Political, economic & social condition of Italy c1900 Flashcards
The legacy of unification, divisions between the North and South, the conflict between the Church and State and class divisions. (17 cards)
What kind of economy did Italy have in 1871? What percentage of the active population was involved in this?
In 1871, Italy had a predominantly agricultural economy with 60% of the active population working on land.
What fraction of Italy’s surface area was mountainous or hilly and why was it limited? What were ‘Latifundia’? What percentage of all Latium in Sicily were owned by just 10 families?
Two-thirds of Italy’s surface area was mountainous or hilly and was very difficult to cultivate due to the infertile soil. ‘Latifundia’ were large agricultural estates, primarily located in Southern Italy, that were owned by wealthy elites and characterised by significant land inequality. 17% of all Latium in Sicily were owned by just 10 families.
By how much did agricultural output vary between the North and South c.1900 and why?
The output per hectare of cultivated land varied from just 5 lire per hectare to over 2,000 lire per hectare. Southern regions were naturally disadvantaged due to the poor soil quality and arid climate. Additionally, they had few large farms and little intensive farming with most peasants devoted to subsistence farming. On the other hand, the fertile plains of Northern Italy had large farms with wage-labourers and modern methods of irrigation.
How did ‘mezzadria’ work and what portion of agricultural workers in Tuscany worked under that system as late as 1901?
‘Mezzadria’ was a share-cropping system where the land owner provided land on a yearly contract in return for half of the crop that was produced. It left peasants permanently in the landowner’s debt. As late as 1901, over half of agricultural workers in Tuscany were share-croppers.
What did the 1881 census find out about day-labourers in Southern provinces and Tuscany in particular?
The 1881 census found out that there were over 1 million day-labourers in Southern provinces that were chronically unemployed. There were 110,000 of such landless workers in Tuscany alone and they would have considered themselves fortunate had they found 180 days of work a year.
What crop dominated Italian agriculture in the 1870s and how much was produced per hectare? How did this compare to another European nation? Was this enough to meet the demands of home consumption and if not, how much was imported from which countries?
Italian agriculture was dominated by cereals but productivity was low with the national average being 0.8 tonnes per hectares in the late 1870s - a third of the productivity per hectare in Britain. In fact, productivity was so low that the quantity of wheat produced wasn’t even sufficient for home consumption and 150,000 tonnes were imported annually from Russia and Turkey.
By how much did wheat prices fall in the 1880s and why? How did landowners safeguard themselves and at whose expense?
By the mid-1880s, most sectors of the Italian agricultural were on the verge of collapse as there was a world-wide fall in food prices with wheat prices falling from 331 lire per tonne in 1878 to 228 lire in 1885. This was due to the growing competition from cheap American and Asian rice. In 1887, the government introduced Corn Laws which safeguarded the economic stability of landowners at the expense of the urban working class and peasants who suffered from high food prices which remained artificially high.
What were the diets of labourers and peasants like and why? What diseases were common and in which areas? When were what proportion of conscripts rejected for not being tall enough and on the grounds of health or deformity?
Most peasants’ diets consisted of bread with cheap additions such as beans, onions and potatoes with fruit, meat and other vegetables being a luxury. This problem was exacerbated by share-cropping contracts which stipulated that produce such as eggs and meat were given to the landowner. Diseases stemming from malnutrition were common with Pellagra being widespread in Lombardy and Veneto where the Italian peasantry relied almost entirely on maize. In 1881, 11.8% of conscripts were rejected as not tall enough and a further 26.5% were rejected on the grounds of health or deformity.
What portion of municipalities had no doctor in 1885? How many deaths occurred due to malaria and what percentage of deaths in Southern regions were caused by it?
In 1885, a third of the municipalities had no doctor. At least 15,000 deaths occurred each year due to malaria and it accounted for 20-30% of all deaths in Southern regions.
What was the Industrial triangle? What was Italy’s leading export in the 1880s and how much value did it bring? Where was silk production concentrated? How did the economic state of the North contrast that of the South and what percentage of crops were eaten by farmers.
Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria formed the Industrial triangle were almost all of the industrial development was concentrated. . Italy was the world’s second largest producer of raw silk and it was easily the country’s largest export generating about 300 million lire annually. Over 50% of Italy’s silk production took place in Lombardy alone. While northern regions such as the Industrial triangle thrived due to growing industries such as textiles, the South remained predominantly agricultural, relying heavily on subsistence farming with farmers eating 40% of their produce themselves.
How did Unification and tariffs impact the Southern Industry? What were the impact of taxes and how were they spent?
The impact of Unification was disastrous for the Southern Industry as the low Piedmontese tariffs replaced the protective tariffs (of up to 80% by value) overnight. The smaller southern silk industry, for example, couldn’t compete with the Lombard products once the Bourbon tariff was removed and northern industrial products replaced southern ones, even in the southern markets. Additionally, the uniform tax rates that were introduced throughout Italy were far higher than had been known in the South before 1860. This meant that southern peasants who had lower incomes than northern industrial workers became further impoverished. To make matters worse, most of the tax revenues were spent on the North with 267 million lire being spent on the North between 1862 and 1897 compared to the miserly 3 million spent on the South.
In what period did Italy’s ‘growth spurt’ in industrial output take place? By how much did steel production increase and what infrastructural developments did this facilitate? What was a limitation of these infrastructural developments?
Italy’s industry saw a ‘growth spurt’ in the 1880s. Steel production alone rose dramatically from 3,600 tonnes in 1881 to 158,000 tonnes in 1889. This, in turn, facilitated further developments such as increased railway construction with the length of railway tracks in Italy doubling from 6,400km in 1870 to 13,600km in 1890 which made transportation of people and raw materials cheaper and more efficient. However, only a small fraction of the railways were built in southern regions.
By how much did transatlantic emigration rise by? How many Italians were living in the Americas and by which year? Which areas had the most emigration and what was the reason for such high rates?
Transatlantic emigration rose dramatically from 20,000 a year before 1879 to 205,000 in 1888. By 1891, there were over 1.4 million Italians living in the Americas. Most emigrants were southerners or from rural northern areas that attempted to escape unemployment, hunger, high taxation and conscription.
What actually was the official language of Italy? What percentage of the population could speak it and people from which areas couldn’t? Who was the King at the time and could he speak Italian? Considering literacy rates, why was this an obstacle to ‘making Italians’?
Italian had been created from a Florentine dialect which only 2.5% of the population could speak. The vast majority of Italians, particularly those who lived outside of northern regions like Rome and Tuscany wouldn’t be able to speak the official language of the newly unified Italy und thus felt little sense national identity of allegiance to the new kingdom. In fact, King Victor Emmanuel II himself only spoke Piedmonetese suggesting that linguistic division applied to the upper class in addition to the lower classes. The official language was primarily used in literature and government documents and was rarely spoken in daily life. This made linguistic integration even more difficult, particularly in relation to the South, considering the illiteracy rates were 54% in the North and as high as 88% in southern regions.
According to the educational budget of which year, was how much money allocated to universities and primary schools? What was the impact of this and how did this widen the North/South divide and lead to class divisions ?
The education budget of 1873 allocated 6.2 million lire to universities while only providing 2.7 million lire for primary schools. Primary education was essential for the poor and rural populations and underfunding severed their access to basic literacy leaving them no chance to improve their social status. On the contrary, wealthier families, especially in the north where 80% of the country’s secondary schools and universities were located, produced highly-educated graduates who could enter professions in law, medicine and politics. This demonstrates how Italian education was very top-heavy, producing a largely illiterate population whilst also producing a small, highly-educated elite.
What was Campanilismo and why was it so prevalent? How was it related to brigandage and how did the government react? What happened at Pontelandolfo and what were the impacts?
Campanilismo refers to loyalty and attachment to one’s locality rather than to the country as a whole. The concept was deeply ingrained into Italian society and due to historical divisions into various independent states which had their own culture, dialect and governance. After unification in 1861, many southern regions felt alienated by the Piedmontese-dominated government which imposed new laws, taxes and conscription, leading to widespread brigandage which was often seen as local resistance to northern oppression. From 1861-65 over 82,000 troops were deployed to the south to establish law and order. However, these merely exacerbated tensions. For example, in the small town of Pontelandolfo, over 400 civilians were massacred after southern brigands attacked and killed Italian soldiers. Instead of fostering national unity, this made ‘real Italians’ even more resentful of the abstract idea of a unified Italy and national authority.
What percentage of Italians were Roman Catholics and how loyal were they to the Pope? When did the armed occupation of Rome take place and what allowed it to happen? What did the Liberal State fear and how did it act? What was the Pope’s response and how did this impact the Liberal State?
The vast majority (97%) of Italians were Roman Catholics and felt at least some sort of allegiance to the Pope who viewed himself as both a spiritual leader and temporal ruler of the Papal states. Due to the Franco-Prussian War, French troops, who had been protecting the Pope, were withdrawn to defend France allowing the Italian army to invade and occupy Rome in September 1870. Fearing potential foreign invasion from France or Austria, the Italian state quickly attempted to reconcile the Pope by offering a compromise in the form of the Law of Guarantees in 1871 which offered immunity from tax and arrest as well as an annual income of 3.25 million lire in compensation for the Papal states. The Pope bitterly rejected the offer and refused to leave the Vatican, naming himself a ‘prisoner’. In 1874, Pope Pius IX issued the non-expedit which forbade Catholics from voting in elections thus weakening the legitimacy of the new state and limiting popular support.
