Il conflitto tra Insorgenza e Controrivoluzione al confine fra Regno di Napoli e Stato pontificio (1798-1799)

Abstract

The Conflict “Insorgenza” versus Counter-Revolution on the frontier between the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal State (1798-1799). At the end of the Eighteenth century the Italian people experienced the establishment of republican governments under the pressure of the French armies; from then on some politicians and writers emphasized the difficulties the new institutions encountered to create linkages with the plebs and the multifarious world of the popular classes. This article intend to show the profound divisions exploded in that occasion also between popular insurgents and counter-revolutionaries ruling classes, taking into consideration the events happened on the frontier between the Papal State and the Kingdom of Naples. This case-study, which perhaps can be extended to other Italian territories, outlines the necessity to distinguish attentively the narratives of the Vandean model from the realities of the Counter-revolution all over Europe.