The 1783 Calabrian earthquakes were a sequence of five strong earthquakes that hit the region of Calabria in southern Italy (then part of the Kingdom of Naples), the first two of which produced significant tsunamis. The epicenters form a clear alignment extending nearly 100 km from the Straits of Messina to about 18 km SSW of Catanzaro. The epicenter of the first earthquake occurred in the plain of Palmi. The earthquakes occurred over a period of nearly two months, all with estimated magnitudes of 5.9 or greater. Estimates of the total number of deaths lie in the range 32,000 to 50,000.

Calabria (US: ), is a region in Southern Italy. It is bordered by Basilicata to the north, the Gulf of Taranto to the east, the Ionian Sea to the south, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. With almost 2 million residents across a total area of approximately 15,222 square kilometres (5,877 sq mi), it is the tenth most populous and the tenth largest Italian region by area. Catanzaro is the region's capital, while Reggio Calabria is the most populous city in the region. Calabria is the 14th most productive region in the country. The Pollino National Park with 192,565 ha is the largest national park in the country and ranks among the 50 largest in the world.

Calabria was the first region to take the name of Italy, as well as the founder of the homonymous name, since it was inhabited by the Italics. In antiquity the name Calabria referred, not as in modern times to the toe, but to the heel tip of Italy, from Tarentum southwards, a region nowadays known as Salento.