What Were The Most Serious Problems Facing The Newly-Unified Italy In 1870
Henrique Gil
Prof. Tribe
10/19/2014
History P2
What were the most serious problems facing the newly-unified Italy in 1870?
!
Throughout the nineteenth century, several movements of unification broken out in Italy.
However, it was not until the 1860s that Cavour and Garibaldi reached unification. Although unification was achieved tensions still ran high among the Italian people. Even tough unification was a great step to become a successful nation, there were many problems that Italy was never able to overcome successfully. With Cavour’s death, none of the following leaders was able to give continuity to the ideals of Cavour and were forced to deal with very difficult challenges, politically, socially and economically. Instead of a fully unified …show more content…
One of the most severe problems that Italy had to face was the situation regarding Italian economy and its debts. “A succession of constantly growing deficits had increased the national debt to alarming proportions, and by 1867 it had reached nearly 4,000,000,000 lire.”(McClellan 121)
Cavour’s policies of 1856 and 1859 were a great contribution for this deficit and new state required new infrastructures such as roads, railroads and military equipment. Nevertheless, some investments were unnecessary, for example the construction of a sizable modern navy, considering that Austria,
Italy’s main threat, was mostly a land power. The solution the state found was the establishment of high taxation fees and the negotiation of large foreign loans. “Piedmont (…) had neither the income nor the trained manpower to administer its new territories effectively” (Murphy 386). Evidently the north of Italy was absorbing the debts of the smaller regimes. The south was feeding of
Prof. Tribe
10/19/2014
History P2
What were the most serious problems facing the newly-unified Italy in 1870?
!
Throughout the nineteenth century, several movements of unification broken out in Italy.
However, it was not until the 1860s that Cavour and Garibaldi reached unification. Although unification was achieved tensions still ran high among the Italian people. Even tough unification was a great step to become a successful nation, there were many problems that Italy was never able to overcome successfully. With Cavour’s death, none of the following leaders was able to give continuity to the ideals of Cavour and were forced to deal with very difficult challenges, politically, socially and economically. Instead of a fully unified …show more content…
One of the most severe problems that Italy had to face was the situation regarding Italian economy and its debts. “A succession of constantly growing deficits had increased the national debt to alarming proportions, and by 1867 it had reached nearly 4,000,000,000 lire.”(McClellan 121)
Cavour’s policies of 1856 and 1859 were a great contribution for this deficit and new state required new infrastructures such as roads, railroads and military equipment. Nevertheless, some investments were unnecessary, for example the construction of a sizable modern navy, considering that Austria,
Italy’s main threat, was mostly a land power. The solution the state found was the establishment of high taxation fees and the negotiation of large foreign loans. “Piedmont (…) had neither the income nor the trained manpower to administer its new territories effectively” (Murphy 386). Evidently the north of Italy was absorbing the debts of the smaller regimes. The south was feeding of