Booklet 4, Big Question 5: What were the factors uniting Italy by 1871?

Question 1

Monarchy

Answer 1

• VEII was a conditional monarchy who supported the kingdom fully
• He could not pass laws without approval of the national parliament or ministerial approval. This shows the importance of popular support for the government in Italy, though the electorate was small at just 2% of the population
• The monarchy was, by 1870, a symbol of unity, stability, and anti-radicalism and republicanism
• The emphasis on parliament grew greater in the 850s in part due to the work of Cavour, making sure that the process was an ever more democratic one

Question 2

Civil Service

Answer 2

• Lack of corruption restored people’s faith in federal government
• Piedmont introduced unified customs, currency (Lire) weight and measures, which all helped to further economic unity between states
• A unified criminal legal code also brought states closer together socially
• Jobs were given to war time veterans of the Wars of Independence, the ‘Patrioti’
• Central economy and education was controlled by the civil service which stopped divisions over this

Question 3

Local Government

Answer 3

• The 25,000 strong military police force of the Carabinieri backed up 18,000 local policemen to keep social order in states and quell uprising and discontent
• Piedmont had a 2450 million lire deficit in 1861, which doubled when Piedmont took on the debts of smaller states. The fact that thy were so willing to make sacrifices to take on debts of smaller states shows that economic unity was a distinct priority for the architects of unity, and suggests that elitism was not as prevalent as it may seem
• The country was divided into 69 provinces, each governed by their own prefect, appointed by the government in Rome
• Schools and universities came under state control to ensure a unified educational system
• The 1859 Casati Law made 3 year’s worth of primary education compulsory
• The municipality “Commune” helped locals, coordinating public health, education and taxes - there were 8382 Communi

Question 4

Army

Answer 4

• The army’s size by 1870 was 215,000 with a further 2 million in reserve. This allowed it to be a platform to install nationalism and they fought under the label “Italians” rather than individual states
• The size also allowed Italy as a country to have influence on the national state, and could even be a source of social pride for Italians
• Regiments were always constructed with troops from more than one state, such as the Brigands War of 1861-65 where Brigands such as Carmine Crocco were defeated by an army of 120,000, the army crushed opposition to the new state, ensuring its continualisation and stability
• If social unity did not exist by 1861, it had certainly been enforced to a great extent by 1865