Garibaldi and the Italian Unification What it meant for the South

Garibaldi a real hero?

Mr. Garibaldi has always been portrayed as the hero that single-handedly brought freedom and progress to Southern Italy, then an independent nation called the "Kingdom of two Sicilies". 

What the official history books do not say is the fact that nobody asked the southerners if they felt to be enslaved and if they wanted to be freed. They also say that the great Garibaldi with 1000 volunteers (the red shirts) defeated a very well-organized army and navy of the southern state. 

They fail to say that England played a crucial role by supporting what amounted to be an invasion, without a declaration of war, on the part of Garibaldi's mercenaries and by the kingdom of Piedmont, behind all this. 

England had all the interest to remove the "Kingdom of two Sicilies" because it was interfering with its economic interests in the Mediterranean Sea due also to the opening of the Suez Canal. Why do you think England occupied Gibraltar and Malta, before that?

This was the beginning of huge problems for the southern regions of Italy. It suffices to say, after the unification of Italy, a civil war ensued that lasted 10 years with the burning of towns, mass executions, and incarcerations of many southerners, some labeled “briganti”, on the part of Piedmont’s army that imposed in many cases the martial law.  

This was the beginning of the big economic gap between the north and the south that still persists today due to precise political choices made by the central government in Rome that has always favored the northern regions. Also, this was the beginning of the emigration exodus by millions from the South. Think about this. Before the unification, not many emigrated from the South, twenty years after the unification millions emigrated!!   

This is the historical context that forced many of our ancestors to emigrate to the US and to many other countries.