Republic of Sicily (Napoleon's World)

The Republic of Sicily (Italian: Republica Siciliana) was a nation that existed from 1916 until 1978, when it became part of the Republic of Italy. Sicily, long one of the poorest parts of Europe, was an experimental ground for planned economic policies that eventually led to a socialist strongman in Petruccio Colombo, who ruled the country from 1931 to 1945 and renamed the republic "the People's Republic of Sicily," although his policies were far more moderate than in other Marxist states throughout the 20th century.

Sicily was neutral during the French Civil War and abstained from joining the Italian Alliance, with Colombo correctly predicting that the European Alliance's popular support and allegiance with the Turks would eventually result in the defeat of the Italian Alliance, although not as early as 1944. With the tide of the war rapidly turning, Colombo agreed to allow Turkish soldiers to use Sicily as a staging ground for their invasion of the South, and in return Sicily was granted most of Calabria following the Partition of Italy. Colombo died in October of 1945 and the Marxist government quickly collapsed under pressure from Paris. Sicily continued to be an extremely poor country deep into the early 1970's, when a strategic allegiance with the CIC allowed it new economic opportunities including free trade with France. In 1976, Calabria became independent, and Sicily followed its former province into the unification of Italy in 1978.