Founded by the Phoenicians, Palermo continued to be a Phoenician city right up until the First Punic War. Later conquered by the Romans, it reached its greatest splendour under Muslim rule, though its prosperity continued under the Normans and the Swebians. A long period of instability followed the death of Frederick II and only concluded in 1282 with the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers against the Franks. Palermo then split away from Naples by offering the crown of Sicily to Frederick III of Aragon. Sicily thus became part of the Spanish Empire, until it passed into the hands of the Savoy family in 1713. After this it was returned once more to Spain, then to Austria, and lastly to the Bourbons as an independent State of the Kingdom of Naples. The troops of Garibaldi entered the city on May 27th 1860, thus making Palermo the capital of the Risorgimento movement. Palermo witnessed a flourishing economic and cultural expansion between the 19th and 20th centuries. The city acquired a marginal role on the Italian scenario with the outbreak of the First World War and later of Fascism.