ATDTDA 724-747 Italy

[Glenn Scheper]

Part 7 of 9.

The sudden fall of Gambetta (26th January 1882) having removed the fear of 
immediate European complications, the cabinets of Berlin and Vienna again 
displayed diffidence towards Italy. So great was Bismarcks distrust of Italian 
parliamentary instability, his doubts of Italian capacity for offensive warfare 
and his fear of the Francophil tendencies of Depretis, that fof many weeks the 
Italian ambassador at Berlin was unable te obtain audience of the chancellor. 
But for the Tunisian question Italy might again have been drawn into the wake of 
France, Mancini tried to impede the organization of French rule in thi Regency 
by refusing to recognize the treaty of Bardo, yet sc careless was Bismarck of 
Italian susceptibilities that he in. structed the German consul at Tunis to 
recognize French decrees Partly under the influence of these circumstances, and 
partl3 in response to persuasion by Baron Blanc, secretary-genera for foreign 
affairs, Mancini instructed Count di Robilant to oper negotiations for an 
Italo-Austrian allianceinstructions whirl Robilant neglected until questioned by 
Count Kalnky on the sub ject.

The first exchange of ideas between the tw0 governments
proved fruitless, since Kalnky, somewhat Clerical-minded, was averse from 
guaranteeing the integrity of all Italian territory, and Mancini was equally 
unwilling to guarantee to Austria permanent possession of Trent and Trieste. 
Mancini, moreover, wished the treaty of alliance to provide for reciprocal 
protection of the chief interests of the contracting Powers, Italy undertaking 
to second Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, and Austria and Germany pledging 
themselves to support Italy in Mediterranean questions. Without some such 
proviso Italy would, in Mancinis opinion, be exposed single-handed to French 
resentment.

The period between May 1881 and July 1887 occupied, in the region of foreign 
affairs, by the negotiation, conclusion and renewal of the triple alliance, by 
the Bulgarian crisis and by the dawn of an Italian colonial policy, was marked 
at home by urgent political and economic problems, and by the parliamentary 
phenomena known as trasformismo. On the 2gth of June 1881 the Chamber adopted a 
Franchise Reform Bill, which increased the electorate from oo,ooo to 2,000,000 
by lowering the fiscal qualification from 40 to 19.80 lire in direct taxation, 
and by extending the suffrage to all persons who had passed through the two 
lower standards of the elementary schools, and practically to all persons able 
to read and write.

The immediate result of the reform was to increase the political influence of 
large cities where the proportion of illiterate workmen was lower than. in. the 
country districts, and to exclude from the franchise numbers of peasants and 
small proprietors who, though of more conservative temperament and of better 
economic position than the artizan population of the large towns, were often 
unable to fulfil the scholarship qualification.

In their anxiety to remain in office Depretis and the finance minister, 
Magliani, never hesitated to mortgage the financial future of their country. No 
concession could be denied to deputies, or groups of deputiec, whose support was 
indispensable to the life of the cabinet, nor, under such conditions, was it 
possible to place any effective check upon administrative abuses in which 
politicians or their electors were interested.

Nevertheless, in spite of many and serious shortcomings, the long series of 
Depretis administrations was marked by the adoption of some useful measures. 
Besides the realization of the formal programme of the Left, consisting of the 
repeal of the grist tax, the abolition of the forced currency, the extension of 
the suffrage and the development of the railway system Depretis laid the 
foundation for land tax re-assessment by introducing a new cadastral survey. 
Unfortunately, the new survey was made largely optional, so that provinces which 
had reasor to hope for a diminution of land tax under a revised assessment 
hastened to complete their survey, while others, in which the average of the 
land tax was below a normal assessment, neglected to comply with the provisions 
of the scheme. An important undertaking, known as the Agricultural Inquiry, 
brought to light vast quantities of information valuable for future agrarian 
legislation. The year 1885 saw the introduction and adoption of a measure 
embodying the principle of employers liability for accidents to workmen, a 
principle subsequently extended and more equitably defined in the spring of 
1899.

An effort to encourage the development of the mercantile marine was made in the 
same year, and a convention was concluded with the chief lines of passenger 
steamers to retain their fastest vessels as auxiliaries to the fleet in case of 
war. Sanitation and public hygiene received a potent impulse from the cholera 
epidemic of 1884, many of the unhealthiest quarters in Naples and other cities 
being demolished and rebuilt, with funds chiefly furnished by the state. The 
movement was strongly supported by King Humbert, whose intrepidity in visiting 
the most dangerous spots at Busca and Naples while the epidemic was at its 
height, reassuring the panic-stricken inhabitants by his presence, excited the 
enthusiasm of his people and the admiration of Europe.

The result was parlia mentary chaos, baptized Irasformismo. In May 1883 this 
procesl received official recognition by the elimination of the Radical~ 
Zanardelli and Baccarini from the Depretis cabinet, while ir the course of 1884 
a Conservative, Signor Biancheri, was elected to the presidency of the Chamber, 
and another Conservative, General Ricotti, appointed to the War Office. Though 
Depretis, at the end of his life in 1887, showed signs of repenting of the 
confusion thus created, he had established a parliamentary system destined 
largely to sterilize and vitiate the political life of Italy.

Contemporaneously with the vicissitudes of home and foreign policy under the 
Left there grew up in Italy a marked tendency towards colonial enterprise. The 
tendency itself dated Colonial from 1869, when a congress of the Italian 
chambers of policy.
commerce at Genoa had urged the Lanza cabinet to establish a commercial depot on 
the Red Sea. On. the 11th of March 1870 an Italian shipper, Signor Rubattino, 
had bought the bay of Assab, with the neighboring island of Darmakieh, from 
Beheran, sultan of Raheita, for 1880, the funds being furnished by the 
government.

Eighteen months later a party of Italian sailors and explorers under Lieutenant 
Biglieri and Signor Giulietti were massacred in Egyptian. territory. Egypt, 
however, refused to make thorough inquiry into the massacre,

A month later (10th March I 882) Rubattino made over his establishment to the 
Italian government, and on the 12th of June the Chamber adopted a bill 
constituting Assab an Italian crown colony.

Within four weeks of the adoption of this bill the bombardment of Alexandria by 
the British fleet (11th July 1882) opened an era destined profoundly to affect 
the colonial position of Italy.

On the 28th of March 1888 the negus indeed descended from the Abyssinian high 
plateau in the direction of Saati, but finding the Italian position too strong 
to be carried by assault, temporized and opened negotiations for peace. His 
tactics failed to entice the Italians from their position, and on the 3rd of 
April sickness among his men compelled John to withdraw the Abyssinian army. The 
negus next marched against Menelek, king of Shoa, whose neutrality Italy had 
purchased with 5000 Remington. rifles and a supply of ammunition, but found him 
with 80,000 men too strongly entrenched to be successfully attacked. Tidings of 
a new Mahdist incursion into Abyssinian territory reaching the negus induced him 
to postpone the settlement of his quarrel with Menelek until the dervishes had 
been chastised.

The main point of the treaty, however, lay in clause 17: His Majesty the king of 
kings of Ethiopia consents to make use of the government of His Majesty the king 
of Italy for the treatment of all questions concerning other powers and 
governments.

Upon this clause Italy founded her claim to a protectorate over Abyssinia.

The negus took advantage of the incident to protest against the Italian text of 
article 17, and to contend that the Amharic text contained no equivalent for the 
word consent, but merely stipulated that Abyssinia ~night make use of Italy in 
her relations with foreign powers.

The legend of an imprisoned pope, subject to every whim of his gaolers, had 
nevet- failed to arouse the pity and loosen the purse-strings of the faithful; 
dangerous innovators and would-be reformers within the church could be compelled 
to bow before the symbol of the temporal power, and their spirit of submission 
tested by their readiness to forgo the realization of their aims until the head 
of the church should be restored to his rightful domain. More important than all 
was the interest of the Roman curia, composed almost exclusively of Italians, to 
retain in its own hands the choice of the pontiff and to maintain the 
predominance 01 the Italian element and the Italian spirit in the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy. Conciliation with Italy would expose the pope and his Italian 
entourage to suspicion of being unduly subject to Italian political influence of 
being, in a word, more Italian than Catholic. Such a suspicion would inevitably 
lead to a movement in favor of the internationalization of the curia and of the 
papacy. In order to avoid this danger it was therefore necessary to refuse all 
compromise, and, by perpetual reiteration of a claim incompatible with Italian 
territorial unity, to prove to the church at large that the pope and the curia 
were more Catholic than Italian.

The most successful feature of Crispis term of office was his strict maintenance 
of Order and the suppression of Radical and Irredentist agitation. So vigorous 
was his treatment of Irredentism that he dismissed without warning his colleague 
Seismit Doda, minister of finance, for having failed to protest against 
Irredentist speeches delivered in his presence at Udine. Firmness such as this 
secured for him the support of all constitutional elements, and after three 
years premiership his position was infinitely stronger than at the outset.

A lengthy term of office seemed to be opening out before him when, on the 31st 
of January 1891, Crispi, speaking in a debate upon an unimportant bill, angrily 
rebuked the Right for its noisy interruptions. The rebuke infuriated the 
Conservative deputies, who, protesting against Crispis words in the name of the 
sacred memories of their party, precipitated a division and placed the cabinet 
in a minority. The incident, whether due to chance or guile, brought about the 
resignation of Crispi.

Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
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