Republic parthénopéenne

Historical context

After the Treated of Campo-Formio (1797), Europe can dream of peace. But, hardly Bonaparte left in Egypt with the continuation its dreams of conqueror of the the East, the war begins again. The Second coalition, led by the tsar Paul Ier and gathering Russia, Austria, Great Britain, Turkey and Naples decides to be opposed to the policy diffusion of the Révolution, in the form of “ republic-sisters ” (Suisse, Ligurie, Cisalpine…), carried out by the Directory.

In 1798, the king Ferdinand IV, encouraged by his wife Marie-Caroline de Habsbourg and by the British admiral Nelson, engages the Royaume of Naples in a war against the France. At the beginning victorious, this adventure ends in a disaster. Following the combat which are held January 22nd and 23rd 1799, the French troops enter Naples under the accents of an anthem composed by Cimarosa, resolutely antimonarchist, while the Court flees with Palermo.

The French troops, supported by a group of Neapolitan, intellectual young people and common peoples, proclaim in January 1799 the " Republic parthénopéenne" in the continental part of the kingdom of the Bourbons of Naples.

This one comes to be added in Italy to the Roman republic created in 1798, like with former creations of Bonaparte, the republics ligure and cisalpine, constituting true a glacis “ republic-sisters ”.

Government

The new government almost immediately endeavoured to build a new republican order, such as the abolition of the Féodalité and the suppression of the Fief S. a first law of February 9th, 1799 (21 pluviôse VII) divided the territory of the new Republic into eleven department S, themselves divided into cantons and municipalities. Following the example what had been done in France, the new subdivision upset basic in roof the secular territorial organization.

The republican government exerted in a diffuse way its authority on the provinces of the old kingdom. Some fell down very quickly under the cut of a royalist and catholic resistance. The new administrative scaffolding, too innovative, gave the side to criticisms and rejected. A constitution project (ever adopted) worked out by Francesco Maria Pagano envisaged to go even further. But the French police chief near the Neapolitan government, Abrial, to give a new chance to the new territorial scaffolding, made adopt a new law, on May 4th, 1799, which divided the territory into 13 departments, this time directly heirs to the old royal provinces. He was however too late.

End of the republic

However, Bonaparte failed in front of the ramparts of Saint Jean d' Acre in Holy Land, the British fleet had seized Malta and of Minorque and a Russian squadron had unloaded with the Ionian Îles, blocking the progression of the French fleet in the Mediterranean.

The army of Naples of Macdonald, recalled urgently to support Moreau attacked by the Russian general Souvarov in the Flat of Po, gives up the south of Italy by leaving only some weak garrisons and evacuates Naples on May 7th. After its departure, Britanniques, in favor of the kingdom of Naples and insurgent releases all the south of the peninsula. The Cardinal Ruffo proposed a generous armistice guaranteeing to the safe life with the republican chiefs the acceptor and the royalists took again possession of the city.

But Ferdinand IV will parjura its engagement, of the massacres were perpetrated, and good number of republican partisans were carried out: the June 24th 1799, the transitory republic ceased existing.

The relations between France and the Royaume of Deux-Siciles are restored by the Armistice of Foligno, concluded by Bonaparte the February 6th 1801. This last sign, a few weeks later, the Treated of Florence (March 18th 1801) which yields to France Piombino and the isle of Elba and engages Naples in an alliance against the British.

Posterity

Alexandre Dumas described this historical episode little known in its novel “ San Felice ”.

Ippolito Nievo makes a broad place with the Republic parthénopéenne in its single novel: the Confessions of Italian , 1867.

The Parthénopéenne Republic a long time remained source of inspiration and nostalgia for romantic Italian of the XIXe century, following the restoration bourbonienne of 1815.

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