Palermo is a city in southern Italy and the capital of the autonomous region of Sicily. The city was founded in 734 BC by Phoenician settlers, who called the city Ziz, meaning "flower". Ziz's major trading partner was Carthage, and the Ancient Greek settlers of Sicily called the city Panormos ("wide haven", or "open harbor") due to its large anchorage. The Phoenicians began to use the Greek name for their city in the 5th century BC, and Panormos served as a Carthaginian naval base during the Sicilian Wars. From 276 to 275 BC, Panormos briefly came under Greek rule during Pyrrhus of Epirus' campaign in Sicily, but it returned to Carthage after Pyrrhus' withdrawal from the island. In 254 BC, the Roman Republic conquered Panormos during the First Punic War and defeated a Carthaginian recapture attempt in 251 BC. Panormus, as the Romans called it, would go on to be conquered by the Vandals in 440 AD, the Ostrogoths in 488 BC, the Byzantines in 535 AD, the Arab Emirate of Sicily in 904 AD, and the Normans in 1072. During 120 years of Muslim rule, the city - known as Balarm - displaced Syracuse as the capital of Sicily and competed with Cordoba and Cairo in terms of importance and splendor; they also introduced lemons, rice, sugarcane, watermelon, eggplant, spinach, artichoke, limes, bananas, plantains, mangos, coconuts, and cotton to Sicily. In 1072, the Normans conquered Palermo after a five-month siege, and the House of Hauteville returned Palermo to Christianity and established Palermo and its Palazzo dei Normanni as the capital of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. The future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II inherited the crown of Sicily from his mother Constance of Sicily in 1198, and Palermo was King Frederick's preferred city throughout his reign. In 1266, the French House of Anjou seized Sicily following the defeat and death of Frederick's illegitimate son Manfred of Sicily at the Battle of Benevento, but, following the 1282 Sicilian Vespers uprising, Sicily came under the rule of the Aragonese. From 1479 to 1713 and from 1717 to 1718, Palermo was under the rule of Spain, and it was also ruled by Savoy from 1713 to 1717 and from 1718 to 1720, and by Austria from 1720 to 1734. In 1734, King Carlos III of Spain was granted Sicily as a result of the War of the Polish Succession, and the Bourbons would rule Sicily from Palermo until 1816, when the capital of the "Two Sicilies" was moved to Naples. From 1848 to 1849, a popular insurrection led by Giuseppe La Masa seized control of Palermo from the Bourbons, but the Bourbons reconquered Palermo in 1849, and it remained under their control until the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, after which Sicily was reunified with the Kingdom of Italy. However, most Sicilians preferred independence to annexation, leading to a failed 1866 rebellion in Palermo. The Italian government responded with anti-Sicilian and anti-clerical policies. During World War II, Palermo was heavily bombed by the Allies in 1942 and 1943, and it was liberated from fascist rule on 22 July 1943. The harbor and the surrounding quarters had been destroyed during the Allied bombing, as was a considerable part of the city, with heavy civilian casualties. In 1946, Palermo was declared to be the seat of a regional parliament with its seat at the Norman palace, and, during the Cold War, the Italian government had to vie for power with the Sicilian Mafia, Red Brigades, and brigands such as Salvatore Giuliano in the Palermo area. From the 1950s to 1980s, several historical buildings were destroyed and replaced with poor buildings in the "Sack of Palermo" as rural-to-urban migration skyrocketed, and these hastily-constructed neighborhoods lacked parks, schools, buildings, and proper roads. By July 2019, the Sicilian Mafia was still strong in Passo Rigano. In 2013, Palermo had a population of 676,118 people, while the metro area had a population of 1.3 million.
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