Britsko-neapolská válka o síru z roku 1840 a její evropská dimenze
Anglo-Neapolitan Sulphur Crisis of 1840 and its European Dimension

Summary/Abstract: In 1840, Great Britain and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies disputed about the mining and export over the Sicilian sulphur, which finally culminated in a formally undeclared war in the spring of the same year. Great Britain became a victor and induced the government in Naples, the capital city of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, to cancel restrictions concerning the production of this resource. This, at the present time, not very famous event met with a considerable response in whole Europe at that time, not only among political and diplomatic elites but also the broader public. The conflict was generally perceived such as a demonstration of British selfishness and aggressive defence of own national interests at the expense of noticeably weaker opponent who, besides, was right. As a consequence of that, it contributed to another weakening of a belief in justice and stability of European state system in a shape as it was formed in the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the years thereafter, this distrust influenced not only a behaviour of individual European governments on the international scene but was also visible in thinking of numerous population groups, for instance in terms of ideological formation of German national movement.

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