1896-1912- Social discontent and political disorder.

Question 1

When did the new state of Italy emerge? What did it represent?

Answer 1

In the 1960’s. It represented a triumph for liberals, but a more conservative version of liberalism.

Question 2

Who were defeated and replaced by the new state?

Answer 2

The forces of traditional authority- the ruling families of the different states, the old aristocracy and the pope.

Question 3

Rather than a republic, what was the new Italy?

Answer 3

A monarchy- one Royal family had replaced all the others. The House of Savoy, the ruling family of Piedmont, were now kings of Italy and in some ways Italian unification was the conquest of Italy by Piedmont.

Question 4

Although the new state was Liberal, what traditions lived on?

Answer 4

Royal authoritarianism.

Question 5

Who exercised the real power?

Answer 5

The King- he was the head of the army and selected the Prime Minister.

Question 6

Who was the king in 1896?

Answer 6

Umberto I and although he was of limited intellect he did exercise a decisive influence on government from time to time. He pushed for the triple alliance with Germany and Austria.

Question 7

What role did the army play?

Answer 7

• The army was not only a prop to royal authority, but a crucial national institution. It was vital in holding the new country together, sometimes by force.
• They drilled a sense of nationalism and common language recruits who spoke local dialects and had little sense of national identity.
• There was army conscription.

Question 8

Who was the dominant politician in 1880 and the early 1980s?

Answer 8

Francesco Crispi

Question 9

When did Giolotti come to power?

Answer 9

From 1903 until 1914, but still fell back on the trasformismo scheme.

Question 10

What were some economic problems 1896-1912?

Answer 10

• In 1892, Italy was economically poor and backward in comparison with Britain, France and new Germany.
• Income per head in Italy was £8 per year whilst in France it was £25 and Britannia was £31.
• Agricultural laborers- the most common occupation in Italy’s population of 30 million- earned the equivalent of 50p on which to keep often their large families.
• In the late 19th century, world food prices collapsed.

Question 11

Who did the ministries rely heavily on for support?

Answer 11

The deputies from the South who could be easily bribed, cajoled or manipulated into supporting the government, than could those in the North with a larger electorate (56% as opposed to 24).

Question 12

What was the problem between the North and the South?

Answer 12

• They undermined unity- they were so different that it made them feel like completely different countries.
• They had different languages and different types of land and cultural differences.
• The North were rich and the South were incredibly poor and illiterate.
• There was a civil war in the South straight after the unification, showing that the South wasn’t happy about it.

Question 13

What were Italy’s weaknesses as a great power?

Answer 13

• It was felt by other powers that Italy would be more of a military liability than an asset.
• It lacked the economic muscle of the other members of the great power club and had the lowest population.
• Italy’s weaknesses were glaringly displayed when a much larger Abyssinian army defeated an Italian army of 17,700 on 1 March 1896.
• 4600 Italian troops and 289 officers were killed at Adowa. Most of the dead and some of the living prisoners were castrated. It was a terrible humiliation, which the Italians could not avenge.

Question 14

What impact did the exposure of weaknesses have on Nationalist aspirations?

Answer 14

• Because of Adowa and Crispi’s resignation afterwards the Nationalists lost a natural political leader. In fact, in the early twentieth century, they could hardly be identified as an organised group.
• However, they developed strongly as an intellectual movement amongst the young and well-educated, particularly in the years 1909-11.
• A spate of journals was founded proclaiming that Italy should have her rightful place in the world.
• Many of Italy’s leading poets and writers backed nationalism and denounced the weakness and corruption they saw coming from parliament and its great manipulator, Giolitti.

Question 15

What impact did the North-South divide have?

Answer 15

-people in the south found it very hard to identify with the new Italy, being poverty-stricken and alienated.

• The language barriers were stark, the best Italian spoke in Florence, however Italian was barely intelligible to the peasants in parts of the South.
• the civil war left a legacy of bitterness and the New Italy began its life with fresh, deep wounds.
• Unification brought higher taxes and more intense conscription to the South. It was no accident that the rebels in Pontelandolfo attacked the tax collector and burnt the birth records in the church to avoid conscription.
• The new state concilliated and accommodated the elite but repressed the masses.
• As the franchise was based on literacy, the divide between north and south really had great political implications.

Question 16

What was the franchise extension?

Answer 16

-In 1882 the franchise was extended to all men over 21 who were illiterate, but this still meant only 5.5% of the South and 8.2% of the North.

Question 17

What did Giolitti do to attempt political reform? How successful was this?

Answer 17

• Increased the electorate to 9 million in 1912 which was a huge reform.
• However, Giolitti still fell back in the old system of trasformismo to pass laws and became known as the ‘master of the underworld’.
• Also there were 8 PMs from 1903-1914, nearly one per year, which was even worse than before Giolitti came to power.
• He brought the Catholics into Liberal state, for example by opposing a law to divorce.
• Giolitti never came to terms with modern mass movement politics, having created a mass electorate he seemed incapable or unwilling to put much effort into winning them over.
• Whereas the socialists and nationalists were capable and able to adapt to modern situation, Giolitti could not, This put the liberals into danger of serious decline.

Question 18

How was discontent was manifested in the period between WW1?

Answer 18

• There were a series of violent riots in Milan and they had to be repressed by the army.
• A bad harvest in 1897 had produced a 50% increase In the price of wheat and bread.
• There were demonstrations and riots throughout the country in early 1898.
• Nervous policemen shot rioters in Milan and full-scale insurrection broke out in May.
• Socialist and catholic activists were arrested and sentenced to long periods of imprisonment.

Question 19

Why did stronger parties emerge in 1900-1914?

Answer 19

• The Socialist Party (PSI), founded in Genoa in 1892, was based in the northern industrial towns. By 1900, it had 32 seats in The Chamber of Deputies and published its own daily newspaper, Avanti. But Giolitti found it difficult to include Socialist deputies in any coalition.
• The Papacy, fearing the growth of socialism, relaxed its prohibition on Catholic involvement in politics. In 1909, 17 Catholic deputies were elected to the Chamber.
• The main issue dividing Church and state was ‘the Roman Question’ – who controlled Rome. The Papacy felt that Rome had been illegally taken from them in 1871.
• The years before 1914 saw the growth of a right-wing Nationalist Party. Many Italians felt that the Liberal State had failed to build a proper nation and that Italy had fallen behind other European countries in the race to build an empire.