Calabria

Calabria, regione, southern Italy, composed of the province of Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio di Calabria, and Vibo Valentia. Sometimes referred to as the “toe” of the Italian “boot,” Calabria is a peninsula of irregular shape, jutting out in a northeast-southwest direction from the main body of Italy and separating the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas.

Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, the only extensive lowlands being those of the lower Crati River valley near Sibari, of the Marchesato (territory) near Crotone (Crotona), of Sant’Eufemia, and of Gioia Tauro. In the north, Calabria is linked to the Appennino Lucano of the Apennine Range by the Mount Pollino massif (7,375 feet [2,248 metres]), which is continued southward by the west coast range, which is in turn separated by the Crati River from the extensive La Sila massif (rising to 6,325 feet [1,928 metres]). A narrow isthmus between the gulfs of Sant’Eufemia (west) and Squillace (east) separates the northern from the southern part of the region, in which the uplands continue as the Appennino Calabrese and culminate in the extreme south in the Aspromonte massif (Montalto, 6,417 feet [1,956 metres]).

In ancient times the region was the focus of powerful and prosperous Greek colonization, notably at Crotona, Sybaris, and Rhegium (Reggio di Calabria). After Rome subjugated the area, founding a colony at Brundisium (Brindisi) in 246 and capturing Tarentum (Taranto) in 209, the Ager Bruttius, as the region was then called, gradually declined into a remote provincial existence. Eventually it passed to the Byzantines, who called the region Calabria. From the 3rd century bce to the 7th century ce, the name Calabria had specifically referred to a district in the southeastern extremity of the Italian peninsula between the Adriatic and the Gulf of Tarentum. According to the Greek geographer Strabo (1st century bce), the region had at one time been the site of 13 prosperous cities, but by the 3rd century bce only the ports of Tarentum and Brundisium, famous for their wool trade, were still thriving.

The expanded region of Calabria was later controlled by the Lombards, the Byzantines again, and the Normans. It then shared with the rest of southern Italy its Hohenstaufen, Angevin (House of Anjou), Aragonese, and Bourbon rulers. Calabria was a stronghold of Italian republicanism until the Risorgimento (movement for political unity) and became part of Italy after the 1860 expedition of the nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi.

The mainstay of Calabria’s economy, despite the small lowland area, is farming, which was once characterized by large landed estates (latifundia) and tiny peasant holdings. Under the Italian land reform, the majority of the former latifundia were broken up after 1951 and new, small peasant holdings created, with rural service centres, new houses, and new roads. Formerly, Calabrian agriculture concentrated almost entirely on cereals, olives, and the raising of sheep and goats, with occasional work in the forests of the Sila uplands. The region was long one of the poorest areas in Italy because of its eroded soils and scanty cultivation of them. But the land reforms of the 1950s and subsequent government investment introduced new and more profitable commercial crops, such as citrus fruits (mostly on the west coast), figs, and chestnuts. The government also promoted the development of resorts and recreational areas for tourists in suitable spots along the coasts.

Despite these changes the local Calabrian Mafia, called the ’ndrangheta, persists, and its long-established practice of kidnapping was a model for similar acts by others which plagued Italy during the 1970s. The region’s economic development is still hindered by rugged terrain, frequent earthquakes, and poor communications, and there is very little industry of any importance. Hydroelectric power was developed in La Sila in the 1920s and ’30s and is now an important feature of the Calabrian economy, supplying power for electric railways and the chemical industries at Crotone. Catanzaro, the regional capital (1971), Reggio di Calabria, and Cosenza are the only cities of any size. Rail communications are still largely limited to the coasts and consist of the Rome–Naples–Reggio di Calabria line running along the west coast and the Ionian, or Taranto–Reggio di Calabria, line on the east coast. These two railroad lines are connected from Paola to Sibari and from Sant’Eufemia to Marina di Catanzaro. A railway and car ferry link the ports of Reggio di Calabria and Villa San Giovanni with Messina in Sicily.

Calabria is one of the few areas of southern Italy that has a non-Italian minority: a substantial number of Albanians fled the Turkish conquest of their homeland in the 15th and 16th centuries and settled there. They have retained their use of the Albanian language, the Greek Orthodox rite in their churches, and, on occasion, their colourful national costumes. Area 5,823 square miles (15,080 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 2,004,415.