CONTEMPORARY HISTORY - FIRST
SEMESTER - COMMA
Storia Contemporanea
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Milano (UCSC MI)
143 pag.
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First term
Contemporary
History
Giacomo Sala
a.c. 2023/2024
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Introduction
The story disagrees about the finish of modern history, it disagrees about the specific
date of the start of contemporary history.
→ There are two different sides to why the scholars disagree.
Some scholars think that started with the:
1. French Revolution - 1789: broke a terrible revolution and event in European
history, when for the first time the common people revolted against the society
in power.
2. Congress of Vienna - 1814: the congress made by the conservatives to create
a new European situation after the revolution and after Napoleon.
→ They want everything like it was before the French Revolution.
3. 2th Industrial Revolution - XIX Century
4. Birth of the mass society - XX Century
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The first and the second one focus themselves on an event while instead the other ones
on society, economics, culture transformation.
→ All these categorizations are all connected together, everything is based on the
French Revolution, but also on the massive society and industrial evolution and changes.
→ Dual revolution is the concept proposed by Eric Hobsbawm to express the worldwide
historical significance of the British Industrial Revolution, on one hand and the French
Revolution, on the other
→ It refers to the period between 1789 and 1848: the political and ideological changes of
the French Revolution reinforced the technological and economic changes of the
Industrial Revolution
→ The French Revolution spread ideas of democracy, nationalism and liberalism
→ These political ideas were fused with the new technological advances of the Industrial
Revolution
During the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the XXI century a lot of
important events happened.
-
USA - 1861: The Civil War
-
ITALY - 1861: The birth of the Kingdom
-
FRANCE - 1852: From the Second French Empire to the third French Empire
-
GERMANY - 1871: The Unification
→ We are going to focus on: France, USA, Italy and Germany.
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France in the XIX
Among the European nation France deserves a place in the European history, in this
century France is the place where the most important political ideas are created:
1. Separation of power
2. Principle of self determination
3. Equality of citizens in front of the law
4. Liberty of press
France is the place where political ideas were born.
→ There was a huge moment of instability after the revolution, around the last part of the
19th century, where there were so many revolutions, some successful and others not, a
lot of monarchical phases and republican phases, a really chaotic situation.
All these developments that took place in France during this period can be considered
as the long wave of the French Revolution (all the starting points of contemporary history)
The congress of Vienna (after Napoleon's death) decided to restore the royal dynasty
and social system present before the French Revolution so the Bourbons, they were
hosted in 1792 with the killing of the king and now in 1815 they returned again to the
throne.
→ The aim of the congress of Vienna was to recreate a conservative system where
people from the lower classes didn’t have access to power, the access to power was
only for the nobles, not for the people of the lower classes, they wanted to recreate the
old social and political order.
→ The ideas of the French Revolution were already stored in Frenches and Europeans
→ The congress formally recreated the old conservative system with the kings and
families at the power but people were different, with different ideas.
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Louis XVIII became the first Bourbon King who was a liberal.
In 1824 (10 years after congress) Charles X became the new king after the death of Louis.
(1824-1830), people protested him because Charles was conservative.
→ Charles was conservative while instead Louis was a liberal
→ It was the first time after the revolution (1830) that the people protested against this
new king.
→ Charles X believed that his power was given by god; he was really conservative. He
doesn’t want to maintain the constitution.
→ During the 3 Glorious days of Paris (July revolution - 1830) Charles X was overthrown
and killed
Parliament appointed then Louis Philip of Orlean as the new king so we have another
king but from a different house from the Borbones to the Orleans (he was liked by the
people and he was a liberal).
→ We have a radical change in the royal house, but also to the principle of the popular
sovereignty, the people wanted Philip of Orleans they had it.
→ Is a monarchy wanted by the people, chosen by the nation and not by God.
→ For almost 20 years this monarchy tries to resist
→ It lives increasing stronger requests of freedom, universal suffrage and so on, popular
dissatisfaction
We have a lot of liberal requests, and he accepted a more liberal constitution, to solve
problems like the ones related to the suffrage and others.
→ In 1848 the light of the revolution returned again, and started again
→ This year was an year full of revolutions, and violent protests all over Europe, the
general revolution of protests all over the content
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In France, it started in February when the
prime minister, a moderate named
Guizot, banned the Banquets, which
were public political meetings to
organize the opposition to the regime
(they were talking about their problems).
→ He banned them because he was
defending the interest of the bourgeoisie
and aristocracy (Law of Le Chapelier)
People had to ask for approval to organize a banquet in order to receive it.
→ The people of Paris with the help of the army (National Guard) overthrow the older
regime, the Orlean monarchy was declared fallen and replaced by the second French
Republic.
→ The events in February of 1848 were the prelude to what happened in the European
continent in the following months.
→ There were a lot of revolutions, wars in Italy (they started in Jan) and other countries
After the insurrection, after the popular protests, the Orleans monarchy is declared fallen
and replaced by the Second Republic, a provisional government (a temporary
government) was created in February 1848, it included the leaders of the opposition but
also there were two members of socialism (this was the significant new).
→ At that time socialism was a threat to the political order and the fact that two people
related to socialism where part of this important organism was scary, they were Albert
the Worker (a working class’ member is part of government) and Luis Blanck (thinker).
→ It’s the first time that people of the industrial society and working class were members
of a political organization
→ Actually, there is no law that excludes the working class from the government but
politicians are not paid, so politics is considered something for noble and rich people
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At the beginning, the first reforms were related to:
-
Abolition of restrictions of freedom of assembly
-
Abolition of restrictions of freedom of the press (free bankets).
→ Was officialized the freedom of labor legislation, the provisional government
confirmed the principle of the right of work, and in order to make it function were created
the national workshops for unemployed people, that were factories were people could
find work and activities to give unemployed a work and a salary (this will also happens in
the USA of Roosevelt with the new deal).
Furthermore there was also the extension of the right to vote to all the male citizens,
regardless of the income (universal male suffrage).
→ These were the most important act that made the provisional government
→ This was quite shortly, in April 1848 there were the new elections the first of the
second republic, with the universal male suffrage however the new election that
surprisingly for the government saw the victory of the moderates, the socialists and
people that were against of the monarchy were not so happy about the results, there
were a lot of people nostalgic of the monarchy.
France is a big country and Paris is not like the rest of France, in its history we have to
separate the reality of Paris and the reality of France in general.
→ Black and Workers were excluded from the government but the Parisian people
refused to accept this decision.
→ The people of Paris were ready again to take the streets of Paris and avoid an
oppression made by the government
→ In June more than 5 thousand people protested in Paris. They were protesting
against the moderate government because they wanted socialist politicians.
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On 23th of June 1848 the Parisians started a protest but the army (the national guard)
didn’t help the people of Paris and ended the protest with a bloody repression.
→ They were barricaded in the streets.
→ The significant facts made people all around Europe extremely concerned after
knowing what happened.
The revolt of the Parisian workers and in general the new success of the socialist people
worried the nobles and the middle class, who were worried of new revolutionary
movements and socialist demands.
The middle class which has been the
protagonist of the French Revolution
now was supporting the more
conservative part of the society, this was
clear in December 1848 when with the
new election, almost all the people in
France agreed to elect Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte to become the new king, he
was the nephew of Napoleon, and he
was able to assure the middle class
people but also being the nephew of
napoleon he attracted the attention of
the revolutionary.
The election of Louis Napoleon was a turning point, we can say that with this election the
democracy of the second republic ended, and he was a really ambitious man, he wanted
to impose his personal power and considering the climate of instability he easily took
advantage of this situation.
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Between 1851-1852 Louis Napoleon was given the power to draw the new constitution,
he established a presidential term of 10 years, after that in 1852 he made a coup d'etat to
obtain full power (1852-1870).
→ We could say that the republic ended in 1852, it wasn’t a republic anymore also in the
title, there are some protests but are repressed.
→ Napoleon proclaimed the second Empire (the word of Empire evoked the empire of
Napoleon), he considered himself as the direct Napoleon heir.
France is still an anomalous country from the political point of view, Luis Napoleon isn’t
from a royal house.
→ The principle of popular sovereignty which was expressed through a strong power, he
was an authoritarian monarch.
Louis Napoleon III had the support of the capitalists and of the middle class (they were
living a sort of golden age).
→ Napoleon, supported by the military, favored a very aggressive foreign policy, and his
aim was to change the order of the Congress of Vienna (it was punishing France).
→ He wanted to put France at the center of Europe again.
The first step of his foreign policy was the Crimean war in 1853 opposed to the Russian
expansion, he was changing the balance of power in Europe.
→ Then participated in a war against Austria in 1859 during the second italian war of
independence and he was allied with the King of Sardinia and Piedmont (we were during
the Italian independence war).
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Then there was a war between Prussia (1870-1871) ruled by Bismarck, who was a
younger power against France. This was the last obstacle for Prussia to obtain Germany
and achieve German unification.
→ The crush resulted very strong for the French and at the end of the war there were
negotiations with Prussia
→ They refused the condition of the Prussian, and refused to form the peace Treaty
→ In 1870 there was the worst French defeat in Sedan
→ France loses the war and falls in political chaos
After the fall of Napoleon III, a provisional government was appointed.
→ It enters negotiations with Prussia
→ At the news of the harsh conditions imposed by Prussia, Parisian people occupy the
capital
→ They refuse to sign the peace treaty with Prussia
→ A group of left forces (democrats, anarchists) creates the Paris Commune
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Paris was the scenery of a socialist revolutionary experiment: they created a Parisian
community. Was based on direct democracy, and Marxist rule, this brought enthusiasm
all around the continent, and the provisional government ended it with a bloody
repression thanks to the army.
For about a month, between March and May 1871, the Paris Commune takes the power in
the capital, it’s a sort of socialist experiment, a government inside Paris
→ The Paris Commune tries to put in practice innovative social reforms
→ Basically all Marxist ideas
→ The provisional government, together with the army, represses the Paris Commune
After that France saw the birth of a third republic 1871-1940
The period of political instability finally ends, centrality of the Parliament and balance of
powers.
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The second industrial revolution
Industrialization is one of the big
changes of the 19th century (until 1914).
The second way of industrialization took
place mainly in Europe before the 1WW.
→ Called the technological revolution
→ It saw the creation of new materials
like electricity and energy combustions,
other chemicals and steel materials.
→ There were also new important
communication technologies like the
telegraph and the phone, radio.
→ The second industrial revolution was
extremely huge and efficient in countries
like England, Germany, France and the
Netherlands.
The consequences of this revolution have been:
-
The improvement of the living standards: the increase of productivity caused a
decrease of the price of the goods, and also thanks to the scientific and medical
discoveries and medical improvements brought to a deaths decline.
→ In England the construction of a new and better sewer system, that was
avoiding the water full of bacterias were in the city.
→ In this period started to function the public transport, and the first vehicles
started to goes around the cities, but also ads on the them.
→ The way people where living was quite similar how our grandparents lived
→ In the city there are also a lot of different monuments regarding events and
war (like the Crimean one).
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Massive population growth: as a consequence of the better lifestyle
-
The birth of a new working class + welfare policies: caused by the revolution.
→ This working class was becoming increasingly political, that wanted to have
their role
Traditionally the lower classes didn’t care about politics, but right now people
are in a better condition so they started a new political awareness.
→ The political consciousness was quite led by Marxism (Karl Marx - Das Kapital).
→ We have a new working class that were proletarian (word from latin “proles”
that means children, the only possessions of the proles was the working ability,
they didn’t have an intellectual capital, they had only their children).
The proletarians were demanding their presence in the political activities, they
wanted in the running of the economy, they wanted more social security and also
wanted a fair share of their labels, more revenues.
→ This couldn’t untouch the bourgeoisie that was extremely scared (especially
after the situation in France), of possible revolutions.
→ To keep the proletarian quite, the upper level of the society shaped the social
and welfare policies to contain and limit the proletarians and frighten them
→ They were scared by the proletarian
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IN BRITAIN
In this century there were a lot of welfare policies like street lights, minimum
housing standards, regulation of working hours, regulations of the working
conditions and other, however despite these welfare policies the lower classes
were considered dangerous in a political, health and moral sense (Charels
Dickens).
→ This attempt to promote policies was believed useful for the national power of
Britain and capitalism.
→ These were the outcomes of an agreement between the capitalists and the
government.
→ Their political conscience is growing / they lack of morality and health
IN GERMANY
In Germany we have the Chancellor Otto Von Bismark, he promoted social
security even though at the beginning of his political career he tried to fight
socialism. He made in 1883 a law regarding insurance sickness and also in 1884 a
law regarding insurance of the workers and then in 1889 an insurance against
old age.
→ All these measures don’t stop the good political results of marxist parties
→ The social democracy, in 1912 became the strongest single party in Germany.
→ Bismark was against Marxism but then he made some socialism choices
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The marxist movement and the socialist parties were considered the threat to the
liberal system and public order all around Europe.
→ Many capitalists tried to take action thanks to trade Unions.
More working people means more people interested in their working conditions,
so politics because it’s related.
→ This is the connection between the growth of the population and the welfare
changes, and capitalism, and Marxism among the population.
→ Because of the growth of the population, the upper classes were terrified by
the marxist movement and then final point, this bright to the formulation of new
welfare policies, to contain the proletarian
→ We have more people to control and in this way we can control them.
→ This is the idea, and the reasoning behind the welfare policies in UK and
Germany
-
The possibility for future dictators to use new communication technologies and
to use those tools to gain public support, and propaganda, like radios, or cinemas.
→ Hilter and Mussolini used cinemas to transmit their messages and
WHICH ARE THE MAIN CONSEQUENCES OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?
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Italy at the end of the XIX Century
A lot of foreign newspapers consider Italians as weak, they disrespect both the
institutions and each other, they compete for wealth, status and power, they ignore the
law and don’t pay taxes, their loyalties are never national, but they have local loyalties
(friends, family but not the state).
→ Italian rulers included deputies, politicians can be corrupt, they attract no respect, and
enjoy no legitimacy.
→ This is the point of view of a lot of foreign newspapers.
An italian historian wrote a book and wrote:
“The national character was a key element of the reflections of an important part of the
intellectual and political world from the Risorgimento to the Republic, and the debate on
the defects of Italians was also part and parcel of the political struggle, in the sense that
it was regularly deployed and used as an instrument in the battle to define the nation”
Silvana Patriarca, Italians. The construction of a national character, 2011
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The battle that defined our nation was a national battle of ideas, regarding what makes
people Italian, what was italy, because we are talking about a time where italy was not
united.
Comprehending how the unification process happened we can understand a lot of the
characteristics of Italian people (some of the previous ones are true and the origin
happened during the risorgimento period).
From a social-economic point of view the situation in 1843 compared to the one in
other countries like France and England the situation was really bad. Italy’s economic
backwardness was because:
1. There was a lack of raw materials (ex: iron or coal)
2. The street network was underdeveloped and badly maintained
3. Taxes used to support court, army, bureaucracy, no money for industrial
development
4. Aristocracy didn’t want to invest their money, especially in the south of italy the
nobles were collecting the revenues from their properties without modernizing
and investing the money in the property to improve it.
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In the south the nobles were owner of huge properties, most of the times were
agricultural properties, and they were collecting revenue from the people that were living
in those territories
→ The agriculture is underdevelopment
→ In the north the industrial system was better but not comparable with the ones of other
countries.
Besides these points there was a main problem that was the political division of italy.
→ The italian peninsula was divided into 8 states and was an incredible burden for
economic activities.
→ Each state had its own currency (money) and each state had his own law, and its own
duty taxes, so the commercial relationships were really difficult
→ Sometimes for problems related to the currencies but also for the language.
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The 8 states in 1843 were:
1. Kingdom of sardinia: monarchy led by the house of Savoy, Turin was the Capital
2. Kingdom of Lombardy and Venetia: a crown of the Austrian empire and ruled by
a governor-general (a military governor) imposed by an Austrian (Radetzky).
3. Kingdom of the two Sicilies: largest for population and territory, ruled by
Bourbones monarchs (Ferdinand I, Francis I, Ferdinand II, Francis II):
4. Papal state: was a state led by the pope and of his own property (last was Pius IX)
5. Grand Duchy of Tuscany
6. Duchy of Modena
7. Duchy of Parma
8. Duchy of Lucca
DESCRIBE THE SITUATION OF ITALY FROM A POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL POINT
OF VIEW
From an intellectual point of view, what were the situations?
Few people in 1830 believed that an Italian nation might exist. There were eight states in
the peninsula, each with distinct laws and traditions. No one had had the desire or the
resources to revive Napoleon's partial experiment in unification. The settlement of
1814–15 had merely restored regional divisions, with the added disadvantage that the
decisive victory of Austria over France temporarily hindered Italians in playing off their
former oppressors against each other. Italians who, like Ugo Foscolo and Gabriele
Rossetti, harboured patriotic sentiments, were driven into exile.
The largest Italian state, the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with its 8 million
inhabitants, seemed aloof and indifferent: Sicily and Naples had once formed part of
Spain, and it had always been foreign to the rest of Italy.
The common people in each region, and even the intellectual elite, spoke their mutually
unintelligible dialects, and lacked the least vestiges of national consciousness.
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They wanted good government, not self-government, and had welcomed Napoleon
and the French as more equitable and efficient than their native dynasties.
(Denis Mack Smith, Italy, 1960)
Almost all the states were ruled by Italians except for the Kingdom of lombardy-venetia
ruled by the Austrians.
→ Within the states they couldn’t understand each other.
→ The author is saying that italians doesn’t want to be part of a unite country
→ Italians are not interested in being a united Country, they accept foreign governors
without problems
Only a small minority of future Italians were supporting this kind of idea and project (were
usually intellectuals and not proletarian).
→ Those people dreamt of unification but they had different vision of how should have
be reached this kind of unification
→ These differences weaken the unification cause and prevent it from reaching a
general consensus
Politically the division between democrats and moderates was:
❖ Moderates: people that wanted the monarch involved in order to gradually reach
a political unification under the rule of a monarch (they wanted the help of a
monarch) - MAZZINI - CATTANEO
→ They wanted a slow mechanism of unification
❖ Democrats: wanted a new Italy as a republic, and they wanted the common
people involved. BALBO - GIOBERTI
→ The new Italy should be a Republic
→ Monarchs are considered untrustworthy
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Why do the democrats distrust the monarchy so much?
The distress of the democrats of the monarchy came from the bad experience of the
monarchy in 1820 (sicily) - 1821 (piedmont)
→ In summer of 1820 there were some insurrections from the people of the Kingdom of
two Sicilies
→ In spring of 1821 there were insurrections in Piedmont (Kingdom of Sardinia).
→ These revolts are considered the first events of the Risorgimento
→ These insurrections are followed by attempts to introduce constitutional forms of
government (as in France)
There was an initial success because the kings Charles Albert of Savoy and Ferdinand I
of the Two Sicilies promised a constitution.
→ There’s then a bloody repression by both the monarchies, with the help of Austrian
troops
→ After the bloody repressions, more people decide to join secret societies (most
important: The Young Italy)
→ The revolts of 1820 - 1821 are the basis of following independence revolts
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GIUSEPPE MAZZINI - DEMOCRAT
Giuseppe Mazzini was one of the main
figures of the democrats.
→ He held that the common people
would overthrow the existing rulers both
the Italian ones but also the foreign
ones, so he wanted the unification of
Italy under a Republic and he believed
that a popular uprising would have
created a united Italy.
→ He created a secret society called
“Young Italy” with the aim of promoting
the unification of Italy into “one, free,
independent, republic nation”.
He believed that creating a free democracy would have unified Italy, he believed that the
unification of Italy would have started a lot of different revolutionary movement against
other monarchies.
→ The motto was “God and the people”.
The thought of Mazzini is really important but despite this, his action did not help the
unification, he then disapproved the way Piedmont helped the unification of italy also
after the unification in 1861.
→ After the unification really happened he disagreed about a lot of different things, he
didn't want the king to help the unification until his death in 1872
The second project of Mazzini was Young Europe to promote the liberation of all
European States with a monarchy.
→ His thoughts are still important, although his actions won’t help his cause
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“In the spring of 1834, while at Bern, Mazzini and a dozen refugees from Italy, Poland,
and Germany founded a new association with the grandiose name of Young Europe. Its
basic, and equally grandiose idea, was that, as the French Revolution of 1789 had
enlarged the concept of individual liberty, another revolution would now be needed for
national liberty; and his vision went further because he hoped that in the no doubt
distant future free nations might combine to form a loosely federal Europe with some
kind of federal assembly to regulate their common interests. [...] His intention was
nothing less than to overturn the European settlement agreed in 1815 by the Congress of
Vienna, which had reestablished an oppressive hegemony of a few great powers and
blocked the emergence of smaller nations. Mazzini hoped, but without much confidence,
that his vision of a league or society of independent nations would be realised in his own
lifetime. In practice Young Europe lacked the money and popular support for more than
a short-term existence. Nevertheless, he always remained faithful to the ideal of a united
continent for which the creation of individual nations would be an indispensable
preliminary” (Denis Mack Smith, Italy, 1960)
CARLO CATTANEO - DEMOCRAT
Another democrat was Carlo Cattaneo,
philosopher and writer, who wanted the
unification of Italy under a federal
republic, it seems too extreme even for
democrats.
→ He never accepted the new Italian
state just like Mazzini.
→ He always refused any kind of role in
the new state.
→ He will die in exile, refusing any offer
for a political role
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VINCENZO GIOBERTI - MODERATE
Gioberti was another member of the
moderates, he was a priest and he
believed in liberal catholicism.
→ The idea was that people already
ruled some places of the peninsula, what
about a confederation of Italian states
under the leadership of the Pope.
→ Since the Pope already rules over the
middle of the Italian peninsula, what if
we create a confederation of Italian
States under the Pope’s lead?
→ He envisions a new positive role for
the temporal power
He wrote a book named “The moral and civil primate of Italians” and after that the pope
rejected his ideas and position.
→ He presents his idea to the Pope and he turns really reactionary, rejecting the idea of
Gioberti
→ He dies before unification
CESARE BALBO - MODERATE
Balbo, another member of the moderates, he was a noble, he believed in a confederation
of separate italian states led by piedmont.
→ He doesn’t want a revolution, but progressive reforms
→ He was the perfect representative of the moderates
→ Balbo, like Gioberti died before 1861.
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1848-1849
Despite the difficulties (suppression of many revolts) and differences (democrats vs
moderates), the movement for Italian unification (Risorgimento) continues to grow.
→ All these revolts created the basis for the revolution of 1848 - 1849 (most important of
the 19th century).
In italy when you talk about 1848, it’s a year of disaster, there is an expression “like
the 1848”.
→ In this year many european countries suffered of a hard economic crisis
→ There were less potato and grain, so the price of the food was quite high
→ The agricultural workers wanted the abolition of the feudal system (sor of slavery)
→ The industrial workers demanded improvement in their working conditions
→ And middle class professional wanted increased political rights
→ The bourgeoisie wanted more political rights
→ People were linked to the territory they were working in
→ This crisis could have been one of the many crisis that happened
This crisis (agricultural, industrial and commercial) is different from the others the
democratic wave running over Europe creates the sparkle for the revolutionary biennial
of 1848 - 49
→ Inspired by the success of the French
in abolishing the monarchy (February
1848)
→ In 1848 a revolution swept all around
the cities of Europe, and a lot of rebellion
broke out all over the continent inspired
by the success of France in
overthrowing the monarchy.
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1848 IN ITALY
In Italy everything started before France (happened in february) while in Italy it
happened in January, specifically in Sicily, the 9th January 1848.
→ There was a normal popular insurrection that unfortunately spread all over sicily.
→ There were some timid reforms by the king Ferdinand II but they were inadequate to
satisfy the revolutionaries.
→ By that time revolutionaries were not always proletarians, but also nobles and
bourgeois people.
→ They wanted a liberal constitution for the kingdom.
→ After these 20 days of protest, King Ferdinand II granted a constitution (29th January
1848).
In order to avoid dangerous confrontation with the revolts, other rulers followed the
example of Ferdinand and granted a constitution:
1. Leopold II of Tuscany grants a constitution, 17th February 1848
2. Charles Albert of Piedmont grants a constitution (Statute), 4th March 1848
3. Pope Pius IX grants a constitution, 14th March 1848
1848 - 1° Independence war
The Austrian government resists the popular pressure:
● It reinforces its military position
● It arrests opposition leaders
● It suppresses student demonstrations in university cities of Padua and Pavia
We have successful revolts in France, Piedmont, Tuscany, State of the church, Sicily
except for the northern part.
→ By the end of march the revolution arrived also in Budapest and Vienna (heart of the
Austrian empire).
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Revolutionary people in Vienna and Milan attempted to fight against Austrian domination.
→ 18-22 March 1848 people of Milan revolted, this revolt was called “Five days of
Milan”, they were protesting and barricading → Cattaneo was present
After 5 days, the austrian army, led by Radezsky, was outside the city, the area where the
austrian army moved out of milan was the quadrilateral (area near Mantua, ecc. ecc,
Gardaland area).
23 March 1848: Charles Albert of Savoy declares war on Austria
→ The army was pushed toward Venice
→ King Charles Albert in Sicily decided to use this kind of difficult situation to attack
Austria, and avoid a republican domination of the insurgency.
→ He was worried that republicans in Milan could take power and he decided to rule the
protests himself against Austria.
→ The piedmont army won, but quite soon Charles started to suffer reverses (spring
1848
The problem now is that all the rulers that initially had sent troops to support the
Piedmontese army (Leopold II, Ferdinand II and Pope IX) as soon as they heard about the
failures against the Austrians they quickly called back the soldiers.
→ After a series of defeat Charles Albert forces withdrew and he asked for an Armistice
→ Armistice of Salasco (august of 1848)
In Venice people refused to surrender and sign the armistice, and under the republican
government of Daniele Manin, (22 March 1848-22 August 1849) they resisted the Austrian
siege all over the following summer (summer 1849).
In February 1849, there were revolts again but at this time in Rome (state of the Church),
this democratic insurgency caused the pope to flee to the isle of Gaeta (outside Rome).
→ The protagonists of the revolts claimed the Roman Republic.
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In Rome there was a constituent assembly voted by a universal male suffrage, people
elected a triumvirate of Carlo Arellini, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Aurelio Saffi, as ruler of
the Republic.
→ They were really democratic, and the inspiration was the Paris Community
→ All this was called the first war of independence
→ Modern and democratic republic (ex: they abolish the death penalty)
→ There is a republic both in Venice and Rome
→ That’s why Charles Albert is scared, he wants the unification of Italy under a republic
and fears opposition
In March 1849 Charles Albert decided to resume the war against Austria, he’s quickly
defeated (three days after starting the war). This is the final and real end of the war.
Emanuel II became the new king after
the second attempt to fight the Austrians
and signed an honorable armistice in
March of 1849 - Armistice of Vignale
→ Charles Albert thought as a
consequence of his abdication and
exile that if his Son would have signed
the armistice the Austrains would have
been more generous, and they were.
The Austrians granted a very generous armistice to Piedmont, because after more
fighting (they have defeated Piedmont twice), the Austrians preferred monarchy instead
of many dangerous republics.
→ Austrians didn’t want a weak monarchy because they could be exploited by the
radicals.
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The Austrians then re-conquered the entire Lombardy and brought conservative rulers
in all the areas.
→ The French army intervenes in Rome and restores the Pope to power
→ This is the end of Roman Republic
After the congress of Vienna the liberal oppositions have focused on the subjects of
liberty and constitutions.
→ The liberals didn’t think about the unification of the italian peninsula, it wasn’t their
primary goal.
Only a small minority of people before 1848/1849 claimed that the unification of Italy was
their primary goal.
→ They thought that the independence of sicily and the independence of Lombardy was
important
→ People think about the independence of the various Italian states, but not about their
unification
→ After the first war of independence they understood that if they wanted to reach
independence they also had to reach unification (parallels goals).
→ This was a political realization that happens after the failure
Another important consequence of the first independence war was the fact that it was
impossible to trust the sovereigns who were more dependent on the authoritarian voice
of Vienna (Ausrians) than to their people.
→ EX: the monarchies of Ferdinand II of Bourbon or Pope Pius IX
→ The only one was the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II who was the only one who
did not revoke the constitutions and who tried to fight the Austrians.
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The conclusion was that only in the kingdom of Sardinia there was still some hope for the
revolutionaries and for the reformers.
→ Many nationalists concluded after the war that the best hope for Italian unification
layed with Piedmont (an independent state which was economically advanced for the
italian standards which introduced and maintained a constitution).
→ The first war of independence was called the popular war.
1859 - 2° Independence war
Piedmont was quite advanced, it had a constitution, but had also a new clever politician,
Camillo Benso Count of Cavour (minister of agriculture, and then for finances MODERATE) that in 1859 became prime minister.
→ He signed a lot of international commercial treaties
→ He used foreign capital to reduce the public death
→ He stimulated the economical growth of Piedmont
→ Developed railroad system
He also wanted to solve the Italian questions (unification and independence) by
international policies rather than revolution using democracy.
→ Thought that foreign help was necessary to remove the austrian and achieve
unification
→ In order to make Piedmont visible he decided to join France and Great Britain in the
Crimean war, even if the Kingdom of Sardinia had no interest in Crimea.
As a consequence, in 1856 he had the possibility to go to the congress of peace of Paris
and speak with the other rules about the situation of Italy (French emperor).
→ He declared that the only threat to peace for italy was the austrian domination
→ In 1858, during a secret conference with Napoleon the 3rd, he arranged for french
military intervention in the event of an austrian aggression
→ Secret pact of military help in case of aggression
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Cavour started to provoke Austrians repeatedly, and in June 1859 the war between
Austrians and Piedmont broke out and France supported Piedmont.
→ There were many bloody battles against Austria (San Martino, Magenta, Solferino).
→ Austrians were defeated for the first time and were forced to give Lombardy together
with the help of the french troops to the Kingdom of Sardinia
After this victory there were many revolts since many were inspired and the autocratic
rulers of Parma, Modena and Florence were overthrown and provisional governments
under the authority of Piedmont occurred.
→ To thank France during the war Piedmont gifted them the Savoy and the city of Nice.
→ In Nice was born Giuseppe Garibaldi and when he heard this news he was extremely
angry.
GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI
Garibaldi was a revolutionist and
radicalist, and was one of the people that
was in Rome during the Roman Republic
with Saffi, Armellini and Mazzini, he was
one of those who refused to consider
that the national revolution of June 1859
was over.
→ Florence, Modena and Parma were
part of Piedmont
→ He decided to start from Sicily
because the opposition of the bourbons
was really strong (it was a really
democratic place) due to the extreme
opposition to the Bourbons.
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In may 1860, Garibaldi leads an expedition of republican people called: red shirt, or
Garibaldi’s thousands (Garibaldi’s personal enterprise, not organized by the government)
→ They strayed from Genoa to Sicily where they defeated the Bourbons army in a series
of battles around the region Sicily.
This “army” defeats the Sicilian troops, the conservative kingdom of the Bourbons ends
and Garibaldi proclaims a dictatorship in the name of king Victor Emmanuel II.
Garibaldi is a notorious republican and
his prestige became so high that Cavour
feels compelled to cease the initiative
once again. He was scared of a possible
establishment of a Garibaldi’s republic in
south
→ Also the king of Sardinia, Victor
Emmanuel II, is scared because he wants
to preserve the constitutional monarchy
→ The king decides, together with
Cavour, to send the Piedmontese army
to the south with the aim of seizing the
territories conquered by Garibaldi
In reality, Garibaldi is loyal to the king of Sardinia.
→ In october 1860 during a meeting in Teano, Garibaldi gives his authority on the south
to the king
→ Despite his republican ideas, Garibaldi recognises the authority of the kingdom of
Sardinia and of Victor Emmanuel as the king of Italy
→ He sacrifices his personal republican hopes for the safety of the Italian unity
on the contrary, many other republican will never recognise the king (ex: Mazzini)
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The new Kingdom of Italy is almost complete and in october and november of 1860 there
were plebiscites in the State of the Church and in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
annex these territories to the Kingdom of Italy.
On 17 March 1861 there was the
proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
→ The proclamation happened in Turin,
where both the Parliament and the king
stay, it becomes the capital of the new
kingdom
→ Which parts of Italy are still missing?
Rome and some territories around the
city and the north-east region of Italy
(Venetia region, Trento and so on) still
ruled by the Austrian empire
1866 - 3° Independence war
Five years after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, there’s a chance for the State
to fight for the conquest of the north-eastern territory.
→ What’s the chance? The outbreak of the war between Austria and Prussia (1866)
→ Italy isn’t really involved in the war, but because of the alliance with Prussia, it decides
to attack the Austrian in the north-east region
→ At the same time, Prussia attacks Austria from the north
The Italian army is defeated twice:
1. Defeat in Custoza by land (June 1866)
2. Defeat in Lissa by sea (July 1866)
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In July 1866 Garibaldi led a group of volunteers in the north-east area and achieved
some victories.
→ However, the Italian government orders him to withdraw from the area, because the
Austrian and Prussian government are discussing an armistice
→ October 1866 there was the Treaty of Vienna and Italy obtains the Venetia region,
thanks to the help of Napoleon III
What’s still missing? The State of the Church and the mountains outside the Venetia
region.
→ September 1870 Rome is conquered in the same year of the battle of Sedan (defeat of
Napoleon III)
→ The defeat of Napoleon deprives the pope of the military protection guaranteed by
the French. Therefore, Italian troops decide to enter Rome
There was the problem of the Pope because he refused to accept the Italian occupation
of the city and declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican palace.
→ Considering himself a prisoner, he avoids political relationships with the Kingdom of
Italy
→ This papal position is maintained also by the other Popes, until 1929 (Lateran Treaty)
→ The Italian unity is almost complete the remaining territories in the north will be
conquered during WW1
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AFTERMATH OF THE UNIFICATION
In Italy there are national experiences and many people with liberal ideas but looking at
the Independence Wars, we see how the Italian unification is actually the result of
diplomacy, royal wars and efforts of conservative leaders
→ Popular action is missing the Italian people are passive and let others decide for them
this lack of national popular action defines the following lack of common feelings
people who are part of the Kingdom of Italy don’t feel like belonging to the same
Country
→ The new Italian State lacks of political legitimation
After the conquest of Rome, Italian politicians settled down to manage the economics
and build up the military power of the Country.
→ They also try to make the Italians
→ Massimo D’Azeglio: “We have made Italy, now we must make the Italians.”
→ The Piedmontese politicians have united Italy from a territorial point of view but now
they need to make Italian people feel like belonging to the same nation
There was a high popular disaffection towards the government.
→ A centralized government is established
→ Firm central control over the various areas, realized through the appointment of
regional prefects
→ Bureaucrats sent by the government in the different Italian regions
People felt like the government was trying to make the entire Italian Country as
Piedmont, historians talk about Piemontizzazione (the old Piedmontese model is
extended to all the territory).
→ New laws aren’t created, so the Piedmontese laws are adopted
→ No new constitution is drafted: they use the Piedmontese constitution
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This process angers the subjects and destroys what was good and efficient in other
territories.
→ This situation delays the economic progress, especially in the south
→ There’s a high economic imbalance between north and south
→ The central government worsens it
The free trade policies of the government ruin the weak and unprotected industries of
the south.
→ The same happens in Germany in the 90s (but west Germany helps eastern Germany
recover)
→ In Italy, instead, there is no help for the south, since the imposed policies are designed
for the north
→ The railroad construction in the south is slow and affected with corruption
→ Relief for the poor remains inadequate (EX: Naples is characterized by poverty and
diseases)
→ Poverty is more widespread in rural areas, because peasants have gained nothing
from the division of the larger feudal estates imposed by the government
The main consequence is that many people in the south turn to brigandage.
What’s brigandage? It’s neither an homogeneous group nor a group operating with a
common code
→ It’s actually a mixture of people with different backgrounds
→ We can find former prisoners, bandits, people regarded as criminals, former soldiers,
mercenaries, nobles and mostly poor farmers and peasants
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The Italian government sends more than 116.000 Italian soldiers to the south to fight
brigandage
→ Italian cruel actions result in the execution of 5000 peasants
→ There are special laws and tribunals due to this “national emergency”
→ The government says brigandage is under control at the end of the decade
→ The reality is that brigandage will be a problem until fascism (1920)
→ Brigandage members live in the mountains, refuse to join the army and attack public
buildings
→ They create a sort of parallel State in the mountain
There’s no dialogue between the government and people.
→ The problem is the brutal repression of a phenomenon born out of poverty, there is no
help by the government
→ The only answer of the government is violence
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Germany
In Italy, one State (Piedmont) imposes and leads the unification.
→ There’s a similar case in Germany: Prussia, the most powerful German State, will lead
the unification
→ It plays the role of the leader to preserve its own stability and overcome the Austrian
enemy
After the Congress of Vienna (beginning of 19th century) Prussia gained new territories
(majority of Saxony, Westphalia and Rhine province).
→ Part of Prussia and part of the Austrian empire are united in a league called German
Confederation
→ Association of 39 predominantly German speaking States in central Europe
→ Prussia and Austria are both part of the confederation, but also control territories
outside it
→ The confederation is formally under the lead of the Austrian Empire, but Prussia is the
unofficial leader
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There is a struggle for supremacy in central Europe.
→ Austria and Prussia are the protagonists of the German question
→ It’s not only a political and military problem, but also an intellectual issue
→ There was an intellectual debate regarding the role of leader in central Europe and
the idea of a united Germany
The intellectual dialogue identifies two ways to achieve unification:
1. Großdeutsche Lösung (“Greater German solution”)
→ It wants to unify all German speaking States under Austria
→ This solution is promoted by the Austrian empire and its supporters
2. Kleindeutsche Lösung (“Little German solution”)
→ It wants to unify only the northern German States (basically all Prussia), without
including Austria
→ Idea that the Austrian monarchy can’t divide itself, due to the many ethnic
differences inside its territory
→ This solution is favored by the Kingdom of Prussia
The contrast between the two solutions is particularly evident after 1848 when
revolutionary clashes happened both in Vienna (Austria) and Berlin (Prussia).
→ There is a bloody repression of revolutions against the Austrian monarchy in Hungary,
Bohemia, Italy
→ There are some revolts also in Prussia where the fervor is part of a general desire for
national unification (there are no revolts against something/someone, as in Austria)
In May 1848 liberal leaders from all German States met and established the Frankfurt
National Assembly.
→ They draft a constitution and offer the title of Kaiser to Frederick William IV, the
Prussian king but the Prussian king rejects the position
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Why?
He’s deeply conservative and therefore thinks he can’t receive an imperial crown from
politicians
→ In his opinion, he should receive the crown from other German sovereigns
→ He fears a possible Austrian military intervention and the opposition of other German
monarchs
→ It’s the same that happens in Italy, but with a different reaction by the king
Without the support of the king of Prussia, the Frankfurt National Assembly doesn’t
survive.
→ June 1849: the last deputies in Frankfurt are disposed by the police
→ However, despite the negative experience, the idea of unification keeps spreading
PRUSSIA’S DOMINANT ROLE
There’s a State ready to lead the unification process: Prussia.
→ Prussia supports the idea of unifying German States without Austria (Kleindeutsche
Lösung)
→ The population of northern German States is mainly German, in Austria instead, there
are many nationalities
→ Prussia is a good candidate for the leader position:
1. There’s a the new king: William I
2. It has a powerful army (more efficient than Austrian one)
3. Its biggest asset is Otto Von Bismarck, the new Prime Minister, called the Iron
Chancellor
Bismarck is a Junker, member of the wealthy landowning aristocracy of Prussia and
eastern Germany.
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From a political point of view, Junkers
are really conservative: they support the
monarchy, military tradition and
protectionist policies for agriculture.
→ He represents the interests of Junkers
→ He’s a Prussian patriot and a loyal
subject of the king
→ He’s not a German nationalist (not
interested in the idea of a united
Germany per se) instead, it’s interested
in the idea of a united Germany to
extend Prussia’s power
→ He knows that, if Prussia wants to
extend its influence, it has to do it at
Austria’s expense (ultimate fight)
BISMARCK’S REALPOLITIK
“Prussia must collect and keep its strength for the right moment, which has been missed
several times already; Prussia’s frontiers as laid down by the Vienna treaties are not
conducive to a healthy national life; it is not by means of speeches and majority
resolutions that the great issues of the day will be decided—that was the great mistake
of 1848 and 1849—but by blood and iron.” (Bismarck)
→ The only way to solve Prussian problem is fighting
Bismarck’s way of dealing with political affairs is called Realpolitik
→ It’s the policy of reality he promotes a tough and aggressive way of dealing with
political events, with no room for idealism
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EX: he rules many years without Parliament’s approval of the budget; he implements
military reforms without the Parliament’s approval
→ He wants a war to prove his ability and the strength of his army
War against Denmark
In 1864 Prussia and Austria fought against Denmark.
→ First Bismarck’s war
→ Prussia is allied with Austria
→ It doesn’t matter that Austria is Prussia’s worst enemy; Prussia needs an ally to win
→ No room for idealism
The casus belli was the question of the Schleswig-Holstein territories.
→ The two duchies are both part of Denmark, but the duchy of Schleswig has an high
German population, while the duchy of Holstein is part of the German Confederation
so, both the duchy are part of Denmark, but have German ties
→ It’s a quick and successful war: Denmark is defeated
At the end of the war, there’s a convention:
● The duchy of Holstein goes to Austria, although it has no territorial border with
Austria
● The duchy of Schleswig goes to Prussia
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War against Austria
In 1866 there was the war between Prussia and Austria, it’s the second Bismarck’s war
and part of the Italian War of Independence.
→ After gaining an alliance with Italy and isolating Austria from possible European allies,
Bismarck forces Austria into war
Bismarck accuses Austria of violating the previous convention of Schleswig-Holstein so
he sends some troops to occupy the duchy of Holstein, under the Austrian power
Austria decides to start the war.
→ Austria is helped by soldiers from other German States
→ It’s a really quick war, that’s why it’s also called Seven Weeks’ War
→ In July 1866 there was the battle of Königgrätz or Sadowa (major fighting)
The battle is hard fought on both sides, but towards the end, the arrival of an extra
Prussian force and the strategy of the Prussian commander Helmuth von Moltke make
Prussia win
→ Austria is defeated and loses thousands of men
→ After the war, peace comes quickly. Why?
Bismarck is not only tough and aggressive, but he’s also quite clever. He knows that, for
the future of Prussia, maintaining Austria’s place in Europe can be useful.
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Having Austria around is better than being alone with many surrounding hostile States
he decides to be soft during the peace treaties
→ However, it’s evident that Austria is now excluded from the future of Germany
The German Confederation comes to
an end.
→ Prussia annexed the States that have
fought with Austria during the war
→ In 1867: the North German
Confederation is established
→ It’s composed of 22 States and
dominated by Prussia, which has 4/5 of
territories and population
The Confederation establishes a Parliament (called Reichstag) with a constitution and
universal suffrage for all men over 25
→ Executive power is exercised by a President: King of Prussia (member of the
Hohenzollern family)
→ He’s assisted by a Chancellor, responsible only to the President of the Confederation:
Bismarck, he designs the role of the Chancellor for himself
→ The king nominates the Chancellor, who then carries out internal and foreign affairs of
the Confederation
Bismarck says the Italian Risorgimento is a product of the three “S”:
● Solferino: France defeats Austria
● Sadowa: Prussia defeats Austria
● Sedan: Prussia defeats France
→ Bismarck is trying to say that, thanks to these three battles fought by foreign armies,
the house of Savoy has brought Lombardy, Venetia and Rome home
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War against France
In 1870 there was the war between Prussia and France, this was Bismarck's third war.
→ The ambitious goal of Bismarck is to conquer the South German States (Bavaria,
Württemberg, Baden and Hesse)
→ He understands that, to win their loyalty, he has to find a foreign enemy
these States are traditionally loyal to Austria
Who is the common enemy? France of Napoleon III.
→ He decided to raise German States against France and anger Napoleon on purpose,
so that he would declare war against Prussia.
→ Same tactic as against Austria
→ Casus belli: minor controversy over the candidacy of a Hohenzollern prince to the
Spanish throne, against a French prince
Bismarck escalates this controversy, he edits a telegram from the French Ambassador to
the Prussian king to irritate both Napoleon III and the German States (fake news).
→ The telegram is designed to give the impression that the Prussian King had insulted
the French
→ At the same time, Germans view the telegram as an insult by the French ambassador
against the Prussian king
→ This event is called Incident of the Ems telegram
→ The edited version irritates Napoleon III and provokes French declaration of war
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In July 1870 France declared war against Prussia.
→ One of the root cause of the war is the French determination to stop Prussian
expansion
→ On 20th september 1870 there was the battle of Sedan were France was defeated
During the war, Bismarck creates an anti-french passion, that spreads all over Germany
→ The four States in the south decided to join the North German Confederation
→ 1 January 1871: proclamation of the German Empire
→ Second German Reich - Bismarck’s dream has come true
1. First German Reich= Holy-Roman Empire
2. Second German Reich= Reich of the Hohenzollern (1871 - 1918)
3. Third German Reich= Nazi Regime by Hitler (1933-1945)
The Kleindeutsch Lösung has won the idea of a united Germany, without Austria
it has happened thanks to Bismarck and his three wars.
→ After 1871, indeed, Bismarck is showered with honors and considered a national hero
not only the name of the State has changed, but also the name of the king
→ From king of Prussia to emperor of Germany
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Berlin remains the capital and Bismarck goes on being the Chancellor
→ In 1890 Bismarck left the office.
→ The map of Europe has changed a lot: Germany has become a military, economic
and industrial power
The problem was that while the first two Bismarck’s wars have no consequences for the
defeated parts, the third war had serious repercussions.
→ France hasn’t forgotten the defeat of Sedan, that Germans have celebrated in the
Palace of Versailles in Paris (big humiliation for France)
→ Hitler will try to copy this behavior
Moreover, the peace treaty was harsh: Germany annexed Alsace and Lorraine, French
provinces with a part of the German population.
→ France is obliged to pay an high indemnity of war
→ This creates strong French nationalism and anti-German feelings
→ After the German unification there’s a quiet peaceful period in Europe but the new
rivalry between France and Germany and French resentment set the basis for WW1
NATIONALISM
It’s a force that could unite or disunite people.
→ Nationalism= ideology based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and
devotion to the Nation or the State surpass other individual interests
→ EX: for who believes in nationalism, being Italian is more important then being
European or Christian
→ The national identity surpasses other identities
→ It’s the common bonds (language, culture, history) that people within a nation have
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During the age of nationalism, there’s the principle that each nationality should form its
own State
→ Congress of Versailles after WW1
→ They think the State should include all members of that nationality
→ However, history has shown us this is quite difficult
Nationalism is a modern concept (end of 18th century) but the age of nationalism is the
19th century.
→ At the end of 19th century, nationalism threatens to tear apart
→ Austria: after the war against Prussia, Austria is forced to recognise more
independence to Hungary
→ Russia: the Tzar thinks forcing Russian culture on people will unify human beings
→ Actually, it causes the Russian Revolution
→ Ottoman Empire: it’s ended by the different races of people, Armenian genocide
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United states and the american revolutions
They gained independence at the end of the previous century (18th) the war of
independence was in 1775-1783, so even before the win of the revolution that started in
France.
→ Usually when we think about revolutions we think about France but the american one
happened previously
→ 1783 Declaration of American Independence
Actually, the two sides of the Atlantic (Europe and USA) are both influenced by each
other
→ Indeed, during the war in North American colonies, some allied Frenchmen fight side
by side with soldiers of the Continental Army
→ Exchange of values, ideas and philosophies
→ The Founding Fathers of the US appreciate French enlightenment ideals and
philosophers, like John Locke
→ Natural rights and equality for all citizens
In 1783 the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson was signed: «We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness” .
→ They incorporated France's values in their most important document, the declaration
of independence.
→ From this quote we can understand that americans appreciated the frenches
enlightenment ideas
→ French revolutionaries were inspired by this revolution and saw for the first time a
revolut against power can be successful (this from the revolution against the british)
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Which is the reason for the American rebellion against the British?
Besides the casus belli of the Boston tea party, the colonies had some problems related
to:
-
Political representation: americans are upset by many policies imposed by the UK
-
Taxation: people were taxed without the consent of Americans because the taxes
were decided in London and imposed on Americans, so they got tired of this
behavior.
→ “No taxation without representation”
-
Quartering of soldiers:
-
Limitation of power: especially juridically speaking, like they were able to
suspend trial, limiting judicial power, sending soldiers to American territories to
live there
The British don’t take actions to address the colonists’ concern. (INFLUENCE OF
AMERICAN REVOLUTION)
→ The Continental Congress (organ that represents colonists’ interest) appointed 5
delegates (including Thomas Jefferson) to draw the Declaration of Independence
actually, it’s only the first part, as the Declaration of Independence is composed of three
sections:
1. The colonies’ beliefs about the government, natural rights and social contract
2. List of grievances, issues and complaints to the British king George III
3. Official statement of Independence
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After the war against Britain in 1783 the borders of the new american state were from the
East Coast to the Mississippi river on the western border.
→ There were new mechanisms, so the government needed new space.
→ The US filled with new people (immigrants from Europe and settlers), they need new
land
The government decided to acquire more territories:
-
1803 Louisiana Purchase: decided by Jeffereson that bought it from France, for
15 million $.
→ It was a massive territory, it’s the greatest land bargain in the American history
→ The new american state doubled its size
→ The area included in the Louisiana Purchase is nowadays inside 15 American
States
-
1819 Florida: Spain gave up Florida to the United States.
-
1846 Oregon: thanks to a Treaty with Britain they obtained Oregon.
-
Mid 19th century: the expansion is completed and new nation stretches from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
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From a political point of view this period is called the “Era of the good Feelings”.
→ After Jefferson (two turns), and then Madison (two turns) is now time for James
Monroe, he was elected with overwhelming support for two turns, in 1816 and in 1820.
→ His party was the democratic republican, because the division will happen later, and
he took part in the war of independence
→ Protagonist of the so called “Era of the Good Feelings”
→ Called like that for the lacks of war, conflicts, with a predominant spirit of nationalism
During his terms in 1823 Monroe
instituted the Monroe Doctrine
according to this doctrine the United
States were not involved in European
affairs and didn’t accept the European
interference in their internal affairs.
→ Like political isolation, it was also a
matter of nationalism and pride, and a
positive mood, they were better.
→ This political harmony started to
degrees, with his second turn
Differences: North - South
The reason that ruined this sense of pride was the slavery.
→ We are talking about the end of the second term so we are around 1825/1824
→ The american civil war happened later but the problem was already present
→ The political struggle over political slavery was evident and the most dramatic
representation of national division inside the United states.
→ This was happening because the United states were acquiring new territories
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An extension toward the west was in progress, and the politicians and people raised
questions about which kind of laws and assets wanted to extend, the ones of the north or
the south ones?
→ From a geographical point of view we should look at the differences between north
and south and west and east.
Since the early days of America, there were differences between north and south, during
the expansion there was a political struggle on what type of nation they wanted to
create.
→ The main difference is economy:
-
Northern part: had a diversified economy, factories, depended on free workers,
normal workers, employees
-
Southern part: was based only on a few crops, cotton plantation, based on slave
labor (slavery as a “peculiar institution” considered essential for the economy).
In the north more and more people wanted slavery to be abolished, they wanted the
abolition of the slavery both for a sense of morality and for economic reasons.
→ The tension between north and south over the issue of slavery continues to grow
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Over the years, the numbers of slaves increased, and in 1818 a new territory, the one of
Missouri, asked to be admitted to the United states, and exactly in this year that the
tension reached the climax.
→ The congress needed to debate before accepting the request
→ The problem was that Missouri was a slave territory,
In the congress at the time, there was a balance between slave states (south) and free
states (north), so before the request of Missouri half states were free and half were
slavery.
→ With the addition of Missouri the slavery states would have been in majority
→ This decision was really discussed
→ In 1820 there was the Missouri Compromise that stated that the territory could be
added to the United states, but a new territory named Maine had to enter in order to
preserve the balance.
→ The missouri compromise also stated that Missouri should be the last slavery state
added to the United state, because no other state should be added in Missouri south
border
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The Missouri compromise only postponed the crisis, so it was a temporary solution.
→ In the congress each state had representative regardless the size of the state
→ For this reason was important the balance between the slave state and free state
(12vs12)
→ 1850 Compromise: it allows California to be a free State, abolishing slavery
→ 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act: it ignores Missouri Compromise and allows slavery north
of Missouri’s southern border
→ Jefferson describes the question of Missouri’s admission to the US as a “fire bell in the
night”, that awakened and filled him with terror
→ Many people talk about repealing the Missouri Compromise
The civil war
People realized that all these political decisions were not doing anything better, and that
something was happening.
→ The political and social antagonism
In 1860 this situation reached a Climax with the election of a republican.
→ Abraham Licoln a lawyer, with republican values, got elected without receiving any
votes from the deep south.
→ Licoln during the elective campaign didn’t say that he wanted to stop slavery, he didn’t
want its abolition, he wanted to stop the expansion of the slavery, but he promised not
to interfere where slavery already existed.
→ After the election and before the inauguration, in 1860 the state of Carolina declared
the withdrawal, secession from the union of the United States.
→ After south Carolina, in the following months every single state started to withdraw, in
order: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas,
Tennessee, and North Carolina
→ In February 1861 there was the birth of the confederate States of America
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The disagreement over slavery is not the only issue between north and south
→ There were disagreement over the rights of individual States in relation with the
Congress:
-
South: as the States have freely joined the US, they can also freely leave the
Union people think it’s their right to leave the Union
-
North: the constitution has established the Union once and for all
→ States can’t leave people think the secession is illegal
→ It’s a different perspective, and opposite point of view
South Carolina territory of the confederal state, were building their federal home, and
soldiers from the south opened fire against the Fort Sumter that was of the government
(under the north state).
→ 12 April 1861: Confederate forces (south) attack federal owned Fort Sumter (north) in
South Carolina
→ In all the south there are buildings, as these Fort, owned by the government (north)
maintaining that secession is illegal,
→ Lincoln takes this attack as a declaration of war the war can be called in three ways:
1. American Civil War: war fought between north and south
2. War of Secession: northern perspective
3. War between Two States: southern perspective
The war begins and lasts 4 years of furious fighting.
→ The majority of the battles happens in the south
→ Confederate States (south) adopt defensive tactics
→ The north has a larger population, better transportation, more factories, greater
resources, better military equipment (cannons, weapons)
→ Given south dependence on European import, the north plans to starve the south into
submission on territory and also by blockade of the ports
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The north strategy is called Anaconda
Plan, devised by general Winfield Scott.
→ The Union’s difficulty is to maintain
lasting supply lines, since they need to
keep the army in the south
→ After having encircled the south by
land and by sea, the north attempts to
split up southern territory by seizing
control of the Mississippi river
→ Winter 1864-65: northern march on Georgia
→ The soldiers use fire and destroy everything
→ 9 April 1865: Confederate general Robert E. Lee is forced to surrender to northern
general Ulysses S. Grant
→ It’s the end of the war
Some consideration about the war:
1. SLAVERY: was the main issue of the war, however Licoln declared that the war
was set to save the union and not to abolish the slavery.
→ Eventually during the war he changed his idea, and ended the slavery would
have saved the union
→ In 1863 he issued the emancipation proclamation declaring that all the slaves
in the confederation states were free
→ The state of the south did not consider the emancipation proclamation because
they didn’t consider Lincoln has president
→ However as the union army's advanced and conquered the south they free the
slaves in the territories
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Moreover, the emancipation proclamation demonstrated to the European nation
that the war was fought against slavery.
→ Showed the ideological and good reason for the conflict from the point of view
of the Europe
→ The south was dependent on Europe, but it was difficult to send them goods
because you cannot send products to a state that supported slavery.
→ When the war ends, the American Congress passes the 13th amendment:
abolishment of slavery in all US while the 15th and 14th amendments extend the
right of citizenship to all Americans and guarantee former slaves the right to vote
→ The war effectively ended the peculiar institution of slavery but despite the
amendments the war and following amendments did little to resolve the problems
of race relations (black people, white people).
→ This situation will reach its climax in the 60s of the 20th century
In the south after the end of the war, there was a short period (10’ years) called
“Recontraction” where troops of the north occupied the south and enforced
institutional protection for black people.
→ After federal troops left, white politicians in the south passed laws (against
amendments) that limited african americans’ rights
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EX: making it difficult for them to vote, encouraging segregation in public life,
education.
→ Moreover former slaves and African Americans continued to face
discrimination in the north as well, their situation in the 20th century was hard due
to segregation in the south and discrimination in the north.
2. ECONOMY: the civil war brought a lot of economic benefits to the north, and by
the end of the 19th century, the United States (formed by people of the north)
became one of the greatest industrial powers.
→ They experience an industrial expansion unmatched in history
What is the relationship between civil war and economic benefits?
In general when there is a war there is a need for more weapons, more goods,
basically there is a need for mass production of items, and this need speeded
industrialization
→ To produce massive quantitative you need to be really industrialized
→ The united states experienced industrial expansion
→ By 1914 the United States was a leading industrial power.
→ There is another aspect, in order to have more workers for the huge economic
system, you need immigrants, without them the United States couldn’t do it with
them.
At the end of the 19th century immigrants arrived into the United States at a rate of
2000 per day, by 1914 were 20 million people from Europe and Asia immigrated to
the USA.
→ Many of them settled in the cities of the north east and east while others settled
in the midwest, others in the open spaces of the south.
→ As settlers moved to the west the railway system improved fastly.
→ In 1862: the congress authorizes the building of a transcontinental railroad
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In 1869: the transcontinental railroad is completed
→ California is now linked with east of US, the railroad system links agricultural
areas to urban territories, increasing trade and industry
→ Trains bring material to factories and move finish goods to market
→ They carried corn, cattles, from the area where they were produce to areas like
Chicago and Minneapolis
→ United states was becoming a world leader of the 19th century
→ The industrial predominance in 20th century was one of the consequence of
the civil war
3. WARFARE: the american civil war is also called the last of the old fashioned wars
and the first of the new wars, it was a transitional war, which had a product impact
on the development of the modern weapons and war techniques, it was full of
new war discoveries form a technical point of view.
Why is it considered a modern war?
1. It’s fought by volunteers and conscript armies, rather than by
professional soldiers
→ Conscription: when a State orders his people to fight (compulsory
enrolment in the army)
→ There’s a massive amount of citizens involved
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2. The railroads play a crucial role
→ They are used for the movement of troops and transportation of raw
materials
3. Use of the telegraph
→ It’s used for military communication and virtually immediate press
reporting
→ It’s the first, highly documented war
→ Was the first war that had a lot of photos, and photographical
repositories
4. Organization of systematic medical care of the troops
5. Use of machine guns, trench system, land or water mines and
submarines
6. Wide employment of air force
→ The armies use hot-air balloons used to control the enemies
7. One of the deadliest war in history
→ Roughly 2% of the 1860 American population dies in the war (almost
every family have a relative dead)
→ More than 700.000 soldiers die
4. LEGACY: the civil war was fought at the cost of a lot of civil life but had the
ultimate effect to preserve the united state of america confederation, and one
united nation.
→ The goal of the confederates was to divide themselves from the north
→ With the victory of the north, Lincoln’s idea of a united nation is achieved
→ The north victory also stop the discussion over which government should have
more power
→ Eventually, they decide the federal government has more power than individual
States
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These events left a rich heritage to Americans, and all this is summed up in a
speech by Lincoln before being killed by a young actor who was full of rage
against him because of the abolition of slavery.
→ Lincoln speech is called the Last Best Hope of Earth
→ Licoln said that the war was the only tool to reunite the United States, and that
the united nation was indeed the last hope of heart.
“Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this
Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance
or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we
pass will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation. We say we
are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save
the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold
the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure
freedom to the free - honourable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We
shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of Earth.”
The legacy of the civil war in the American popular opinion is still alive, even
though not for good reasons
→ EX: in 2020, during Trump presidential campaign, someone shows the flag of
the Confederates, that supports slavery
→ The legacy helps us understand the racial tension in the American society, also
nowadays
→ EX: Black Lives Matter protest
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The advent of mass society and the end of century’s
crisis
After all the events of the 19t century, the European states at the beginning of the 20th
century were stable.
→ Indeed, the longest period of peace ever in Europe follows the revolutionary age
→ This picture of a stable Europe, formed by liberal states was not so true
→ Because there were in progress major changes and also concealed serious
problems that were the consequences of the anti-democratic movement and regimes
of the previous century (nazims, fascism, communism will rise).
→ We are going to see which ones changes or improve at the end of the century
SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The first major change taking place in pre 1914 Europe is the second wave of industrial
revolution
→ Was called the technological revolutions that started from the last decade of the 19th
century until world war one.
→ It starts in the latter half of the 19th century and lasts until 1914
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The effects of the revolution are particularly evident in Britain, Germany, France and the
Low Countries
● New technologies: electricity and engine combustion
● New materials and substances: chemicals and steel
● New communication technologies: telegraph, telephone and radio
● Improvement of the living standards
● Decline of death rate
Henry Ford: American industrialist, who establishes the Ford Motor Company, he’ll
change industry
→ 1903: first car Model T and to meet the overwhelming demand for the Model T, Ford
introduces new mass-production methods
→ EX: large production plans, standardized and interchangeable parts
→ Most important invention: first moving assembly line for cars
→ As he was born, only 2/8 Americans lived in the city; instead, when he died, the
percentage reached 5/8
→ He’s a controversial man: pacifist during WW1, but with a strong antisemitic view
→ His antisemitic thoughts are collected in a four volume set called The International
Jew
→ He expresses admiration for Hitler
→ He helps spreading the translated version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion all
over the US
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POLITICISATION OF THE WORKING CLASS
The massive population growth leads to the growth of the working class.
→ The proletariat asks for: increasing influence in politics, social security, participation in
the economy
→ Welfare policies are created by the upper level of society, to prevent a revolution
INTELLECTUAL CRISIS
Another major change is the shaking of the established thought of the 19th century
→ It’s based on liberalism and materialism, believing in rational and progressive change
→ In the fin de siècle Europe there’s an intellectual crisis, whose protagonists are:
1. Friedrich Nietzsche: In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he talks about the Superhuman
(Übermensch)
→ This concept will be wrongly used by Hitler to describe the idea of a superior
Aryan race
2. Henry Bergson: Exponent of Spiritualism
→ Opposite to materialism: he thinks there’s an immaterial reality that can’t be
perceived by the senses
3. Benedetto Croce: he blends together history (Historicism) and philosophy
(Idealism).
4. Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto: critics of liberalism and founders of the
Theory of Elitism.
→ They think every society is ruled by a minority political class, called élite
→ It will influence Hitler, and also the other autocratic figure that only a minority
should lead a nation and society
5. Gustave le Bon: founder of social psychology, with his book The Crowd: A Study
of the Popular Mind
→ Scientific interest in the emotional behaviour of the masses
→ It will be studied by Mussolini (use of the masses to have power, emphasis on
youth and renewal)
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ADVOCACY FOR A MARXIST REVOLUTION
The crisis also affects the Marxist movement.
→ Socialist movements were considered the main threat to the liberal system
governments try to find ways to fight this movement
→ Before the end of the century, most Marxist organizations in Europe want a
progressive change, achievable through the work of the social democratic party
→ They hope the new working class will achieve his power through a work in
Parliament
→ At the end of the century, a growing force inside the marxist movement advocates a
violent revolution
→ They want a fast change, achievable not through the party, but through a revolution
→ Social democratic party
→ Thank to this new working class will achieve their goals
The perfect example for this situation is Russia
→ Russia is indeed divided between Mensheviks (progressive change) and Bolsheviks
(violent revolution)
REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM
Besides the advocacy for a violent marxist revolution, there’s another influence emerging
on the far left.
→ This idea is called Revolutionary Syndicalism, developed by Georges Sorel in France
→ Idea: trade unions must be used as a revolutionary device to achieve political
power
→ It can be seen as a convergence of far left (trade unions) and far right (violence)
→ Mussolini will be influenced by this idea
→ Some ideas of the far left were from the far right
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SOCIAL DARWINISM
There are new ideas also on the far right spectrum, like Social Darwinism
→ 1859: the British scientist Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species
→ Idea: population grows faster than supply, so people have to compete for food
→ Those who survive are the best adapted to the environment or the fittest, those who
don’t are the weakest
→ The surviving members produce offspring that shares the advantages
→ Over many generations, new species are created
→ Darwin’s idea of growing through natural selection is called evolution
Darwin is a naturalist, not a politician, he talks about plants and animals, not people
→ Some parts of his idea have been rejected by scientists
→ Many thinkers try to apply his ideas also to politics and economics
→ Social Darwinism adapts concepts related to natural evolution to a generalized
conception of humanity
→ Result: new racist theories about “weak” and “strong” races and the concept of
survival of the fittest, proposed by Herbert Spencer
→ Social Darwinism creates also the basis for the ideological defence of imperialism
→ “if we’re the strongest race, we have the right to go to weak races and conquer them”
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ANTI-SEMITISM
Another thing that spread all around Europe during these years is anti-semitism.
→ The archduke Francis Ferdinand will transmit these ideas
→ A young Hitler, born as Austrian citizen, knows about these theories and will be
influenced by them
→ There are two episodes that demonstrate how widespread antisemitism is at the end
of the 19th century:
1. The Dreyfus Affair (France): in 1894 a captain of the French Army was accused of
espionage (selling military information to Germany), a tribunal found him guilty and
sent him to prison.
→ The evidences that accused dreyfus were false, he was framed by his
colleagues because he was one of the few jewish member of the french army
→ At a certain point, it becomes clear that the evidence was false
→ Drefus defenders fought to reopen the case however many people (army,
church, nationalists) refuse to reopen the case
→ Emile Zola, in 1898 published “J’acques”, a letter for the president were he
asked to re-open the case
→ Zola was sent a year in prison
→ The case is reopened and Dreyfus is eventually declared innocent
→ This fact shows the strength of antisemitism in France and, in general, all over
Europe
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2. Question of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Russia): they were fabricated
text, false historic documents that accused Jews for the situation of crisis.
→ It looks like it’s very old, but in reality it’s created at the end of 20th century in
tsarist Russia
→ It’s then distributed all over the world and still known nowadays
→ It can be considered a sort of “classic “of antisemitic literature”
→ Many conspiracy theorist used it as a demonstration of a supposed Jewish
global plot
→ It’s translated in many European languages and spread into the US by Henry
Ford
3. The persecution of jews is even more severe in the east.
→ There are violent pogroms (“to destroy and demolish violently”) all over Russia
→ They’re allowed by Russian officials and cause many victims in the jewish
community
→ Thousands of jews fly Eastern Europe, fearing for their lives
→ Many head for the US, the unlucky ones for Germany and Italy, where they will
face new persecutions
The new persecution convinced many jews to work to reestablish their ancient
homeland: Palestine.
→ In 1890: a new movement, known as Zionism, is created to pursue this goal
→ The leader is an Austrian writer and journalist called Theodor Herzl
→ It’s the beginning of what will lead to the establishment of the State of Israel (in
many years)
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THE FIRST GENOCIDE
When we talk about genocide we often
think about the germans, but even at the
end of the 19th century there were a lot
of different signs of previous genocides.
→ Genocides is an act committed and
intend to destroy in part or at all a
religious, or political, national, ethnic
group
→ Between 1894-1896 there was the
Armenian Genocide who was the first
evidence of genoiced in europe, made
by the Ottoman empire (200.000
Armenians)
European overseas colonies (Belgian Congo, Libya, south-west Africa) were commonly
exploiting and killing a lot of indigenous people.
→ Armenians are still trying to make Turkey recognise the genocide nowadays
Record of the American journalist Sachtleben: “What I myself saw this Friday afternoon is
forever engraved on my mind as the most horrible sight a man can see. I went with one
of the members of the English Legation, a soldier, my interpreter, and a photographer
(Armenian) to the Armenian Gregorian cemetery. The municipality had sent down a
number of bodies, friends had brought more, and a horrible sight met my eyes. Along the
wall on the north , lay 321 dead bodies of the massacred Armenians. Many were fearfully
mangled and mutilated. I saw one with his face completely smashed in with a blow of
some heavy weapon after he was killed. I saw some with their necks almost severed by
a sword cut. One I saw whose whole chest had been skinned, his forearms were cut off,
while the upper arm was skinned of flesh. I asked if the dogs had done this. 'No, the
Turks did it with their knives'. A dozen bodies were half burned”
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GLAMORIZATION OF VIOLENCE
What is important is that 20 years before the First World War the war was previously filled
of violence and this violence doesn’t surprise us because indeed a common trait of all
these intellectual progress was the glamorization of violence
→ During this year violence was something considered refreshing, fashionable, and
considered by some people a natural and desirable state.
→ The glamourization of violence was a consequence of Corradini and Marinetti’s
“Futurism of Manifesto”
“We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the
destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill”
→ This idea and concepts can be looked to use as silly, but they changed society,
people, and the minds of the politician that were taking decision
→ This will influence a lot of events in the future
CRISIS OF THE LIBERAL SYSTEM
The transformation that we have described concerned the socio-economic sphere that
Marx calls the base and also concerned the intellectual thoughts.
→ The liberal order was subjected to changes, so politic changes, so the former
governments weren’t able to not change
The superstructure (institutions) were challenged in many aspects:
● The parliament (institution) was considered oligarchic (the regime of few
people)
● The governments were contacted by many minority groups which proclaimed
the right of self determination (this reminds nationalism, the rise of nationalism
and also the idea that each nationality should form a state, which made this
group very aggressive).
→ Europe was far from experiencing a stability (end of 19th century)
→ There were many problems
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—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—------- RECAP —-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—------Major changes and problems:
1. Second Industrial Revolution
2. Growth and politicization of the working class
3. Introduction of new social and welfare policies by the upper classes
4. Use of new communication technologies
5. Shaking of the established thought of the 19th century
6. Advocacy for a violent Marxist revolution
7. Birth of Revolutionary Syndicalism
8. Influence of Social Darwinism
9. Spread of antisemitism
10. First evidence of a genocide
11. Glamorisation of violence
12. Criticism towards the Parliament
13. Right of self-determination for minorities
The political institutions rejected
● The Parliament was considered oligarchic
● The governments were contested by aggressive minority groups proclaiming the
right of self-determination
—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—-------—
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The great Britain
In the second half of 19th century in
United kingdom, did not happen big
wars or revolutions, but despite this the
biggest change was that moved toward
democracy,
→ It was already a democracy but it
became a constitutional monarchy in
the late 17th century with the Glorious
Revolution.
→ The monarch is the head of the state
but the parliament hold the real power
→ At that time on the throne there was
Victoria who become queen in 1837-1901
→ The parliament was more important
than the crown, and the most important
figure was the prime minister and
Victoria accepted it
Even though Britain is a constitutional monarchy, only about 5% of the population had
the right to elect the members of the House of Commons
→ Vote was limited to men, who own a substantial piece of land and also to people that
were richer than properties owners.
→ Woman could not vote, and the upper class run the government
→ After the July Revolution of 1830 in France the british parliament was scared about the
situation
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Therefore in 1832 the british parliament passed the first reform “The Act of Bill”, the
reform act:
❖ Redistribution of constituencies, so that also new industrial cities could be
represented in Parliament
→ Transformation of the districts in order to give to the industrial cities more
representation
❖ Extent of voting right to more people, due to less property requirement
→ Although the number of British voters is expanded, still a little part of the male
population can vote
Although the reform expanded the number of voters, a popular movement rose among
workers and people who can’t vote, pressuring for more rights.
→ The Chartist movement
→ In 1848: the movement presents its requests in a petition called People’s Charter
The charter listed the six main aims of the movement and these were:
1. Vote for all men over 21: they demanded the suffrage
2. The secret Ballot: at that time, eligible man voted openly, anyone in the room
knew your vote so there was pressure to vote in a certain way
3. No property qualification to become a member of the parliament: british man
needed properly requirement to be voted and become a member of the
parliament. You need to be a land owner and to be a member of the parliament
you needed to be rich because politician were not paid
4. Payment for MPs: because payments could also allow normal people to have a
role in the government, to be elected and defend the interests and rights of their
own class.
5. Electoral districts of equal size: to create a more egalitarian situation
6. Annual election for parliament: it’s the only request that won’t be accepted
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Initially, the Parliament rejects all the changes requested.
→ The Charter movement apparently ends in 1848 without achieving its goals
→ However, its protest has convinced many people that complains are valid and
necessary
→ People continue to press for political response
→ The result was that many of the Charter ideas were included in the following Reform
Acts
● 1867: right to vote to working class men
● 1884: right to vote to rural male workers
→ After 1884, the majority of adult males in Britain has the right to vote
→ By beginning of 20th century, all the demands of the Charter (except the 6th) become
law
Women were still not allowed to vote, the chartist movement was very peaceful but they
excluded British women’s vote.
→ British women organized reforms and protests against unfair laws
→ After some protests a group of women became really aggressive
→ More they were becoming louder more they were blocked
The problems with women’s suffrage:
● Some people think is too radical and far from tradition
● Others argue that women don’t have the capacity to act in Parliament
● Someone thinks male suffrage already represents the will of women
● Some people are scared of their aggressive protest
The most important union was the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903.
→ Founded by Emeline Punkhrust
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That shortly become the most important organization for women’s rights, the aim was
to to draw attention to the cause of woman suffrage through methods quite unusual
→ EX: women attack politicians in front of the Parliament, throw themselves in front of
carriages, disturb political meetings and so on
→ This group chose to be a militant means, because they already used all the other
types of methods
→ A lot of members were imprisoned and freed many times and often when they were in
origin they were making food strikes.
Emmeline Pankhurst says “The condition of our sex is so deplorable that it is our duty to
break the law in order to call attention to the reasons why we do.”
The success of the movement was gradual, women didn’t gain the right of vote until the
first world war, where in 1918 the parliament passed the act of voting for women over
30 and in 1928 another act passed to allow all women over 21 to vote.
→ The war effort played by women during the conflicts was so massive that politicians
could not deny it and were therefore pressured to allow women to vote after the war.
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COLONISATION OF AFRICA
Between 1880 and 1900 the entire African continent was divided between European
powers.
→ The only two countries that were independent of foreign power were:
-
Liberia: under the protection of the United States, who created a state where all
the descendent of the slaves could live free
-
Ethiopia: which was a monarchy that will be attacked by Italy during Nazism.
→ Events in such a short period of time were called the “The partition of Africa” or the
Conquer of Africa.
→ The speed of this process was incredible if you consider that before 1880 colonialism
in Africa was limited to some coastal areas, while the interior was still independent
The colonization of Africa was
accompanied by intense nationalism,
and also racial arrogance (expression of
social darwinism).
→ All of this, contributed to the tension
of the first world war
→ This phenomenon is a product of New
Imperialism
→ Imperialism: State policy, practice or
advocacy of extending power and
conquer other territories
→ The so called “Partition of Africa”
contributes to the tensions that will result
in the outbreak of WW1
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The starting point is considered the Conference of Berlin which was a conference
organized by Bismark in 1884 to settle a variety of disputes regarding the European
colonial occupation especially in the area of the Belgian Congo (given to Belgium).
→ The european leaders just set down deciding what type of part of africa they wanted
(in fact a lot of state are geometrically divided)
→ Why does this happen so quickly?
Some of them lays on economical factors, Africa as a resource for raw material, but
also the idea of Africa as a new market for finished europeans goods
Which were the reasons for African colonization?
➔ Economic reasons: in Europe there were a lot of goods and European economies
needed a market to sell those goods, Africa was an empty market but also
because there was a lot of attractiveness of Africa as a source of raw materials.
→ Due to the Second Industrial Revolution, there are lots of items that need a
market to be sold
➔ Political reasons: other scholars see the colonization of Africa as a factor that
increased the European nationalist rivalry ephasing the prestige associated with
obtaining foreign territories and colonies.
→ Because of nationalism european powers flight each other not in europe but in
other territories
→ Aim: to show other nation the State’s power
→ King and politicians want to expand their prestige (ex: king Leopold II in
Belgium)
➔ Geopolitical reasons: relates to geopolitical concerns in particular the strategic
plans seized to preserve communication lines for the area of the Suez Canals
→ Strategic desire of military and naval places
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MASS CULTURE
By the term of the century, there was also the rise of mass culture.
→ Earlier music, theater, were enjoyed only by the wealthy people, because only rich
people had the money, the leisure time and the education to appreciate this kind of
activities that were considered as high culture
→ On the term of the century the appeal of art, music, and theater and other forms of
entertainment, to a large audience who started to appreciate the kind of activities
→ Common people start appreciating these cultural activities.
The causes for mass culture:
1. Change in activities: there are new and more activities
→ EX: sports, local music halls, movies, circus, vaudevilles
→ Vaudeville= musical variety shows, moving from town to town
→ Not only high culture anymore, but a culture accessible to common people
→ The movie industry experiences a great growth
→ Cinema are short, in black and white
→ By 1910, five millions Americans go the see movies every day
2. More leisure time, due to new job regulations (8 hours per day)
→ People like not only practicing activities, but also looking at them
→ The first European professional soccer club is formed crickets, baseball and
other sports spread also into the colonies (that’s why cricket is popular in India)
→ 1896: creation of the Internal Olympic Committee and the Olympic Games the
→ First Olympic Games are held in Athens, to revive the ancient Greek tradition
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The first world war
Among historians, there is a really important question: what caused the terrible first world
war?
→ It wasn’t the same case of the second world war, caused by an individual state
(Germany)
→ Europe on the surface seems to be a peaceful country, but on this surface tension
was built both within and between nations.
After the defeat of Napoleon, Europe lived through a period of transformations that will
definitely alter its face.
→ New national States (Italy, Germany) are created, while old empires (Austria-Hungary)
begin to weaken
→ Balance of powers: no nation is able to dominate all the others
→ Great European powers are growing at different rates (welfare state, industrial
revolution)
→ Prussia becomes the dynamic and formidable Germany: it’s the leading industrial
power in Europe
→ The leading industrial power of the world are the US
→ The industrial revolution changes the basis of national strength, making industrial
production (steel, weapons, iron) more important than the size of a State’s population
importance of colonialism
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LONG-TERM CAUSES OF THE WAR
There were several development, that at the end caused the world and some of them we
already listed when we talked about the problems at the end of the century
1. Nationalism: a really powerful source of tension, and related to militarism,
nationalism created new areas of entrance were nations could compete,
nationalism was the most important force at the beginning of the new century
→ Nationalism was a new force, appeared during the american and revolutions
(18th century)
→ Nationalism can be both a unifying and dividing force:
● It helped the unification of Germany and Italy (19th century)
● It creates nationalist movements that divide old States: Ottoman Empire
and Austrian-Hungarian Empire
→ Beginning 20th century: ethnic groups in old empires have formed
nationalist movements to seek independence (ex: Albania, Bulgaria,
Rumania)
2. Economic rivalry: economic rivalry was another factor, this rivalry arises from
many forces: one of them is industrialisation
→ Especially between Great Britain and Germany, that were the center of a
rivalry for the predominance on markets and on sources.
→ Every nation in Europe wanted to catch up with Germany and the UK and build
its industrial basis
3. Political rivalry: there were many disputes among the european countries,
→ France was not over the defeat of Sedan were they lost Alsace and Loren
→ German will give back the territories but there was still some problems
→ Revanscismo!!!!!!
→ Also Austria-Hungary and Russia both wanted to take control over Balkan
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4. Imperialism: european nations compete for colonialism in Asia and Africa
→ Colonies are considered units of exchange
→ Colonialism has pushed European nations to the verge of war
→ As European Countries continue to compete for oversea empires, distrust and
rivalry deepen
→ EX: Austria and Russia and incompatibility have balkan interests
5. Militarism: the rise of a dangerous European armed fight, the European nations
believed that a powerful military section was needed in order to be powerful and
be a great nation.
→ The 20th century was a period of military competitions
→ The policy of building a stronger military creates a culture of paranoia, based
on military rivalry
→ This brought to alliances
→ This culture of militarism is fed by the glamorisation of violence and the idea
that war is good for nations
→ By 1914 all the great powers except Britain had large standing armies.
→ Britain doesn’t have an immense army, because there’s no military conscription
for men
→ At the beginning of the war all countries had biggest armies, more than
300.000 men will sign up for the British army
→ Militarism was part of the society, because having big armies was making civils
proud of their country and nation
→ Important political figures often showed themselves in military uniforms.
→ War was considered not only rightful but also a legitimate tool to create state
→ Emperors and kings often appear in public in military uniforms
→ War is considered a legitimate tool of statecraft: almost all European State have
been created through war
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6. The alliance system: was created because of the growing rivalries and mutual
distrust among the nation and was created in the last decades of the 19th century.
→ After the end of 1870, end of the Franco-Prussian war
→ The Alliance system was created to maintain peace in Europe but instead
pushed the continent to war
→ Bismarck has used war to unify Germany and as a tool of statecraft
→ After 1871 Bismark declared Germany to be a “satisfied” power (no more wars)
→ Bismark believed that the biggest threat to peace was France because he
believed that they wanted revenge for its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and
the first thing that he did was to isolate it, his aim was to maintain peace.
In 1879 Bismark formed the Dual Alliance between Germany and
Austrian-Ungary and 3 years later in 1882 Italy joined the alliance forming the
Triple Alliance.
→ In 1887 Bismarck took away from France another possible ally making a treaty
with Russia, a secret treaty called Reinsurance Treaty
→ It stated that the two countries would have observed neutrality in case any of
the two states (Prussia or Russia) would have been at war with a third country.
→ Bismarck does this treaty, because he’s scared about the idea of a war fought
on two fronts: Russia - France
→ He was scared that germany was not going to be able to fight against another
country other than France so he wanted Russia to be neutral
→ In 1890 Germany foreign policies changed dramatically.
→ Wilhelm II forced Bismark to resign because he didn’t want to share the power
with such a powerful man like bismarck.
→ The new Kaiser is interested in militarism: he wants to show both his own
power as the king and the strength of his Germany
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In 1890 Wilhelm did not sign the treaty with Russia (Reinsurance Treaty), and
Russia responded signing a defensive military alliance with France, and that was
Bismark biggest fear.
→ Germany was now the enemy of both France and Russia and during an
eventual war Germany would have to fight on both fronts (the one with France and
the one with Russia).
→ Moreover William II created a tremendous Ship Building Program, in order to
transform the German navy equal to the British fleet that was the most powerful in
the world.
→ So alarmed by this program, Great Britain formed an alliance with the France,
the Entente Cordiale and in 1907 Britain enlarged the alliance including Russia
and so they created the Triple Entente that was a defense alliance and it didn’t
bound Britain to fight with France and Russia in case they were fighting against
someone else
→ They were not obliged to enter the world in case one of them would have
entered in a war, they couldn’t fight against each other.
Each one of these causes had some
importance but in the end what was the
most devastating? Definitely the
combination of the alliance network
and the widespread misguided belief
among people that war was good for
the nation.
The two alliances are:
● Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
● Triple Entente: Great Britain, France, Russia
MILITARY
ALLIANCES
IMPERIALISM
NATIONALISM
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The casus belli
In 1914 there were two different sides:
-
Austria-hungary, Germany and Italy with the triple Alliance
-
France, Britain and Russia with the triple entente
→ A dispute between these countries could lead European nations to war.
→ Where the dispute was more likely to occur was in the Balkan areas
→ The Balkans were a mountainous peninsula in south-eastern Europe, full of different
ethnic groups
→ Nationalism was a powerful force in this area
→ The territory also has a long history of uprisings and ethnic clashes
→ This area was the powder keg of Europe
The problems in the Balkans started from Serbia that had a large slavic population, Slavs
are an ethnolinguistic group of people, who also share the Christian religion.
→ They were christians, serbia wanted to absorb all the slavs of the peninsula
→ Russia which is itself mostly a slavic country supported serbia and supported serbian
nationalism however serbia’s powerful Austria opposed this effort
→ Austria had a slavic population inside its borders and therefore fear that a slavic
rebellion could start a rebellion as well
In 1908 Austria annexed the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina that were two balkan
countries with large slavic populations.
→ Serbia would have wanted rule this provinces as well
→ In the years after tension between Serbia and Austria grow steadily
→ Serbian nationalists wanted to take Bosnia and Herzegovina away because they
wanted to “liberate” these areas from the Austrian Empire because were areas of slums
→ Austria on the other hand wanted to crush any Serbian nationalist movement, any
Serbian rebellion because it wanted to undermine its authority.
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In this poisoned atmosphere in the Balkan area, arrived one day the archduke France
Ferdinand who was the heir to the Austrian empire throne.
→ On the 28th June 1914 the royal couple (Franz Ferdinand and his wife) did a visit of
the city of Sarajevo (capital of the Bosnia), who was part now of the Austrian Empire
→ The royal couple were shot as they were doing a tour of the city in carriage
→ The killer was a guy called Gavrillo Princip, a 20 year old man member of the black
hand, that was a secret, nationalistic and terroristic society which wanted to liberate
Bosnia from the Austrian Rule, he was also a Serbian
→ And for this reason Austria decided to consider the murder as a reason to punish
Serbia
Austria presented an ultimatum to Serbia, containing numerous demands.
→ Serbia knows that refusing the ultimatum meant to start a war, therefore Serbian
leaders agree to most of the Austrian requests
→ However, Serbia offers to settle the other demands during an international conference
→ The austrian had already settled a war, they don’t want to negotiate
→ One month later, form the murder, 28 July 1914 Austria rejected Serbia’s offer and
declared war
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Who has helped Serbia throughout the years, before 1914?
Russia (unofficial ally of Serbia). On the same day, Russia took action and ordered the
mobilization of the troops towards the Austrian border.
→ The apparent European stability seems about to collapse into a war
→ Leaders all over europe suddenly took notice of what happened so Italy and other
countries were hoping in a negotiation between Russia and Austria
→ The machine of war was already set in motion
Russia expected Germany to join with Austria because of the Triple Alliance, and so
Russia thought to mobilize its troops over the german borders (all the eastern
borders).
→ To Germany the mobilization of the Russian Troops amounted to the declaration of
war, and so on the 1st of August the German government declared war on Russia.
→ Russia look for its allies (France)to help, that was in other part of the map
→ But Germany did not even wait for France to react that on the 3st of August Germany
declared war against France as well, and in the night between the 3 and the 4 of August
german forces invaded neutral territories (Belgium) to invade France.
→ (!) same move Hitler will do during WW2
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Afterward Great Britain declared war to Germany not for the Triple Entente (that was a
Defence treaty) but because Britain had sign an agreement in 1839 with Belgium (to
protect it in case of aggression), and so Germany in order to attack France passed
through Belgium, Britain entered for the war with Belgium to protect it.
→ It was inevitable not passing for belgium for the Shliffen plan
Around mid August 1914 the battle lines were clearly drawn and the two forces are
known as:
1. Central power: initially Austria and Germany, then also Bulgaria and Turkey joined
the war to regain the lost territories
2. Allied powers or the allies: that were great Britain, France and Russia
→ Japan joined the Allies within weeks whereas Italy joined the Allied powers
later (Italy is a member of the triple Alliance).
In the summer of 1915 millions of soldiers marched happily in the battles because they
believed that the war would have been short, only a few of them believed that it would
have been long and bloody (blitzkrieg)
→ In autumn 1914 the war transformed in a terrible and bloody war a deadlock, this
happened in the north of France that were forming the West Front
→ Poppies are now a symbol of all wars UK has fought
→ They are taken from the experience of WW1 on the Western Front
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Germany was facing a war on two fronts, against France, and so it was planned in the
Schlieffen plan, the plan consisted in attacking the west and defeating France in no
more than 6 weekends and then rushing in to fight Russia (Eastern front).
→ The german thought that they could carry out this plan, so first France and then
Russia, basically because Russia was not so developed, the Russian railway system is
slow and it will take time to move the troops to the front
→ Speed and time was fundamental
FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE: “THE MIRACLE OF MARNE”
It appeared that Germany in early September 1914 German forces had swept into France
and reached Paris, a major German victory appeared days away but it was a symbol, the
allies attacked the German in the valley of the Marne River.
It’s September 14th, and it looks like the Germans have already arrived in Paris.
→ However on the 15th of September the allies withdrew and attacked the german in
the Marne River valley (north east of paris on the la Marne river),
→ Every available soldier was brought into this struggle, into the battle, there were 1
hundred and fifty thousand soldiers.
→ More than 600 taxicabs brought soldiers to la Marne
→ Since it’s impossible to move all the soldiers to the front by train, Parisian taxis are
mobilized to transport troops
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The taxicabs’ role is important for their psychological impact: they boost the moral of
both the French army and the population
→ After 4 days of heavy fighting the Germans retreat and the battle stopped
→ This event is called “the miracle of Marne”
It’s the single most important event of the war, because it symbolizes the failure of the
Schlieffen Plan.
→ There’s no quick defeat of France, so German troops can’t move simultaneously to
the Eastern Front
→ So the german with this plan wanted a quick defeat of France, that unfortunately was
not possible
→ The essence of the Schlieffen plan that was indeed the attack of france, disappeared
In the meanwhile, in the East, Russian forces had already invaded Germany, in september
1914 it was obvious that Germany would have fought on two fronts:
● On the Western Front, against France
● On the Eastern Front, against Russia
→ The German command sends thousands of soldiers to the Eastern Front, to fight the
Russians
→ If Germans would have been defeated also in the east, WW1 would have ended
instead, Germany wins lots of battles in the Eastern Front, so the war goes on
1915-1916: YEARS OF STALEMATE AND “TRENCH WARFARE”
The war in the western front sattles in a stalemate.
→ By the beginning of 1915 the armies had built a lot of parallel trenches that were built
to protect the soldiers, one mile in front of the other.
→ This was the basis for trenches warfare, where soldiers shot each other from one
trench to another.
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Trench Warfare is characterized by high loss of human lives and few gains in territory: it’s
exhausting.
→ Everytime that one of the two was winning, it was gaining some meters of land
→ Life in the trenches is pure misery: they are full of rats, there’s no fresh food, sleep is
impossible
→ Between the opposing trenches there’s a space called “no man’s land”
→ If someone is injured there, is quite impossible to help him, because the enemy will
certainly shoot
→ The Western Front is called “terrain of death”
→ Trenches are really long, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss border
→ Military strategists don’t understand this new kind of warfare
→ The new tools of war have not delivered the fast moving war they expected
→ Instead, all the new technology actually does is killing an higher number of people
more efficiently
→ The result is not a faster war, but a war with more losses than ever
→ This situation goes on ‘till 1916
The war reached its climax in 1916 when Germans launched a great attack towards the
French city of Verdun.
→ During this battle, each army loses more than 300.000 men
→ Near Verdun, the Germans advance nearly 4 miles, not a great gain, since the high
number of deaths
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In July 1916 the British army tried to attack the Germans in the valley of the Somme
river, in order to help the French army.
→ In the first day of the battle, more than 6 hundred thousands were involved and killed
→ By the time the battle ends in November 1916, each side has suffered more than
500.000 casualties
→ British gain about 5miles (not much compared to the many casualties)
→ This was the situation on the west front.
NEW WEAPONS
There are new weapons, used for the first time during WW1:
1. Poison gas: soldiers wear masks to protect themselves from poison gas
→ Gas is introduced by the Germans, but used by both sides
→ Some gasses cause blindness or fever blisters, others death by choking
2. Machine gun: the machine gun, which fires ammunition automatically, is much
improved by the time of WW1
→ The gun can wipe out waves of attackers and thus makes it difficult for forces
to advance
3. Tank: the tank is an armored combat vehicle, moving on chain tracks
→ It can cross many types of terrain
→ It’s introduced by the British in the Battle of the Somme
4. Submarine
→ In 1914, the Germans introduce the submarine as an effective warship
→ The submarines’s primary weapon against ships is the torpedo, an underwater
missile
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WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE EASTERN FRONT
Even if the war was claiming a lot of people, both sides were still sending troops to the
eastern fronts, millions of men.
→ The Eastern Front is the area along the border between Germany and Russia
→ Here, there are Russians and Serbs fighting Austrian-Hungarians and Germans
→ The war on the Eastern Front is more mobile then in the west, there are many battles
→ However, stalemate and slaughter are common in the east as well
By 1916 Russian war effort was crushed, unlike other European nations, Russia was not
totally industrialized and the Russian army was constantly short of food, clothes, and
resources, we are at the beginning of the Russian Revolution.
→ The russian army had only one asset, the big population
→ Throughout the war, the Russian army suffers a big loss, yet the army continues to
rebuild itself
→ The enormous population makes up for the the shortage of supplies and the loss of
soldiers
→ For more then three years, the exhausted Russian army manages to fight German
troops, better equipped and prepared
→ The resistance of Russia in the Eastern Front doesn’t allow the German army to move
to the west
AFRICA AND ASIA
Central powers are concerned with more than the Eastern and Western Front.
→ Fighting spreads beyond Europe, to Africa and south Asia
→ After 1915, the massive European conflict becomes a world war
After the beginning of the war, many German colonial possessions come under assault
→ Germany loses its colonies to the Allies
→ EX: German East Africa, South West Africa
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The British use their colonies to recruit people, both as fighting troops and as laborer
workers.
→ Soldiers come from India, South Africa, Egypt and so on
→ Many of them fight and die on the battlefield
→ Some people are forced to work, but others do it voluntarily
→ Indeed, many people volunteer to fight, in the hope their service will lead to
independence
→ This is the view of Mahatma Gandhi
→ He supports Indian participation in the war, saying “If we would improve our status
through the help and cooperation of the British, it was our duty to win their help by
standing by them in their hour of need.”
THE BATTLE OF GALLIPOLI
As the war drags on, the Allies look beyond Europe for a way to end stalemate
→ None of the alliances they have formed and none of the battlefronts does much to
end the slow conflict
→ There are also many problems into the sea, sea war and use of submarines
However the britain military formulated a strategy for the Allies, in order to attack a
region in the ottoman empire known as the Dardanelles that is a narrow sea strip
considered as the entrance for Constantinople.
→ Securing the dardanelles the allies could have taken Costantinopoles and defeat the
turks in order to attack more easily Russia, opening a new supply line of attack in the
south
→ Supplying Russia on the north sea was complicated because Germans were attacking
through submarines
→ The strategy is considered a good idea, since in case of defeat, the Ottoman Empire
would have leaved the war and there would have been less enemies to fight
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The idea was quite contested by the military society, but a lot of them supported the
idea like Churchill.
→ This operation began in february 1915 and was called as the Gallipoli Campaign
→ British troops were actually troops formed by people from Australia and New Zealand,
that with the French soldiers made repeated assaults the gallipoli peninsula but actually
the turkish troops responded and so Gallipoli become another stalemate.
→ By May 1915, also the Gallipoli peninsula has turned into a bloody stalemate
→ Both sides build trenches and fight for the rest of the year
→ December 1915: the Allies give up the campaign and begin to evacuate the area
→ There are more than 250.000 casualties
The defeat of Gallipoli is a tremendous stain on Churchill's political career, who has
supported the war.
→ After Gallipoli, Churchill disappears from important political events, until 1940
(becoming Prime Minister)
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THE AMERICAN ENTRANCE
In 1917 the focus on the war was moved into the oceans, so a lot of countries like
Germany started to use the submarines warfare, initiated in the Atlantic Ocean
→ The British have started a naval blockade to prevent Germany from importing supplies
→ The Germans are aware the Allies have more soldiers and supplies than them but at
the same time, they need to do something to break the stalemate
→ January 1917: Germany announces its submarines will sink without warning any ship
(both military and civilian) in the waters around Britain
→ This new policy is called: Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
The Germans had briefly tried this policy before, in May 1915, when German submarines
have sunk the British civilian ship Lusitania
→ The attack left more than 1000 people dead, with 159 American citizens
→ Germany has claimed the ship was carrying munitions (which is true) president Wilson
and the public opinion strongly protest against this event
→ America is neutral in 1915
→ So Germans agree to stop attacking neutral and passenger ships, until 1917
In 1917 desperate for an advantage over the Allies, Germans returned to Unrestricted
Submarine Warfare, they knew it could lead to a war with the US.
→ However, they gamble their naval warfare will starve Britain into defeat, before the US
can mobilize their troops and send them to Germany
→ The plan is to defeat Britain and then the US, time is again essential, as in the
Schlieffen Plan
→ Objective: to block supply lines towards Britain (as the Gallipoli Campaign)
→ Ignoring warnings by the American president, Germany attacks three American ships
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In February 1917 another German action pushes the US closer to war
→ American forces intercept a telegram to the Mexican government, written by the
German foreign secretary Zimmerman, stating that Germany will help Mexico reconquer
the land they have lost to the US, if Mexico allies with the Central Powers
→ This telegram is the last straw
→ A large part of the American population already supports the Allies
→ America has a strong boundary with UK, as they share language, democratic values
and history
→ In addiction, American economic ties with the Allies are far stronger than those with
the Central Powers
By the time the US join the allies, the war has been fought for three years
→ With the arrival of the US, the balance seems to move to the Allies’ favor
→ But in 1917 happens also another big thing: Russia’s withdrawal from the war
→ The events in Russia give Germany a victory on the Eastern Front and new hope for
winning the conflict
→ Nearly all German forces are sent to the Western Front
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SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE
In March 1918 Germans launch one final and massive attack on the Allies in France
→ As in the opening weeks of the war, the German forces crash everything in their path
→ By late May 1918, Germans have again reached the Marne river region; Paris is less
than 40 miles away
→ Germany’s victory seems close
→ However, there are some differences between the battle of 1914 and the one of 1918:
● American support for the Allies
● all German troops that went from the Eastern to the Western Front are exhausted
→ Even though on the map the situation could look similar, the reality is different
Sensing this weakness, the Allies, with an additional 140.000 American soldiers, launch
a massive attack
→ July 1918: the Allies and the Germans clash in the Marne valley
→ The Allies use 350 tanks, which smash the German line
→ In the following months, two million more American troops arrive
→ Therefore, the ally forces begin to advance towards Germany
→ The Central Powers begin to surrender:
1. Bulgaria
2. Ottoman Empire
3. Austria
4. Germany: soldiers start to mutiny and the population turns on against the Kaiser
On 9th November 1918 the Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and Germany declares itself
the Weimar Republic
Representatives of the new German government meet with French commanders in a
train carriage near Paris, in a place called Compiègne Forest.
→ The two representatives sign the armistice
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11 November 1918 end of WW1
→ (!) 1940: after the successful invasion of France, Hitler finds this same train carriage,
moves it to the Compiègne Forest and signs the armistice with France, with the aim of
humiliating France
The end and consequences
WHY IS WW1 CONSIDERED THE FIRST TOTAL WAR?
1. The Great War affects everyone: not only the soldiers in the trenches, but also
civilians
2. All resources are devoted towards the war: during war time, governments take
control of the economy, telling factories how much and what to produce
→ Many factories are converted to munition factories
→ Nearly every civilian, including children and women, is put to work
→ Unemployment disappears
3. Rationing system: food is in short supply, so governments apply the system of
rationing
→ People can buy only a small amount of food and clothes, while the rest is used
for the war effort
→ The amount depends on the family size
→ Rationing provokes the “black market”, since people try to sell products for
higher prices
4. Suppression of anti-war activities by governments
5. Censorship of the war by governments: there’s a strong problem of censorship of
the war
→ Many leaders fear honest reporting on the war can turn people against them
→ All the letters are controlled before they are given to families: people can’t
know about the living conditions in the trenches
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6. Use of propaganda: one sided information, designed to convince people and
keep up their moral
7. Governments turn to women’s help as never before: thousands of women
replace men in offices, factories and so on
→ They work in shops, hospitals and produce weapons
→ Although most women leave the workforce as the war ends, their effort during
this time of crisis changes people’s view about women
→ Women understand they can work
→ They also see the horrors of the war firsthand, as they work in the frontlines as
doctors or nurses
The 1WW brought women to do things
that they never did before, women
replaced men in shops, offices,
factories, they were running hospitals,
th industries.
→ Their participation changed many
people's view of what people were
capable of doing.
→ Also some of them were in front line
in trenches as nurses
THE IMPACT OF 1WW
WW1 is the cataclysm that wracks the first age of globalization and destroys all the giant
empires, governing most of the Earth population
→ It leaves unstable, illegitimate and sometimes criminal regimes, which will provoke
war and instability
→ Even nowadays, violence in the middle east, division across the Balkans are
consequences of WW1
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It’s one of the great watershed of the 20th century, it leads to the fall of four great
empires: France, Russia, Turkey and Germany
→ It results in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
→ It leaves instability in the entire European society
→ It’s viewed as the groundwork for WW2
It leaves a landscape of death and destruction as never seen before
→ Both sides (victorious and loser Countries) pay a tremendous price in terms of human
lives
→ They have lost more people in this battle then in all the wars of the previous century
about 10 million soldiers die during WW1, with 21 million wounded people
→ Death of countless civilians, by starvation and diseases
→ Taken together, an entire generation of Europeans is wiped out (destroyed)
WW1 has a great impact on economics
→ The Great War takes away the treasuries of all European nations
→ The total cost of the war is more than 300 billion dollars
→ The war destroys acres of farmlands, homes and entire towns
The enormous suffering resulted from the war leaves a deep mark in western societies
→ There’s a sense of disillusionment about the future in survivors
→ We can feel their insecurity and despair also in art and literature
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The Peace Agreements are another problem left by WW1
→ 1919: in Versailles, there’s a conference to discuss Peace Agreements between
nations
→ The treaties to end the war are forged after great debate and compromise
→ The main protagonist of this event is the American president Wilson
→ Goal: to bring peace and a new sense of security to the world
→ In reality, the treaties cause anger and resentments, especially in Italy (winner) and
Germany (loser)
WW1 AS THE MAIN CATALYST OF THE FOLLOWING EVENTS
According to the majority of scholars, the war is the catalyst for the collapse of 1920s 1930s and the primary cause for the rise of dictatorships
→ It’s a long wave actually, started at the end of 19th century
Karl Dietrich Bracher, German historian: “In spite of their ideological prehistory, there can
be no doubt that the new dictatorships of our century were principally a result of the
1914-18 war.”
Stanley George Payne, American historian: “The war introduced a new brutalisation of
public life, a routinisation of violence and authoritarianism, and a heightening of
nationalist conflict and ambition, without which fascism could not have triumphed in key
countries during the generation that followed.”
Ian Kershaw, British historian and leading expert on Hitler: “Without the First World War
and its legacy, a Hitler would have been unimaginable as a leader of Germany. Before
1914, Germany was a relatively non-violent society. After 1918 violence was one of its
main features.”
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The russian revolution
In order to understand the Russian revolution we have to understand the situation at the
end of the XIX Century.
→ Russia was a different country, its situation was different
→ It was ruled by Tzar from the word caesar that means the supreme authority and ruler
→ The tzar, name that derives from the latin word caesar, meaning “emperor”
→ The tsar is an autocratic ruler, an Ancien Régime king
→ Russia is a Country deeply, socially and economically underdeveloped
→ 80% of the population is illiterate and the vast majority is composed of peasants
Many peasants have been just released from serfdom: form of slavery where the
peasant is linked with the territory he/she works on; the master possesses both the slave
and the territory
→ However, peasants are still dependent on their masters
→ The expansion of foreign capital and the establishment of the first industries
creates a large industrial proletariat, especially in the few big cities
→ The bourgeoisie is almost nonexistent and doesn’t possess the brightness of the
European middle class
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The religious and political thought is deeply influenced and connected by the
conservative orthodox church.
→ Any diversity (pluralism) in russia was considered a problem, even though a lot of
different nationalities were forced under this point of view
→ Neither a constitution and neither a parliament was present
→ The Ztar was venerated by the peasants, but from a political point of view he was a
father figure
→ Russia, at the end of 19th century, is a monolithic State, still fixed on the Ancien
Régime
There were some forces which strongly opposed Ztar and wanted to transform Russia,
even though Russia was quite a monolithic state.
1. Nascent bourgeoisie: it sees autocracy as a barrier to economic progress
→ It wants to transform the absolute rule of the tsar into a parliamentary
constitutional monarchy
→ It still wants the tsar, but with limited power, it wants a Parliament and a
constitution
2. Social Revolutionaries
→ It’s lead by Alexander Kerensky
→ They want to emancipate the peasants, turning them into small land-owners
through land reforms
→ They think the peasants could follow them in their revolt against the tsar
→ However, their attempt to mobilize the masses of peasants fails, because
peasants are really attached to the tsar and don’t want to fight him
3. Marxists
→ This movements is concentrated in the cities, where the urban proletariat
responds well to Marxist’s propaganda
→ Indeed, a big Marxist Party is created
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→ The party is soon split up in two factions:
-
Mensheviks (moderates): they want to achieve victory through
parliamentary elections
-
Bolsheviks (radicals): they want to achieve power through a violent
revolution
→ Since during a congress of the party there are more radicals, the two groups
are called Bolsheviks (from bolshy, meaning “larger”) and Mensheviks (from
menshiy, meaning “smaller”)
The leader of the Bolsheviks is a charismatic lawyer, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better
known as Lenin.
→ He’s pretty clear about the political ambitions of his party
→ Indeed, in one of his first writings says:
“Only knaves and fools can imagine that the proletariat is obliged first to obtain a
majority in elections organised under the yoke of the bourgeoisie, under the yoke of
wage-slavery, and only afterwards to gain power. We maintain on the contrary that the
proletariat must first bring down the bourgeoisie and seize power, and afterwards use
that power, i.e. the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the instrument of its class in such a
way as to gain the sympathy of the great majority of working people.”
End of the Tsarist regime: February Revolution
The first crack of the tsarist regime was during the war between Russia and Japan in
1905, where there were a lot of strikes, riots….
→ They organized soviets, that were councils of workers
→ This meeting of workers were called soviets and were like local councils composed by
workers
→ In 1905 Russia’s defeat leads to protests, revolts, riots, strikes, mass demonstrations
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After the japanese war, in 1906 the tsar Nicholas II granted a constitutions, and a
bicameral parliament composed by two chambers:
1. Duma: popular assembly of elected members, in charge from 1906-1917
→ It’s obedient to the tsar, who doesn’t hesitate to dissolve it in case of problems
2. Diet: an assembly of member not elected because represented various regions of
the country and were both elected and chosen by the tsar
There was another crisis, Russia entered the first world war, and soon russian defeat
against germany, and most of all the great misery of the conflicts led to food revolts,
mutiny of the soldiers.
→ The most violent revolt happened in 1917 were the duma demanded social and
political reforms to the tsar but the emperor dissolves the duma
→ This time the revolts were so strong that the duma opposed and in 15 march 1917 the
Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate
→ This is the end of tsarist russia
A new provisional government was appointed, social revolutionaries (liberal socialists)
and Mensheviks (moderate socialists).
→ The government was composed of social revolutionaries (Keensky) and menshevik
(people from the moderate side of marxism).
→ The only one excluded is the bolshevik one
→ The prime minister was Kerensky
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On the 16th of september 1917 Kerensky finally claimed the republic, officially putting
an end to the tsarist russia.
→ The main problem for the civilians was the war, because the 1WW was still going on
→ Kerensky thanks to the help of his allies continued the war, but on the other hand
Lenin was promising to end the war as soon as he would have took power
→ Lenin’s propaganda is referred to the many soviets presents
→ Soviet were so widespread that they acted like governments in cities
Lenin’s rule: October Revolution
On the 6th of November 1917 the bolshevik revolted against the provisional
governments (considered too moderate) at the winter palace, which was previously the
house of the tzar and at the time the seat of the Russian provisional governments.
On 7th November 1917 the provisional government surrenders, its members are arrested
and the Bolsheviks take the power
→ The october revolution have done history
We call this event the october revolution because of the calendar, at the time they didn’t
use the gregorian calendar and so for them was october while for our culture it would be
in november
→ Secondly when we talk about the october revolution we are talking about the second
russian revolution because the first one is the one against the tzar (supported by the
mensheviks, the duma that established the provisional government) the second one is
the one is this one by the bolshevik.
ATTENTION TO THE ANSWER IN THE TEST: IS RELATED TO THE FIRST OR THE
SECOND REVOLUTION?
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LENIN’S DICTATORSHIP
After Lenin got the power, he imposed his authoritarian government Called the council
of People's commission, imposes various measures:
-
Expropriation of the landowners: the government puts the land provisionally at
disposal of peasants’ Soviets
-
Nationalization of the industries and bancks, placed under the authority of a
higher council for the national economy
-
Elimination of the existing legal order, because a former legal order still
maintained differences between social classes
→ Instead, Lenin’s government wants to pursue the communist idea of equality
-
End of the war with Germany and Austria, however ending the war was not as
easy as he had promised while there was the provisional governments
→ He ended the war one year later on March 1918, with the treaty of Breitz
Litovsk
Civil War
Before the end of the war however, there was one year of civil war (November/October
1917) there were elections in Russia, that gave a clear victory to the social
revolutionaries but not to the bolsheviks.
→ After the elections a constituent assembly was formed to create a new draft of
constitutions
In January 1918 when the constitutional assembly rejects bolshevik demand for a
transfer of power to the soviets, they decided to storm the assembly as they have done
with the winter palace, and order to the red army to disperse the member
→ The red army was a part of the army loyal to the bolsheviks
→ The white army was supporting the mensheviks and the social revolutionaries,
composed by people who support the return of the tsar, want democracy and oppose
Lenin’s socialism, different groups whose only aim was to defeat Bolshevik
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A new challenge is presented to Lenin: winning against enemies at home, his own
Russian people
→ 4 March 1918: beginning of the civil war —> it lasts ‘till 1921
→ Russian civil war is far more deadly than the two previous revolutions
→ Around 14 million Russians die during the war and because of the famine following
the conflict
→ The worldwide Spanish epidemic worsens the situation
The civil war was against the white and
the red army.
→ In the first 3 years a lt of people died
during the war but also died during the
famine that followed the war
→ The worldwide flu pandemic left
russia in chaos
The red army crushed the white army, and one of the most important events is the
suppression of the revolt of the sailors in 1921.
→ This is a sort of turning point, the sailors are really respected and the idea that the red
army wa abel and wanted to kill even the sailors changed people’s mind
This suppression shows the establishment of a new dictatorship (the prevention was the
one of the Tsar).
→ In 1921 The congress of the communist party (official name of the Bolshevik party)
bans all other russian parties
From 1921 onwards (from the 1990s) the omnipotent power of the communist power was
never seriously challenged.
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STALIN’S TOTALITARIANISM
When Lenin died there was an internal war, into the communist party to decide who
was the one who had to become the general secretary of the party.
→ This war is won by the general secretary of the party, Iosif Vissarionovich
Dzhugashvili, known as Stalin
→ With stalin the worst part of the communism and communist dictatorship not only for
Russia, but also for the other countries under russian rule
Stalin dramatically transforms the Russian government:
1. He gives it a new name, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
→ He worked to establish all the aspect of life in soviet union, not only in politics
but also in life
→ In politics he was able to destroy competition, he killed all the competitors and
also former friends who helped him to obtain power.
2. Collectivisation of the agriculture and forced industrialisation
→ The USSR should find its political and economical space among the world’s
most powerful nations
→ Stalin wants Russia to be better than anyone else
3. Total control over all aspects of life
→ In politics, he’s able to get rid of the opposition, by killing all members of other
opposite parties
→ He even kills former friends or politicians who have collaborated with him
→ He alters photos to eliminate people not only physically, but also from others’
memory
→ Stalin controls not only the government, but also the economy and many
aspects of citizens’s private life
→ This total control of society leads to the elimination of many rights in favour
of the power of the State
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→ Stalin’s government is considered a totalitarianism: government that takes total
centralized control over every aspect of public and private life
→ (!) Italy wasn’t a dictatorship, because private life wasn’t controlled
4. Unthinkable level of terror and violence
→ The situation in Russia is worse than in other dictatorships
5. Millions of people are sentenced to death
→ This happens especially during the period of great urge to eliminate opponents
→ This people die by execution, by deportation to Siberian gulags or by forced
famine (novelty)
A lot of people were deported to gulags, where people were forced to starve.
→ The most famous forced famine happens in Ukraine and it’s called Holodomor.
→ It’s nowadays considered a genocide of the same size of the Holocaust
→ 1956: the new secretary, Nikita Chruščëv, officially denounces Stalin’s terror
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Stalin’s control was extremely huge, over the economy and society, to gain complete
control, he created a plan, in order to change the economy.
→ In 1928 Stalin’s plan called for a command economy
→ Command economy: is an economic system in which the government makes all the
economic decisions, under this system the political leader (Stalin) identifies the country's
needs and determines how to fulfill them.
→ The government decided what Russia had to produce, consume, which kind of
materials had to be consumed, in which factory, everything regarding the economy
→ All of these decisions were contained in plans of 5 years called 5 years plans, that
were created to develop the russian economy
→ These plans set impossible high goals: to improve the production of steel, oil, and
electricity.
In order to reach those goals the government reduced the productions, and the amount
of products and items that the citizens could consume.
→ It’s a rationing system
→ People in Russia faced severe shortages of food, clothing, and other basic goods (this
was a very bad aspect for russian society).
→ On the other hand Russian Economy indeed improved a lot, under Stalin Russian was
transformed from an underdeveloped country to a country whose economy could be
compared to one of an European country.
→ Even though on paper the goal of the 5 years plan was not reached, the soviets made
substantial gains in the production of steel and other.
→ From 1928-1937 the industrial production of steel increased more than 25%, that is a
lot.
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Regarding the agricultural sector, in
1928 the government began to cease
over 25 million privately owned farms.
→ This was already done by Lenin
→ Those former private farms were
transformed into large government
owned farms called collective farm
→ In order to create a collective farm,
the government combined more private
farms, this process was called
collectivisation.
→ No more private property, no more
private farms
→ There were hundreds of people
working to these farms
The reason was that the government expected that in the collective, food production and
agricultural production would be better and increased.
→ However many peasants resisted the government attempt to take their lands
→ They didn’t want to give their private farm
→ Sometimes they were killing their animals, and their farms, doing protests
→ One of the social classes that resisted more fiercely was indeed the one of Kulaks
→ Kulaks were a class of wealthy peasants that resisted collectivisation, they didn’t
want to give their lands to the government, which was the answer of the government?
→ The government tried to starve them, the answer was the holodomor, the mass
starvation of the Kulaks was a mean to crack the resistance to force collectivisation
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SOVIET REVOLUTION AND WOMAN
Soviet society was revolutionized, and also women's roles changed and expended as
well. The effect of the soviet revolution were also concerning woman:
-
Woman become more educated
-
People mastered new technical skills
-
Man and woman were declared equal by the new soviet constitution
-
Some laws were passed in order to grant women equal rights
Why did Stalin want to grant women equal rights?
Stalin's goal was to boost Russia Economy and women were necessary to transform the
Soviet economy. It was written in the 5 years plan, women have no choice of joining the
labor force, so a lot of women were working as men, doing also the same job, and the
state was in the meanwhile providing child care.
→ Given these new educational opportunities, women had the opportunity to have a
career also in engineer, and other faculties, and this was uncommon at that time
especially in Europe
→ By 1950, after the second world war, women were 65% of soviet Doctors
→ However man continued to be the leaders in politics and government and in all the
best jobs in general
→ Moreover besides to have full time jobs, they were expecting women to produce
children, there were the next generation of the obedience soviet society
→ After all these innovations it’s important to underline that this cost to the soviet people
that at that time had limited liberty, goods were often in short supply (rationing), and like
in totalitarian society every protest against the government was prohibited.
In 1953 Stalin finally died, and regarding his funeral there were principally workers.
→ After his death there was a lessening of terror and respect for legality.
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In 1956 after the Party Congress of the Soviet Party, the new leader, Nikita Krushov, as
the new leader officially denounced Stalin’s terror and his personal responsibility for the
unjustified torture and killing of many innocent people.
→ The fact that he talked in public about Stalin tortures 1966 was extremely surprig,
European knew about these terrible actions, but the fact that te secretary expressed that
in public was extremely huge
→ Under Krushov some Stalin emergency’s laws were abolished (we are in 1956) like for
example the Kirov Law of 1934 that was the law of torture against the enemies of the
states.
THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE SOVIET UNION - COMMUNISM
The communist experience was something new, was an institutional experience that
rejected the western model but also the old one, the one of the tsars.
→ The communist experience, is the only revolution that lasted long enough to be
studied and to prove its failure at the end
→ Contradiction between the theory: Marxism and the practice
→ Marx and Hengel's theory was the starting point
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The contradiction were:
1. 1st contradiction - Ideological: Marxism as a philosophy of liberation, of the
proletarians from capitalists system however Lenin consciously established a
dictatorship of the russian people, the proletarians and so a dictatorship for
definition is in contradiction with the idea of the freedom of the proletarians.
→ So it’s vs the consciously established dictatorship of the proletariat
2. 2nd contradiction - Relation between Party and Soviet: even judging from the
name the idea of soviet union should have been run by Soviets of peasants,
workers and soldiers, in reality all the power belong to the party and it was
centralized to the institutions which decided everything
→ So it's vs the reality of a strictly centralized party
→ In political life the soviet on paper existed till the end of the soviet union but
only to enforce certain candidas, but was the communist party that was
controlling everything.
3. 3rd contradiction - Nationalities: the idea of a union of federal autonomous
Republic (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) vs the reality of a “centralized
federation” run by the Party.
→ The new name of Russia expresses well their federal nature, confederation
means some autonomy to the republic that is composing the federal system.
→ Instead the many nationalities of the soviet union never received a recognition
→ When we talk about soviet union we are not talking about russia only
→ There were a lot of republic, but the dominating role of Russia was imposed
over the Union
→ EX: Russian language was imposed throughout the union, and Stalin himself
often talked about centralized federation.
→ Stalin himself often talked about centralized confederation that is an oxymoron
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4. 4th contradiction - State and Law: the declaration of respect for “socialist
legality” vs the concentration of powers.
→ The soviet union declared itself as a state under the rule of law and the
government proclaimed the respect of socialist legality as a fundamental principle
of the state
→ However to be a rule of law state you should have separation of power,
independence of the judiciary power and this was not the situation in Russia
→ There was a strict concentration of power and the rule of laws was respected
→ Separation of power is something old, from the past related to the bourgeoises
The fascist age
When we talk about Nazism, Francisco Franco in Spain, we think about something
different we don’t call the fascist regime. Outside Italy, fascism is a very broad topic that
contains all the dictatorships all over the world.
→ Orwell wrote that the word Fascism is meaningless, so outside Italy, fascism and
fascist are very vague concepts.
→ When instead in Italy we talk about Fascism we talk about exceptionally about
Mussolini (1922-1943)
Sometimes when historians talk about Italian fascism, it looks like if they were talking
about an autocracy, Mussolini was a noisy, and blustory, clown and quirky man.
→ This is still a common idea, misconception inside and also outside italy
→ Fascism is a complex, irrelevant topic, with has much as relevance as Stalin’s
Russia, was an intricate phenomena, with many faces and layers.
→ There is no singular and simplicity interpretation of the fascists regime
→ Moreover, there is not even one fascism, as it changed during events and year
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Fascism was a dictatorship, and was a complex regime which underwent many
changes.
→ The first thing to do is understand the causes
→ Its broad framework of the cause of the rise of the fascism is the crisis of the liberal
system (19th century problems).
→ Some factors were more important than others but we're all related to the years
before and after World War One
WHICH WERE THE CAUSES OF THE RISE OF FASCISM IN ITALY? CRISIS OF LIBERAL
SYSTEM
After the First World War there were some problems that brought to the rise of fascism:
1. Economy: the italian economic situation was really bad and gloomy, the cost of
the war had been heavy, there was a rise of inflation that brought an increase of
the price of the living goods.
→ Difficulties to the industrial production from re-convert from the military
production to the normal production
→ By the end of 1919 there were 2 millions of unemployees. Many of them were
former soldiers, principally because many of them were mutilated
When there is a quick
impoverishment of a large class of
people there is always the
potential of a violent class
confrontation.
→ This happens because when
people become unexpectedly
poor they become radical,
disrupting democracy especially
with violent confrontation
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2. Nationalist claims and huge disappointment: in addition to the impoverishment
of the Italians, especially of the veterans who were angry by the settlements of the
war, by the agreements.
→ After the First World War there were some conferences to discuss the
aftermath of the war, and Italy was a winning country, at least on the paper, but at
the conference the originally territories requested were not met by the other
politicians
→ Wilson the American President was an opponent of the italian requests, so
italy only received Trentino and the port of Zara.
→ Italy asked for more than what it got, however the italian fought for the coasts
of Dalmazia and more specifically for the city of Fiume.
The city of Fiume and the area of Dalmatia, became the obsession of many
Italians, who felt betrayed by the agreement in Paris, and felt that their efforts
could have brought no benefits to italy.
→ Effort had been meaningless and that the politicians had betrayed the idea for
which the army had fought with many loosess.
→ So grew the idea of a mutilated victory
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Gabriele D’Annunzio had a central role, he was a poet, and as politics was
extremely dangerous, we created this expression (problems related to the territory
and also to the victory mutilation).
→ He was representing the emotions, and what italian people were living
→ The nationalist poet in september 1919, after the peace conferences, led a
group of a thousands people mostly of them were veterans, nationalists, and
attack the city of Fiume, and annex it to Italy, occupying it for a year
→ This was a personal enterprise made by D’Annunzio
→ After one year the italian army went to Fiume and forced D’Annunzio to come
back, and leave the city, the occupation failed miserably but grave an idea of the
claims of the nationalist and huge disappointments of the italians after the war.
3. Many levels of Italian society were scared of the left: especially they were
worried that what happened in Russia could also happen in Italy, the Aristocracy,
the landlords, the great state owners were the most worried.
→ Radicals, and landowners looked on with terror
→ 1919-1920 These years were called the Red (from communism) Biennium, full
of protests, strikes
→ During this period a threat of a soviet revolution looked like a real possibility,
not only because of these strikes and factory occupations
→ But also because the italian socialist party have won a lot of different elections
all around italy, and they were running lots of important cities like Milan, Bologna.
→ The electoral victory increased the fears of the bourgeoisie and upper classes
4. Cronichel weakness of the political system: even though the italian kingdom had
been united it always lacked political stability.
→ In 20th century, it looked like Italy was not able to adjust to mass participation
in politics
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→ Universal male suffrage in 1920 brought millions of man to vote, but this new
mass participation in politics didin’ create stability, instead between 1914 and 1922
there were a succession of 7 prime ministers in only 8 years.
→ It led to death of liberal system (1861-1WW) and the start of the fascist system
→ All these factors were heavenly exploited by mussolini to the power
The rise of Mussolini was brought through specific events in History.
→ Without these general problems he would have never been able to obtain power but
also thanks to his abilities to catch attention the italians probably would have been
solved democratically (maybe by the intervention of other parties).
Benito Mussolini
He was born in Romagna, before the conflict he was a socialist, and also a journalist he
spent a few years being a teacher.
→ He was very active politically in the socialist party, also for the background (left family)
→ In particular he admired the ideas of George Sorrel
→ In 1914 Muissolini wrote about the possibility that italy would have entered the conflict
on socialist newspaper and during the following years he totally supported the entry of
italy in war.
→ There was a problem, however, the socialist party was neutral and against the war
→ Therefore Mussolini was expelled in 1915 and set off from his job as the rector of the
socialist newspaper “L’avanti”, he contributed to the war effort joining the army
→ He was a soldier and then he came back to war.
Only after the war his political career re-started and his career started in Milan in 1919
he presided over a meeting of sympathizers (violent individuals, veterans, people from
the far right), in Piazza San Sepolcro.
→ During the meeting Mussolini founded the movement of the Fasci of Combattimento
→ It was one of the many right movements after the war full of resentments.
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THE FASCES
The term Facio comes from the latin fasces, which means a bundle of rods.
→ In mussolini’s fascio littorio there was an X inside the rods.
→ The fascio lictory was a symbol of power and authority during the roman empire
→ According to Mussolini, the meaning of his movement logo is strength through unity.
→ A single of rod is easily broken, but a bundle of rods are difficult to break.
→ The symbol of the bundle of rods isn’t only a fascism symbol.
→ It’s used in the US American Congress Symbol,
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The movement of the Fasci was particularly radical and had a large sphere of enemies:
communists, the monarchy and even church (basically everyone except for veterans).
→ Not unsurprisingly this radical inflexibility did not bring too many votes to the
movement in the elections.
→ In the 1919 elections the fascist movement of the fascist failed to win even one seat.
→ Mussolini immediately understood that he needed to change strategy and reform the
movement, otherwise it would have been like any other group of veterans.
→ The new winning strategy of Mussolini was to abandon his revolutionary inclination
and prepare fascism for parliamentary struggle.
→ In his speeches is visible that he is trying to reach a widely part of society, there were
a lot of enemies so he decided to have always more less opponents
→ He get married with his longtime girlfriend, in order appeal to catholic people and the
church
→ He started to approach to court of the church and monarchy, without the support of
the army, gaining power
→ So the first fascist movement was republican while the new fascism was monarchical
→ They also changed the name of this movement in 1921 in Milan, which was the fascist
headquarters.
→ He set up a real party called National Fascist Party.
→ No more the movement of the Fasci
This new strategy was successful and at the election of 1921 the fascist party won 35
seats, and one of those was the one of Mussolini.
Why was Mussolini organizing his political career as a leader, while in the meantime all
around Italy fascist violent groups were spreading terror among citizens, socialists, and
priests?
→ These groups were called the fascist squads or black shirts
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They were acting under the power of Ras (King) who was the local leader.
→ From 1919 and forwards the fascist squads did numerous attacks targeting workers
on strikes, peasants in order to obtain the support of the landowners and the industrials.
The workers were intimidated into submission from violent meetings often with the use
of the truncheon.
→ People were intimidated, they also used the castor oil to as a laxative, humiliating
punishment
→ Both become the symbols of the fascism
The black shorts were the unofficial military wing of the fascist party.
→ The military wing were the black shorts, they were not member of the italian army
→ During this period hundreds of people were killed, however despite the large number
of killings the fascist party emerged as the main safeguard against rural rebellions and
chaos
→ The fascist party wanted to be the only party which could guarantee order and
stability.
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We need to consider 2 parallel phenomenon:
1. Mussolini and the fascist squads europe in the parliament, the political aspects of
the fascist party
2. Fascist black shorts spread and violence all over the peninsula
→ Mussolini was seen as the only one who able to solve the situation
He promised the government’s minister to end the unofficial fascist violence as soon as
he got the power, but he also promised to re-establish order and stability both in the
factories (no more strikes) and in the parliament.
→ However, the promises of Mussolini were associated my subtle intimidations, he also
kept frightening the king to use the force of his squads to make a violent revolution if his
conditions were not accepted
It’s the fall of 1922, after more than 2 yeast pof violence, Mussolini organized a march to
Rome to cease the governantes to give him the power.
→ He declared publicly in Naples this action
→ On 28th October a large number of black shorts were preparing to enter the city
The prime minister Luigi Facta understood that the situation was complicated and he
asked the king Victor Emanuel III to sign a state of siege for the city of Rome, in order to
give extraordinary powers to the government.
→ However the King refuse to sign the state of siege, and also asked to Mussolini to join
a coalition government as a minister
→ Mussolini's response was to refuse because it was clear for him that he was certainly
able to get more from the king, so he told him that he wanted to become prime minister.
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The following day, the king called Mussolini again and he handed him the power asking
him to create a new government
→ While the black shorts were cheerfully celebrating, Mussolini had finally reached the
power of becoming prime minister.
It was not a revolution, and besides the happy atmosphere is understandable through
the video that the people present at that time were priests, rich people.
→ The inspiration for the March on Rome was the enterprise of Fiume
→ The March on Rome was not a violent revolution, even though Mussolini year later
wants to represent these events as important political events
→ Instead Mussolini obtained legitimate power because of the king, it was offered and
appointed by the monarchy.
→ The monarchy itself appointed the future dictator of Italy, and it couldn’t know about
that and also they appointed the leader of the black shorts.
Why did the king appointed Mussolini?
The king, even though didn't like Mussolini, was convinced that he was probably good
for Italy. Even for a short time, he was concerned for the strikes, for the protest.
→ He thought that an totalitarian government would be useful to put order and normalize
society
→ Mussolini at the beginning is the prime minister of a new coalition government could
also have normalized him, because something that happens often is once someone is
facing reality becomes less radical.
Probably Victor Emmanuel was afraid of the confrontation between the royal army and
the black shorts, as a new civil war.
→ The option chosen could be safer.
→ There are also personal authority motivations
→ A part of the royal family supported Mussolini
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Despite the speculation, what is important here, especially from an institutional point of
view, is that the dictatorship Mussolini started legally, his accession to power was legal.
→ The march on Rome was not a real revolution
→ So the King was the real responsible for Mussolini rise to the power
We need to understand how Mussolini transformed this coalition government into a
dictatorship.
→ Mussolini had 45 seats, and the King offered him to be the leader of a coalition
government
→ When he raised to the power in 1922, he created a Cabinet, where there were 4
fascist ministers and 10 non fascist ministers (from other parties)
→ At this point the fascist party had only 6% of the seats
Initially Mussolini had to be really cautious and considerate of the other deputies and
other parties, to avoid his eventual removal from power.
→ He reassured the king and other deputies that he didn’t want to destroy the italian
political system, he didn’t want to eliminate the constitution but instead he wanted to
defend it
→ This is what he said publicly, and the king gave him the temporary emergency power
for 1 year
The first problem to solve with Mussolini was to stop the fascist squads (local groups,
military wing)
→ Mussolini fears what that the fascist violence, which was really widespread would
undermine the consensus of the moderate social classes
→ They were looking in favor of the Mussolini rise to power
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However controlling and reducing violence of the black shirt was a difficult task.
→ Indeed the radical fascist, the most violent fascist, the hardline of the blackshirts,
considered the outcome of the March of Rome to be a betrayal of the fascist ideals.
→ They considered the new version of Mussolini too moderate, they proclaimed that
they didn’t want a coalition government, they didn’t to the march only for a coalition
government that wanted a real revolution
→ It was difficult to control these people and limits their power
On the other hand the moderate fascist considered the revolutionary period of
fascism, as the end with the march on Rome, and the creation of Mussolini’s
government.
→ They didn’t want to use violence anymore
→ Though it was difficult to find a solution in such a different opinion
→ Mussolini tried to navigate in these two sectors of the fascism
→ As usual he tried to do it pursuing a strategy of duplicity, he was telling the radicals
what they wanted to hear, sometimes he was in favor of a group, and sometimes to
others.
He also had problems in parliament, he wanted to convince the deputies that to end
Italy’s chronic bad habits of government instability.
→ Was needed a changing of the electoral law
→ In 1923 the parliament incredibly passed a new electoral law, the Acerbo Law, that
stated that the party or the block, with a 25% of votes automatically would have
gained the ⅔ of the votes of the parliament, gaining the majority (more than 60%).
→ Become easy for a party to reach a stable majority, you need to just gain the 25%
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In April 1924 there was a new election, the first election with the Acerbo Law, and the
Italian people confirmed Mussolini’s power.
→ The fascist party didn’t present themselves, but through a coalition called Fascist Big
List, that attracted more than 64% of the votes.
→ The fascist big list obtained more than 400 out of 500.
Which was the reason for this success?
1. The fascist big list included many candidates from different and respectable
parties.
→ Inside thai list there were member of the liberal party, democrats, like
Salandra, former prime minister, so all figures that would have defended the
liberty
→ There were so many respectable names
→ The moderate candidates' brought Mussolini a wide support that otherwise
would not have.
2. The divided left vs the united right was another factor: in 1924 in Italy there were
3 left wing party:
a. The original socialist party: the one which Mussolini come from
b. The Unitary Socialist Party: lead by Matteotti
c. The communist party: lead by Antoni Gramsci
→ At the election these parties presented themselves not as a coalition but as a
single party.
→ So the votes of the left where scattered among the three parties
→ For some scholars if these 3 parties would have been united, the left wing
would have blocked Mussolini win to the election
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3. Fascist violence and intimidation during the election protest: Mussolini was not
able to stop the violence of the black shorts, and so between 1922 and 1924
despite Mussolini’s repeated assurances of his respect of the law, violence
continued against opponents and workers.
→ During the election of 1924 act of violence were done also against those who
want to vote for the left
→ Inside the cities the black shorts knew who was voting for the left
WHICH WERE THE FACTOR OF MUSSOLINI SUCCESS IN 1924?
Until 1924 onwards Mussolini could claim a popular mandate (he had been voted by
Italians), so he could do whatever he wanted, and so opt for a more radical policy.
→ This change in Mussolini behavior and policy was evident with the Matteotti Crisis.
Giacomo Matteotti was the secretary of the Unitary Socialist Party, who on 3 May 1924
spoke in the chamber of deputies claiming publicly that the elections of April were invalid
because of the frauds, and because many people were not able to vote.
→ He denounced a panorama of criminal behavior, and demanded the annulment of the
elections, he talked for a while even though his speech was interrupted by many fascist
deputies.
→ However less than 15 days later
Matteotti was seen outside his house
and killed by a group of black shorts
(fascist)
→ No one knew anything about him,
when his body was discovered in a field
outside Rome
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The italian immediately turns against Mussolini and he was considered as responsible for
Matteotti’s death, especially thinking about the speech.
→ Mussolini was criticized by all the political leaders, especially the ones that supported
→ The crisis of the party was massive, even though a person of the black shorts was
arrested
→ The parliamentary activity was put on hold, and suspended
→ The socialist deputies withdrew from the parliament as a form of protest
→ Their intention was to show that parliamentary democracy had ended
→ This process is known as Aventine secession, it’s a reference to an ancient roman
event, the socialists deputies with the secession wanted to force dismission of this
government
→ However the socialist deputies chose the wrong strategy, the Aventine secession
gave the King to wait on an event rather than making an immediate decision.
→ In this moment the king chad the opportunity to dismiss Mussolini but he didn’t
Is possible to say that the Matteotti crisis was one of the lowest points of the fascist
government, but he transformed this moment into a successful opportunity for his
dictatorship.
→ On the 3rd of January of 1925 Mussolini gave a speech in parliament where he took
the political and moral responsibility for the murder of Matteotti (he didn't explicitly say
his name).
→ At the same time, he manages the opposition forces.
→ He said this happened for the fascist revolution for the more general goal of the
fascist revolution
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With the speech of 1925 Mussolini re-gave strength and initiative, after gaining off the
crisis.
→ He emerged as a skilled statesman and prepared to take control of everything for the
country, rather than a single politician.
→ Moreover he declared that all socialist deputies that were part of the aventine
secession were prevented from returning to the Parliament.
→ Many factors helped Mussoolini: his political skills, the Aventine secession (which was
not a good strategy) and weakness of the king
It’s evident that the Matteotti crisis is an enormously important moment of Italian history;
they gave rise to events that brought to the establishment of a totalitarian fascist regime.
→ The Matteotti crisis brought Mussolini to reveal his totalitarianism missions
→ Between 1922 and 1924 we do not have a totalitarian regime but we have a pretense
of legality, a legal appointment
After Matteotti’s Crisis Mussolini abandoned this pretense of legality and revoked his
totalitarian mission.
→ After January 1925 onwards Mussolini accelerated the establishment of a Fascist
dictatorship
→ Implementing new measures which are the very Fascist laws
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The very fascist laws
The very fascist laws are the means, the tools through which Mussolini started creating
an authoritarian state, the laws are also the tools Mussolini used to overcome the
Matteotti crisis.
→ We can consider the law the means of the transformation of the italian state
→ The very fascist laws covered all the branches of the state (laws regarding the press,
economy) and so are useful to have an idea of the fascist regime
24th December 1925 a law regarding the executive power
It says that the head of government, Mussolini is appointed and dismissed by the king
only, and he is only responsible for his actions to the King and not responsible to the
parliament.
→ According to this law the prime minister is responsible only to the king
→ We have some consequences:
● The prime ministers become more important than the other deputies in the
parliament and also more important than the other member of the government
● The only person in Italy who have the power to revoke Mussolini’s power was
the king
→ The fascist age ended and started for the King’s will, 1922-1943
In this law there was also another part, that said that all the discussion of the parliament
had to be approved by the prime minister whose topic had to be approved firstly by him.
20th January 1926 a law regarding the press
It stated that prefects have the powers to suspend disrespectful publications that would
have not respected the church, the monarchy or the state.
→ This law’s aim was to control the press, and the freedom of opinion
→ It was difficult to understand what was disrespectful or not
→ Many paper were suppressed
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Moreover in 1928 compulsory
registration for all journalists with the
Fascist Journalists Association was
requested.
→ In order to be a journalist you need to
be fascist, and registered, no registration
no journalist
→ As a consequence many papers
were suppressed and moreover in 1928
registration with the Fascist Journalist
Association was compulsory
→ If you were not on the register you
could not be a journalist
31st January 1926 a law regarding parliament activity
It stated that the government that at that time was basically Mussolini had the power to
rule by decree.
→ When you rule by decree and not laws, there is no parliamentary discussion
→ A decree are sort of laws used in times of emergencies
→ After this law is possible to affirm that there was the end of the parliament activity in
Italy
→ The government used decrees more than 10.000 times more than laws by 1943.
→ The parliamentary discussion was not important anymore
→ Mussolini, as a consequence, accumulated ministers, on an unprecedented scale
→ In 1929 he was responsible for these offices: foreign affairs, home office, war, navy,
aviation, colonies, corporations and public works
→ This is typical of the dictatorship
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2nd of July of 1926 a law regarding the economy - National council corporation.
This law established the national council corporations and according to this law
economic activities were divided in 7 branches: industry, agriculture, transport, merchant
marine, banking, commerce and intellectual work.
→ These corporation were based on medieval unions
→ Corporations according to Mussolini’s
ideas had to replace trade unions that
become illegal (because of the revolts
and strikes against Mussolini)
→ The corporation was a group of
people that had the same job.
→ Was like an alternative to socialism
and capitalism
Corporatism was created with the goal was to increase state control (capitalism)
without destroying private enterprise (socialism) but both were not reached
→ Was a complete failure, the system was inefficient
In 1939, the economic process entered the political system with the creation of the
Chamber of Fasces and Corporation that had to replace the old Chamber of Deputies
(1939) at the end of the elective Parliament.
→ The chamber was made by national chancellors representing different branches of the
economy, and these people were not elected by chosen by the great council fo fascism.
Which are the main differences?
-
People were not elected so this is the end of the elective parliament
-
Those people did not represent Italy geographically as a territory.
→ If you vote in Milan you are not voting the same people that people in sicily are
voting
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After this law the deputies in the chamber of the fasces and corporation represented
economy and not people
→ In the last years of the regime the italian parliament was formed by the senate and
the chamber of the fasces and corporation which was an economic authority and not a
political one
WHEN WAS THE END OF THE ELECTIVE PARLIAMENT IN ITALY? 1939
6th November 1926 a law regarding association of anti-national characters
It stated that prefects have the powers to dissolve associations of anti-national characters
→ All political parties except for the fact one, were legally banned
→ The fascist party was the only national party, the other ones were anti-national
25th november 1926, a law regarding the defense of the state.
It stated anyone attempting to reconstitute an opposition party or attempting to
propagate doctrines, opinions could be arrested.
→ Not a normal tribunal, court but there was a special tribunal for the defense of the
state
→ This tribunal used military laws, more severe and this special tribute was made by
party members and not normal judges
→ Being trialed by this was quite series you could risk a lot because you were trailed by
the military laws and the fascists
→ Was also reintroduced the death penalty, dismissed in 1918 even and reintroduced but
was used not so many times
→ During the entire regime over 5 thousand people were sentenced for political reasons
→ And 10 thousands people were sent into political exile like on the islands or in the
south
→ It was a particular case of penalty, they were sent far from their home, and the
penalty was difficult
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9th December 1928 a law regarding Fascist Grand Council
The last law was one of the most important, with this law the fascist grand council
became the supreme organ that coordinated all the activities of the regime.
→ The fascist grand council was an a party authority and was established in 1922 by
Mussolini in order to control, limit and centralized the turbulence party
→ The fact that a party authority become an institution of the state is strange
→ It become the supreme institution
→ The fascist grand council was composed by Mussolini and by the top figure of the
fascist party and important politicians
→ They were involved in periodically meetings
Among the powers of the fascist great power there was the task to select the candidates
for the parliament’s elections, and then at the elections they could choose from a list the
candidates: yes or no.
THE QUEST FOR CONSENSUS OF THE REGIME
Besides the repressive laws the regime also tried to obtain power also gaining power
through on one hand the quest for consensus on the other one progressive laws, and
this strategy was successful.
Regarding the search for consensus for the regime we will be focused on:
❖ Relationship with the church: between the church and the state there was a
complicated situation after the unification, with the Porta Pia, the italian where
entered in Rome ecc. ecc.
→ Mussolini wanted to obtain the reconciliation with the church to provide more
popular support and stability because the population was catholic, so there was a
lot of popular support.
→ In 1929 were signed the Lateran Pacts, to heal the wound between the
Church and the State,
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The pact consisted of 3 agreements:
● The Lateran Treaty: settled the question of the Pope’s temporal power,
written by the pope, the temporal power over the vatican city
● The Lateran Concordat: defined the role of the Church in the Fascist State
(religion of State, religious education, Church marriages)
● A third treaty: defined the financial compensation for the Church because
of its territorial loss during the independence war.
→ The lateran pact was a huge success for the fascist regime, and gave him a
huge political advantage, because was the one who first ever solved the problem
with the church.
→ The church high hierarchy gave Mussolini full support, just as he wanted
→ In a few years some problems become extremely important, there was the
contentious matter of the racial discrimination of the jews
→ But also the church was in contrast regarding the education of the children
→ The church reacted with great facility when it proposed the close down of the
religious activities like oratory and scout
→ He wanted to create a parallel system in order to make them perfect fascist and
church activities were in contrast
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❖ Organization of the youth movement and social activity: he wanted to create
this system to control youth minds.
→ The second aspect of Mussolini's strategy was the organization of social
activity; he established in 1926 a new organization of the party called the Opera
Nazionale Balilla.
→ Boys and girls were involved in summer camps, and other activities and also
involved in paramilitary activities and parades
→ They had to wear uniforms, they had to wear a replica version of the fascist
ripple which was called musket
→ “Libro e moschetto fascista perfetto”
→ The youth organization were not so effective in giving support to the regime
→ Mussolini’s attempt to make Italians fascist failed, because a lot of them were
fascist on the surface (was compulsory) but only few were extremely transformed
in fascist people
→ The events of the later 1943 showed that the support and the concern so
deeply searched by Mussolini was not real
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THE TOTALITARIAN TURN OF THE REGIME 1935-1945
Regarding the years we have talked about, obviously Italy was an authoritarian state,
especially for the repressing laws and other mechanisms, but we cant say that despite
these laws, Mussolini was still restricted by some important elements.
1. He was constrained by the king, that still was the head of the state
2. He was constrained by some conservative level of society
3. He was constrained by the catholic church
4. He was also constrained by reality in a certain sense, foreign policy was limited
because the economy and the military forces were both weak so he could not do
whatever he wanted.
→ From the 20s and the middle of the 30s the foreign policy implemented his diplomatic
role, he was diplomatic
Mussolini attracted admiration of many leaders of other countries, especially for his
pragmatic approach to power and politics.
→ The late 40s determined the totalitarian turn that was a strong injection of radicalism
and violence to fascism and to the regime itself.
→ The totalitarian turn damaged Italy and decrease the social consensus that was
established the previous year, this radical change in the end caused the quick collapse of
the entire system in 1943
To explain it we have to focus on:
1. Foreign policy: before 1939 nothing happened to Italy talking about foreign policy.
→ He wanted to have a good relationship both with the USA and UK and he was
also opposed to Hitler
→ EX: When the nazi party was involved to the death austrian Chancellor Dolfuss
in 1934 Mussolini sent italian troops to show Italy to demonstrate him that he
could defend Austria
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In 1935 everything changed an Italy behaved in every way as an extensional
power with imperial ambitions
→ And to do that italy searched for the help of nazi germany
In 1935 Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, causing the reactions of the League of
Nations which applied economic sanctions to Italy.
→ The aggression against the kingdom of Ethiopia narrow the arranged of
diplomatic options of Mussolini
→ The other democratic power were not trusting him anymore
→ Alienation of Britain and France by the brutal of Italian army
→ Nazi Germany approach, because Hitler was the only one who could cooperate
with
Violence and brutality of Italian colonialism were shown with the war in
Ethiopia.
→ There was the myth of the good Italians (Italiani brava gente)
→ Use of poison gas and concentration camps
→ In Ethiopia fascism was without constraints and thai was the real Fascism
→ Without constraints Italian fascism would have been the same as colonial
fascism?
→ Fascism showed the same ferocity of communism and nazism
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2. Racial question and racial legislation of 1938: during the first part of the fascism,
antisemitism was not so widespread, also because a lot of jews were members of
the fascist party. In 1938 a dramatically reverse changed the politic.
→ The Manifesto of Race was showing a race that was not including the jews but
was talking about a pure italian race, it was created by mussolini and some
professors.
→ Then there were decrees:
1. Banning marriages between Jews and Christians
2. Removing Jews from prominent positions in finance, education and
politics
3. Imposing property restrictions
Those changes were not popular at all and extremely associated with the
growing influence of the nazi
→ People were started to think that he was imposing these types of laws for Hitler
→ Antisemitism was the last attempt of Mussolini to reinvigorate the regime with a
radical ideological turn failure
→ Ideology, racial legislation, militarism were not the desire of the majority of
Italians and they paved the way for the end of totalitarianism.
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