Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

After the Risorgimento, some things still hadn’t changed. The ruling class were slow to move towards a broader based political system, while living standards actually worsened in some areas, particularly in Sicily. When Sicilian peasant farmers organized into fasci - forerunners of trade unions - the prime minister sent in 30,000 soldiers, closed down newspapers and interned suspected troublemakers without trial. In the 1890s capitalist methods and modern machinery in the Po Valley created a new social structure, with rich agrari at the top of the pile, a mass of farm labourers at the bottom, and an intervening layer of estate managers.In the 1880s Italy’s colonial expansion began, initially concentrated in bloody - and finally disastrous - campaigns in Abyssinia and Eritrea in 1886. In 1912 Italy wrested the Dodecanese islands and Libya from Turkey, a development deplored by many, including Benito Mussolini , who during this war was the immoderate secretary of the PSI (Partito Socialista Italiano) in Forlì.

Tags: 1880s, 1890s, abyssinia, benito mussolini, campaigns, colonial expansion, dodecanese islands, farm labourers, forerunners, hadn, libya, peasant farmers, prime minister, psi, risorgimento, ruling class, sicily, social structure, trade unions, troublemakers