The liberal state 1911-18 Flashcards
(27 cards)
When was Italy full united?
1870 - after the Italian kingdom took over the papal states and Rome under the idea of risorgimento
Risorgimento: The idea of unification of all Italian speaking countries
What were the issues with unification?
- Italians were defined by campanilismo
- Official language was a dialect of Florance, which very few spoke
- 99% of Italians could not understand otheres from other regions
- King Victor Emmanuel II mostly spoke a Piedmont dialect
- May 1898 - 100 people were killed in Milan for protesting against the government
- July 1900 - the King, Umberto I, was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in vengeance for the protestors.
Campanilismo: The feeling of having pride for your place of birth, rather than your nation.
How did the Catholicism affect the political system?
1886 Pope Leo XIII forbade any Catholics to take any part (including the formation of parties such as a national conservative party) in the democratic system Italy had set up. This led to no opposition from the liberal middle classes
How many men had the vote from 1886?
Less than 25%
Define transformismo and its effect.
Politicians would offer key positions to / blackmail other parlimentary members (known as deputies) in return for the support of them as prime minister. However, if deputies were offered a better deal they would then support someone else as PM. Transformismo was characterised by corruption and led to 29 changes to PM between 1870-1922.
What changed in the north that created a north-south divide?
Between 1899-1914, economic expansion and industrialisation took place leading to iron and steel, chemical, mechanical, electrical and car industries grew. However, standard of living was still low for industry and rural workers and protests against unemployment, taxes and food shortages were common (1,500 strikes with 350,000 workers).
What was the Industrial Triangle?
In 1911, the government census showed that almost half of Italy’s 2.2 million industrial workers were employed in the northern provinces of Lombardy, Liguria, and Piedmont. This area was known as the ‘industrial triangle’ and focussed around the three major industrial cities of Milan, Genoa and Turin.
What were the standards of living in Southern Italy?
The southern region of Italy included Abruzzo, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania, Calabria, Sicilia and Sardegna (Sardinia). This was one of the most impoverished areas in Europe. More than half of the entire population of the South were illiterate. The peasant population also suffered from poor diet, malnutrition, malaria and tuberculosis. Between 1901 and 1911 25,000 people died in Naples due to a cholera epidemic.
Questione Meridionale: The Italian term that describes the north-south divide of Italy and the problems that the south faced in terms of its economy.
How did Southern Italians alleviate their poverty?
They would imigrate to different countries (specifically the USA). Between 1901-13, around 200,000 southern Italians left Italy every year, including around 1 million Sicilians from a population of 3.5 million. Three out of every four Italians that migrated to the USA were from the south and by 1910 there were 600,000 Italians living in New York.
What were Italy’s foreign policies?
Italy was not an insignificant country within Europe, but was seen as ‘the least of the great powers’.
Italian foreign policy goals tended to focus on irredentism, the belief that Italy should reclaim the areas of Istria and the South Tyrol.
Italy had neither the military power or diplomatic means to take these regions from the ‘great powers’, such as Austria.
Who was Giovanni Giolitti?
- Prime minister 5 times.
- Master of trasformismo
- 1911; fourth term as PM
- Goal of a modern, industrialised successful country
- Wanted shared values within a liberal state.
- He needed the support of the:
- Socialists
- Catholic church
- Nationalists
Why was Giolitti’s absorbance of the PSI so important?
They were the second leading party and was rapidly gaining popularity.
What policies did Giolitti create?
- Compulsory accident insurance in industrial work paid for by the employer and non-compulsory national health insurance fund for health and old age (1898)
- Banning the employment of under 12 year olds (1901)
- Limiting the working day of women to 11 hours (1902)
- Introduction of arbitration courts to settle pay disputes between employees and employers (1906)
- Introduction of maternity fund (1910)
- State-subsidised sickness and old age fund for the merchant navy
Why could Giolitti not win over the PSI?
In 1912, the PSI split into two groups:
- Maximalists: were violent, extremists and revolutionists; wanting maximum change
- Reformists: who were actually willing to follow Giolitti and wanted to bring gradual change for the workers
By trying to absorb the PSI, Giolitti angered the Catholics and Nationalists who were anti-socialism
What were the Catholic influences in Giolitti’s career?
- In 1904 Giolitti made a divorce bill that was close to being passed to ‘quietly disappear’ and promised to promote Catholic interests through education
- The Catholic influence was at a local level which grew largely through youth movements and sports clubs
- In 1909 they took considerable steps to encourage Italians to vote against socialist in around 150 constituencies out of 508.
When did the nationalists create their first centralised party?
The Associazione Nazionalista Italiana (ANI) was formed in 1910 and was a dynamic force in which, Giolitti found hard to deal with.
Why were the nationalists so hard to deal with?
They saw Giolitti as a prime example of why the government was so weak and corrupt.
Giolitti tried to propose liberal reforms to win italian support but failed. He then decided to invade and take over Libya.
What did the 1911 foreign policy centre around?
Around the invasion of Libya. It was for several important international and domestic political reasons:
* Need to assert its claims in the region, particularly once France was increasing it’s control in Morocco
* The Banco di Roma had established a branch in Tripoli, the capital of Libya leading to powerful business interests in Italy.
* Popular enthusiasm for the invasion was emerging from increasing nationalism for the war and against France making them look weak
* Giolitti hoped to weaken the support of the ANI with success in Libya and draw them into his influence.
How did Giolitti expand the franchise?
- In 1912, the franchise was extended to all men over 30, and to any man that had completed military service.
- 70% of Italy’s voters were now potentially illiterate.
Giolitti hope to achieve: - Greater national unity
- Increase popularity for the liberals
- Undermine the PSI and radical ideologies.
How did the 1913 elections lead to Giolitti’s resignation?
- Liberals won only 318 and loss 71 seats compared to 1909
- The president of the Catholic Electoral Union, Gentiloni, boasted that 228 of the 318 liberal votes were Catholic (due to the support in echange for the divorce law) and despite Giolitti denying this, the liberals now relied on the Catholics and in 1914 the CEU removed their support
**What is Red Week? **
June 1914:
* Antonio Salandra replaced Giolitti and looked to link liberalism with nationalism.
* PSI proclaimed a national strike following the murder of three protesters by police in Ancona.
* Anarchists, republicans and radicals joined the protests.
* Public building torched, tax registers destroyed, railway stations seized and churches attacked.
* Trade Unions brought the strike and potential revolution to an end.
Why was Italy neutral in 1914?
They were supposed to join on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany (Triple Alliance) but Austria attacked Serbia with no heads-up meaning Italy did not have to join and they remain neutral
Why did Italy shift to joining the Entente
Following the declaration of neutrality in 1914, popular support shifted towards intervention in the war, but now in favour of joining the Entente Powers. There were several reasons for this including:
* The nationalist movement, led by Enrico Corradini began campaigning in favour of joining the Entente with the intention of winning the disputed lands of Trieste, Trentino and Istria from Austria-Hungary
* The nationalists had a lot of influence in the press and popularised their views to the nation to gather support.
* The police and the military would regularly use violence to break up demonstrations against intervention, but would actively support the Nationalist pro-intervention campaigns.
What were some struggles for the italians during WW1?
- Terrain: Most of their contribution was in the Italian alps which was cold, rough and heavily guarded by Austria. This led to thousands of italian soldiers in trenches die of cholera or frostbite and 62,000 Italian Alpini dying, carrying supplies past a main offensive on Austria
- Lack of volunteers/men: Only 8,171 men came forward as volunteers; many were from Trento or Trieste themselves, along with enthusiastic bourgeois nationalists and a few Mazzinian republicans.
- Poor pay: Troops were only paid 1/2 of the lire a day of an infantryman
