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by Cicilia. . 182 reads.

The Kingdom of Cicilia

The Kingdom of Cicilia

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Flag and Coat of Arms
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Government: Unitary parliamentary
constitutional monarchy


Anthem: LinkInno al Re (Hymn to the King)


Capital: Palermo


Area: 104.601 km²‬


Population: 16 million


Demonym: Cicilian


Leader:
King Federico di Cicilia (Head of State)
PM Donna Carpentieri (Head of Government)


GDP:
Total: 312 trillion C₤
Per capita: 19.5 million C₤


Currency: Cicilian Lira C₤; 1.000 C₤ = 1 US$

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Map
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Cicilia [siˈtʃiːlja], also known as Mezzogiorno [ˌmɛddzoˈdʒorno], literally "Midday", is a country consisting of the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, the Island of Sicily and the Islands of Malta.

Cicilia covers the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum and ultra Pharum, that is "Kingdom of Sicily on the other side of the Strait" and "across the Strait"), and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state, the Bourbon-led Kingdom of the two Sicilies.

Geography


Cicilia forms the lower part of the Italian "boot", containing the ankle (Campania), the toe (Calabria), the arch (Basilicata), and the heel (Apulia), Molise (north of Apulia) and Abruzzo (north of Molise) along with Sicily, removed from Calabria by the narrow Strait of Messina. Separating the "heel" and the "boot" is the Gulf of Taranto, named after the city of Taranto, which is at an angle between the heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of the Ionian Sea.

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View on Mount Etna
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On the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea, leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of the "spur" of the boot, the peninsula of Monte Gargano; on the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Gulf of Salerno, the Gulf of Naples, the Gulf of Policastro and the Gulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast. Off the tip of the peninsula is the isle of Capri.

The climate is mainly Mediterranean, except at the highest elevations and the semi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia and Molise, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria and the southern stretches of Sicily. The largest city of Cicilia is Naples, an originally Greek name that it has historically maintained for millennia. Palermo, Bari, Taranto, Syracuse, Reggio Calabria, Foggia, and Salerno are the next largest cities in the area.

The region is geologically very active, with the exception of Salento in Apulia, and highly seismic: the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless.

Around 20% of the exclusive economic zone of Cicilia are now maritime national parks. Fishing and other economic exploitation is strictly prohibited here. Shipping and tourism are also subject to strict conditions and require a permit. However, the recovery of fish stocks and general water quality is enormous.

History


The earliest archaeological evidence of human activity in Cicilia dates from as early as 12,000 BC.

In the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greeks began to settle in Southern Italy. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis. An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations. Southern Italy was the site of the Sicilian Wars and the Punic Wars.

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Maritime National Parks
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The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal Southern Italy Magna Graecia ("Great Greece"), since it was so densely inhabited by the Greeks. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BC, Southern Italy fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position throughout the barbarian invasions.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Sicily was ruled during the Early Middle Ages by the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantine Empire, and the Emirate of Sicily.

From 999 to 1139, the Normans occupied Southern Italy, ending a millennium of imperial Roman rule in Italy, and eventually expelled the Muslims from Sicily. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II was characterised by its competent governance, multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance.

However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades and was replaced by that of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty in 1198. King Frederick II endorsed a deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time. It made the Kingdom of Sicily a centralised state and established the primacy of written law.

In 1266, conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and the Papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke of Anjou. Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Byzantine Empire and the Crown of Aragon led to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the Peace of Caltabellotta in 1302, dividing the old Kingdom of Sicily in two. The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" went to Frederick III of the house of Aragon, who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, called Kingdom of Naples, went to Charles II of the House of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it.

Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo. Despite the king of Spain being able to seize both the two crowns starting from the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816.

In January 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte, in the name of the French Republic, captured Naples and proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic, a French client state, as successor to the kingdom. In 1806, Bonaparte, by then French Emperor, appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Naples. In 1808, Napoleon removed Joseph to Spain and appointed his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, as King of the Two Sicilies.

The Kingdom of Sicily was finally unified under the House of Bourbon with the Kingdom of Naples as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816, as a consequence of the Congress of Vienna. The end of this kingdom was brought about by the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, led by Garibaldi, an icon of the Italian unification, with the support of the House of Savoy and their Kingdom of Sardinia with its economic, political and cultural powerhouse in Northern Italy. In 1861, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, founded in the same year.

The southern Italian economy greatly suffered after the Italian unification and the process of industrialisation was interrupted. Poverty and organised crime were long-standing issues in Southern Italy as well and it got worse after unification. It was stated, the basic problem was poor government, and believed, the solution lay in the strict application of the Piedmonese legal system. The main result was an upsurge in brigandage.

In the early decades of the new kingdom, the lack of effective land reform, heavy taxes, and other economic measures imposed on the South, along with the removal of protectionist tariffs on agricultural goods imposed to boost northern industry, made the situation nearly impossible for many tenant farmers, small businesses and land owners. Multitudes chose to emigrate rather than try to eke out a meagre living, especially from 1892 to 1921, leading to a worldwide Italian diaspora, especially to North America, South America, Australia, and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such as Genoa, Milan and Turin. A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of the "Mezzogiorno" after 1949.

Cicilia's path to independence began during the war and Italian fascism. When the Allies landed in Sicily in 1943, this gave renewed hope for a free Sicily. In Salvatore Giuliano, a wanted gang leader and freedom fighter, the separatists had a charismatic and capable leader. By 1947 Giuliano was able to bring the entire western part of Sicily, with the exception of Palermo, under his control. In the 1946 referendum after the war, the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming in Campania. Politically, it was at odds with northern Italy, which won the referendum to establish a republic.

The intervention of the Allies prevented the tensions between North and South from turning into an open civil war. Italy was divided into two states, the north under the leadership of Milan and Turin, also often called Padania, and southern Italy, now called Cicilia, initially with the capital Naples, and from 1950 Palermo.

After the Independence, only four years after the end of the monarchy in Italy, the citizens of Cicilia opted for a parliamentary monarchy as form of government. However, neither the former Italian king from the northern Italian house of Savoy nor the descendants of the king of the Two Sicilies from the house of Bourbon came into question as monarch. Instead, the interim government in Naples devised the renewal of the crown of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. A suitable candidate was found in the German House of Oldenburg, which already provided the monarchs in Denmark and Norway and thus stood in the tradition of Norman kings, as well as in the tradition of the German Hohenstaufer, who were once kings and emperors of the German-Roman Empire. The vacant crown of the kingdom was finally offered to Duke Peter von Oldenburg, who named the new branch line after the Hohenstaufer "Neustaufer". In 1950 he ascended the throne as King Pietro di Cicilia. In 1970 he was succeeded by his son, Federico di Cicilia o Sardinnia.

Since 1952, the king of Cicilia has also been king of the neighboring island of Sardinnia, also as a purely representative head of state without a government function. In fact, both nations are sovereign and independent states. Nevertheless, the two states are closely interwoven. A customs union has been agreed between the two countries since 1957. A common market followed in 1982. The currencies Cicilian Lira and Sardinnian Lira have been linked to each other since 1984, which should serve as a preliminary stage to a monetary union. There are joint ministerial conferences and foreign policy has been harmonized. The defense of the sea and air space of Sardinnia is ensured by the Guardia Ciciliana, but Sardinnia has its own land forces and a coast guard.

Malta, which became independent in 1964, eventually became a part of Cicilia in 1974, when King Federico was elected as Grand Master of the Order of Saint John, following a plebiscite on the Island.

Economy


A series of reforms and investments on agriculture such as the introduction of modern irrigation systems have made this important industry competitive in the past years. In the 1970s there was a growth of the industrial sector through the creation of some factories. In recent years the importance of the service industry has grown for the opening of several shopping malls and for modest growth of financial and telecommunication activities.

The main export products are wine, lemon fruits, olive oil, almonds, confectionery and liqueurs. The fishing industry and boat building is also very important.

In 1972 the Cicilian state acquired 49% of the shares of all FIAT production plants in Cicilia. The agreement also includes a right of first refusal of a further 2% of the shares, as well as the assurance that the plant may produce models of the FIAT Group under license in the future.

Sports is a cultural and economic factor in Cicilia. Football is the most popular participant sport, before basketball and volleyball as the second and third most popular team sports. The Cicilian national football team is one of the best football teams in the world. Tennis, Bicycle Racing and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports.

Tourism is an important source of wealth for Cicilia thanks to its natural and historical heritage. Today Cicilia is investing a large amount of money on structures of the hospitality industry, in order to make tourism more competitive. This was supported by the establishment of the state-owned airline Air Cicilia in 1972.

However, Cicilia continues to have a GDP per capita below the European average and higher unemployment than the rest of Europe. Tourism, distribution, food industries, wood furniture, whole sale, vehicle sales, sales in mineral and artisan fields are among the leading areas contributing to the projected employment growth.

Politics


The monarch is the head of state. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers. By law, the King or Queen has the right to be periodically briefed and consulted on government affairs. Depending on the personalities and relationships of the monarch and the ministers, the monarch might have influence beyond the power granted by the Constitution.

The head of government is the Prime Minister, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a primus inter pares, with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers.

The executive power is formed by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. The cabinet is responsible to the parliament, the Cicilian Senate which is located in Palermo. The Senate also has legislative powers. The 200 members of the Senate are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every five years.

Cicilia is divided into eight regions (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and Malta), each under a Prefect, who is the head of a region. The officeholder chairs of both the Regional Assembly (directly elected regional legislature) and the Regional-Executive (executive branch), but has a right to vote only in the latter.

The political landscape of Cicilia is diverse. The strongest party is the Democrazia Cristiana Ciciliana (DCC), a Catholic people's party in the center. It includes Christian-social, liberal and conservative currents. The DCC ruled uninterruptedly from 1950 until today and usually provides the Prime Minister. The second strongest party and frequent coalition partner of the DCC is the Partito Socialista Ciciliano (PSC), with a democratic-socialist orientation.

The Partito Comunista Ciciliano (PCC) is usually the third strongest party in elections. It was never involved in the national government, but has some mayors. The Partito Liberale Ciciliano (PLC) is a right-wing liberal and liberal-conservative party and often a coalition partner of the DCC. There are also numerous small parties that cover a wide spectrum from ecological orientation, like the Partito Verde Ciciliano (PVC) to neo-fascists like the Partito Nazionale di Cicilia (PNC).

Culture


Cicilia was exposed to some different historical influences than the rest of the Italian peninsula, starting most notably with Greek colonisation. Greek influence in the South was dominant until Latinisation was completed by the time of the Roman Principate. Greek influences returned by the late Roman Empire, especially following the reconquests of Justinian and the Byzantine Empire.

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Pizza had been first developed in Naples
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Sicily, a distinctive Norman-Arab-Byzantine culture throughout the Middle Ages, was captured by Muslims and turned into an Emirate for a period, and via Sicily, elements of Arab culture were introduced to Italy and Europe. The rest of the mainland was subject to a struggle of power among the Byzantines, Lombards, and Franks. In addition, the Venetians established outposts as trade with Byzantium and the Near East increased.

Until the Norman conquests of the 11th and 12th centuries much of the South followed Eastern rite (Greek) Christianity. The Normans who settled in Sicily and Southern Italy in the Middle Ages significantly impacted the architecture, religion and high culture of the region. Later, Southern Italy was subjected to rule by the new European nation states, first the Crown of Aragon, then Spain, and then Austria. The Spanish had a major impact on the culture of the South, having ruled it for over three centuries.

Jewish communities lived in Sicily and Southern Italy for over 15 centuries, but in 1492 King Ferdinand II of Aragon proclaimed the Edict of expulsion. At their height, Jewish Sicilians probably constituted around one tenth of the island's population. After the Edict, they partially converted to Christianity and some moved to Ottoman Empire and other places in Southern Italy, Rome and Europe.

In the 19th century, street musicians from Basilicata began to roam worldwide to seek a fortune, most of them would become professional instrumentalists in symphonic orchestras, especially in the United States.

Cicilia has many major tourist attractions, such as the Palace of Caserta, the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and other archaeological sites. There are also many ancient Greek cities in Cicilia, such as Sybaris and Paestum, which were founded several centuries before the start of the Roman Republic. Some of its beaches, woodlands and mountains are preserved in several National Parks; a major example is La Sila, a mountainous plateau occupying the provinces of Cosenza and Catanzaro in the region of Calabria.

In recent years, Cicilia has experienced a revival of its traditions and music, such as the Neapolitan song and the Tarantella.

Foreign Affairs of Cicilia


Main article: Foreign Affairs of Cicilia.

Armed Forces of Cicilia


Main article: Guardia Ciciliana.

Related Links


• Foreign Affairs of Cicilia
• Guardia Ciciliana
• King Federico di Cicilia
• Donna Carpentieri
• Cicilian national football team
• Air Cicilia


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Disclaimer

All content and images in these factbooks are self-edited and/or garnered from open sources like Pixabay, Wikipedia or Wikimedia. I do not claim or own the contents of these displayed within these factbooks. All content and images goes to their respected owners. All roleplays conducted by this nation is work of fiction. Any roleplay characters and any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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