Post-unification Italian brigandage

Brigantaggio
Part of the Italian unification
An episode of brigandage in 1864
Date 1861–1865 Location Southern Italy (former Kingdom of the two Sicilies) Result Unification victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Italy	Southern Italian brigands Supported by: Bourbon Legitimists in Southern Italy Partisans from Bourbon Spain
Commanders and leaders
Alfonso La Marmora Enrico Cialdini	Carmine Crocco (POW) Ninco Nanco  José Borjes
Casualties and losses
(1861–1864) [1][2] 603 killed Including 21 officers 253 wounded 24 captured or missing	(1861–1864) [1][2] 2,413 killed 2,768 captured 1,038 executed

Brigandage in Southern Italy (Italian: brigantaggio) had existed in some form since ancient times. However, its origins as outlaws targeting random travellers would evolve vastly later on to become a form of a political resistance movement, especially from the 19th century onward. During the time of the Napoleonic conquest of the Kingdom of Naples, the first signs of political resistance brigandage came to public light, as the Bourbon loyalists of the country refused to accept the new Bonapartist rulers and actively fought against them until the Bourbon monarchy had been reinstated.^[3] Some claim that the word brigandage is a euphemism for what was in fact a civil war.^[4]