Recent structural studies of the Apennines and the Calabrian orocline and a compilation of structural, stratigraphic, GPS and palaeomagnetic data from the central and western Mediterranean region show that beginning in the Late Miocene a N-S trending ribbon continent that had been previously deformed, and which we now recognize as the Apennine-Sicilian thrust belt, buckled eastward in response to northward movement of Africa relative to stable Europe. A simple geometric model is consistent with available data and shows how eastward buckling of an originally north-south continental beam explains: (1) opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea basin from 7-2 Ma, at which point sea-floor spreading ceases and the basin begins to shrink by southward subduction beneath Sicily; (2) the coeval development of an east-verging fold-and-thrust belt along the length of the Apennine-Sicilian belt in response to overthrusting of the autochthon to the east, followed by extension beginning at 1 Ma as the Apennine portion of the beam begins to retreat to the SW; and (3) subduction of continental and oceanic lithosphere east of the buckling beam into a trench that migrates eastward through time due to 'push back' by the buckling upper plate.