SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2024

This paper aims to illustrate the historical implications of foreign rulers in southern Italy and the consequences of their policies and political agendas on the socioeconomic reality of the region. Using relevant literature in the development and historical fields, I summarize and select the key aspects that have led southern Italy to chronic economic stagnation and underperformance. Primarily, this paper attributes much of the causes for the economic struggles of southern Italy to millennia of foreign rulers imposing economic and political policies inadequate for the development of the territory and rather focused on extracting the resources present. Moreover, this paper also wishes to project which are the most probable opportunities for development that southern Italy has in order to become economically more prosperous.