, , UPSC STUDY MATERIAL, 0
  • Unification of Italy, though did not prove democratic, but marked a great advance in the history of the counties.
  • These revolutions, along with the industrial revolution, deeply influenced the history of mankind.
  • One of the aspects of these movements was the ever increasing number of people in the political life of the country. The period of autocracy and privileged aristocracy was coming to an end.
  • Although the reunification was a reality, it leads to total domination of the Kingdom of Piedmont.
  • Despite promises that regional authorities would participate equally in the government, it was the ruling class of Piedmont that dominated the government during the initial years.
  • The Italian people wanted a united Italy with a weak central government and strong states. What they got instead was a strong central government with little to no power exercised by the states.
  • The new Kingdom of Italy was structured by renaming the old Kingdom of Sardinia and annexing all the new provinces into its structures. The first king was Victor Emmanuel II, who kept his old title.
  • The new constitution was Piedmont’s old constitution. The document was generally liberal and was welcomed by liberal elements. But this was resented by pro-clergy elements in Venice, Rome, Naples and Sicily.
  • The Unification itself was not a panacea for all problems of Italy. The centuries of separation had created fierce rivalries among the different Italian provinces.
  • The major source of the tension in Italy was that the northern part of the country was industrialized while the southern part was agricultural.
  • The people of these two regions had such differences that they spoke two different versions of the Italian language and scarcely understood each other.
  • The Italian Parliament was soon filled with disorganized parties and vague politics. There was a frequent change in the cabinets and the prime ministers.
  • In the south, violent peasant revolts broke out because of the economic problems.
  • The northern parts were also affected by an array of strikes and riots.
  • Thus, by the dawn of the 20th century, Italy was a poor and wretched state.
  • The first decade of the Kingdom of Italy saw civil wars raging in Sicily and Naples which was harshly suppressed.
  • The inevitable long-run results were a severe weakness of national unity and a politicized system based on mutually hostile regional violence. Such factors remain in the 21st century.
  • It is also important to remember that the new political and economic system that was emerging in Europe in the 19th century was also creating imperialism.
  • Thus, the period of triumph of democracy, in Europe, was also the period of Conquest in Asia and Africa, by the imperialist power of Europe.
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