Unification

Question 1

When did Italy become a nation?

Answer 1

1861

Question 2

When did Italy become fully unified?

Answer 2

1870

Question 3

What did political leaders struggle to do? That would?

Answer 3

In the subsequent 50 years, they struggled to create an identity for Italy that would unite its citizens and encourage a sense of shared patriotism

Question 4

What had Italy been since the Middle Ages?

Answer 4

Fragmented politically, economically and culturally

Question 5

What did Italy as a nation mean to Italians?

Answer 5

Very little

Question 6

Why?

Answer 6

They were used to identifying with their local towns and regions

Question 7

What were Italians defined by?

Answer 7

Campanilismo

Question 8

Define campanilismo

Answer 8

A feeling of pride and belonging to their place of birth

Question 9

Campanilismo was…

Answer 9

stronger than any sense of national identity

Question 10

What were Italians not unified by?

Answer 10

By language

Question 11

What percentage of Italians spoke in a regional dialect?

Answer 11

99%

Question 12

Why was this a problem?

Answer 12

Italians from one region were unable to understand what Italians from other regions were saying

Question 13

What was the official language?

Answer 13

The dialect from Florence

Question 14

How many people spoke in the Florence dialect?

Answer 14

Very few outside Florence or the educated classes spoke it

Question 15

What dialect did King Victor Emmanuel II speak in?

Answer 15

Piedmont dialect

Question 16

What did this mean?

Answer 16

This meant that most Italians outside Piedmont couldn’t understand him

Question 17

What was this a clear impediment to?

Answer 17

This was a clear impedimention to the unified nation of Italians under the figure of the monarchy that the leaders of Risorgimento had dreamt of

Question 18

What did Massimo d’Azeglio write at the time of unification?

Answer 18

We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians

Question 19

What did people question in the last years of the 1800s?

Answer 19

Whether Italy could even survive as a unified nation

Question 20

What happened on May 1898?

Answer 20

The protestors against Italy’s political system and growing economic problems were met by a brutal government crackdown and 100 protesters were killed in Milan

Question 21

What happened on 29th July 1900?

Answer 21

King Umberto I was assassinated by an Italian anarchist who wanted to avenge the protests’ deaths