The Liberal State 1911-18

Question 1

What important rights did the constitution guarantee?

Answer 1

• Equality before the law.
• The right of free assembly.
• A free press.

Question 2

What were the powers of the monarchy in the Liberal state?

Answer 2

• Appoint and dismiss government ministers and senators, including the prime ministers.
• Control foreign policy.
• He was the face of the government in times of crisis.

Question 3

What was the role of the prime minister in the Liberal state?

Answer 3

• Head of the government.
• Responsible for the day-to-day running of the country.
• Needed the support of parliament to keep his position and to propose laws.

Question 4

What was the role of parliament in the Liberal state?

Answer 4

• Two chambers in Italian parliament.
• The senate was the upper house, senators were appointed by the King for life.
• The Chamber of Deputies was the lower house, elected every five years and had more political power than the senate. Gov ministers were chosen from the Chamber of Deputies.

Question 5

What was the power of the electorate before 1912?

Answer 5

• Only a small proportion of the Italian population could vote. There were limitations based on age, property ownership and educational qualifications.
• Until 1912, only 25% of adult men could vote.
• The Chamber of Deputies was elected by the people who could vote.
• This made many Italians feel alienated from the political system.

Question 6

What were the weaknesses of the early Liberal state?

Answer 6

• Politics was a way for men to gain power - did not have a coherent ideology.
• As political parties were weak, governments were always coalitions of different factions, Trasformismo.
• These coalitions fell apart quickly making political life in Italy very unstable. In the years 1900-11, there were 9 governments. Only 1 lasted more than 2 years.
• A lot of bribery occurred as people were only in it for themselves and not for their party. Little sense of national unity in government.

Question 7

What were the main political parties in the Liberal state?

Answer 7

• Liberals.
• Radicals and Republicans.
• Socialists.
• Catholics.
• Nationalists.

Question 8

How did the industry grow in the early years of the Liberal state?

Answer 8

• The state invested in industries and encouraged the use of new technologies.
• Cheaper iron and steel imports led to the founding of motor companies like Fiat and Lancia between 1899-1906.
• These industries were very profitable, and their profits grew by 10.6% between 1896 and 1913.
• Exports increased at a rate of 4.5% per year, and the number of industrial workers increased by 2 million between 1901 and 1911.

Question 9

What was the industrial development like in the north?

Answer 9

• Industry was generally restricted to northern Italy.
• The north west was particularly successful because of its geographical closeness to the rest of Europe, its transport links, pre-existing industry, accessible markets and power sources.
• However, even in the north development was not evenly spread. In 1911, Milan, Genoa and Turin accounted for 55% of industrial income.

Question 10

Why was industrial development limited and localised?

Answer 10

• There was a need to import iron, steel and coal because of a lack of resources.
• Italy had a large but unskilled workforce.
• Industrial machinery needed to be imported.
• Communications, transport and energy sources were all underdeveloped in most areas.

Question 11

What was industry like in the south?

Answer 11

• Far less modernised than the north.
• Giolitti’s government tried to fix this with laws that encouraged economic growth.
• After 1900, internal tariffs were ended and free trade was introduced. This made the southern economy worse as the elites wanted to protect their traditional privileges rather than introduce change and modernity.
• In 1910, northern Italy had 48% of the nation’s wealth and paid 40% of the taxes, while the south had 27% of the wealth and paid 32% of the taxes.

Question 12

What were the agricultural developments in the north like?

Answer 12

• The north benefited of new crops 1890-1910, and production levels of key crops such as wheat increased.
• Rich lands in the north, like Po Valley.
• Improvements in mechanisation and fertilisation also improved productivity in the north, and irrigation and drainage systems protected farms from flooding.

Question 13

What were the agricultural developments in the south like?

Answer 13

• Produced luxury products like wine, oil and citrus fruits.
• Land was of poorer quality, partly due to deforestation.
• Disease and drought were regular occurrences in the summer, and a series of natural disasters from 1905-08 damaged the economy. Government support was slow to arrive, making people believe the gov did not care.

Question 14

What were the social problems in the Liberal state?

Answer 14

• Landless labourers were vulnerable to poverty as they had no job security. When landowners did not need them they did not have a job.
• Diseases such as typhus, rickets and cholera were widespread in Italy. Tuberculosis and malaria killed many people in the south. Poor living conditions spread disease.
• Literacy rates were very low. 69% were illiterate. Higher in the south where 80% were illiterate. Linked to poverty.

Question 15

What were Giolitti’s policies to try and improve the social problems in Italy?

Answer 15

• Sickness, accident and pension schemes.
• Raising the minimum working age to 12 years.
• Setting a max number of working hours.
• Placing responsibility for primary schools on central government, which was more interested in increasing literacy than regional authorities.
• Reducing food taxes to make food more affordable.
• Passing laws to establish public holidays and provide free treatment for malaria.

Question 16

What evidence is there that Giolitti improved the social problems?

Answer 16

• By 1914, Italians had the same life expectancy as other Europeans.
• By 1911, the national average for illiteracy was 37.6%, and the number of schools had increased.
• Although illiteracy was still much higher in the south, the situation was improving.

Question 17

What are the emigration stats in early Liberal Italy?

Answer 17

• Approximately 200,000 Italians emigrated every year after the 1890s.
• In 1912-13 alone, around 1.5 million people left Italy - most of them from the south.
• This was viewed as a disaster as people whose skills skills could have been used to strengthen Italy were leaving.

Question 18

How did Giolitti deal with the Socialists?

Answer 18

• He targeted the moderate Socialists Deputies to join his coalitions.
• The PSI had won 20% of the vote in 1909 so was important that Giolitti included them.
• The deputies who did want to collaborate were heavily criticised from within their own party. Giolitti could never fully absorb the Socialists into his coalitions.

Question 19

Why could Giolitti not fully absorb the Socialists?

Answer 19

• Police repression made it difficult for them to compromise with the state.
• The Socialists were divided and the wider socialist movement was much less prepared to engage with Giolitti than the politicians.
• Many Socialists believed Giolitti’s reforms were aimed at avoiding political instability rather than helping the people.

Question 20

What was Giolitti’s relationship like with the Catholics?

Answer 20

• He was the first Liberal to appeal successfully to the Catholic vote. He saw it as a balance to the Socialists.
• In the 1913 elections the Pope swung his support behind Giolitti.
• He was wary of the Catholic alliance as he did not want to make promises that he could not deliver, like the return of territory to the Vatican.
• This meant that the alliance was not a stable or permanent one.

Question 21

What was Giolitti’s relationship like with the Nationalists?

Answer 21

• Set up in 1910 and by 1014 they had huge support.
• They were the movement most opposed to G’s policies. They hated his foreign policy, and took advantage of a popular mood that bemoaned Italy’s status in Europe, its lack of colonies, economic backwardness, and defeat at Adowa.
• They also appealed to the MC Italians worried at Giolitti’s concessions to the Socialists.

Question 22

What did the Nationalists call for?

Answer 22

• A ban on public sector strikes.
• Stronger police powers.
• Protection for Italian industry from foreign competition.
• A stronger army and more defence spending.
• Gaining the Italian-speaking territories of Trentino and Trieste from Austria.
• Colonial expansion.

Question 23

Why did Italy invade Libya in 1911?

Answer 23

• Italy wanted to assert colonial claims in North Africa in response to France’s apparent efforts to expand in the region.
• Powerful Italian business interests pushed for the invasion after establishing investments in Libya.
• Popular opinion was strongly in favour of the invasion.
• Giolitti hoped that a successful Libyan war would weaken Nationalist support.

Question 24

What were the events of the Libyan War?

Answer 24

• Declared war on the Ottomans in 1911.
• Within 3 weeks, Italians had seized many of the ports and coastal towns, but found progress much harder after this.
• The Arabs saw the Italians as invaders and not liberators so they had to fight the Turks and the Arabs.
• Due to Turkey’s involvement in the Balkan Wars, they surrendered in October 1912 in the Treaty of Lausanne.

Question 25

What were the costs of the Libyan War?

Answer 25

• Not the success that G had hoped for.
• The Arabs continued to resist the Italians so they had to keep large numbers of troops there.
• The war cost 1,300 million lire and 3,500 Italian troops were killed.

Question 26

What was the political impact of the Libyan war?

Answer 26

• The Nationalists claimed responsibility for pushing G into the war while also criticising him for the losses. This resulted in them gaining support.
• The Nationalists and Catholics formed a temporary alliance which weakened the moderate Socialists. This resulted in the revolutionary Socialists taking over the movement.
• The extension of the franchise in 1912 to all literate males over the age of 21 and all males over the age of 30.

Question 27

What were the economic disadvantages of the acquisition of Libya?

Answer 27

• Libya produced the same crops as Italy, leading to a fall in Italian crop prices.
• Emigrants refused to move to Libya to start an Italian colony.
• The Ottoman Empire expelled 50,000 Italians in retaliation for the war, resulting in a loss of trade.

Question 28

Why were the Socialists critical of the Liberal government?

Answer 28

• They believed the system was used to protect the elite and intimidate the working class.
• They argued that Italy’s wealth was being wasted on foreign campaigns such as Libya.
• By 1913, the PSI was winning over 20% of the vote.

Question 29

Why were the Nationalists critical of the Liberal government?

Answer 29

• Believed that the Liberals were not dealing with the Socialist threat.
• This drew support from a mixture of business interests, journalists, poets, and painters.

Question 30

What was the impact of the 1912 franchise extension?

Answer 30

• In the 1913 elections, G liberals won fewer seats declining from 370 to 318 but he still had a comfortable majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
• He relied on Catholic support as conservative peasants had given the Catholic party their vote rather than the Liberals. G was now forced to make Catholic concessions like making civil marriage precede a religious service.
• As a result, the Radicals and the Socialists would no longer collaborate with G.

Question 31

Why did Giolitti resign in 1914 and what was the impact of it?

Answer 31

• He was facing opposition from all sides due to his alliance with the Catholics. Radicals withdrew their support resulting in the end of the coalition.
• He resigned in 1914 bringing an end to Trasformismo.
• The new political parties were not loose groupings and were ideologically motivated unlike the politicians from the past.
• After 1914, governments tended to be Nationalist, Catholic or both. Rise of a more aggressive form of politics.

Question 32

What was Italy’s viewpoint on WW1 in 1914?

Answer 32

• Italy declared itself neutral in 1914.
• Giolitti led the movement for neutrality and remained committed to it.
• G, together with most Catholics and Socialists, as well as big business and most of the army, believed that Italy was not ready for a war and it would be bad for the economy and society.

Question 33

What were the reasons for supporting neutrality?

Answer 33

• An alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary was unattractive because of the Italian aim of regaining territory from Austria-Hungary.
• Neutrality was seen as a better choice economically and militarily.
• The Catholics and the political parties of the left opposed intervention. Many wanted to prioritise domestic issues rather than war.

Question 34

Why was there a shift towards intervention in 1915?

Answer 34

• The Nationalist movement began campaigning for intervention with the Entente powers as they hoped for territory expansions.
• The Nationalists used the press to popularise their views. Allied propaganda also supported them. Former Socialist Mussolini and Nationalist D’Annunzio were vocal.
• The police and military supported intervention by encouraging pro-intervention demonstrations and breaking up those protests who opposed it.

Question 35

Why did Italy agree to the Treaty of London in 1915?

Answer 35

• Salandra was in favour of a treaty with the Entente powers.
• The Entente powers promised more than the Central powers in terms of territory. Such as Trentino.
• It was signed in secret by Salandra and King Victor Emmanuel III, and parliament was forced to accept it despite the lack of consultation.

Question 36

What problems emerged when Italy entered WW1?

Answer 36

• Italy was unprepared for the war. Many of their best soldiers were in Libya, the mobilisation of troops was disorganised and there was a shortage of arms.
• General Cadorna pursued a strategy of massed infantry attacks against entrenched positions.
• In the first two advances in 1915, 62,000 men were killed and 170,000 injured without any notable advancements.
• Austria’s first major offensive in 1916 was contained by the army but it caused discontent in both the army and the government. Caused the fall of Salandra’s government.

Question 37

What happened at the defeat at Caporetto?

Answer 37

• Austrian and German forces launched an attack at Caporetto in 1917. They shelled Italian artillery and used gas against their opponents.
• Italy’s response was chaotic. 200,000 soldiers lost contact with their regiments, and thousands of soldiers streamed down the hills in confusion.
• Cadorna blamed it on cowardice and had thousands of troops executed. The gov removed Cadorna and replaced him with General Diaz.

Question 38

What was the Socialist response to the war?

Answer 38

• They had been opposed to the war from the outset. The PSI was committed to peace, and gained growing support from opponents of the war.
• However, many Socialists became involved with the war effort, establishing local councils to organise rations and welfare.
• Trade unions helped to safeguard jobs, wage rises and worker exemption from military service.
• Their opponents claimed that the Socialists were sabotaging the war effort, ignoring the fact that industrialists were making huge profits.

Question 39

How did Italy improve their production during WW1?

Answer 39

• Adopted a ‘production at all cost’ strategy. The state bought whatever industry could produce at any price. Industrialists were celebrated and amassed huge fortunes.
• Workers were placed under military discipline. They could not change jobs or take strike action, and the working week increased. Led to more Socialist support.
• Italy had more cannons in the field than Britain, had created an aircraft industry, and the company Fiat became the leading vehicles manufacturer in Europe.

Question 40

What consequences did the war economy have on Italy?

Answer 40

• An enormous budget deficit.
• A huge rise in the national debt.
• Debts of more than 15 billion lire to Britain and 8.5 billion to the USA.
• Inflation, large price rises and significant economic instability after the government printed money when it realised it could borrow no more.
• The economy was still short of natural resources, exports were low and the consumer market was weak.
• These factors made economic recovery extremely hard.

Question 41

How did General Diaz improve the situation?

Answer 41

• Rations were improved, troops were given more days’ leave and a servicemen’s association was established to look after the welfare of troops and their families.
• Diaz was far more cautious than Cadorna had been, and lost fewer men in action.

Question 42

How did Italy end the war?

Answer 42

• The military situation stabilised in 1918, when enemy forces were struggling.
• The Italian army attacked the Austro-Hungarian forces near the site of the Battle of Caporetto. The Battle of Vittorio and Veneto resulted in the collapse of the Austro Hungarian front. Austrians sued for peace after this.
• Italy had lost 700,000 men and made enormous economic sacrifices for the war effort. In return, they gained territory, a sense of unity and national pride.