To what extent had the Liberal Government made Italians by 1914?

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To what extent had the Liberal Government made Italians by 1914?

After Unification in 1870 the Liberal government had hoped to have been left with a population that felt proud to be a part of Italy and that they had confidence in the government and the way in which they were controlling the country.  The main hope was that Nationalism had increased and become widespread across Italy.  The Liberal government had many groups of people to make happy and gain their confidence.  These groups included Liberals, aristocracy, the working class and Catholics.  These groups all felt differently about the government and the way they felt about being Italians varied.

        The Liberals were the happiest group within Italy in 1914.  They were happy because they were in power and ran the country.  One of the major and most favourable achievements that the Liberals had made was that they widened suffrage from two, to nine million by 1912.  This meant that there were many more Italians taking part in the representative government.  This would have made the Liberals happy because more of the population would be pleased with the widening of suffrage and bring a sense of nationalism now that they were allowed to vote and have a say in how the country is being run.  The idea of a widen feeling of nationalism was shown due to the trade unions, Catholic action and newspapers becoming larger and more national.  Also the government had improved on educational matters.  They were able to make a higher percentage of the country more politically aware and lowered the illiterate rate down from the previous 40 per cent before 1914.  The Liberals also presided over industrialization and had helped military service and economic growth.  The ship building industry and engineering had developed in Turin, Genoa and Milan.  This was an achievement because it helped to forge Italians out of the masses and helped them out of poverty, which did make them feel a bit more apart of Italy.  The national income increased by 50% and the steel output went up nine times.  This meant that the value of foreign trade went up six times.  Italy now was recognized as an imperial power now and had gained the colony of Libya.  Overall the Liberals were very proud of their achievements.

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        Another group that were happy and were ‘made Italians’ were the upper class (aristocracy) landowners.  This group was content with the government because nothing had really changed that affected this group.  The higher-class landowners were doing well before 1914 and still were by this time.  This was true especially in the south.  In the south rich landowners made a lot of money from the land that their slaves farmed.  As the industry in the south had not developed to the extent that it had done in the north, the peasants’ only option was to work for the aristocracy on their ...

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