Many history books say that before there was the Italian state in the mid 1800’s, there was only one influential territory that could have united Italy. What if I told you that yodidnt’t know the whole story? Down in the southern part of Italy was a state that was better suited to unite Italy because of their port access, their substantially better agriculture, and their absolute monarchy.

After the fall of the first French Empire the congress of Vienna looked to "restoring things to their natural order" which really just messed things up later down the line. One of these steps was putting Italy back to normal after Napoleon had dominated and annexed them for the French Empire. As a natural defense against a second French Empire, they enlarged Piedmont of north Italy and created the Kingdom of Two Sicilies in the south giving them more territory in hope of being able to crush the rebirth of the French empire. This immediately set up a competition between these two kingdoms. Piedmont, a valuable trade territory that had to be crossed to trade with Florence, and Two Sicilies with Venice port trading potential due to it being surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Others would argue that almost no countries trusted them due to poor governing by their king. I would argue that countries always want to intervene in another country’s business. Look at the cold war; even in disarray trade still continued.

In the late 18th century, one of the most popular governing styles was enlightened absolutism. This allowed monarchs to have essentially complete control over the government allowing many rulers to make great advancements in military (like Frederick the 2nd of Prussia), social reforms (like Joseph the 2nd of Austria), and imperial advancements (like Catherine the Great of Russia). Many people would argue that a constitutional monarchy such as Piedmont would be better, but it also limits the effect a strong ruler can have on the government.

Finally, one of the key industries for southern Italy since the Roman Empire was its agriculture. With the best agriculture in all of Italy and possibly Europe at the time, they had a key advantage right from the start. One of the things that diminished this was the fact that 50% of their land was owned by the Catholic Church.

Ultimately, I believe that Two Sicilies was in a better situation to unite Italy due to their government style and geography. However, these advantages were neutralized because their king was a poor ruler. He bombed his own citizens because they wanted a constitution which allowed Girabaldi to defeat him in a revolution.