THE WORLD OF "LA MISERIA"
219
internal communication has played a role in opening these regions to
external conquest. For one thing, it has prevented the rise of cities and
the development of a class capable of local leadership. For the same
reasons the rulers of central and northern Italy have been unable to
exert effective control over the provinces of the far south. Thus only
the very big powers ever had the interest and the means to conquer and
hold those provinces.
Through the centuries exploitation has been the motive of the
conquerors, and the incursion of foreign armies could not but worsen
the "natural" situation. One thinks of the sheer destruction wrought
by
the struggle between Greeks and natives and of the devastation
caused by the second Punic War and the fight between Pompey and
Caesar. The long-term effects of campaigns like those of Hannibal were
to
force the people to flee from the coastal plains, which, left uncul–
tivated, soon turned into malarial swamps. And when after centuries
of ruthless invasions a feudal order was established at long last, it came
into existence under the sway of foreign barons at a time when the
greater part of Europe (including the northern part of Italy) was
fighting resolutely and with frequent success to rid itself of medieval
economic forms. The belated imposition of feudalism on Calabria and
Lucania, at a time when it had already lost its historical function, was
again due in part to the geographical factors not permitting effective
control of these provinces. (The period of Frederick II, who maintained
his
court
in
Calabria for a considerable length of time, is exceptional.)
Southern Italy still suffers from certain after-effects of feudalism, such
as
the working of the land by sharecroppers or hired hands, without
ever having benefited from the new forms that developed out of feudal–
ism,
namely the communes which
in
northern Italy and elsewhere led
to
the rise of an industrious middle class and the modern State. Nor
did the unification of Italy under the House of Savoy affect the southern
peasantry favorably. For when the laws and the system of taxation of
highly advanced Piedmont were applied without substantial modifica–
tion to the closed economy of the south, history added another cruel
chapter to the old tale of exploitation.
As a result Calabria and Lucania still exhibit the most shocking
poverty. More than a hundred years ago the poet-priest Vincenzo
Padula wrote of the lowliest inhabitants of these regions that they are
not human beings but appendages of the animals. "The peasant works
in order to eat, he eats in order to have the strength to work; then
he sleeps. This is his life." The impression of the visitor today is not
very
different. The peasant's home
is
still a hovel which he shares with
