Administrative Elites in Southern Italy and Sicily under Spanish Rule in the Early Modern Period

Since antiquity, southern Italy and Sicily have been linked to the Mediterranean regions in various ways, and from the Middle Ages also with the political entities north of the Alps. Until the creation of the Italian nation-state in 1861, these regions were ruled by dynasties that were not from Italy. Between 1504 and 1713, they were vice-kingdoms under the suzerainty of Spain. The long period of “foreign rule” had a lasting impact on the political, social, economic, and cultural history of southern Italy.

The Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily played a preeminent role within the Spanish Empire: strategically in the fight against the Turks, economically and militarily as a resource in the defense of Habsburg positions in the contest between the European powers. At the same time, the two kingdoms were part of a dynamic economic, social, and cultural system that was connected to Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, and northern Italy and was based on the continuous exchange of ideas, goods, and people. The importance of this international sphere of communication for southern Italy and Sicily lay not least in the constant immigration of administrative and military personnel, bankers, merchants and seamen, as well as clergymen and artists from all over Europe, but chiefly from Spain.

Migration in the German-speaking realm since the early modern period has encompassed not only peaceful cross-border movements and intercultural encounters. It has also included aggressive border crossings, flight across borders, and the exclusion of minorities within Germany and – after the violent expansion of Germany’s borders in the Second World War – in other parts of Europe. Throughout German history, however, not only have people moved across borders, but borders have also moved over people – minorities became majorities, majorities were turned into minorities, and natives into strangers in their own land.

A survey of the main currents in the migratory activity to and from Germany from the early modern period to the early 21st century, leaving aside the multitude of everyday and ubiquitous small-scale migrations that are impossible to keep track of, reveals a number of striking focal points: they include above all the early modern immigration of religious refugees or those expelled for religious reasons, the tradition-rich settlement migrations to eastern, east-central, and southeastern Europe until the early 19th century, and the transatlantic mass exodus until the late 19th century. This was followed by a reversal – increasing over the long term – in the direction of the migratory movements, down to the varied immigration movements to Germany in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Throughout its history, however, the German-speaking realm was rarely simply a land of either emigration or immigration; instead, it was usually both at the same time, though with enormous differences in the epochal importance of the two great directions of migration and the problems and perspectives on integration they entailed.