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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 transnational circulation of information and individuals in politicizing new sectors of society. By studying the mobilization of the army, the clergy, artisans, rural communities, and urban populations in favor 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.
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 transnational circulation of information and individuals in politicizing new sectors of society. By studying the mobilization of the army, the clergy, artisans, rural communities, and urban populations in favor 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.
704 pages, Hardcover
First published May 23, 2023
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About the author
Maurizio Isabella
5 books1 followerMaurizio Isabella is a senior lecturer in history at Queen Mary, University of London.
His research focuses on the political thought and the intellectual and cultural history of the Risorgimento in transnational context. Isabella’s Risorgimento in Exile (2009) studies exile in early nineteenth century as an intellectual experience and assesses early Italian liberalism and patriotism as part of transatlantic and pan-European ideological currents.
Isabella’s current research project focuses on the international thought of the Risorgimento (1796–c.1860). It seeks to analyze the ways in which Italian patriots and intellectuals framed and justified the national question in the context of new visions of international relations and sought to reconcile Italian independence with the existing or imagined European, Mediterranean, and global order. By so doing the project will provide new perspectives on the globalization of nineteenth-century international thought and will highlight the original Italian contribution to European and trans-national debates on international law, empire, war, and peace.
His research focuses on the political thought and the intellectual and cultural history of the Risorgimento in transnational context. Isabella’s Risorgimento in Exile (2009) studies exile in early nineteenth century as an intellectual experience and assesses early Italian liberalism and patriotism as part of transatlantic and pan-European ideological currents.
Isabella’s current research project focuses on the international thought of the Risorgimento (1796–c.1860). It seeks to analyze the ways in which Italian patriots and intellectuals framed and justified the national question in the context of new visions of international relations and sought to reconcile Italian independence with the existing or imagined European, Mediterranean, and global order. By so doing the project will provide new perspectives on the globalization of nineteenth-century international thought and will highlight the original Italian contribution to European and trans-national debates on international law, empire, war, and peace.
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