Liberal Italy, c1911-1918

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When did Italy become a nation?

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When did Italy become a nation?

1861

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When was Italy fully unified?

1870

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What is the process of unification called?

Risorgimento

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What was the Roman Question?

The papacy was angered but the capture of Rome in 1870 and refused to recognise the new Italian state

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What did Pope Leo XIII do in 1886?

Forbade Catholics from voting in national elections

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What type of people dominated parliament?

Northern, professional and middle class

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What ideology did Italian politicians have?

Liberal

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What is trasformismo?

Prominent politicians formed governments by offering key positions to members of parliament (deputies)

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How many changes of prime minister were there between 1870 and 1922?

29

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How many Italian men had the vote?

Fewer than 25%

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Who was the divide in Italy between?

Real Italy- the people Legal Italy- the ruling class

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How did ordinary Italians attempt to voice their opinion?

Through popular protest, this was met with violent repression from the military

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What happened between 1899 and 1914 in the north?

Economic expansion, industrialisation (iron and steel industries), agricultural production improved, living standards of industrial and rural workers was low

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How many strikes were there between 1901 and 1911?

1500 strikes and they involved nearly 350,000 workers

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What was life like in the south?

Stagnation of the agriculture based economy. Peasants suffered a poor diet, high rates of infant mortality and disease

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How much of the south were illiterate?

More than half the population ( five times more than Piedmont in the north)

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How different was the income per head?

By 1911, the north's was double that of the south

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How many southern Italian peasants migrated to the USA between 1901 and 1903?

200,000 every year

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Who did Italy lag behind in foreign policy?

Europe's "major powers"

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Why did Italy lag behind in foreign policy?

It's economy, the domination of the French and British in the Mediterranean

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What is irredentism?

Irredentism is the desire of the people of a state to annex the contiguous territories of another state that are inhabited by mostly members of linguistic and/or cultural minorities of the first state.

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What did Italy focus on?

Irredentism- reclaiming Istria and South Tyrol, part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire

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What did Italy attempt in 1884?

To gain Abyssinia, they were defeated at Battle of Dogali (500 Italian soldier deaths)

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What did they do from 1894?

Attempts were made again, Italian army defeated by the forces of King of Menelik at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 (5000 Italian troops killed and thousands injured)

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What was 1901-1914 known as?

The Giolittian Era

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What did he try to do as prime minister from 1911?

Make Italy a modern industrialised successful country where the masses were unified by shared values and faith in liberal ideas of parliament

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Who did he try to gain the support of?

The socialists, focus on the Partito Socialista Italiano PSI

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How many deputies did the socialists gain in 1900 election?

32 deputies from total of 508 seats

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How many votes and seats did the socialists achieve in 1913!

Nearly a quarter of votes and 79 seats

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How many joined socialist federations by 1902?

250,000 industrial workers striking for higher wages

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How many joined socialist agricultural cooperatives that were formed by 1910?

218,000

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1898 social reform

Compulsory accident insurance in industrial work (paid for by employer), non-compulsory national insurance for health and old age

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1901 social reform

Banning the employment of children under 12

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1902 social reform

Limited the working day of women to 11 hours

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1910 social reform

Introduction of maternity fund

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1913 social reform

State subsidised sickness and old age fund for merchant navy

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Which socialists did Giolitti win over?

Moderate socialists like Turati, maximalists like Mussolini in PSI wanted revolution

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What did Giolitti allow to disappear in 1904?

The divorce bill and promoted Catholic interests in education

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What did the Pope do in the 1909 elections?

Encouraged Catholics to vote cause of worry of socialism

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When did the Catholics become part of governing coalitions at a local level?

1911

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What was Giolitti not prepared to solve?

The Roman Question and made dealing with socialism his priority

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What did the great threat of the nationalists want?

Aggressive foreign policy to expand Italy's power in Africa, claim irredente lands, become a world power

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What did the nationalists believe?

Individual needs were subservient to those of the nation and that Giolitti's concessions to the socialists demonstrated the weakness and corruption of liberal order

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When did the nationalists come together?

1910, the ANI party under Enrico Corradini

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In 1911, how did Giolitti change his tactics?

Expand Italy's empire in North Africa, war with Ottoman Empire over Libya had French backing, hoped it would gain support of Catholic Church (financial interests in Libya) and the nationalists

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How was the invasion of Libya greeted?

September 1911- National enthusiasm even from socialist leaders Bissolati hoped it would provide land for Italy's poor peasantry

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When did Turkey surrender control of Libya to the Italians?

October 1911, Italy had to keep 50,000 troops in new colony to pacify Arab population and the war cost 3,500 Italian deaths, gained Giolitti considerable support

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Who took credit for the Libyan War?

The nationalists and they blamed liberals for the number of men who had lost their lives

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Which group did the war lose Giolitti the support of?

The PSI, they opposed the war as imperialist militarism (moderate Bissolati was expelled from the party) and they rejected further cooperation with Giolitti

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What did Giolitti pledge in his programme of 1911?

To make changes to the voting system

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What new law was passed in 1912?

The vote was extended to all men who had completed military service and all men aged over 30 and over regardless of age

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What percentage of Italy's voters were illiterate?

70%

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What did Giolitti hope would happen with extending the vote?

Promote greater national unity, increase the popularity of the liberals and undermine the PSI

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What happened in the election of 1913 under the new suffrage?

Liberal deputies won only 318 seats (a loss of 71 seats from the 1909 election). Socialists, nationalists, radicals and Catholics made gains

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What caused Giolitti to resign in 1914?

Some liberals made a secret deal with the president of the Catholic Electoral Union, withdrawal of support for liberals

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Who was Giolitti replaced by?

Antonio Salandra, aimed to link liberalism with nationalism

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What was 'Red Week'?

In June 1914, the PSI led a national strike and for a week most of northern and central Italy was in chaos. Public buildings torched railway stations seized and churches attacked. Hundreds killed by authorities

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How did Red Week end?

Trade unions agreed to call off the strike

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What happened in August 1914?

War broke out in Europe, Germany and Austria against Russia, Britain and France

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Why did the Triple Alliance of 1882 not apply?

Austria didn't consult Italy when it declared war on Serbia

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What did Italy do in response to the war?

Declared it would stay neutral

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Why did they declare neutrality?

Many in parliament believed Italy was not economically ready for war. Nationalist press pushed for intervention. Majority of Italians favoured non- intervention

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What did the declaration of neutrality set off?

Political crisis, Salandra argued that Italy should join the war

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What did Salandra begin at the start of 1915?

Secret negotiations with both to decide which would offer the best deal

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What was signed in April 1915?

The Treaty of London, pledged support to Britain, France and Russia. Promised Italy much of irredente lands- South Tyrol, Trentino, Istria, Trieste and much of Dalmatia

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How did the public respond to intervention?

The PSI and the Catholics were against it. The prefects (local government officials) reported that public opinion was against war. Giolitti and 300 deputies announced their opposition.

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Did anyone support the intervention?

Crowds of supporters gathered in the streets, declaring those who favoured neutrality to be traitors. Mussolini was expelled from the PSI for promoting intervention

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What myth would Mussolini use later?

Interventionists had forced the government into war

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When did Italy declare war on Austria?

May 1915

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What did Salandra hope the war would do?

A brief offensive war, bring Italy almost immediate territorial gains, unite Italian people.

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What actually happened in the war?

Static trench warfare in the ice and snow of the difficult alpine terrain. Thousands of Italian soldiers sacrificed to move a few hundred metres.

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How many were conscripted into the army?

Nearly five million men, communication was difficult

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What were rations like?

Low around 3000 a day by the end of 1916

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How many were court-martialled for desertion?

290,000, didn't understand why the war was being fought

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How many death sentences did Cadorna give out?

4000

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What did the government do to prevent soldiers surrendering?

Didn't help the 600,000 soldiers who were captured

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What did the Austrian army launch in 1916?

Strafexpedition, a major offensive in the Trentine salient, in order to allow it to attack northern Italy. Italian army able to halt Austrian attack, low public morale forced Salandra to resign

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Who replaced Salandra?

Paolo Boselli

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When was the Battle of Caporetto?

24th October 1917

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What happened to Italy in the Battle of Caporetto?

They were defeated due to poor leadership and low morale. 10,000 were killed, 30,000 injured and 300,000 were taken prisoner

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Who replaced Boselli?

Vittorio Orlando

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What happened to the army?

Cardona was removed and the army was reorganised under a new commander, General Diaz

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What did Diaz do?

Rations were raised, trench newspapers were used to raise morale, promises of land reforms were made for peasant conscripts

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What happened to the casualty rates?

520,000 in 1917 to 143,000 in 1918

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