Italian Sentence Examples
They silently spooned up Italian ice cream, content in this measure of understanding that was growing between them.
They say there are Italian girls among them.
Where do they go for Italian food?
The acts of the synod of Pistoia were published in Italian and Latin at Pavia in 1788.
The scenery is fine, but wild and desolate in most parts, and of a kind that appeals rather to the northern genius than to the Italian, to whom, as a rule, Sardinia is not attractive.
Circumventing the Italian troops, Garibaldi entered Catania, crossed to Melito with 3000 men on the 25th of August, but was taken prisoner and wounded by Cialdini's forces at Aspromonte on the 27th of August.
On the outbreak of war in 1866 he assumed command of a volunteer army and, after the defeat of the Italian troops at Custozza, took the offensive in order to cover Brescia.
Eluding the surveillance of the Italian cruisers, he returned to Florence, and, with the complicity of the second Rattazzi cabinet, entered Roman territory at Passo Corese on the 23rd of October.
Recrossing the Italian frontier, he was arrested at Figline and taken back to Caprera, where he eked out his slender resources by writing several romances.
As a critic of independent views he won the approval of Goethe; on the other hand, he fell into violent controversy with Ranke about questions connected with Italian history.
AdvertisementThe dialects differ very much in different parts of the island, so that those who speak one often cannot understand those who speak another, and use Italian as the medium of communication.
Another difficulty is that Italian and foreign capitalists, have produced a great rise in prices which has not been compensated by a rise in wages.
A considerable amount of cheese is manufactured, but largely by Italian capitalists.
For the Italian republic, between Napoleon and Pius VII., analogous to the French concordat; abrogated.
For Piedmont, completed in 1836 and 1841; was suppressed, like all other Italian concordats, by the formation of the kingdom of Italy.
AdvertisementIn 1861 the Mortara family induced the Italian government to demand the prosecution of the nurse.
After the capture of Rome by the Italian troops in 1870 Edgar Mortara had the opportunity of reverting to Judaism, but he refused to do so, and not long afterwards became an Augustinian.
A truce was concluded in 1317, but as the Sicilians helped the north Italian Ghibellines in the attack on Genoa, and Frederick seized some Church revenues for military purposes, the pope (John XXII.) excommunicated him and placed the island under an interdict (1321) which lasted until 1 335.
In February 1499 the king became involved in a war with the Swiss, who had refused to pay the imperial taxes or to furnish a contribution for the Italian expedition.
There are also numerous editions and translations of separate works, especially the Method, in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Hungarian.
AdvertisementThe Italian government, to whom the greater part of it now belongs, laid bare many of the more important buildings in 1880-1889; but much was left undone.
Similar customs seem to have existed among the Italian races.
The name is often in popular literature written Cambalu, and is by Longfellow accented in verse Cambeilic. But this spelling originates in an accidental error in Ramusio's Italian version, which was the chief channel through which Marco Polo's book was popularly known.
The Italian and Sicilian Albanians are of Tosk descent, and many of them still speak a variation of the Tosk dialect.
The groundwork, so far as it can be ascertained, and the grammar are Indo-European, but a large number of words have been borrowed from the Latin or Italian and Greek, and it is not always easy to decide whether the mutilated and curtailed forms now in use represent adopted words or belong to the original vocabulary.
AdvertisementOther buildings include the grammar school, founded in 1532 and rebuilt in 1893, a town hall and corn exchange, erected in 1866 in Italian style, with an assembly room.
Foreign editions were published in Italian at Verona in 1623, in Latin at Leiden in 1626 and 1628, and in Dutch at Gouda in 1626.
On the Italian frontier the numerous forts darrt in the mountains are strongly supported by the entrenched camps of Besanon, Grenoble and Nice.
It remains, therefore, to ask whether any information can be had about the language of this primitive -COfolk, and whether they can be identified as the authors of any of the various archaeological strata now recognized on Italian soil.
Among such settlements may be mentioned Phaselis in Lycia, perhaps also Soli in Cilicia, Salapia on the east Italian coast, Gela in Sicily, the Lipari islands, and Rhoda in north-east Spain.
Under their mild and just rule both the native Greeks and the Italian residents were able to carry on a brisk trade.
The former Royal Dockyard was made over to the War Office in 1872 and converted into stores, wharves for the loading of troopships, &c. The Royal Artillery Barracks, facing Woolwich Common, originally erected in 1775, has been greatly extended at different times, and consists of six ranges of Brick building, including a church in the Italian Gothic style erected in 1863, a theatre, and a library in connexion with the officers' mess-room.
He voted consistently on the Radical side, but his chief energies were devoted to promoting the cause of Italian unity.
Most of the naturalized French citizens are of Spanish or Italian origin.
Many adaptations for the Italian stage were produced between the years 1486 and 1550, the earliest (the Menaechmi) under the direction of Ercole I., duke of Ferrara.
For example, it has often been said that the extent to which their orchestral viola parts double the basses is due, partly to bad traditions of Italian opera, and partly to the fact that viola players were, more often than not, simply persons who had failed to play the violin.
Hence the following appliance was worked out by Lieutenant Solari and officers in the Italian navy.
In the same year numerous experiments were tried with the assistance of an Italian battleship, the " Carlo Alberto," lent by the Italian government, and messages were transmitted from Poldhu to Kronstadt, to Spezia, and also to Sydney in Nova Scotia.
Present Italian aspirations are similarly directed.
Besides these, and leaving out of account the islands, the Italian peninsula presents four distinct volcanic districts.
The Sicilians and Sardinians have something of Spanish dignity, but the former are one of the most mixed and the latter probably one of the purest races of the Italian kingdom.
Physical characteristics differ widely; but as a whole the Italian is somewhat short of stature, with dark or black hair and eyes, often good looking.
The principal causes are the growth of population, and the over-supply of and low rates of remuneration for manual labor in various Italian provinces.
It predominates along the Ligurian Riviera from Bordighera to Spezia, and on the Adriatic, near San Benedetto del Tronto and Gargano, and, crossing the Italian shore of the Ioian Sea, prevails in some regions of Calabria, and terminates around the gulfs of Salerno, Sorrento and Naples.
The hills of Tuscany, and of Monferrato in Piedmont, produce the most celebrated Italian vintages.
The manufacture of macaroni and similar foodstuff is a characteristic Italian industry.
The vine has been attacked by the Oidium Tuckeri, the Phylloxera vastatrix and the Peronospora viticola, which in rapid succession wrought great havoc in Italian vineyards.
The quality, too, owing to bad weather at the time of vintage, was not good; Italian wine, indeed, never is sufficiently good to compete with the best wines of other countries, especially France (thotigh there is more opening for Italian wines of the Bordeaux and,Burgundy type); nor will many kinds of it stand keeping, partly owing to their natural qualities and partly to the insufficient care devoted to their preparation.
In 1901, 1985 imperial tuns of oil were shipped from Gallipoli for abroadtwo-thirds to the United Kingdom, one-third to Russiaand 666 to Italian ports; while in 1904 the figures were reversed, 1633 tuns going to Italian ports, and only 945 tuns to foreign ports.
The cultivation of oranges, lemons and their congeners (collectively designated in Italian by the term agrumi) is of comparatively modern date, the introduction of the Citrus Bigarcidia being probably due to the Arabs.
With the exception of Parmesan, Gorgonzola, La Fontina and Gruyre, most of the Italian cheese is consumed in the locality of its production.
The Italian Federation of Agrarian Unions has greatly contributed to agricultural progress.
One of the great evils of Italian agricultural taxation is its lack of elasticity and of adaptation to local conditions.
Many articles formerly imported are now made at home, and some Italian manufactures have begun to compete in foreign markets.
A sign of industrial development is to be found in the growing number of manufacturing companies, both Italian and foreign.
Home products not only supply the Italian market in increasing degree, but find their way into foreign markets.
As in the case of cotton, Italian woollen fabrics are conquering the home market in increasing degree.
Pharmaceutical industries as distinguished from those above mentioned, have kept pace with the general development of Italian activity.
The last named has succeeded, by means of the large establishments at Milan in supplying not only the whole Italian market but an export trade.
A characteristic Italian industry is that of straw-plaiting for hat-making, which is carried on principally in Tuscany, in the district of Fermo, in the Alpine villages of the province of Vicenza, and in some communes of the province of Messina.
In 1893, after many vicissitudes, the Italian Socialist Labor Party was founded, and has now become the Italian Socialist Party, in which the majority of Italian workmen enrol themselves.
The present Italian mutual benefit societies resemble the ancient beneficent corporations, of which in some respects they may be considered a continuation.
Between the years i88i and 1905 the number of ships entered and cleared at Italian ports decreased slightly (219,598 in 1881 and 208,737 in 1905), while their aggregate tonnage increased (32,070,704 in 1881 and 80,782,030 in 1905).
In the movement of shipping, trade with foreign countries prevails (especially as regards arrivals) over trade between Italian ports.
Similarly, foreign vessels prevail over Italian vessels in regard to goods embarked.
The substitution of steamships for sailing vessels has brought about a diminution in the number of vessels belonging to the Italian mercantile marine, whether employed in the coasting trade, the fisheries or in traffic on the high seas.
Italian trade with foreign countries (imports and exports) during the quinquennium 1872-1876 averaged 94,000,000 a year; in the quinquennium 1893f 897 it fell to 88,960,000 a year.
The great extension of Italian coast-line is thought by some to be not really a source of strength to the Italian mercantile marine, as few of the ports have a large enough hinterland to provide them with traffic, and in this hinterland (except in the basin of the Po) there are no canals or navigable rivers.
Another source of weakness is the fact that Italy is a country of transit and the Italian mercantile marine has to enter into competition with the ships of other countries, which call there in passing.
A third difficulty is the comparatively small tonnage and volume of Italian exports relatively to the imports, the former in 1907 being about one-fourth of the latter, and greatl out of proportion to the relative value; while a fourth is the lac of facilities for handling goods, especially in the smaller ports.
The balance of Italian trade has undergone frequent fluctuations.
In 1894 the excess of imports over exports fell to 2,720,000, but by 1898 it had grown to 8,391,000, in consequence chiefly of the increased importation of coal, raw cotton and cotton thread, pig and cast iron, old iron, grease and oil-seeds for use in Italian industries.
The patrimony of Italian charitable institutions is considerable and is constantly increasing.
Italian charity legislation was reformed by the laws of 1862 and 1890, which attempted to provide efficacious protection for endowments, and to ensure the application of the ir.come to the purposes for which it was intended.
Protestants number some 65,000, of whom half are Italian and half foreign.
The Italian parishes had in 1901 a total gross revenue, including assignments from the public worship endowment fund, of 1,280,000 or an average of 63 per parish; 51% of this gross sum consists of revenue from glebe lands.
The Italian sees (exclusive of Rome and of the suburbicarian sees) have a total annual revenue of 206,000 equal to an average of 800 per see.
The small republic of San Marino is the only other enclave in Italian territory.
The Italian suicide rate of 63.6 per 1,000,000 is, however, lower than those of Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and France, while it approximates to that of England.
The Italian rate is highest in the more enlightened and industrial north, and lowest in the south.
But these figures do not represent the actual service of every able-bodied Italian.
The Italian Chamber decided that from the 1st of July 1901 until the 30th of June 1907 Italian military expenditure proper should not exceed the maximum of 1/29,560,000 per annum fixed by the Army Bill of May 1897, and that, military pensions should not exceed 1/21,440,000.
Italian military expenditure was thus until f907 1/2ff,000,000 per annum.
For purposes of naval organization the Italian coast is divided into three maritime departments, with headquarters at Spezia, Naples and Venice; and into two comandi militari, with headquarters at Taranto and at the island of Maddalena.
The materiel of the Italian navy has been completely transformed, especially in Virtue of the bill of the 31st of March 1875.
Violent fluctuations have, however, taken place from year to year, according to the state of Italian finances.
The volume of the Italian budget has considerably increased as regards both income and expenditure.
The revenue in the Italian financial year 1905-1906 (July I, 1905 to June 30, 1906) was 102,486,108, and the expenditure 99,945,253, or, subtracting the partite di giro, 99,684,121 and 97,143,266, leaving a surplus of 2,54o,855.f The surplus was made up by contributions from every branch of the effective revenue, except the contributions and repayments from local authorities.
On an average Italian landowners pay nearly 25% of their revenues from land in government and local land tax.
The price of Italian consolidated 5% (gross, 4% net, allowing for the 20% income tax) stock, which is the security most largely negotiated abroad, and used in settling differences between large financial institutions, has steadily risen during recent years.
By the end of 1901 the price of Italian stock on the Paris Bourse had, however, risen to par or thereabouts.
The difficulty of Italian history lies in the fact, that until modern times the Italians have had no political unity, no independence, no organized existence as a nation.
The year 476 opened a new age for the Italian people.
The same revolution vested supreme authority in a non-resident and inefficient autocrat, whose title gave him the right to interfere in Italian affairs, but who lacked the power and will to rule the people for his own or their advantage.
Internally Charles left the affairs of the Italian kingdom much as he found them, except that he appears to have pursued the policy of breaking up the larger fiefs of the Lombards, substituting counts for their dukes, and adding to the privileges of the bishops.
We may reckon these measures among the earliest advantages extended to the cities, which still contained the bulk of the old Roman population, and which were destined to intervene with decisive effect two centuries later in Italian history.
The truth is that no period in Italian history was less really glorious than that which came to a close in 961 by Berengar II.s cession of his rights to Otto the Great.
The discords which followed on the break-up of the Carolingian power, and the weakness of the so-called Italian emperors, who were unable to control the feudatories (marquises of Ivrea and Tuscany, dukes of Friuli and Spoleto), from whose ranks they sprang, exposed Italy to ever-increasing misrule.
The cities, exposed to pillage by Huns in the north and Saracens in the south, and ravaged on the coast by Norse pirates, asserted their right to enclose themselves with walls, and taught their burghers the use of arms. Within the circuit of their ramparts, the bishops already began to exercise authority in rivalry with the counts, to whom, since the days of Theodoric, had been entrusted the government of the Italian burghs.
In the extremity of his fortunes he had recourse himself to Otto, making a formal cession of the Italian kingdom, in his own name and that of his son Adalbert, to the Saxon as his overlord.
The great Italian nobles, in their turn, appealed to Germany.
The first thing we have to notice in this revolution which placed Otto the Great upon the imperial throne is that the Italian.
Among the centrifugal forces which determined the future of the Italian race must be reckoned, first and foremost, the new spirit of municipal independence.
The Italian people, that people which gave to the world the commerce and the arts of Florence, was not indeed as yet apparent.
It is here, at the Heribert present epoch and for the next two centuries, that the and the pith and nerve of the Italian nation must be sought; Lombard and among the burghs of Lombardy, Milan, the eldest burghs.
To Heribert is attributed the invention of the Carroccio, which played so singular and important a part in the warfare of Italian cities.
While making these reservations, it is at thesame time right to observe that certain Italian communities were more advanced upon the path of independence than others.
Not to mention Venice, which has not yet entered the Italian community, and remains a Greek free city, Genoa and Pisa were rapidly rising into ill-defined autonomy.
Sicily in the hands ot the Mussulmans, the Theme of Lombardy abandoned to the weak suzerainty of the Greek catapans, the Lombard duchy of Benevento slowly falling to pieces and the maritime republics of Naples, Gaeta and Amalfi extending their influence by commerce in the Mediterranean, were in effect detached from the Italian regno, beyond the jurisidiction of Rome, included in no parcel of Italy proper.
But now the moment had arrived when this vast group of provinces, forming the future kingdom of the Two Sicilies, was about to enter definitely and decisively within the bounds of the Italian community.
This Norman conquest of the two Sicilies forms the most romantic episode in medieval Italian history.
Under their consuls the Italian burghs rose to a great height of prosperity and splendour.
By their sufferings no less than by their deeds of daring, her citizens showed themselves to be sublime, devoted and disinterested, winning the purest laurels which give lustre to Italian story.
Venice, who had not yet entered the Italian community, is conspicuous by her absence.
The next great chapter in the history of against Italian evolution is the war of the burghs against the nobles, nobles.
But, like all the vicissitudes, of the Italian race, while it was a decided step forward in one direction, it introduced a new source of discord.
The nation had outgrown dependence upon foreigners, and after his death no German emperor interfered with anything but miserable failure in Italian affairs.
By birth and breeding an Italian, highly gifted and widely cultivated, liberal in his opinions, a patron.
At his court Italian started into being as a language.
Here in the year 1300 new factions, subdividing the old Guelphs and Ghibellines under the names of Neri and Bianchi, had acquired such force that Boniface VIII., a violently Guelph pope, called in Charles of Valois to pacify the republic and undertake the charge of Italian affairs.
Castruccio Castracane was nominated by him duke of Lucca; and this is the first instance of a dynastic title conferred upon an Italian adventurer by the emperor.
As the companies grew in size and improved their discipline, it was seen by the Italian nobles that this kind of service offered a good career for men of spirit, who had learned the use of arms. To leave so powerful and profitable a calling in the hands of foreigners seemed both dangerous and uneconomical.
The first Italian who formed an exclusively Italian company was Alberico da Barbiano, a nobleman of Romagna, and founder of the Milanese house of Belgiojoso.
In his school the great condottieri Braccio da Montone and Sforza Attendolo were formed; and henceforth the battles of Italy were fought by Italian generals commanding native troops.
It must further be noticed that the rise of mercenaries was synchronous with a change in the nature of Italian despotism.
The subsequent events of Italian history will be rendered most intelligible if at this point we trace the development of these five constituents of Italian greatness separately.
Ren found supporters among the Italian princes, especially the Milanese Visconti, who helped him to assert his claims with arms. During the war of succession which ensued, Alfonso was taken prisoner by the Genoese fleet in August 1435, and was sent a prisoner to Filippo Maria at Milan.
Therefore, when he died in 1458, he bequeathed Naples to his natural son Ferdinand, while Sicily and Aragon passed together to his brother John, and so on to Ferdinand the Catholic. The twenty-three years of Alfonsos reign were the most prosperous and splendid period of South Italian history.
Galeazzo was the wealthiest and most magnificent Italian of his epoch.
He subsequently spent a long, suspicious, secret and incomprehensible career in the attempt to piece together Gian Galeazzos Lombard state, and to carry out his schemes of Italian conquest.
Thus the limitation of the Milanese duchy under Filippo Maria Visconti, and its consolidation under Francesco Sforza, were equally effectual in preparing the balance of power to which Italian politics now tended.
Venice, however, in the 14th century took her place at last as an Italian power on an equality at least with the very greatest.
Meanwhile, throughout the middle ages, it had been the policy of Venice to refrain from conquests on the Italian mainland, and to confine her energies to commerce in the East.
The first entry of any moment made by the Venetians into strictly Italian affairs was in 1336, when the republics of Florence and St Mark allied themselves against Mastino della Scala, and the latter took possession of Treviso.
Their career of conquest, and their new policy of forming Italian alliances and entering into the management of Italian affairs were confirmed by the long dogeship of Francesco Foscari (1423-1457), who must rank with Alfonso, Cosimo de Medici, Francesco Sforza and Nicholas V., as a joint-founder of confederated Italy.
Ranking as one of the five Italian powers, she was also destined to defend Western Christendom against the encroachments of the Turk in Europe.
At the same time, the change which had now come over Italian politics, the desire on all sides for a settlement, and the growing conviction that a federation was necessary, proved advantageous to the popes as sovereigns.
On all sides it was felt that the Italian alliance must be tightened; and one of the last, best acts of Nicholas V.s pontificate was the appeal in 1453 to the five great powers in federation.
As regards their common opposition to the Turk, this appeal led to nothing; but it marked the growth of a new Italian consciousness.
Apprehending the importance of Italian federation, Lorenzo, by his personal tact and prudent leadership of the republic, secured peace and a common intelligence between the five powers.
It became the nobler ambition of Julius to aggrandize the church, and to reassume the protectorate of the Italian people.
It was with the Swiss that he hoped to effect this revolution; but the Swiss, now interfering for the first time as principals in Italian affairs, were incapable of more than adding to the already maddening distractions of the people.
In the reign of this pope Francis was released from his prison in Madrid (1526), and Clement hoped that he might still be used in the Italian interest as a counterpoise to Charles.
He there received the imperial crown, and summoned the Italian princes for a settlement of all disputed claims. Francesco Sforza, the last and childless heir of the ducal house, was left in Milan till his death, which happened in 1535.
The great gainer by this settlement was the papacy, which held the most substantial Italian province, together with a prestige that raised it far above all rivalry.
The affairs of Europe during the years when Habsburg and Bourbon fought their domestic battles with the blood of noble races may teach grave lessons to all thoughtful men of our days, but none bitterer, none fraught with more insulting recollections, than to the Italian people, who were haggled over like dumb driven cattle in the mart of chaffering kings.
By removing the capital from Chambry to Turin, he completed the transformation of the dukes of Savoy from Burgundian into Italian sovereigns.
Humiliating to human nature in general as are the annals of the 18th-century campaigns in Europe, there is no point of view from which they appear in a light so tragi-comic as from that afforded by Italian history.
Charles of Austria, now emperor, took Milan, Mantua, Naples and Sardinia for his portion of the Italian spoil.
The War of the Polish Succession which now disturbed Europe is only important in Italian history because the treaty of Vienna in 1738 settled the disputed affairs of the duchies Polish of Parma and Tuscany.
Plotting was rife at Milan, as also at Bologna, where the memory of old liberties predisposed men to cast off clerical rule and led to the first rising on behalf of Italian liberty in the year 1794.
Bona- The anathemas of the pope, the bravery of Piedmontese and Austrians, and the subsidies of Great Britain failed to keep the league of Italian princes against France intact.
Meanwhile he took care to curb the excesses of the Italian Jacobins and to encourage the Moderates, who were favorable to the French connection as promising a guarantee against Austrian domination and internal anarchy.
Finally, after the proclamation of the French empire (May 18, 1804) Napoleon proposed to place his brother Joseph over the Italian state, which now took the title of kingdom of Italy.
While Massna pursued the Austrians into their own lands at the close of I8o5, Italian forces under Eugene and Gouvion St Cyr (q.v.) held their ground against allied forces landed at Naples.
Very many of them, distrusting both of these kings, sought to act independently in favor of an Italian republic. Lord William Bentinck with an AngloSicilian force landed at Leghorn on the 8th of March 1814, and issued a proclamation to the Italians bidding them rise against Napoleon in the interests of their own freedom.
Not only did she govern Lombardy and Venetia directly, but Austrian princes ruled in Modena, Parma and Tuscany; Piacenza, Ferrara and Comacchio had Austrian garrisons; Prince Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, believed that he could always secure the election of an Austrophil pope, and Ferdinand of Naples, reinstated by an Austrian army, had bound himself, by a secret article of the treaty of June 12, 1815, not to introduce methods of government incompatible with those adopted in Austrias Italian possessions.
But although welcomed with enthusiasm Reaction on his return to Turin, he introduced a system of in the reaction which, if less brutal, was no less uncom- Italian promising than that of Austrian archdukes or Bourbon States.
The new-born idea of Italian unity, strengthened by a national pride revived on many a stricken field from Madrid to Moscow, was a force to be reckoned with.
Calderai, who may be compared to the Black Hundreds of modern Russia, the revolutionary spirit continued to grow, but it was not at first anti-dynastic. The granting of the Spanish constitution of 1820 proved the signal for the beginning of the Italian.
Confalonieri, who was in favor of an Italian federation composed lEngelsm of northern Italy under the house of Savoy, central bardy.
The heroism of the prisoners, and Silvio Pellicos account of his imprisonment (Le mie Prigioni), did much to enlist the sympathy of Europe for the Italian cause.
In February 1831 these provinces rose, raised the red, white and green tricolor (which henceforth took the place of the Carbonarist colors as the Italian flag), and shook off the papal yoke with surprising ease.1 At Parma too there was an outbreak and a demand for the constitution; Marie Louise could not grant it because of her engagements with Austria, and, therefore, abandoned her dominions.
Menotti, for his part, conceived the idea of a united Italian state under the duke.
Italy and expelling the foreigner, and told that he was free to choose whether he would be the first of men or the last of Italian tyrants.
Young Italy spread to all centres of Italian exiles, and by means of literature carried on an active propaganda in Italy itself, where the party came to be called Ghibellini, as though reviving the traditions of medieval anti-Papalism.
Vincenzo Gioberti published in 1843 his famous treatise Del primato morale e civile degli Italiani, a work, which, in striking contrast to the prevailing pessimism of the day, extolled the past greatness and achievements of the Italian people and their present virtues.
His political ideal was a federation of all the Italian states under the presidency of the pope, on a basis of Catholicism, but without a constitution.
Like Gioberti he advocated a federation of Italian states, but he declared that before this could be achieved Austria must be expelled from Italy and compensation found for her in the Near East by making her a Danubian powera curious forecast that Italys liberation would begin with an eastern war.
Above all Italian character must be reformed and the nation educated.
A lay ministry was now demanded, a constitution, and an Italian federation for war against Austria.
In 1847 Lord Minto visited the tionary Italian courts to try to induce the recalcitrant despots agitation, to mend their ways, so as to avoid revolution and war, 1847.
Tuscany and Naples had both joined the Italian league; a Tuscan army started for Lombardy on the 3oth of April, and 17,000 Neapolitans commanded by Pepe (who had returned after 28 years of exile) went to assist Durando in intercepting the Austrian reinforce1irnts under Nugent.
The offer of French assistance, made after the proclamation of the republic in the spring of 1848, had been rejected mainly because France, fearing that the creation of a strong Italian state would be a danger to her, would have demanded the cession of Nice and Savoy, which the king refused to consider.
Novara set Austria free to reinstate the Italian despots.
The Italian cause had been crushed, but revolution and war had strengthened the feeling of unity, for Neapolitans had fought for Venice, Lombards for Rome, Piedmontese for all Italy.
All reasonable men were now convinced that the question of the ultimate form of the Italian government was secondary, and that the national efforts should be concentrated on the task of expelling the Austrians; the form of government could be decided afterwards.
The Piedmontese government rightly regarded this measure as a violation of the peace treaty of 1850, and Cavour recalled the Piedmontese minister from Vienna, an action which was endorsed by Italian public opinion generally, and won the approval of France and England.
The Piedmontese troops distinguished themselves in the field, gaining the sympathies of the French and English; and at the subsequent congress of Paris (1856), where Cavour himself was Sardinian representative, the Italian question was discussed, and the intolerable oppression of the Italian peoples by Austria and the despots ventilated.
In 1856 the emperor and empress visited their Italian dominions, but were received with icy coldness; the following year, on the retirement of Radetzky at the age of ninety-three, the archduke Maximilian, an able, cultivated and kind-hearted man, was appointed viceroy.
He made desperate efforts to conciliate the population, and succeeded with a few of the nobles, who were led to believe in the possibility of an Italian confederation, including Lombardy and Venetia which would be united to Austria by a personal union alone; but the immense majority of all classes rejected these advances, and came to regard union with Piedmont with increasing favor.
In Piedmont itself it was at first less successful; and Cavour, although he aspired ultimately to a united Italy with Rome as the capital,1 openly professed no ambition beyond the expulsion of Austria and the formation of a North Italian kingdom.
The emperor Napoleon, almost alone among Frenchmen, had genuine Italian sympathies.
The attempt failed and its author was caught and executed, but while t appeared at first to destroy Napoleons Italian sympathies and led to a sharp interchange of notes between Paris and Turin, the emperor was really impressed by the attempt and by Orsinis letter from prison exhorting him to intervene in Italy.
He realized how deep the Italian feeling for independence must be, and that a refusal to act now might result in further attempts on his life, as indeed Orsinis letter stated.
There it was agreed that France should supply 200,000 men and Piedmont 100,000 for the expulsion of the Austrians from Italy, that Piedmont should be expanded into a kingdom of North Italy, that central Italy should form a separate kingdom, on the throne of which the emperor contemplated placing one of his own relatives, and Naples another, possibly under Lucien Murat; the pope, while retaining only the Patrimony of St Peter (the Roman province), would be president of the Italian confederation.
Yet after these warlike declarations and after the signing of a military convention at Turin, the king agreeing to all the conditions proposed by Napoleon, the latter suddenly became pacific again, and adopted the Russian suggestion that Italian affairs should be settled by a congress.
The military events of the Italian war of 1859 are described under ITALIAN WARS.
Garibaldis volunteers raised the standard of insurrection and held the field in the region of the Italian lakes.
A provisional government was formed, led by Ubaldino Peruzzi, and was strengthened on the 8th of May by the inclusion of Baron Bettino Ricasoli, a man of great force of character, who became the real head of the administration, and all through the ensuing critical period aimed unswervingly at Italian unity.
But to Napoleons statement that he could not agree to the unification of Italy, as he was bound by his promises to Austria at Villafranca, Victor Emmanuel replied that he himself, after Magenta and Solferino, was bound in honor to link his fate with that of the Italian people; and Genetal Manfredo Fanti was sent by the Turin government to organize the army of the Central League, with Garibaldi under him.
The proposed congress fell through, and Napoleon thereupon raised the question of the cession of Nice and Savoy as the price of his consent to the union of the central provinces with the Italian kingdom.
At last, on the 24th of March, the treaty was signed whereby the cession was agreed upon, but subject to the vote of the populations concerned and ratification by the Italian parliament.
On the 2nd of April 1860 the new Italian parliament, including members from central Italy, assembled at Turin.
It was all-important that whatever victories Garibaldi might win should be won for the Italian kingdom, and, above all, that no ill-timed attack on the Papal States should provoke an intervention of the powers.
Garibaldi demanded that all his officers should be n equivalent rank in the Italian army, and in this he had the port of Fanti.
Jictor Emmanuel took the supreme command of the Italian sy, and La Marmora resigned the premiership (which was umed by Ricasoli), to become chief of the staff.
The Garibaldians, mowed down by the new French chassept rifles, fought until their last cartridges were exhausted, and retreated the next day towards the Italian frontier, leaving 800 prisoners.
Then it was too late; Victor Emmanuel asked Thiers if he could give his word of honor that with 100,000 Italian troops France could be saved, but Thiers remained silent.
Martinengo Cesarescos Liberation of Italy (London, 1895) is to be strongly recommended, and is indeed, for accuracy, fairness and synthesis, as well as for charm of style, one of the very best books on the subject in any language; Bolton Kings History of Italian Unity (2 vols., London, 1899) is bulkier and less satisfactory, but contains a useful bibliography.
Abroad, Catholic countries Italian at first received the tidings with resignation, and occupa.
The occupation of Rome caused no surprise to the French government, which had been forewarned on 11th September of the Italian intentions.
The secretary-general of the Italian foreign office, Baron Blanc, who had accompanied General Cadorna to Rome, was received almost daily by Cardinal Antonelli, papal secretary of state, in order to settle innumerable questions arising out of the Italian occupation.
The royal commissioner for finance, Giacomelli, had, as a precautionary measure, seized the pontifical treasury; but upon being informed by Cardinal Antonelli that among the funds deposited in the treasury were 1,000,000 crowns of Peters Pence offered by the faithful to the pope in person, the commissioner was authorized by the Italian council of state not only to restore this sum, but also to indemnify the Holy See for moneys expended for the service of the October coupon of the pontifical debt, that debt having been taken over by the Italian state.
The Italian treasury at once honored all the papal drafts, and thus contributed a first instalment of the 3,225,000 lire per annum afterwards placed by Article 4 of the Law of Guarantees at the disposal of the Holy See.
Once in possession of Rome, and guarantor to the Catholic world of the spiritual independence of the pope, the Italian government prepared juridically to regulate its relations to the Holy See.
Articles 6 and 7 forbade access of any Italian official or agent to the above-mentioned palaces or to any eventual conclave or oecumenical council without special authorization from the pope, conclave Or council.
Article 10 extended immunity to ecclesiastics employed by the Holy See, and bestowed upon foreign ecciesiastics in Rome the personal rights of Italian citizens.
Article 13 exempted all ecclesiastical seminaries, academies, colleges and schools for the education of priests in the city of Rome from all interference on the part of the Italian government.
Bishops were further dispensed from swearing fealty tc the king, though, except in Rome and suburbs, the choice of bishop1 was limited to ecclesiastics of Italian nationality.
On the 12th of July 1871, Articles 268, 269 and 270 of the Italian Penal Code were so modified as to make ecclesiastics liable to imprisonment for periods varying from six months to five years, and to fines from 1000 to 3000 lire, for spoken or written attacks against the laws of the state, or for the fomentation of disorder.
For a few months after the occupation of Rome pressing questions incidental to a new change of capital and to the administration of a new domain distracted public attention from the real condition of Italian affairs.
General Ricotti Magnani, minister of war, therefore framed an Army Reform Bill designed to bring the Italian army as nearly as possible up to the Prussian standard.
Though perhaps less desperate than during the previous decade, the condition of Italian finance was precarious indeed.
Sella, the real head of the Lanza cabinet, was worn out by four years continuous work and disheartened by the perfidious misrepresentation in which Italian politicians, particularly those of the Left, have ever excelled.
To the pope was made over 16,000 per annum as a contribution to the expense of maintaining in Rome representatives of foreign orders; the Sacred College, however, rejected this endowment, and summoned all the suppressed confraternities to reconstitute themselves under the ordinary Italian law of association.
With the aid of Sella he concluded conventions for the redemption of the chief Italian railways from their French and Austrian proprietors.
Practically, therefore, the Right, of which the Minghetti cabinet was the last representative administration, left Italian finance with a surplus of 80,000.
During his three years of office he laid the foundation upon which Brin was afterwards to build up a new Italian navy.
His bill, adopted by parliament on the 7th of June 1875, still forms the ground plan of the Italian army.
At this juncture the emperor of Austria invited Victor Emmanuel to visit the Vienna Exhibition, and the Italian government received a confidential intimation that acceptance of the invitation to Vienna would be followed by a further invitation from Berlin.
Perceiving the advantage of a visit to the imperial and apostolic court after the Italian occupation of Rome and the suppression of the religious orders, and convinced of the value of more cordial intercourse with the German empire, Visconti-Venosta and Minghetti advised their sovereign to accept both the Austrian and the subsequent German invitations.
The visit to Vienna took place on the 17th to the 22nd of September, and that to Berlin on the 22nd to the 26th of September 1873, the Italian monarch being accorded in both capitals a most cordial reception, although the contemporaneous publication of La Marmoras famous pamphlet, More Light on 1/fe Events of i866, prevented intercourse between the Italian ministers and Bismarck from being entirely confidential.
Upon the outbreak of the Prussian Kulturkampf the Left had pressed the Right to introduce an Italian counterpart to the Prussian May laws, especially as the attitude of Thiers and the hostility of the French Clericals obviated the need for sparing French susceptibilities.
Depretis recalled Nigra from Paris and replaced him by General Cialdini, whose ardent plea for Italian intervention in favor of France in 1870, and whose comradeship with Marshal Macmahon in 1859, would, it was supposed, render him persona gratissima to the French government.
Incensed by the elevation to the rank of embassies of the Italian legation in Paris and the French legation to the Quirinal, and by the introduction of the Italian bill against clerical abuses, the French Clerical party not only attacked Italy and her representative, General Cialdini, in the Chamber of Deputies, but promoted a monster petition against the Italian bill.
As a precaution against an eventual French attempt to restore the temporal power, orders were hurriedly given to complete the defences of Rome, but in other respects the Italian government maintained its subservient attitude.
The mission appears not to have been an unqualified success, though Crispi afterwards affirmed in the Chamber (4th March 1886) that Depretis might in 1877 have harnessed fortune to the Italian chariot.
Depretis, anxious only to avoid a policy of adventure, let slip whatever opportunity may have presented itself, and neglected even to deal energetically with the impotent but mischievous Italian agitation for a rectification of the Italo-Austrian frontier.
Crispi, whose strong anti-clerical convictions did not prevent him from regarding the papacy as preeminently an Italian institution, was determined both to prove to the Catholic world the practical independence of the government of the Church and to retain for Rome so potent a centre of universal attraction as the presence of the future pope.
The Sacred College having decided to hold the conclave abroad, Crispi assured them of absolute freedom if they remained in Rome, or of protection to the frontier should they migrate, but warned them that, once evacuated, the Vatican would be occupied in the name of the Italian government and be lost to the Church as headquarters of the papacy.
Cairoli succeeded in forming an administration, in which his friend Count Corti, Italian ambassador at Constantinople, accepted the portfolio of foreign affairs, Zanardelli the ministry of the interior, and Seismit Doda the ministry of finance.
The Italian government attached little importance to the occurrence, and believed that a diplomatic expression of regret would suffice to allay Austrian irritation.
Guiccioli, the biographer of Sella, observes that Italian politicians find it especially hard to resist the temptation of appearing crafty.
Italy, in constant danger from France, needed good relations with Austria and Germany, but could only attain the goodwill of the former by firm treatment of the revolutionary Irredentist agitation, and of the latter by clear demonstration of Italian will and ability to cope with all anti-monarchical forces.
Almost up to the moment of the French occupation of Tunisia the Italian government believed that Great Britain, if only out of gratitude for the bearing of Italy in connection with the Dulcigno demonstration.
The rivalry between these two officials in Tunisia contributed not a little to strain FrancoItalian relations, but it is doubtful whether France would have precipitated her action had not General Menabrea, Italian ambassador in London, urged his government to purchase the Tunis-Goletta railway from the English company by which it had been constructed.
Had the blow thus struck at Italian influence in the Mediterranean induced politicians to sink for a while their personal differences and to unite in presenting a firm front to foreign nations, the crisis in regard to Tunisia might not have been wholly unproductive of good.
Most of the responsibility lay with the Vatican, which had arranged the procession in the way best calculated to irritate Italian feeling, but little excuse can be offered for the failure of the Italian authorities to maintain public order.
Italian alliance with Austria and Germany counterbalanced each other.
Danger of foreign interference in the relations between Italy and the papacy had never been so great since the Italian occupation of Rome, as when, in the summer of 1881,the disorders during the transfer of the remains of Pius IX.
The political conditions of Europe favored the realization of Italian desires.
As in 1869-1870, it therefore became a matter of the highest importance for Austria to retain full disposal of all her troops by assuring herself against Italian aggression.
Hence a tacit understanding between Bismarck and Austria that the latter should profit by Italian resentment against France to draw Italy into the orbit of the Austro-German alliance.
Seeing the hesitation of the Italian government, the Austrian and German semi-official press redoubled their efforts to bring about the visit.
Though he considered such precipitation impolitic, Robilant, finding that confidential information of Italian intentions had already been conveyed to the Austrian government, sought an interview with King Humbert, and on the 17th of October started for Vienna to settle the conditions of the visit.
The Austrian government, for its part, desired that the king should be accompanied by Depretis, though not by Mancini, lest the presence of the Italian foreign minister should lend to the occasion too marked a political character.
Count Hatzfeldt, on behalf of the German Foreign Office, informed the Italian ambassador in Berlin that whatever was done at Vienna would be regarded as having been done in the German capital.
Doubts, however, soon sprang up as to its effect upon the minds of Austrian statesmen, since on the 8th of November the language employed by Kllay and Count Andrssy to the Hungarian delegations on the subject of Irredentism was scarcely calculated to soothe Italian susceptibilities.
These mancnuvres produced their effect upon Italian public opinion.
In the long and important debate upon foreign policy in the Italian Chamber of Deputies (6th to 9th December) the fear was repeatedly expressed lest Bismarck should seek to purchase the support of German Catholics by raising the Roman question.
At the request of Kalnky, Mancini defined his proposal in a memorandum, but the illness of himself and Depretis, combined with an untoward discussion in the Italian press on the failure of the Austrian emperor to return in Rome King Humberts visit to Vienna, caused negotiations to drag.
The Italian General Staff is said to have undertaken, in the event of war against France, to operate with two armies on the north-western frontier against the French arme des Alpes, of which the war strength is about 250,000 men.
A third Italian army would, if expedient, pass into Germany, to operate against either France or Russia.
Kalnky desired that both the terms of the treaty and the fact of its conclusion should remain secret, but Bismarck and Mancini hastened to hint at its existence, the former in the Reichstag on the 12th of June 1882, and the latter in the Italian semi-official press.
Though kept in the dark as to the Skierniewice arrangement, the Italian government soon discovered from the course of events that the triple alliance had practically lost its object, European peace having been assured without Italian co-operation.
At the same time negotiations took place with Great Britain for an Italian occupation of Massawa, and Mancini, dreaming of a vast Anglo-Italian enterprise against the Mahdi, expatiated in.
These words, which revealed the absence of any stipulation in regard to the protection of Italian interests in the Mediterranean, created lively dissatisfaction in Italy and corresponding satisfaction in France.
They hastened Mancinis downfall (17th June 1885), and prepared the advent of count di Robilant, who three months later succeeded Mancini at the Italian Foreign Office.
This something more consisted, at least in part, of the arrangement, with the help of Austria and Germany, of an Anglo-Italian naval understanding having special reference to the Eastern question, but providing for common action by the British and Italian fleets in the Mediterranean in case of war.
A vote of the Italian Chamber on the 4th of February 1887, in connection with the disaster to Italian troops at Dogali, in Abyssinia, brought about the resignation of the Depretis-Robilant cabinet.
Italian army and navy, but, in virtue of the AngloItalian understanding, assured the practical adhesion of Great Britain to the European policy of the central powers, a triumph probably greater than any registered by Italian diplomacy since the completion.
The period between May 1881 and July 1887 occupied, in the region of foreign affairs, by the negotiation, conclusion and renewal of the triple alliance, by the Bulgarian crisis and by the dawn of an Italian colonial policy, was marked at home by urgent political and economic problems, and by the parliamentary phenomena known as trasformismo.
National control of the railways was secured by a proviso that the directors must be of Italian nationality.
Eighteen months later a party of Italian sailors and explorers under Lieutenant Biglieri and Signor Giulietti were massacred in Egyptian.
On the 20th of September 1881 Beheran formally accepted Italian protection, and in the following February an Anglo-Italian convention established the Italian title to Assab on condition that Italy should formally recognise the suzerainty of the Porte and of the khedive over the Red Sea coast, and should prevent the transport of arms and munitions of war through the territory of Assab.
A month later (10th March I 882) Rubattino made over his establishment to the Italian government, and on the 12th of June the Chamber adopted a bill constituting Assab an Italian crown colony.
About the same time Mancini was informed by the Italian agent in Cairo that Great Britain would be well disposed towards an extension of Italian influence on the Red Sea coast.
Italian action was hastened by news that, in December 1884, an exploring party under Signor Bianchi, royal commissioner for Assab, had been massacred in the Aussa (Danakil) country, an event which aroused in Italy a desire to punish the assassins and to obtain satisfaction for the still unpunished massacre of Signor Giulietti and his companions.
Partly to satisfy public opinion, partly in order to profit by the favorable disposition of the British government, and partly in the hope of remedying the error committed in 1882 by refusal to co-operate with Great Britain in Egypt, the Italian government in January 1885 despatched an expedition under Admiral Caimi and Colonel Saletta to occupy Massawa and Beilul.
News of the occupation reached Europe simultaneously with the tidings of the fall of Khartum, an event which disappointed Italian hopes of military co-operation with Great Britain in the Sudan.
The resignation of the Gladstone-Granville cabinet further precluded the projected Italian occupation of Suakin, and the Italians, wisely refraining from an independent attempt to succour Kassala, then besieged by the Mahdists, bent their efforts to the increase of their zone of occupation around Massawa.
The extension of the Italian zone excited the suspicions of John, negus of Abyssinia, whose apprehensions were assiduously fomented by Alula, ras of Tigr, and by French and Greek adventurers.
Angered by this step, Ras Alula took prisoners the members of an Italian exploring party commanded by Count Salimbeni, and held them as hostages for the evacuation of Wa.
On the following day, however, the Abyssinians succeeded in surprising, near the village of Dogali, an Italian force of 524 officers and men under Colonel De Cristoforis, who were convoying provisions to the garrison of Saati.
The Abyssinians, 20,000 strong, speedily overwhelmed the small Italian force, which, after exhausting its ammunition, was destroyed where it stood.
On the 28th of March 1888 the negus indeed descended from the Abyssinian high plateau in the direction of Saati, but finding the Italian position too strong to be carried by assault, temporized and opened negotiations for peace.
Antoneili profited by the situation to obtain Mneleks signature to a treaty fixing the frontiers of the Italian colony and defining Italo-Abyssinian relations.
On the 11th of October Italy communicated article 7 of the treaty of Uccialli to the European powers, interpreting it as a valid title to an Italian protectorate over Abyssinia.
Meanwhile the Italian mint coined thalers bearing the portrait of King Humbert, with an inscription referring to the Italian protectorate, and on the 1st of January 1890 a royal decree conferred upon the colony the name of Eritrea.
The Italian general would have preferred to wait until his intervention was requested Opcra dons in by both pretenders to the Abyssinian throne.
Thq latter retreated south of the river Mareb, leaving the whole of the cis-Mareb territory, including the provinces of Hamasen, Agameh, Sera and Okul-Kusai, in Italian hands.
Mangash, seeing further resistance to be useless, submitted to Menelek, who at the end of February ratified at Makall the additional convention to the treaty of Uccialli, but refused to recognize the Italian occupation of the Mareb.
The negus, however, conformed to article 17 of the treaty of IJccialli by requesting Italy to represent Ahyssinia at the Brussels anti-slavery conference, an act which strengthened Italian illusions as to Meneleks readiness to submit to their protectorate.
Menelek had previously notified the chief European powers of his coronation at Entotto (i4th December 1889), but Germany and Great Britain replied that such notification should have been made through the Italian.
On the 10th of April 1891, Menelek communicated to the powers his views with regard to the Italian frontier, and announced his intention of re-establishing the ancient boundaries of Ethiopia as far as Khartum to the north-west and Victoria Nyanza to the south.
Meanwhile the marquis de Rudini, who had succeeded Crispi as Italian premier, had authorized the abandonment of article 17 even before he had heard of the failure of Antonellis negotiations.
A few days later Signor Bonghi, one of the framers of the Law of Guarantees, published in the Nuova Antologia a plea for reconciliation on the basis of an amendment to the Law of Guarantees and recognition by the pope of the Italian title to Rome.
Tostis pamphlet was known to represent papal ideas, and Tosti himself was persona grata to the Italian government.
More important than all was the interest of the Roman curia, composed almost exclusively of Italians, to retain in its own hands the choice of the pontiff and to maintain the predominance 01 the Italian element and the Italian spirit in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
In order to avoid this danger it was therefore necessary to refuse all compromise, and, by perpetual reiteration of a claim incompatible with Italian territorial unity, to prove to the church at large that the pope and the curia were more Catholic than Italian.
Such rigidity of principle need not be extended to the affairs of everyday contact between the Vatican and the Italian authorities, with regard to which, indeed, a tacit modus vivendi was easily attainable.
Italy, for her part, could not go back upon the achievements of the Risorgimento by restoring Rome or any portion of Italian territory to the pope.
The sudden fall of Crispi wrought a great change in the character of Italian relations with foreign powers.
The value of French exports into Italy decreased immediately by one-half, while Italian exports to France decreased by nearly two-thirds.
At the end of 1889 Crispi abolished the differential duties against French imports and returned to the general Italian tariff, but France declined to follow his lead and maintained her prohibitive dues.
Meanwhile the enthusiastic reception accorded to the young German emperor on the occasion of his visit to Rome in October 1888, and the cordiality shown towards King Humbert and Crispi at Berlin in May 1889, increased the tension of FrancoItalian relations; nor was it until after the fall of Prince Bismarck in March 1890 that Crispi adopted towards the Republic a more friendly attitude by sending an Italian squadron to salute President Carnot at Toulon.
The attitude of several of his colleagues was more equivocal, but though they coquetted with French financiers in the hope of obtaining the support of the Paris Bourse for Italian securities, the precipitate renewal of the alliance destroyed all probability of a close understanding with France.
It established that all Italian cabinets since 1880 had grossly neglected the state banks; that the two preceding cabinets had been aware of the irregularities committed by Tanlongo; that Tanlongo had heavily subsidized the press, paying as much as 20,000 for that purpose in 1888 alone; that a number of deputies, including several ex-ministers, had received from him loans of a considerable amount, which they had apparently made no effort to refund; that Giolitti had deceived the Chamber with regard to the state banks, and was open tosuspicion of having,after the arrest of Tanlongo, abstracted a number of documents from the latters papers before placing the remainder in the hands of the judicial authorities.
The French authorities, under whose eyes the massacre was perpetrated, did nothing to prevent or repress it, and the mayor of Marseilles even refused to admit the wounded Italian workmen to the municipal hospital.
These occurrences provoked anti-French demonstrations in many parts of Italy, and revived the chronic Italian rancour against France.
On the 16th of June an attempt by an anarchist named Lega was made on Crispis life; on the 24th of June President Carnot was assassinated by the anarchist Caserio; and on the 3oth of June an Italian journalist was murdered at Leghorn for a newspaper attack upon anarchism a series of outrages which led the government to frame and parliament to adopt (11th July) a Public Safety Bill for the prevention of anarchist propaganda and crime.
In the Armenian question Italy seconded with energy the diplomacy of Austria and Germany, while the Italian fleet joined the British Mediterranean squadron in a demonstration off the Syrian.
Towards the Sudan, however, the Mahdists, who had recovered from a defeat inflicted by an Italian force at Agordat in 1890, resumed operations in December 1893.
The Italian troops, mostly native levies, numbered only 2200 men.
The dervish loss was more than 100o killed, while the total Italian casualties amounted to less than 250.
The Italian government, however, neglected this opening, and Mangash came to terms with Menelek.
Bath-Agos, the native chieftain who ruled the Okul-Kusai and the cis-Mareb provinces on behalf of Italy, intrigued with Mangash, ras of the trans-Mareb province of Tigr, and with Menelek, to raise a revolt against Italian rule on the high plateau.
After obtaining the establishment of an apostolic prefecture in Eritrea under the charge of Italian Franciscans, Baratieri expelled from the colony the French Lazarist missionaries for their alleged complicity in the Bath-Agos insurrection; and in March 1895 undertook the conquest of Tigr.
The Italian commander attempted to treat with Menelek, but his negotiations merely enabled the Italian envoy, Major Salsa, to ascertain that the Abyssinians were nearly Ioo,ooo strong mostly armed with rides and well supplied with artillery.
For a moment Baratieri thought of retreat, especially as the hope of creating a diversion from Zaila towards Harrar had failed in consequence of the British refusal to permit the landing of an Italian force without the consent of France.
The defection of a number of native allies (who, however, were attacked and defeated by Colonel Stevani on the I 8th of February) rendered the Italian position still more precarious; but Baratieri, unable to make up his mind, continued to mancruvre in the hope of drawing an Abyssinian attack.
The Italian loss is estimated to have been more than 6000, of whom 3125 were whites.
Baldissera opened negotiations with the negus through Major Salsa, and simultaneously reorganized the Italian army.
By adroit negotiations with Mangash the Italian general obtained the release of the Italian prisoners in Tigr, and towards the end of May withdrew his whole force north of the Mareb.
The later course of Italian foreign policy was marked by many vicissitudes.
By the despatch of a squadron to South America he obtained satisfaction for injuries inflicted thirteen years previously upon an Italian subject by the United States of Colombia.
In December 1898 he convoked a diplomatic conference in Rome to discuss secret means for the repression of anarchist propaganda and crime in view of the assassination of the empress of Austria by an Italian anarchist (Luccheni), but it is doubtful whether results of practical value were achieved.
Shortly afterwards his term of office was brought to a close by the failure of an attempt to secure for Italy a coaling station at Sanmen and a sphere of influence in China; but his policy of active participation in Chinese affairs was continued in a modified form by his successor, the Marquis Visconti Venosta, who, entering the reconstructed Pelloux cabinet in May 1899, retained the portfolio of foreign affairs in the ensuing Saracco administration, and secured the despatch of an Italian expedition, 2000 strong, to aid in repressing the Chinese outbreak and in protecting Italian interests in the Far East (July 1900).
With characteristic foresight, Visconti Venosta promoted an exchange of views between Italy and France in regard to the Tripolitan hinterland, which the Anglo-French convention of 1899 had placed within the French sphere of influencea modification of the status quo ante considered highly detrimental to Italian aspirations in Tripoli.
Similarly, in regard to Albania, Visconti Venosta exchanged notes with Austria with a view to the prevention of any misunderstanding through the conflict between Italian and Austrian interests in that part of the Adriatic coast.
The outset of his administration was marked by Franco-Italian fetes at Toulon (10th to I4th April 1901), when the Italian fleet returned a visit paid by the French Mediterranean squadron to Cagliari in April 1899; and by the despatch of three Italian warships to Prevesa to obtain satisfaction for damage done to Italian subjects by Turkish officials.
No serious mutinies have ever occurred in the Italian army, and the only results of the propaganda were occasional meetings of hoohgans, where Hervist sentiments were expressed and applauded, and a few minor disturbances among reservists unexpectedly called back to the colors.
But while the majority of the deputies, were nominally in favor of the bill, the parliamentary committee reported against it, and public opinion was so hostile that an anti-divorce petition received 3,500,000 signatures, including not only those of professing Catholics, but of free-thinkers and Jews, who regarded divorce as unsuitable to Italian conditions.
French government, in view of the rupture between Church and State in France, formally asked to be placed under Italian protection, which was granted in January 1907.
That agreement also served to clear up the situation in Tripoli; while Italian aspirations towards Tunisia had been ended by the French occupation of that territory, Tripoli and Bengazi were now recognized as coming within the Italian sphere of influence.
The Tripoli hinterland, however, was in danger of being absorbed by other powers having large African interests; the Anglo-French declaration of the 21st of March 1899 in particular seemed likely to interfere with Italian activity.
Austrias petty persecutions of her Italian subjects in the irredente provinces, her active propaganda incompatible with Italian interests in the Balkans, and the antiItalian war talk of Austrian military circles, imperilled the relations of the two allies; it was remarked, indeed, that the object of the alliance between Austria and Italy was to prevent war between them.
One of the causes of ill-feeling was the university question; the Austrian government had persistently refused to create an Italian university for its Italian subjects, fearing lest it should become a hotbed of irredentism, the Italianspeaking students being thus obliged to attend the GermanAustrian universities.
The worst tumults occurred in November 1904, when Italian students and professors were attacked at Innsbruck without provocation; being outnumbered by a hundred to one the Italians were forced to use their revolvers in self-defence, and several persons were wounded on both sides.
Italian public opinion could not view without serious misgivings the active political propaganda which Austria was conducting in Albania.