Liberal State - Economic & Social problems and Italy’s ‘Great power’ status

Question 1

What did economic growth do to the North-south divide?

Answer 1

It made it more pronounced

Question 2

Where was economic growth in Italy concentrated?

Answer 2

North

Question 3

[Finish the sentence] People did not feel that the governments economic policies had improved their lives…

Answer 3

…And this later led to the support for increasingly radical political groups

Question 4

Which years did Italy experience considerable economic expansion

Answer 4

1899 - 1914

Question 5

Which industries in Italy grew significantly between 1899 and 1914?

Answer 5

Iron, Steel, (and newer) Chemical, Mechanical and Electrical

Question 6

Which industry in Italy was a great success?

Answer 6

Car industries with companies like Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia.

Question 7

Protests against what were common in Italy?

Answer 7

Unemployment, Food shortages and High taxation

Question 8

How many strikes were there in Italy between 1901 and 1911?

Answer 8

1500 strikes with 350,000 workers

Question 9

What was the questione meridionale?

Answer 9

‘Southern Question’ - “Why the south had fallen into such poverty and what could be done to alleviate it?”

Question 10

What were theories to answer the questione meridionale?

Answer 10

The south’s poor economic structure, its geographical location, its history, its poor treatment by the richer north

Question 11

What did Italian politicians usually do regarding the south?

Answer 11

Ignore the major issues of the region and no Italian prime minister visited the south until 32 years of unification

Question 12

Which large cities in northern Italy was industrial economic expansion centred?

Answer 12

Milan, Turin, Genoa and Bologna

Question 13

Where were half of Italy’s 2.2 million workers employed in 1911?

Answer 13

The industrial triangle; Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont

Question 14

What did the peasant population of the south suffer with?

Answer 14

Poor diet, malnutrition, a lack of clean drinking water, high rates of infant mortality, malaria and tuberculosis

Question 15

What caused 25,000 people to die in Naples between 1910 and 1911?

Answer 15

An epidemic of cholera caused by poor drinking water

Question 16

How much of the population in the south was illiterate?

Answer 16

More than half the population (5x the rate in Piedmont)

Question 17

Meridionale

Answer 17

Term used to refer to the Italian south encompassing the regions of Abruzzo, Apulia, Basilica, Calabria, Campania, Publio, Molise, Sicily, and Sardinia

Question 18

Meridionalismo

Answer 18

Intellectual movement that developed after unification and focused on developing an understanding of the south’s problems to encourage proper government reform

Question 19

Irredentism

Answer 19

A movement that grew out of unification and asserted unification should continue until all Italian speaking areas were incorporated into Italy. The ideal was to have a large influence in Italian politics until 1945 as nationalists and fascists popularised the concept and blamed liberal weakness on why this hadn’t happened.

Question 20

Which lands did irredentism focus on?

Answer 20

Corsica, Dalmatia, Istria, Malta, Ticino, Trentino,Trieste, Fiume

Question 21

How many southern Italians left Italy between 1901 and 1913 every year?

Answer 21

200,000

Question 22

Between 1901and 1913, how many Sicilians left in total?

Answer 22

1 million out of a population of 3.5 million

Question 23

What were the effects of the mass emigration of southern Italians on Italy?

Answer 23

While it lessened the economic strain in the south, it failed to fix long term issues facing Italy and was reliant on other countries willingness to accept large influxes of poor unskilled Italian migrants.

Question 24

How was Italy geographically disadvantaged compared to Europe’s ‘major powers’?

Answer 24

French and British navies dominated the Mediterranean

Question 25

How was Italy views in terms of power in Europe?

Answer 25

Not insignificant but the least of the great powers

Question 26

What is a summary of the concept of irredentism?

Answer 26

The belief that Italy should reclaim the areas of Istria and South Tyrol since most of the population were ethnically Italian and spoke the language

Question 27

Why wouldn’t Italy initially carry out irredentism?

Answer 27

It didn’t have the military power or diplomatic means to reclaim the areas from other powerful European nations

Question 28

Where did Italy look to gain overseas colonies?

Answer 28

In Africa

Question 29

Why did Italy want to gain overseas colonies in Africa?

Answer 29

Colonisation was seen as essential for any nation wanting to claim a place as one of Europe’s great powers

Question 30

Where did Italy first look to for colonisation?

Answer 30

Tunisia, an area with economic and strategic interests

Question 31

What happened in 1881 regarding Tunisia?

Answer 31

The French, with diplomatic support of Britain, invaded Tunisia and claimed it

Question 32

What did the French’s invasion of Tunisia lead the Italian government to do?

Answer 32

Sign a defensive alliance with Austria and Germany (The Triple Alliance), against france

Question 33

The Triple Alliance

Answer 33

Italy, Austria and Germany

Question 34

Why did the Triple Alliance anger Italians?

Answer 34

It allied with Austria its traditional enemy and the barrier to the recover of the irredente lands

Question 35

Irredente

Answer 35

Unredeemed

Question 36

Battle of Dogali

Answer 36

After the British government informed Italy it would agree to it’s expansion into Abyssinia in 1884, attempts at gaining this part of Africa as a colony failed and Italian forces were defeated by the Ethiopian army and 500 soldiers died

Question 37

Battle of Adwa

Answer 37

1 March 1896, Italian attempt to claim Abyssinia failed. Worst defeat ever suffered by a European power in Africa. 5000 Italian troops killed and thousands injured at the hands of King Menelik and Abyssinias powerful army.

Question 38

What did the humiliation of the Battle of Adwa accentuate?

Answer 38

Growing anger towards Italy’s political class and was a catalyst for the mass protests and riots that rocked Italy at the end of the 19th century?

Question 39

What did the humiliation of the Battle of Adwa accentuate?

Answer 39

Growing anger towards Italy’s political class and was a catalyst for the mass protests and riots that rocked Italy at the end of the 19th century?