North-south divide Flashcards
What is the questione meridionale?
The southern question
Who grappled with the questione meridionale?
Intellectuals and politicians
What did they focus their work on?
On an attempt to understand why the south had fallen into such poverty and what could be done to alleviate it
What were the theories or possible reasons for why the south had fallen into such poverty?
Poor economic structure
Geographical location
History
Poor treatment by the north
What did southern intellectuals call for?
Southern intellectuals called for greater economic investment and new fiscal policies
What was actually done?
Very little was actually done
What did Italy’s politicians tend to do?
Italy’s politicians tended to ignore the major issues facing the south
How long was it since an Italian PM visited the south?
No Italian PM visited the south until 1902 (32 years after unification)
What happened by 1911?
The situation had worsened
How did the situation worsen?
Industrial economic expansion focused on large northern cities such as Milan, Turin, Genoa and Bologna and the southern agriculturally based economy stagnated which led to an increase in poverty in the south
What did the government census show?
That almost half of Italy’s 2.2 million industrial workers were employed in the northern provinces of Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont
What were the provinces known as?
The provinces of Lombardy, Liguria and Piedmont was known as the industrial triangle
What did the industrial triangle focus on?
The 3 major cities of Milan, Genoa and Turin
What did the southern population suffer from?
Poor diet Malnutrition Lack of clean drinking water High rates of infant mortality Malaria Tuberculosis
What happened between 1910 and 1911?
25K people in Naples died due to an epidemic of cholera caused by poor drinking water
How much of the southern population was illiterate?
More than half
[Illiteracy] What was this 5 times the rate of?
5 times the rate of Piedmont
What was income in the north by 1911?
Income per head was double in the north of that in the south
What did politicians view the questione meridionale as?
The most critical issue
What policies did they attempt to implement?
Tried to introduce policies, such as trying to encourage industrial investment in Naples which failed
What was the only means of alleviating pressure in the south?
Through emigration
How many Italians left per year between 1901 and 1913?
200K southern Italians left every year, mainly to the USA
How many Sicilians left Italy every year?
1 million Sicilians out of a population of 3.5 million left Italy every year
How many Italians who moved to the USA were southern?
3 out of 4 Italians who migrated to the USA were southern
How many Italians were living in New York by 1910?
600K Italians were living in New York
What did emigration lessen?
Helped lessen the economic strains
What did the emigration of Italians fail to do?
Failed to deal with the central and long term issues facing Italy
What was Italy reliant on?
Italy was reliant on other countries willingness to accept influxes of poor, unskilled Italians
