The Liberal State C1911-18 Flashcards
In 1911 how did Italy patriotically celebrate the 50th anniversary of Italian unification?
- In Piedmont, the International Industrial Fair, a prestigious event demonstrating Italy’s economic progress since unification, was opened with great fanfare at a massive new stadium filled with 70,000 cheering spectators
- In Rome, a new monument dedicated to the first king of a united Italy, Victor Emmanuel Il, was unveiled to large crowds in June.
- Throughout the year, artistic and cultural events took place in the capital, emphasising Italy’s excellence in art and fashion.
What was the dark reality behind the façade of the cheering crowds?
The Catholic Church boycotted the events and refused to celebrate the unification
Socialist politicians asserted that the idea of a united Italian nation was meaningless
A deep divide between the north and south linguistically, economically and politically stil existed
Italy had achieved partial unification in 1861, but had only been finally unified truly with Rome in 1870
Why was unification a key problem?
in the subsequent 50 years, political leaders had struggled to create an identity for this new country that could unite its citizens and encourage a sense, of shared patriotism
Italy had been fragmented politically, economically, and culturally since the Middle Ages and the idea of Italy as a nation meant very little
What was Campanilismo?
A feeling of pride and belonging to their place of birth, which was much
stronger than any sense of national identity.
Italians were used to identifying predominately with their local towns and regions
Did the Italians feel a sense of national unity?
- They were not even united by language, with most Italians speaking a regional dialect and unable to understand what people from other areas spoke
- Even the king, Victor Emmanuel Il, mostly spoke in the Piedmont dialect, meaning most Italians outside Piedmont could not understand him.
What is Risorgimento
It means ‘resurgence’ or ‘rebirth’
and refers to the unification of Italy, which concluded with the incorporation of Rome in1871
What happened in May 1898
- In May 1898 there were protests against Italy’s political system and growing economic problems
- They had been met by a brutal government crackdown and 100 protestors had been killed in Milan
What happened on the 29th of July 1900
King Umberto I, had been assassinated by an Italian anarchist who wanted to avenge the protesters’ deaths.
What were the key issues Italy faced?
One of the key issues was Italy’s political system
Political and economic turmoil threatened to tear the nation apart.
Italy’s parliament was made predominantly of..
- Northern middle class
- They tended to represent interests of own class at expense of wider population
What was the issue with Catholics and the ‘Roman Question’?
- Pope Pius IX was angered by the capture of Rome and loss of papal territory (1870)
- Pope Leo XIII forbade Catholics from running for office or voting in national elections
What was the effect of the lack of support from the Church?
- robbed Italy of a potentially unifying symbol
- questioning the legitimacy of the new nation
- prevented the creation of a national conservative party based on Catholic values
- Many of Italy’s politicians feared that challenging the Church would only further alienate the population
- no parliamentary challenge to the liberal middle classes who ruled Italy due to the lack of popular political opposition
Formation of governments
- Italy’s politicians shared the same liberal ideology
- very few formal political parties
- Prominent politicians formed governments by offering key positions to other parliamentary members
- known as deputies
- who would then agree to support them as prime minister
What was tranformismo?
- skill in forming political alliances by knowing how to buy the support of other deputies
- This political manoeuvring was known as trasformismo and was characterised by corruption
- there were 29 changes of prime minister between 1870 and 1922
Divide between ‘real Italy’ and ‘legal Italy’
- Real Italy = Italian people and legal Italy = ruling classes
- Most of the Italian population lacked political education for electoral participation
- Protests against gov. met with violent resistance from the Military
- Inability to vote fuelled anger of the people and led to growth of extreme revolutionary ideologies like anarchism
Economic growth 1899 - 1914
- Considerable economic expansion and industrialisation in the north
- Iron + steel industries grew
- Newer chemical + mechanical + electrical industries grew
- Italian car industry established with brands like Fiat + Lancia + Alfa Romeo
- Industrialisation + improved techniques helped increase agricultural production
Social Problems 1899 - 1914
Living standards of industrial workers + rural workers remained low
Long hours + low pay
Protests against unemployment + food shortages + high taxation were common
1901 - 1911 over 1,500 strikes involving around 350,000 workers
Divide grew between north and south
Major barrier to creating a unified country
Questione Meridionale
Intellectuals and political tried to understand why the south had fallen to poverty and how to help it
Theories regarding its poor economic structure + geographical location + history + mistreatment from north
Southern intellectuals called for greater economic investment but little was done
No Italian PM visited the south until 32 years after unification
Effect of industrialisation
- Industrial economic expansion focused on northern cities of MILAN + TURIN + GENOA + BOLOGNA
- Southern agriculture based economy stagnated leading to increase in poverty
- 1911 census showed that 2.2 million industrial workers were employed in northern provinces referred to as the industrial triangle
- LOMBARDY + LIGURIA + PIEDMONT = industrial triangle
- In the south people suffered from poor diet + malnutrition + lack of clean water + disease
- 1910 - 1911 25,000 died in Naples from cholera
- Over 50% of south were illiterate which was 5 times the rate in Piedmont alone
- 1911- income per head in the industrial north was twice that of in the south
Emigration to USA
- Millions of southern peasants migrated overseas - predominately USA
- 1901 - 1913 200,000 peasants yearly left Italy including 1 million Sicilians
- 1910 there were approx. 600,000 Italians living in New York
- Mass emigration failed to deal with long term issues and was reliant on other countries’ willingness to accept poor unskilled workers
Great Powers
- Italy lagged behind Europe’s Great Powers in terms of foreign policy + industrial development
- Italy was also geographically disadvantaged as the French and British dominated the Mediterranean
- Italy was viewed as the least of the great Powers
Irredentism
- A movement that was caused by Italy’s unification
- asserted that all Italian speaking areas should be incorporated into Italy
- Italy’s foreign polices focused mainly on irredentism - they should reclaim lands such as Istria + South Tyrol
- however, these areas were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire
- Italy didn’t have military power + diplomatic means to reclaim these areas
Tunisia
- Italy wanted to gain colonies overseas - especially in Africa
- colonisation was seen as essential for a country to be a Great Power
- Italy first focused on Tunisia where it had economic + strategic interests
- 1881 the French invade Tunisia instead with the diplomatic support of Britain
- the Italian gov. Become angered and sign a defensive alliance with Austria and Germany = Triple Alliance
- alliance angers Italians as Austria was seen as the traditional enemy as it was a barrier to the irredente lands
Abyssinia
- 1884 the British inform Italy that they will support Italian expansion into Abyssinia
- the Battle of Dogali was a failure as the Italian forces were defeated by the Ethiopian army + 500 Italian soldiers died
- 1896 1st March Battle of Adwa ended disastrously as 5,000 Italian troops were killed + thousands injured
- defeated by King Menelik of Abyssinia’s powerful army
- Italian PM at the time was Francesco Crispi
- humiliation of defeat added to growing anger towards Italy’s political class
Giovanni Giolitti
- was PM 5 times
- period from 1901 - 1914 is known as the Giolittian era
- master of transformismo as he had files on every deputy in the parliament so he had a specific understanding of how to guarantee their support
- had the cynical view that all his opponents could be transformed into political allies if the right deal was offered
- in 1911 he became PM for the 4th time
- policies focused on making Italy more modern + industrialised + successful + unified based on shared values
The Partito Socialisto Italiano (background)
- main focus of the 1911 Giolitti Programme was the PSI
- formed in 1892
- one of the few political parties in Italy
- in the 1900 election PSI won 32 seats out of 508
- in the 1913 election PSI won nearly a quarter of all votes and got 79 deputies in parliament
Socialism
- socialism’s growth mirrored Italy’s rate of industrialisation
- population in major northern cities expanded due to mass internal migration - Milan’s population approx. Doubled from 1880 to 1914
- urbanisation changed Italian politics
- in industrial centres, the mixing of Italians increased literacy + education + political awareness
- encouraged socialism as a means for working-class advancement
Italian Socialist Party beliefs
- led by Filippo Turati
- supported by a large number of academically educated intellectuals
- believed that only socialism could solve Italy’s problems of political corruption + poverty + growing gap between the classes
- were active in spreading the message
- held public meetings + lectures + discussions + debates where the working class and rural poor gathered - bars and cafes
- promoted equation as the means by which the poor could challenge the political order
- worked to encourage greater school attendance + provided books to workers
Growth of Socialism
- by 1902 250,000 industrial workers had joined socialising national federations
- a lot of strikes in pursuit of higher wages
- 218,000 Italians joined socialist agricultural cooperatives that had been formed by 1910
-
Giolitti’s view of the PSI
- thought it could be dealt with through transformismo
- Giolitti’s programme focused on absorbing the socialist deputies like Turati by offering various social reforms
