AHC: Have Italy remain divided to the Present Day

It was far more complicated than that, but I agree that most peasants in Southern Italy (and largely in the North as well) had little or no interest in Italian national unification and largely felt no attachment at all to any notion of "Italy".

So we agree that the southern proletariat will never revolt against their king to join the kingdom of Sardinia.

Without Garibaldi my bet is that the Sicilian secessionist barons will rebel against the Bourbons , and in trouble they'll ask help to the Sardinians which will have a pretext to invade and annex South Italy.

The papacy will be conquered like it happened historically
 
So we agree that the southern proletariat will never revolt against their king to join the kingdom of Sardinia.
That's probably true, but I'm not sure how secure you can be in declaring it, since this is the first time the southern proletariat has been mentioned in the thread ;)
 
Have a united Italy piss off a large foreign power enough that they divide the place up, and make sure that power has enough firepower and willpower to make its decision stick

Or have a situation where Italy is occupied by two opposing ideologies and a cold war occurs for long enough it resembles the Korean situation more than the German one (North Italy is best Italy)
 
That's probably true, but I'm not sure how secure you can be in declaring it, since this is the first time the southern proletariat has been mentioned in the thread ;)

You're right, but I couldn't talk just about the peasants because there are the citizens of Naples and other cities to be considered so I came up with this word.
 
It is not very difficult to give a renewed lease on life to the kingdom of Two Sicilies. Assume that Ferdinand II does not approach the French at the end of 1830s to replace the British in the leases for the extraction of sulphur and mercury in Sicily (which at the time were quite strategically important as well as lucrative). This would result in the British keeping their cozy relationship with the Bourbons of Two Sicilies, butterfly away Gladstone's fact-finding mission of the early 1850 (or at least make sure that his letter from Naples and Sicily do not get too much attention in Great Britain) and guarantee there will be no British navy protection for Garibaldi's ships (OTL expedition actually will be butterflied away too: no good reason to organise it if there is no hope of success).
By the end of the century the extraction industry in Sicily will loose its importance, so the British umbrella might be taken away at some point in time: the British need Malta in the center of Mediterranean; Sicily is not needed, Southern Italy even less so. Depends on the butterflies, obviously, and how Italian history will play out. Quite possible that even if the Bourbons are expelled from Naples they may keep the kingdom of Sicily.
 
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