Tell me about the medieval kingdom of Sicily. I know a few things about, like that Palermo was possibly the biggest city in Europe (bar Constantinople) in the 13th century and that Frederick II was from here. But I know almost nothing else. Nor do I know why Palermo and Naples were so huge (by medieval standards) to begin with.
Tell me about the medieval kingdom of Sicily. I know a few things about...
Jack Ortiz
Matthew Bailey
Did you mean the medieval emirate of Sicily?
Zachary Adams
Normans
Isaac Adams
No, the kingdom. The emirate stopped existing when the Norman dynasty took over.
Alexander Howard
They actually managed to conduct a census at one point, virtually unheard of in medieval Europe.
Leo Powell
CARUSEDDI THIS HAS BECOME A SICILIAN BREAD
CANNOLI WITH RICOTTA AND CASSATE WILL COME TO YOU BUT ONLY IF YOU POST " MINCHIA MBARI BEDDU STU FILUNCINU"
Alexander Hernandez
Its a multicultural Norman-Latin-Arab Moor country
Cameron Campbell
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Leo Kelly
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Julian Clark
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Liam Edwards
They were very powerful at their best. Even the Holy Roman Emperors had some difficulties dealing with them.
And they were archivals of the Byzantine Empire.
Sicilia was more Greek than Norman, Latin, Arab or Moor. They were basically a Greek Kingdom ruled by Normans (and later Germans, French, Spanish)
Angel Butler
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Jonathan Barnes
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Christian Cruz
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Henry Butler
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Andrew Miller
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Joseph Thompson
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Lincoln Reyes
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Gabriel Nelson
4u OP
Dominic Robinson
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Camden Gomez
when did they stop speaking greek though
Easton Phillips
Taking a boat to Sicily takes a Long time so no one knew about it until the formation of the two kingdom of sicily
Andrew Adams
What did their military look like? And how rich was the average person compared to anywhere else in medieval Europe?
Jose Howard
Fun fact about Sicilians
They would typically paint their houses in the same color as their forefathers for centuries. The colors often identified the ethnicity or religion of its inhabitants. Yellow houses were that of Jews, blue of Greeks, etc. If you told a Sicilian that he descends from Jews though, he would probably stab you.
Austin Jones
bump
Logan Green
>Nor do I know why Palermo and Naples were so huge (by medieval standards) to begin with.
Mediterranean trade routes from East to West fundamentally get funneled into either the Straight of Messina or pass south between Sicily and Tunisia. If you take the Messina route, you'll pass by Naples. If you take the other route you'll pass by either Palermo or Tunis depending on which coast you're hugging.
These routes were highly lucrative. The tiny city of Amalfi was able to profit so much that it stood as a recognized regional naval power from 839 to 1037 when the Normans conquered it. That was the economic foundation the Kingdom of Sicily was built upon.
Dylan Fisher
If its geographical position is so ideal, why did southern Italy fall behind central and northern Italy so drastically?
Bentley Walker
Their economy was hit pretty bad after the unification. They're worse off than they were before
Jacob Martin
>If its geographical position is so ideal
Was so ideal. The trade routes changed. Portuguese and later Dutch, French and British trade around Africa slowly but fundamentally shifted the routes. Bulk spices and silk slowly dried up in the old Levant ports that fed the Mediterranean trade system.
The fall of Constantinople, Ottomans and North African pirates also contributed to the decline.
That's one of the reasons the center of European banking shifted from Genoa to Antwerp. It shifted back south to Milan only after the Spanish sacked Antwerp, but it ultimately returned to Amsterdam.