North-South Divide

Question 1

North

Answer 1

• More PROSPEROUS
• Industrialised
• better transport
• Wealthy middle-classes
• Lower illiteracy rates
• Fertile plains + modernised farming

Question 2

South

Answer 2

• IMPOVERISHED
• Agricultural
• Peasant population
• Large but unskilled workforce
• Mafia (organised crime)
• High illiteracy rates (80%)
• High general + infant mortality rates
• Malnutrition + disease
  (failed harvests, TB, 20-30% all 💀 = malaria, typhus)
• Mass migration to North/US
  (-200k/yr 1901-13)

Question 3

🇮🇹’s Overall Weaknesses

Answer 3

• Lack 🔑 natural resources: COAL, STEEL + IRON ore

*Comparatively SMALL OVERSEAS empire
(BR= 390 mill, IT= 12mill)

• SMALLER + LESS FUNDED pre-WW1 military
• Italy=10, Br=50, Fr=60 mill

*Straggling GDP

Question 4

Giolitti’s measures to tackle Meridionale (Southern Problem)

Answer 4

• Pension + accident schemes
• CENTRALISED primary EDUCATION
• 1911: national literacy rate 39%
• Increased number of schools
• Reduce FOOD TAXES
• Free MALARIA TREATMENT
• 1914: Italians have SAME LIFE EXPECTANCY as Europe
• PUBLIC HOLIDAY laws

*MINIMUM working age

• MAXIMUM working hours

Question 5

Dualist Italian State economy

Answer 5

*UNIFICATION further isolates South from PROSPEROUS MARKETS

• Southern SILK TRADE wiped out due to free trade. Can’t compete with NORTHERN RIVALS.

Question 6

Southern farming problems 🐑 🍇

Answer 6

LATIFUNDIO: vast estates owned by rich men in larger cities
- DISINTERESTED in their land
- Don’t want farm MODERNISATION
- Unpredictable employment

Question 7

Gov status on Meridionale progress🇮🇹🥀

Answer 7

• Southern poverty remains an UNSOLVED + NEGLECTED problem of Liberal period
• Liberalism opposes level of gov ECONOMIC INTERFERENCE + HIGH TAXATION needed to solve it.
• Don’t understand SEVERITY. BLAME southerners for it.

Question 8

Religion + the South 🍞 🐟,🧔‍♀️😇👼🏻🪽⛪️

Answer 8

• Church= key figure of INFLUENCE in poor’s lives
• Receive NEWS
• EDUCATION
• WORLDVIEW

South very DEVOUT

Question 9

Socialism + Trade Unionism 🫡🇮🇹✊🏼🤝🗣️

Answer 9

• Trade union + socialist membership increases with INDUSTRIALISATION (1900)
• 1902= 250k socialist trade union members
• Southern workers move to North towns + cities to avoid low wages + unemployment.

Question 10

Nationalism + the North 🫡🔥💀🇮🇹

Answer 10

• Patriotism, Militarism, Imperialism, Expansionism
• Modernity + exciting Dynamism

*EDUCATED INTELLECTUALS condemning gov for failing to turn 🇮🇹 into great IMPERIALIST POWER
(Like BR + Fr, which was realistically unfeasible.)

• WW1= catalyst