WAR IN AFRICA Eritrea.—The foreign policy of the second Crispi adrninistra. tion was, as before, marked by a cordial interpretation of the triple alliance, and by close accord with Great Britain. Graver than any foreign question were the complications in Eritrea. Under the arrangement concluded in 1891 by Rudini, relations with Abyssinia had remained comparatively satisfactory. Towards the Sudan, however, the Mandists, who had recovered from a de feat inflicted by an Italian force at Agordat in 189o, resumed operations in Dec. 1893. Col. Arimondi attacked and routed a Dervish force 10,000 strong on Dec. 21. The Italian troops, mostly native levies, numbered only 2,200 men. Gen. Baratieri, the military governor, decided to execute a coup de main against the dervish base at Kassala. Concentrating a little army of 2,600 men, Baratieri surprised and captured Kassala on July 17, 1894, and garrisoned the place with native levies under Italian officers. Meanwhile Menelek, with the support of France and Russia, had completed his preparations for asserting his authority as inde pendent ruler of Ethiopia. On May i 1, 1893, he denounced the Treaty of Uccialli, but the Giolitti cabinet, absorbed by the bank scandals, paid no heed to his action, and Mangasha came to terms with Menelek. In Dec. 1894, a revolt broke out, but Major Toselli with a small force marched rapidly against the rebels under Bath Agos, whom he routed and killed at Halai. Gen. Baratieri, cross ing the Mareb, advanced to Adowa, but four days later was obliged to return northwards. Mangasha thereupon took the offen sive and attempted to occupy the village of Koatit in Okule-Kusai, but was forestalled and defeated by Baratieri on Jan. 13, 1895. Mangasha was obliged to abandon his camp to Baratieri, who also secured a quantity of correspondence establishing the complicity of Menelek and Mangasha in the revolt of Bath-Agos.
After obtaining the establishment of an apostolic prefecture in Eritrea under the charge of Italian Franciscans, Baratieri expelled from the colony the French Lazarist missionaries for their alleged complicity in the Bath-Agos insurrection, and in March 1895 undertook the conquest of Tigre. Adigrat, Makalle, Adowa and Axum, the holy city of Abyssinia, were occupied and garrisoned, and during the rainy season Baratieri returned to Italy, where he was received with unbounded enthusiasm. Early in September both Mangasha and Menelek showed signs of activity, and on Sept. 20 Makonnen, ras of Harrar, who had hitherto been regarded as a friend and quasi-ally by Italy, marched with 30,00o men to join the negus. On returning to Eritrea, Baratieri pushed for ward columns under Major Toselli and Gen. Arimondi as far south as Amba Alagi. Mangasha fell back before the Italians, who obtained several minor successes; but on Dec. 6 Toselli's column, 2,000 strong, was almost annihilated by the Abyssinian vanguard of 40,000 men. Toselli and all but three officers and 300 men fell at their posts after a desperate resistance. Arimondi, col lecting the survivors of the Toselli column, retreated to Makalle and Adigrat. At Makalle, however, he left a small garrison in the fort, which on Jan. 7, 1896, was invested by the Abyssinian army, and on Jan. 21 the garrison, under Major Galliano, who had heroically defended the position, were permitted to march out with the honours of war. Meanwhile Baratieri received reinforce ments from Italy, but remained undecided as to the best plan of campaign. The Abyssinians were nearly ioo,000 strong, mostly armed with rifles and well supplied with artillery, whereas the Italians, including camp followers, numbered less than 25,000 men.
The Rudini ministry underwent several metamorphoses, and fell for the fourth and last time on June 18, 1898, on account of public indignation at the result of Rudini's home policy as exem plified in the May riots. On June 29 Rudini was succeeded in the premiership by Gen. Luigi Pelloux. The Pelloux cabinet presented its predecessor's Public Safety Bill to parliament in Nov. 1898, but it was violently obstructed by the Socialists, Radicals and Republicans of the Extreme Left. In view of this obstruction, an effort was made to reform the standing orders of the Lower House, but parliamentary feeling ran so high that Gen. Pelloux thought it expedient to appeal to the country.
Though not a great monarch, King Humbert had, by his unfailing generosity and personal courage, won the esteem and affection of his people. Mbre than 2,500,000 lire of his civil list was yearly given for charitable purposes. Humbert was succeeded by his only son, Victor Emmanuel III. (b. Nov. 11, 1869), a liberal-minded and well-educated prince.
The Saracco administration was overthrown in Feb. 1901 in consequence of its vacillating conduct towards a dock strike at Genoa. It was succeeded by a Zanardelli cabinet, in which the portfolio of the Interior was allotted to Giolitti. Composed mainly of elements drawn from the Left, and dependent for a majority upon the support of the subversive groups of the Extreme Left, the formation of this cabinet gave the signal for a vast working class movement, during which the Socialist Party sought to ex tend its political influence by means of strikes and the organiza tion of labour leagues among agricultural labourers and artisans. During the first six months of 1901 the strikes numbered 600, and involved more than 1,000,000 workmen. (X.) 1902-1914 Industrial Unrest, 1902-07.—The strikes and other economic agitations at this time may be divided roughly into three groups : strikes in industrial centres for higher wages, shorter hours and better labour conditions generally ; strikes of agricultural labourers in northern Italy for better contracts with the landlords ; disturb ances among the south Italian peasantry due to low wages, unem ployment (particularly in Apulia), and the claims of the labourers to public land occupied illegally by the landlords, combined with local feuds and the struggle for power of the various influential families. The prime cause in most cases was the unsatisfactory economic condition of the working classes. Unfortunately these genuine grievances were taken advantage of by the Socialists for their own purposes, and strikes and disorders, in which the dregs of the population took part, were sometimes promoted without cause, and conciliation impeded by outsiders who acted from mo tives of personal ambition or profit. The most serious movement at this time was that of the railway servants. On Jan. 4, 1902, the employees of the Mediterranean railway advanced demands for greater fixity of tenure, more regular promotion and the recog nition of their union by the companies. By the beginning of February the Government was faced by the possibility of a strike which would paralyse the whole economic life of the country. Then the Turin gas men struck, and a general sympathetic strike broke out in that city, resulting in scenes of violence lasting two days. The Government called out all the railwaymen who were army reservists, but continued to keep them at their railway work. At the same time it mediated between the companies and the employees, and in June a settlement was formally concluded.
The Socialist Party, which had grown powerful under a series of weak-kneed administrations, now began to show signs of divi sion ; the revolutionary wing, led by Enrico Ferri, the Mantuan deputy, advocating a policy of uncompromising class warfare, the riformisti, or moderate Socialists, led by Filippo Turati, for Milan, adopting a more conciliatory attitude. Later another ex treme wing was formed, constituted by the sindicalisti, who were opposed to all legislative parliamentary action and favoured only direct revolutionary propaganda. Strikes broke out in the district of Copparo, in the Polesine, and in Apulia, and later among the Genoa dockers, the Florence iron-workers and the Como textile workers.
In Sept. 1904 a very serious situation arose. There were dis turbances at Buggeru in Sardinia, at Castelluzzo in Sicily, and at Sestri Ponente, all of them accompanied by loss of life. The Monza labour exchange then took the initiative of proclaiming a general strike throughout Italy (Sept. i5) as a protest against the Government for daring to maintain order. The strike spread to nearly all the industrial centres. At Milan it was more serious, as the movement was controlled by the extremists under Arturo Labriola ; the strikers committed many acts of savage violence, especially against those workmen who refused to strike, and much property was wilfully destroyed. Riots broke out also in Genoa, Venice, Naples, Florence, Rome and Bologna. The deputies of the Extreme Left demanded an immediate convocation of parlia ment in order that they might present a bill forbidding the troops and police to use their arms in all conflicts between capital and labour, whatever the provocation might be. This movement caused a feeling of reaction against Socialism ; for, however much sympathy there might be with the genuine grievances of the work ing classes, the September strikes were of a frankly revolutionary character.
Early in 1905 there was a fresh agitation among the railway servants, who were dissatisfied with the clauses concerning the personnel in the bill for the purchase of the lines by the State. They initiated a system of obstruction which hampered and de layed the traffic without altogether suspending it. On April 17 a general railway strike was ordered by the union, but owing to the action of the authorities, who for once showed energy, the traffic was carried on. The extreme parties now began to direct especial attention to propaganda in the army, with a view to destroying its cohesion and thus paralysing the action of the Government. For tunately, however, this policy was not successful. No mutinies occurred, except a few trifling disturbances among reservists unex pectedly called back to the colours.
In June and July, 1907, there were again disturbances among the agricultural labourers of Ferrara and Rovigo, and a widespread strike organized by the leghe throughout those provinces caused very serious losses to all concerned. The leghisti, moreover, were guilty of much criminal violence ; they committed one murder and established a veritable reign of terror, boycotting, beating and wounding numbers of peaceful labourers who would not join the unions, and brutally maltreating isolated policemen and soldiers. The authorities, however, by arresting a number of the more prominent leaders, succeeded in restoring order. Almost imme diately afterwards another agitation broke out in various towns under the guise of anti-clericalism, in consequence of scandals, real or alleged, in certain convent schools. Unoffending priests were
attacked, and even Cardinal Merry del Val was assaulted at Marino. The Socialists and the freemasons were largely respon sible for the disorders.
In Oct. 1907 there was again a general strike at Milan and other cities which was rendered more serious on account of the action of the railway servants; traffic was disorganized over a large part of northern Italy, until the Government, being now owner of the railways, dismissed the ringleaders from the service. In the spring of 1908 there were serious agrarian strikes in the province of Parma, and although they ended in June with the defeat of the strikers, a vast amount of damage had been done. The failure of the strike caused the Socialists to quarrel among themselves and to accuse each other, not without reason, of dishonesty in the management of party funds. The spirit of indiscipline had begun to reach the lower classes of state employees, especially the school teachers and the postal and telegraph clerks. Fortunately, how ever, the Government nipped the agitation in the bud by dismiss ing the ringleader, Dr. Campanozzi, while attempting to redress some of the genuine grievances.
In Oct. 1903 Zanardelli, the premier, resigned on account of his health, and the king entrusted the formation of the cabinet to Giolitti. The new administration included Tittoni, the prefect of Naples, as foreign minister, and Luigi Luzzatti, the eminent financier, at the Treasury. Almost immediately of ter his appoint ment Tittoni accompanied the king and queen of Italy on a state visit to France and then to England, where various international questions were discussed, and the cordial reception which the royal pair met with in London and at Windsor served to dispel the small cloud which had arisen in the relations of the two countries on account of the Tripoli agreements and the language question in Malta. The weakness of the Government in dealing with the strike riots caused a feeling of profound dissatisfaction, and the so-called "experiment of liberty," conducted with the ob ject of conciliating the extreme parties, proved a failure. In Oct. 1904, after the September strikes, the Chamber was dissolved, and at the general elections in November a ministerial majority was returned, while the deputies of the Extreme Left (Socialists, Re publicans and Radicals) were reduced from 107 to 94, and a few mild Clericals elected. In spite of its majority, the Giolitti cabinet, realizing that it had lost its hold over the country, resigned in March 1905.
A cabinet was formed by Fortis, Tittoni remaining as foreign minister. A colourless administration, its most important measure was the bill for the purchase of the railways, which was voted in June 1905. Dissatisfaction caused by the modus vivendi with Spain, which would have wrought much injury to the Italian wine growers, led to demonstrations and riots, and a hostile vote in the Chamber (Dec. 17, 1905) compelled Fortis to reconstruct the ministry, the marquis di San Giuliano accepting the portfolio of foreign affairs. Even this cabinet was still-born, and a hostile vote in the Chamber on Jan. 3o, 1906 brought about its fall.
Now at last, after waiting so long, Sonnino's hour had struck, and he became premier for the first time. This result was most satisfactory to all the best elements in the country, and great hopes were entertained that the advent of a rigid and honest statesman would usher in a new era of Italian parliamentary life. Unfortunately the composition of the new cabinet proved disap pointing; for while such men as Guicciardini, the minister for foreign affairs, and Luzzatti, at the Treasury, commanded general approval, the choice of Sacchi as minister of justice and of Pan tano as minister of agriculture and trade, both of them militant Radicals, savoured of an unholy compact between the premier and his erstwhile bitter enemies. For this combination Sonnino himself was not altogether to blame ; having lost many of his most faithful followers, who, weary of waiting for office, had gone over to the enemy, he had been forced to seek support elsewhere, and thus secure at least the neutrality of the Extreme Left. The new premier's first act was to suppress all subsidies to journal ists, and although this resulted in bitter attacks against him in the columns of the "reptile press" it commanded the approval of all right-thinking men. The Socialist motion in the Chamber for the immediate discussion of a bill to prevent "the massacres of the proletariat" having been rejected by an enormous majority, the 28 Socialist deputies resigned their seats ; on presenting themselves for re-election their number was reduced to 25. A few days later the ministry, having received an adverse vote on a question of procedure, sent in its resignation (May 17), and Giolitti returned to power.
The change of government brought Tittoni back to the Foreign Office. The new ministry began auspiciously with the conversion of the public debt from 4% to to be eventually reduced to 31%. This operation had been prepared by Luzzatti under Son nino's leadership, and although carried out by Maiorana it was Luzzatti who deservedly reaped the honour and glory. The sur plus for the year amounted to 65,000,000 lire. In November Pietro Bertolini became minister of public works ; his acceptance of office under Giolitti marked a further step in the degringolade of Sonnino's party, to which Bertolini had belonged. Gen. Vigana was succeeded in December by Senator Casana, the first civilian to become minister of war in Italy; the experiment of a civilian "War Lord" was not a complete success, and in April 1909 Casana retired and was succeeded by Gen. Spingardi.
Meanwhile the relations between Church and State began to show signs of change. The chief supporters of the claims of the papacy to temporal power were the clericals of France and Aus tria, but in the former country they had lost influence. With the rebellion of her "Eldest Daughter," the Church of Rome began to realize the folly of placing every Italian in the dilemma of being either a good Italian or a good Catholic, when the majority wished to be both. Outside Rome, relations between the clergy and the authorities were already quite cordial. In July 1903 Leo XIII. died, and Cardinal Sarto became pope under the style of Pius X. The new pope was distinctly less insistent in his claims to tem poral power. At the elections for the local bodies the Catholics had already been permitted to vote, and the encyclical of June 11, 1905, practically abolished the non expedit. In September of that year a number of religious institutions in the Near East, formerly under the protectorate of the French Government, in view of the rupture between Church and State in France now asked to be placed under Italian protection, which was granted in Jan. 1907. Giolitti wished to conciliate the Vatican by facilitating religious education, which was desired by the majority of parents, but without offending the freemasons and other anti-clericals too much. Consequently the minister of education, Rava, elaborated a scheme based on compromise which, it was hoped, would please everyone ; but in practice it did not work satisfactorily. At the general elections of March 1909, over a score of Clerical deputies were returned, men of a very mild tone who did not trouble about the temporal power and were supporters of the monarchy and anti-Socialists; where no Clerical candidate was in the field the Catholic voters plumped for the constitutional candidate against all representatives of the Extreme Left. At 5 A.M. on Dec. 28, 1908, an earthquake of appalling severity shook the whole of southern Calabria and the eastern part of Sicily, completely de stroying the cities of Reggio and Messina, the smaller towns of Canitello, Scilla, Villa San Giovanni, Bagnara, Palmi, Melito, Porto Salvo and Santa Eufemia, as well as a large number of villages. At Messina the horror of the situation was heightened by a tidal wave; the number of persons killed was approximately 150,000, while the injured were beyond calculation.
In Oct. 1908 came the bombshell of the Austrian annexation of Bosnia. The news caused the most widespread sensation, and pub lic opinion in Italy was greatly agitated; Tittoni, however, in a speech at Carate Brianza (Oct. 6) declared that "Italy might await events with serenity, and that these could find her neither unpre pared nor isolated," and his words were taken to mean that Italy would receive compensation to restore the balance of power upset in Austria's favour. When it was found that there was to be no direct compensation for Italy, a storm of indignation was aroused against Austria, and also against Tittoni.
With the abandonment by Austria of her military posts in the sandjak of Novipazar (Oct. 29) the danger of a "pacific penetra tion" of Macedonia became more remote. Austria also renounced her right to police the Montenegrin coast and to prevent Monte negro from having warships of its own in a note presented to the Italian Foreign Office on April 12, 1909. Italy had developed some important commercial interests in Montenegro, and anything which strengthened the position of that principality was a guaran tee against further Austrian encroachments. The harbour works of the Montenegrin port of Antivari, commenced in March 1905 and completed early in 1909, were an Italian concern. But the whole episode was a warning to Italy, and the result was a national movement for security. Credits for the army and navy were voted almost without a dissentient voice ; new battleships were laid down, the strength of the army was increased, and the defences of the exposed eastern border were strengthened.
Sonnino and Luzzatti.—On Dec. 2, 1909, the cabinet was defeated on a point of procedure, but really by Sonnino's attacks on its Shipping Subsidies Bill, and resigned. Baron Sonnino was consequently called upon to form a cabinet, which com prised Guicciardini (foreign minister), Salandra (Treasury), and Luzzatti (agriculture). But although it enjoyed wide popular support, the cabinet had no stable majority in the Chamber, and was defeated over a new shipping bill on March 21, 191o, and resigned. Luzzatti now formed a cabinet, with the marquis di San Giuliano at the Foreign Office, Tedesco, Facta, Credaro and Sacchi in other departments. The cabinet only held office on sufferance until Giolitti saw fit to return to power, and it showed great feeble ness in dealing with the agrarian strikes of the Romagna, and other internal troubles. On Dec. 21, 191o, there was a division over the extension of the franchise bill, and although the cabinet secured a majority, the Radical ministers, Credaro and Sacchi, resigned. The whole cabinet followed suit on March 18, 1911, and Giolitti was again sent for.
The Turkish War.—During the previous few years relations with Turkey had become strained owing to the restrictions placed by the Porte on Italian enterprise in Tripoli, the only part of North Africa where Italian expansion was still possible. At the same time the policy of Germany aroused the suspicion the she was contemplating action in that province. The Nationalist move ment, created at the Florence congress of 191o, and directed towards awakening the country to the necessity of a more vigorous foreign policy, advocated the occupation of Tripoli. The strength of the movement was such that Giolitti himself, anxious as he was to avoid foreign complications, could not afford to disregard it.
After a series of diplomatic incidents, an ultimatum was pre sented to Turkey on Sept. 28, 1911, and no satisfactory answer being obtained, war was declared on the 29th. Except for the Socialists, public opinion strongly supported the Government. On Nov. 5 Italian sovereignty was extended to Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The foreign Powers were unfriendly to Italy's African policy, and while Austria placed a veto on the extension of the campaign to the Balkans, a serious diplomatic incident arose with France over the searching by Italian cruisers of the French steamers "Carthage" and "Manouba," suspected of carrying con traband. On Oct. 15, 1912, the peace preliminaries were signed at Ouchy, and the treaty on the i8th, the sultan retaining only spiritual authority over the inhabitants of the annexed territories, while Italy was to remain in occupation of Rhodes and the Dodec anese until Turkey had withdrawn all her troops from Libya and fulfilled her other treaty undertakings.
Giolitti's proposals for the extension of the franchise (raising the electorate from three to eight million voters), payment of members, and a Government monopoly of life insurance, although not wanted by any strong section of public opinion, were voted without much opposition, as parliament did not wish to embar rass the cabinet during the war. At the Socialist congress of Reggio Emilia (June 1912) a group of leaders, including Leo nida Bissolati and Ivanoe Bonomi, who approved of the Govern ment's African policy, were expelled from the party and formed a new group called the Reformist Socialists, prepared to collabo rate with the constitutional parties. The majority styled itself thenceforth the "Official" Socialist Party. In the field of labour there were strikes at the Fiat works in Turin, and among the agri cultural workers of Ferrara and a general strike at Milan in the summer of 1913.
On the national festival of the Statuto (June 7, 1914) riots broke out at Ancona because the authorities had forbidden the holding of an anti-militarist meeting. A general strike ensued in the town and the trouble spread to other parts of the March, to Romagna, and most of the larger cities. The movement was of a mainly revolutionary character; its leader was the anarchist Enrico Malatesta, and Benito Mussolini (q.v.), editor of the Avanti, played a prominent part in it. For a week many towns were under mob rule, until a popular reaction led by the Nation alists cleared the streets of the seditious elements and the troops and police restored order.