sailed into Sicily's northern coast with an army of 300,000 mercenaries carried in 3,000 transport ships. The Carthaginian general besieged Himera outside Termini Imerese, and the tyrant of the area, Thereon, appealed to Syracuse for help. Syracuse sent 55,000 men marching across the heart of Sicily. Hamilcar asked for help from Selinunte on the south coast.

The Carthaginians fell for a variation of the old Trojan horse trick, mistaking the Syracuse forces for reinforcements from Selinunte. When their ranks opened, some 150,000 soldiers were slain and their ships torched. As a result, the winner of that battle, Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, became a towering figure in the Greek world. Seven decades would pass before Carthage would return to pillage Sicily.

The defeat of the Carthaginians led to a golden age for Sicily, as such classical figures as Archimedes, Theocritus, and Empedocles became household names. Plato and Aeschylus dropped in from Greece. The largest of the Greek temples were constructed in Agrigento, the biggest amphitheater in Syracuse. The period of growth and expansion was set back only by infighting among the city-states.

Syracuse was clearly the dominant power in Sicily, so much so that it dared challenge the supremacy of Athens itself. In response, in 415 B.C. Athens sent the largest armada ever assembled to subdue Syracuse. The Great Expedition from the east met with failure, and 7,000 soldiers from Athens were taken prisoner. The great city of Syracuse reached the apex of its power.

The Revenge Of Carthage

The grandson of the defeated Hamilcar, the great Hannibal, arrived on the southern coast of Sicily with his mercenaries in 409 B.C., seeking revenge over his ancestor's defeat at Himera on the northern coast. He destroyed what had been a great city, Selinunte, its modern-day ruins a testament to his victory. Selinunte faded into history forever.

Hannibal then headed north to seek his revenge against Himera, where his grandfather had been defeated. He won a great victory and tortured and murdered all the male survivors of Himera.

Hannibal came back in full force once again, and in 406 B.C destroyed Agrigento (then called Akragas). At the time, Akragas was surpassed only by Syracuse in power and influence. During the siege a plague swept through his camp, and Hannibal succumbed to it. His successor, Himilkon, took over for the Carthaginians, offering his son, Moloch, as a sacrifice to the gods to show he meant business. After 8 months of siege, Akragas fell to the Carthaginians.

Blaming the generals in Syracuse for the defeat of Akragas, the demagogue Dionysius seized power in 405 B.C. and became one of the most famous of all the tyrants. The Carthaginians moved on Syracuse, but the plague swept over their forces and the remaining army returned to Africa.

The Romans In Sicily

The Greek hold over Sicily was coming to an end. With Carthage subdued, a new menace rose to threaten imperial Sicily: Rome. Sicily was largely spared during the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.), but the people of Syracuse sided with Carthage during the Second Punic War, in 213 B.C. For this, the newly emerged powers of Rome did not forgive Sicily, and in 211 B.C. the Romans conquered the island. In its defeat, Sicily became a "subcolony," and the formerly proud inhabitants of the island became slaves or servants, living in poverty. Slave revolts broke out periodically but were brutally suppressed by the Romans, who used the island as a breadbasket after felling its trees.

In the 3rd century A.D., when Sicilians were finally granted citizenship in the Roman Empire, it was a little late. The barbarians from the north were on the march.

Barbarians, Byzantines & The Saracens

As the Roman Empire collapsed to the invading Visigoths in A.D. 410, Sicily came under increasing attack from the Vandals, who launched warships from the coastline of Tunisia. The barbarian invasion of the island was short-lived, but for a while Sicily was temporarily reunited with Italy under the Ostrogoth Theodoric.

In A.D. 535, the Byzantine general Belisarius occupied Sicily. Amazingly, for a brief time in A.D. 663 Syracuse became the center of the eastern Byzantine Empire.

The Arabs, Berbers, and Spanish Muslims -- known collectively as the Saracens -- had become increasingly attracted to the prize of Sicily. By 700, the island of Pantelleria had fallen to them. By 827, a full-fledged Arab invasion of Sicily was successfully mounted. Their landing was at Mazara del Vallo, in the south. Four years later, Palermo fell to the Saracens, and by A.D. 965, the invading African forces had moved east to the Straits of Messina.

The Arabs made Palermo the capital of their new Sicilian empire, decorating it with gardens, mosques (some 300 in all), palaces, and domes. Unlike the Roman occupation, Sicily actually prospered under the Arab rulers, who made substantial breakthroughs in agriculture, introducing citrus trees, date palms, cotton, and other crops. Even religious tolerance was practiced, and many Christians abandoned their faith to Muslim beliefs.

But the Saracen rule, like so many others, would be short-lived. Because of internal Arab bickering, the Byzantine general George Maniakes decided that Sicily once again was ripe to be plucked. Although his forces never got much beyond Syracuse, a new menace loomed: The Normans were about to move in on Sicily, an island they regarded as a glittering prize.

The Men Of The North

If a visitor should wonder why there are so many blondes in Sicily today, it's because of the Norman conquest of the island. In 1061, an Arab emir in Messina called on Roger Hauteville for help in putting down a rebellion among fellow Saracens. Big mistake. The Normans came, they saw, and they conquered, although it took them another 3 decades to subdue the entire island.

Amazingly, the Normans sometimes enlisted the aid of the resident Arabs to fight other Arabs. At one of the series of bloody battles, the Normans ended up firmly entrenched in Palermo, making it their capital in 1072.

Although the Normans were to stay less than a century, ruling with a series of five kings, they left an architectural legacy that remains a distinctive feature on the Sicilian landscape, especially in Palermo. Sometimes they took over an already existing Arab mosque and turned it into an "Arabo-Norman" style of church. By 1200, the Arabic language was fading, giving way to French and Italian.

Count Roger, or Roger I (1031-1101), launched the Norman-Sicilian dynasty. He was followed by Roger II (1105-54), one of the great kings of Europe in the Middle Ages, who brought together some of the most creative forces in the Mediterranean and who was also a big patron of the arts. In addition, he extended his Sicilian kingdom to embrace parts of North Africa, southern Italy, and Malta. Weaker kings, such as William the Bad (1154-66), followed.

The Reign Of The Hohenstaufens

When the Norman king, William II (1166-89) -- called William the Good -- died in 1189 at the age of 36, the throne went to Tancred, his illegitimate son. The ascension to the throne was challenged by King Henry VI, a German Hohenstaufen, or Swabian. Tancred hung on until his death in 1194, surviving a sacking of Messina in 1190 by Richard the Lion-Hearted on his way to join the Third Crusade.

William III succeeded Tancred, but the Hohenstaufen fleet docked at Messina, and the short-term king was imprisoned and would eventually die in a castle. Henry (later to become the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI) was declared king of Sicily in 1190.

Henry was to die of dysentery in 1197, the throne passing to Frederick I of Sicily, his son, who was only 3 years old. His mother, Constance, ruled for him. When he grew up, he proved to be a strong king, especially against such island rebels as the Arabs. As a promoter of science, medicine, and law, he was called Stupor Mundi, or "Wonder of the World." Under Frederick, Palermo became the most important city in Europe, a cultural center with no equal in the Western world. In 1231, he issued the antifeudal Constitution of Melfi, stripping the barons of much of their power. At his death in 1250, Sicily entered a period of decline.

A French pope eventually awarded the title of king of Sicily to Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX, the French king. Under Charles, in 1266 Angevin forces fought and beat the armies of the Hohenstaufen rulers. Once in power, Charles of Anjou launched a punishing attack against those islanders who had supported the Hohenstaufens.

The War Of The Vespers

The abject poverty and the stern rule of the Angevins sparked an uprising, known as the Sicilian Vespers, which began on Easter Sunday 1282. What sparked the uprising is not known for certain. One story has it that a gang of French troops raped a teenage girl; another that a French soldier insulted a local woman in Palermo.

At any rate, the tolling of a church bell for evening services, or Vespers, at the Chiesa di Santo Spirito set off a riot. Every French soldier in sight was slaughtered, the rebellion fanning out to eventually cover the island. Any Frenchman unable to pronounce the word cicero correctly was massacred.

There were many patriots, to be sure, but the general rioting and slaughter was also a time for many islanders to settle old scores with their enemies. A group of noblemen called upon Peter of Aragon for help. He landed in Tripani 5 months after that initial violent outbreak on Easter Sunday. In only a few days, he was proclaimed king.

The actual War of the Vespers was fought between the armies of Aragon and the forces of Angevin, who used Naples as their base. It was to last for 21 years. Slowly but effectively, Spain tightened its noose around Sicily. The rope would not be untied for 5 centuries.

Rule By The Spaniards

In 1302, the Peace of Caltabelotta concluded the war between the Vatican-leaning Angevins and the imperial Aragonese. Sicily was divided into two kingdoms, the Angevins retaining the territories in mainland Italy (such as Naples), but with Sicily itself going to the Spaniards. The Aragonese kings, based in Palermo, would rule the island directly until 1458.

Isolated in the Mediterranean, Sicily virtually "sat out" the great artistic and cultural movements sweeping mainland Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Renaissance of Italy had virtually no impact in forgotten Sicily. Only one great artist arose from this depression: Antonello da Messina (1430-79), who had been inspired by Flemish art during his travels to the north.

If anything, feudal bonds were tightened as Sicily drifted back into the Middle Ages. The Spanish Inquisition, introduced to Sicily in 1513, virtually silenced any inquiring minds.

The 17th & 18th Centuries

As Spain drifted into its own long decline in the 17th and 18th centuries, so did its colony of Sicily, ruled by indifferent viceroys. Political corruption was rampant throughout the land.

In the hinterlands of Sicily, brigand bands, protesting against vast estates and their cruel owners, rose up to strike back. Calling themselves the Mafia, these outlaws butchered livestock, burned crops, and slaughtered local bailiffs to protest the outmoded feudal system.

As if the feudal system and its inherent evils weren't enough, in the 17th century Sicily was plagued by natural disasters. Mount Etna erupted in 1669, causing massive damage to the east coast and destroying Catania. The eruption was followed in 1693 by earthquakes along the same coastline, which killed about 5% of Sicily's population. Sicily was also struck by outbreaks of the plague.

Politically, the island became a pawn among the powers of Europe. After the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700, that country was plunged into the Wars of the Spanish Succession. In 1713, Sicily passed into the hands of the House of Savoy, according to the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1720, it was traded to the Austrians for Sardinia.

The Spanish came back in full force in 1734, reclaiming Sicily and placing it under the Bourbon king, Charles I (1734-59). Charles I was to visit Sicily only once. In time he gave up the kingdom to assume the title of King Charles III of Spain. He was followed by Ferdinand IV, who held power as Ferdinand IV of Naples in 1806. The island's so-called noblemen, living parasitically off the people of Sicily, tightened their feudal grips on the island, as new ideas unleashed by the French Revolution brought in winds of change.

The Coming Of Napoleon

The little colonel, Napoleon, never actually invaded Sicily, although his rearranging of the maps of Europe had an impact on the island. When Napoleon conquered Naples in 1799, Ferdinand IV was forced out when the crown went to Napoleon's brother, Joseph. Ferdinand fled to Sicily, where he was protected by British troops. Under pressure from the island commander of British forces, Lord William Bentinck, Ferdinand was compelled in 1812 to draw up a constitution for Sicily similar to that which governed Britain.

This document spelled the death of the feudal life, as a two-chamber Sicilian parliament was formed in Palermo. The court established in Palermo was to be free of the one presiding in Naples.

Once Napoleon was defeated in 1815, Ferdinand went back to Naples and abrogated the constitution. The British departed, and Ferdinand assumed control again, declaring himself Ferdinand I, king of the two Sicilies (that is, Naples and Sicily) in 1816. He repealed all reforms.

In protest, Sicily rebelled, but the rebellion was put down with the aid of mercenaries from Austria. Ferdinand died in 1825, and conditions only worsened under Ferdinand II (1830-59), who was named Re Bomba after his 5-day bombardment of Messina to quell insurrections there and in Palermo in 1848. In spite of the failures of the rebellions, the spirit of revolution remained. By 1860, the name Garibaldi was being whispered across the island.

Revolt & The Arrival of Garibaldi

On April 4, 1860, an island-wide revolt against the Bourbon regime broke out. Seizing upon the news, the revolutionary leader Giuseppe Garibaldi decided the time to strike was at hand. Along with his famous mille, 1,000 red-shirted soldiers, he arrived at Marsala on the west coast of Sicily on May 11, 1860. He set about to conquer the island, aided by the peasants who joined his army.

A Bourbon army of 15,000 soldiers was defeated at Calatafimi on May 15, and within 2 weeks the capital at Palermo had fallen. By the time Garibaldi declared victory at the port of Milazzo on July 20, the Bourbons were in serious retreat. For the first time since 1282, Sicily was no longer under the yoke of the Bourbon regime.

On October 21 of that same year, an island-wide referendum was conducted. The results were staggering. Some 99% of the voters had opted to follow Garibaldi's plan and unify with mainland Italy. Many poor Sicilians not allowed to vote were cynical of the results, viewing the Piedmontese House of Savoy as the new "occupier" of the island.

Fascism & Wars

Under the House of Savoy, Sicily indeed found itself in the same poor position it had endured over the centuries under many conquerors. The so-called aristocracy remained firmly in charge of the economy, and the peasants got nothing, not even the right to vote. In 1866, Turin crushed a rebellion in Palermo, just as previous rulers had done.

The Mafiosi, which later became the dreaded Mafia of the 20th century, acted as regent for the bailiffs, or landowners, extracting exorbitant rents from the peasant farmers. In desperation, some 500,000 Sicilians felt compelled to leave the island to settle in Australia, North America, and South America. Many of these people came from Messina, which was devastated in the earthquake of 1908, with some 80,000 lives lost.

The 20th century brought more grim realities, with the Italian conquest of Libya in 1912, followed by World War I, which devastated the economy of Sicily and took the lives of many of its young men.

The aftermath of World War I, which Italy lost to the Allied victors, was followed in 1922 by the emergence of Benito Mussolini, who had gained power in Rome. The island of Sicily was anything but his bastion of power, so the Italian dictator decided to crack down on Sicily's Mafiosi, a move that simply drove the criminals underground.

Mussolini sent his agent Cesare Mori to restore law and order to Sicily. To do so, Mori won the support of the landed gentry. To reward these large estate holders for their help, he reversed all agrarian reforms of the past decades. Amazingly, by the 1920s Sicily found itself plunged back into a feudal system.

By the 1930s, Mussolini took a page from the ancient Roman conquerors' playbook and came to regard Sicily as a breadbasket to feed his armies in his quest for empire. Wheat production on the island increased, but at great expense to the land, which suffered from erosion and soil depletion.

Suddenly, Sicily found itself caught up in a new war, World War II. Softening it for an invasion with aerial bombardments, the Allies attacked most of Sicily's major cities. Catania, Messina, and Palermo were heavily bombed.

In July 1943, General Patton and the American Seventh Army landed at Gela on the southern coast, as Montgomery's British forces put ashore at a point to the east. The Sicilians offered little resistance, but the Nazis fought back with venom, hoping to delay the Allied advance until they could move their men and equipment across the Straits of Messina into Calabria.

Palermo fell to the Allied advance, followed by Messina. On September 3, as the Germans escaped to southern Italy, Sicilian authorities signed an armistice, becoming the first region of Italy to fall to the Allies, long before the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Amazingly, the Allies were greatly helped by the Mafiosi, who were eager to rid Sicily of the Fascists who had tried to wipe them out.

49th State For The U.S.?

With the devastation of World War II behind it, Sicilians reviewed their modern link with the Italian mainland, with thousands deciding the union had been a disaster. A Separatist movement gained hold, demanding complete independence for the island.

Sicilian Communists called for massive land redistribution. In an unlikely marriage, the landed gentry allied itself with the Mafia to keep a lid on "dangerous left-wing uprisings" throughout the land.

In 1946, bowing to pressure, the government in Rome agreed to give Sicily limited independence. Regional autonomy called for Sicily to have its own assembly and president. The role would be similar to what Scotland enjoys with England.

Many of the Separatists were even lobbying to be linked to the United States, becoming the 49th state. But with the coming of the elections of 1951, the Separatists faded into history.

For most of the latter part of the 20th century, Sicily was dominated by the Christian Democrats. This is the party more or less of the Catholic Church, with right-of-center leanings -- a very conservative bunch. In an unspoken, almost hidden alliance, the Christian Democrats worked with the Mafia, as clientilismo -- political patronage -- became the rule of the land. Many a developmental fund ended up in the pocket of a Mafia don.

Even in the late 20th century and early 21st century, the Mafia has remained a strong influence on the island, in spite of a campaign against it by the governments presiding in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, the annual report to the Interior Ministry to the parliament in Rome claimed that the Mafia in Sicily was experiencing "a moment of renewal to overcome a structural crisis following the arrest of many top-ranking elements." The report also concluded that the so-called Cosa Nostra was trying to "regain credibility and competitiveness." The ministry report ominously concluded that the Cosa Nostra was pressing ahead with its traditional activities, such as gaining control of public-works contracts and practicing widespread extortion of Sicilian businesses for "protection" money.

Still, the more famous Cosa Nostra is facing competition from a rival syndicate: the 'ndrangheta of Calabria, that section of the mainland forming the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. Moving in on traditional Cosa Nostra territory, the 'ndrangheta has increased its hold on cocaine trafficking and has strong ties with Colombian drug cartels.

One novel approach to dealing with the Cosa Nostra is taking place in the town of Corleone, which gave its name to Marlon Brando's jowly don. Corleone has been confiscating the property of some of the more notorious Mafiosi and making this blood-soaked land bloom. Agronomists are planting melons, lentils, wheat, grapes, and chickpeas on estates once owned by the Mafia. And how is the mob striking back at this agricultural bounty? Retaliation has been relatively minor at this point; at one time, mob members let loose a herd of hungry sheep to devour wheat fields.

In 2006 the government of Sicily continued its pursuit of Mafia leaders, arresting Italy's reputed no. 1 Mafia boss, Bernardo Provenzano. The don was found 37 miles south of Palermo in Corleone, even though his former lawyer was telling newspapers that the elusive Mafia leader was dead. He was found very much alive and will go to court on an array of charges.

Looking forward, while it is estimated that some one million people left Sicily over a 20-year period beginning in 1951, today North Africans in hopes of a better life arrive by the boatload on such southern-tier islands as Lampedusa and Pantelleria.