How Italy Became the Most Divided Country in Europe: Understanding the Great Divide Between North & South

Prada, Alfa Romeo, Peregrino, Ferrari, Iri, Lamborghini, Gucci: these are some Italian companies that we all know, but we don’t necessarily know that we came from northern Italy. In fact, the same applies to most Italian brands that currently enjoy global awareness. Reallifelore The above videothat’s not a coincidence. More than 160 years after Italy’s unification, the South has remained an economic and social performer compared to the North, reflecting it in measures such as the Human Development Index, per capita GDP, and even voters’ votes. At this point, the disparity between the two halves of the country looks more like Starker than the disparity between the former East and West Germany.

The reason starts with geography. In addition to its apparent proximity to other parts of Europe, Northern Italy has the highly navigable Poe River and its surrounding valleys, sources of freshwater (and hydroelectric power) in the Alps, and deep sea ports in Trieste and Genoa. Furthermore, it does not overlap very much with the fault zones below the Apennine Mountains in central and southern Italy, and therefore does not have exposure to earthquakes that have made such sacrifices for centuries. Also, there are no active volcanoes in the country, including Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii in 1979 and killed thousands of Napolitans in 1631.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the political fate of northern Italy and southern Italy also diverged. Most of the south experienced control by Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. As the video narration tells the story, “The long rule of foreign countries across Southern Italy established a large-scale land-holding culture where absentee landowners, farmers worked. It was built.”

Even during the unification, Southern Italy had less infrastructure than Northern Italy. This is a painfully obvious difference for travelers trying to make the nation today. There have also been quite a number of catch-ups in terms of industrial production and literacy rates. Although the specific gaps are narrower, the north-south disparities have actually become more pronounced in certain ways, particularly due to the recruitment of mafia influences since World War II (a major factor in the persistent lack of bridges to Sicily, recently featured in open culture). It’s not to say that half of each is uniform within itself. You spend plenty of time in either of the regions that make up either of them, and in itself feels like a clear country. Ultimately, you might agree with Italians who argue that Italy has never been truly united in the first place.

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Why there is no bridge from Italy to Sicily and why the 2,000-year-old dream of building a bridge will soon be realized

Based in Seoul Colin marshall Write and broadcasting stationTS about cities, languages, and culture. His projects include the Substack Newsletter Books about cities And the book The Stateless City: Walking through 21st century Los Angeles. Follow him on social networks previously known as Twitter @colinmarshall.