By 1914, how successful had Liberal Governments been at creating a united Italy?

Italy had a large North/South divide because the North had been able to industrialise and the South had not. In the North however the towns were growing and some becoming cities. In the South many people still relied on farming to support themselves and their families. The reason for the massive divide was the fact that unlike Britain and America, Italy had a few very limited raw materials which were all situated in the North, and as we all know raw materials fuel the power stations and factories. So without the trade with other countries it was difficult for Italy to obtain raw materials. Many businessmen and entrepreneurs were cropping up all over the North of Italy. At the turn of the century there was even more of an increase in industry all over the North. The government did manage to economically unite Italy by abolished internal trade tax. This was good for the North but it meant that the South could not compete. Many people especially from the South felt that businessmen were more worried about balancing the budget, which they were. Workers either on farms or in the factories were taxed highly and paid poorly and when they went on strike for higher wages to pay of taxes the government supported the businesses, which imposed these poor working conditions.

The economy in Italy around would be considered united because of the internal trading tax being abolished, farming was not all subsitance and Italy had a strong industry in the North. The government however had done everything to improve the situation in the North and basically ignored the South.

Italy's political system was stable and this is proved because they held a voting government for 44 years. In the early years of the Liberal Government only 25% of people could vote, in 1912 this was extended to all men over the age of 30. Many men allowed to vote didn't bother because the government was so corrupt the same person would be the Prime Minister even if there was a landslide vote for someone else.

Despite this the government believed that only the rich, powerful and those well educated. The masses were thought to be insignificant in the eyes and incapable of voting and making the right decision for their country, therefore the government thought themselves to be above everyone else. This meant that they didn't make the best decisions for the country, as with the businessmen the government was more worried about balancing their budget and keeping as much money for themselves as possible. The government also wanted to build up a large military and wanted to build up an overseas empire that could compete with Britains.

The general public of Italy only had basic rights like freedom of religion and freedom of speech which if contradicted or opposed the government they were quick to use military force to put it down.

Italy had and still has a huge cultural background, as Italy is the home of the Catholic religion and the Pope was not only the head of the Catholic Church but also had control of the Papal States which covered most of Italy before the Liberal government was introduced. After the Liberal government was introduced the Pope was just left with St Peters Church in Rome and the Vatican City. This really annoyed the Pope and because he had such a huge influence on the catholic people of Italy he told them not vote for the Liberal government. This changed however when the Marxist movement in Italy started and the followers of Marxism denounced religion completely. The Marxist movement had quite a following in Italy and the Pope told people to vote for the Liberal Government if this stopped the Marxist movement.

Italy had religion but not many people could relate to being 'Italian'. This had happened because there was such a gulf between the government and the general public of Italy. This happened because the government only did what it wanted to do not what the people wanted to do.

National identity was a huge problem in Italy that unfortunately the Liberal government did not address fully and so this led to people giving little support to the government. Cultural identity was not so much of a problem as I have already explained.

The Italian government wanted to create a large army so that they could build an empire. The Italian people however weren't very enthusiastic about this. The government decided to use a lot of its budget on the army rather than helping the South grow and come to a level with the North. There were many people speaking in non-Italian places just North of Italy. These places were controlled by Austria-Hungary and they had been allies with Italy but they took back this land but only with the help of the French. The Italian national security was very poor even though they were allies with Austria-Hungary. The defeat at Adowa proved this.

So how successful had the Liberal government been at creating a united Italy? Not very from the point of view of the general public as the government had only really helped the North and not the South, which created a divide between the two parts of Italy. Neither had the government listened to the people and this made the general public fell that the government was only worried about itself.

However the Italian government did want to unite Italy but in a different way from the public. The government felt that the way to build up a country and higher its moral was to build an empire. The government had also created a national economy with the abolishing of internal trade tax, the expansion of industry (in the north) and people weren't just producing enough for themselves.

I believe that the government was unsuccessful in uniting Italy because they had not pleased the masses of ordinary people. Until a majority of the masses are pleased there will always be uprisings of governments and riots trying to introduce new laws or a whole new governmental system.