Soldiers of Freedom” or Mortal Enemy? The French in Southern Italy, 1798–1799

Abstract

The author analyzes the issue of relations between the French revolutionary troops and of the Italian population during the French occupation of Italy between 1796 and 1799. He poses a number of questions, such as: which social groups of the local population collaborated with the occupation army, and which, on the contrary, fought it? What was the motivation of the former and the latter? He seeks answers to these questions, exploring the military campaign of the French army in Southern Italy between 1798 and 1799. Analyzing the French and Italian sources, the author concludes that the French invasion of the Kingdom of Naples a caused deep split in Neapolitan society, which was produced by the conflict of opposing value paradigms. A part of the local elite, whose worldview was formed by the cosmopolitan culture of the European Enlightenment, treated the French troops as an army of “Soldiers of Freedom”. This social stratum was eager not only to welcome the foreign invaders but also to support them with arms against its own countrymen. On the contrary, Neapolitan peasants and plebs, the real partisans of traditional culture, treated the invasion of the French as a mortal danger to its values, especially to the Catholic religion. That is why the “lower” Neapolitan society showed fierce resistance to the foreign invasion. These social divisions had far-reaching implications, providing a long-term impact on Italy’s future political life, affecting Italian historiography to date.