Una Nueva Planta nella Sicilia di Filippo V: riforme militari per la “conservazione” e la difesa del Regno

Abstract

In 1701, in the aftermath of the ascension to the Spanish throne, Philip V began to design political and military reforms aimed at making administration more efficient and rationalizing the bureaucratic apparatus. This process had significant repercussions in the balance between the central power and representatives of local political powers who, in the delicate conjuncture of the War of Succession, redefined their participation within the Monarchy. This also happened in Sicily, where a large corpus of reform was directed to modify the island's defensive structure so as to guarantee the "conservation" of the kingdom and protect it from external and internal enemies, who worked jointly in support of the Austrian faction. The present article intends to analyse and contextualise the reforms that, between 1701 and 1713, were promoted to define the Nueva Planta in Sicily and which, far from being limited to a purely military sphere, had important political, social and financial implications.