The Liberal State c1911-18 Flashcards
When had Italy become a nation
1861
When had Italy become a nation
1861
When did Italy become fully unified
1870
Why did Italy have little meaning to Italians
They were used to identifying with their local towns or regions
What was the pride of your home town called
Companilismo
What was the status of language
99 percent of Italians spoke a regional dialect and couldn’t understand what people from other regions were saying
Who was the king at the time
Victor Emmanuel II
What did the king speak
A dialect from piedmont
What is Risorgimento?
The ‘rebirth’ or ‘resurgence’ of Italy being a great nation again.
Who said “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians”?
Massimo d’Azeglio
What happened in May 1898
Protests against Italy’s economic problems had been met by a brutal government crackdown and 100 protestors were killed in Milan.
Which king had been assassinated, when, why and by who?
Umberto I had been killed by an Italian anarchist on 29th July 1900 who wanted to avenge the protestor’s deaths from 1896
Who were the parliament made up of?
Predominantly northern, professional middle class.
What was bad about the selection of politicians in the parliament
They tended to represent interests of their own class rather than the wider population
Which pope was angered and why
Pope Pius IX was angered at the capture of Rome in 1870 and the loss of papal territory
What did the first pope do out of his anger
Refused to recognise the new Italian state
Who was the new pope, what he do and when?
In 1886, Leo XIII formally forbade catholics from running for office
What did the new pope’s actions do for Italy and unification?
It robbed Italy of a potentially unifying figure and questioned the legitimacy of this new country. This also left only 25 percent of men with the ability to vote
What else did this new religious restriction cause for politicians’ hopes?
They thought it may alienate the population. It also prevented creation of a national Conservative Party based on catholic values.
What were parties like in Italy?
There were very few, instead, prominent politicians formed government by offering key positions to other deputies.
What was the corrupt nature of Italy’s political system?
Deputies would agree to support a politician’s run for prime minister in return for key positions and withdraw support if they found a better deal somewhere else.
What is political manoeuvring that uses any means for getting everyone on your side known as?
Trasformismo
How many changes of prime minister were there and between when
29 changes between 1870 and 1922
How much power did the people have?
They had barely any as governments weren’t decided based on what the public wanted.
What is it called when a group of people can’t vote
They are disenfranchised
Why could only Middle class northern Italians run for electoral participation?
Liberal politicians felt that the southern people were lacking in political education
How did the government react to to protests against them
They would respond with violent repression with the military
When did Italy experience considerable economic expansion?
1899 and 1914
Where was industrialisation focused
The north
What industries increased
Iron
Steel
Chemical
Mechanical
Electrical
Cars
What was it like in the south?
They were still quite backwards and had none of the benefits the north did.
How many strikes and how many people were involved in strikes from 1901 to 1911
1500 strikes
350000 workers
What was the southern question
Meridionale
What are some theories for why the south had become the way it it.
It’s geographical location
It’s history
It’s poor treatment from the north
How long after unification did a prime minister visit the south?
32 years after
Where was economic expansion centred?
Milan
Turin
Genoa
Bologna
What did the 1911 census show
Half of Italy’s 2.2 million industrial workers were employed in Lombardy, Liguria and piedmont
What did the peasant population in the south often suffer from
Poor diet
Malnutrition
Lach of clean drinking water
High rates of infant mortality
Malaria
Tuberculosis
Between 1910 and 1911 how many people had died from what in the south?
25000 people died from cholera
What were the literacy rates like in the south compared to piedmont
More than half of the southern population were illiterate, which was five times the rate of piedmont
What happened to income per head by 1911?
Income per head in the northern industrial area was double that of the south.
Why was Italy disadvantaged geographically
The French and British navies dominated the Mediterranean
What is irredentism?
The belief that Italy should reclaim areas of istria and the South Tyrol as many of the population of these areas were ethnically and spoke the language
Where in Africa had Italy focussed on colonising first and what came of it?
They wanted Tunisia however in 1881, with the diplomatic backing of Britain, France invaded Tunisian and claimed it instead
What did Italy do in response to France taking Tunisia
Italy signed a defensive alliance with Austria and Germany (triple alliance)
How did Italians feel about the triple alliance?
It angered them as Austria is the country’s traditional enemy and was seen as a barrier to the recovery of the irredentist lands
What had Britain endorsed for Italy and what did this lead to?
In 1884, they endorsed Italy’s expansion into Abyssinia, however this failed at the battle of dogali.
How many died at the battle of Dogali
500
What came of Italy’s second attempt at a colony in Africa?
At the battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896, 5000 troops died were killed and thousands more injured.
How did the people feel about the battle of Adwa?
The anger towards Italy’s political class was accentuated and this anger was channeled through mass protests and riots.
Literacy Rates in Italy 1911 in the north
Piedmont- 11%
Lombardy- 13.4%
Venice- 25.2%
Liguria- 17%
Literacy rates in Italy in 1911 in the south
Apulia- 59.4%
Basilicata- 65.3%
Calabria- 69.6%
Sicily- 58%
