Liberal Italy

Question 1

Liberal Italy

Answer 1

• Catholic church boycotted events + refused to celebrate Italian unification
• divide between North & South linguistically, economically + politically

Question 2

Political system in Italy:

Answer 2

• predominantly Northern proff,m/c Italians made up parliament, with interest of own class at expense of others
• Pope Pius IX angered at capture of Rome - 1870 + loss of papal territory
• Italy’s politicians feared challenging church would further alienate the nation
• no challenge to liberal m/c, as less than 25% of men had the right to vote
• govts short lived - 22 changes of prime minister 1870-1922
• forming political alliances by buying support - trasformismo
• Italians disenfranchised, seen by liberal politicians as lacking political edu required for electoral representation
• inability of Italians to voice their anger through the ballet box fuelled protest + strength of extreme revolutionary ideologies

Question 3

Econ growth + social problems:

Answer 3

1899-1914 - econ expansion focused on the North - Milan, Turin, Genoa - ‘industrial triangle’

• car industry successful - Fit, Alfa-Romeo + Lancia established
• industrialisation didn’t provide benefits for wider society + LS remained low

Question 4

North + South divide:

Answer 4

• southern agriculturally based econ stagnated - increased rural poverty
• south-peasant population suffered from poor diet, malnutrition, lack of clean water, high rates of IMR, malaria and tuberculosis
• 1910-1911 - 25,000 ppl died - Naples due to cholera epidemic
• Italian peasants migrated to USA
• almost 1/2 of Italy’s 2.2 mn industrial workers employed in Northern provinces

Question 5

Italy as a ‘great power’:

Answer 5

• geographically disadvantaged - F+B navies dominated Mediterranean
• Italian FP - irredentism - reclaim Istria + South Tyrol - areas ethically Italian but, within Austro-Hungarian Empire
• focus on Tunisia but 1881 - French claimed it, resulting in anger and signing of defensive alliance
• triple alliance angered Italians, allying Italy with Austria(traditional enemy) country seen as barrier to recovery of irredente lands
• 1884 - Italian expansion in Aby failed at Battle of Dogali - 500 Italian soldiers died
• 1896 - Batlle of Adwa - 5000 Ita