Security and border making in 19th-century southern Italy

Abstract

The article focuses on the border region between two states in pre-unification Italy, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Papal States. Although negotiations to define the border precisely started only following the cholera epidemic of 1836�7, the early 19th century already saw the start of greater control of the territory and of the borders by the �administrative monarchies�. Analysed through the lens of securitisation, movement control processes reveal a variable geography of �security spaces� and freedom of movement for different social groups, where state security and collective security needs overlapped.