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Solving the Nation's Ills Through War: I taly, the Great War, and Nation Building
Author(s) -
Ialongo Ernest
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/pech.12120
Subject(s) - bourgeoisie , empire , national consciousness , decolonization , proletariat , spanish civil war , colonialism , politics , neutrality , economic history , declaration , sociology , contest , ancient history , law , political science , political economy , history
This study surveys the widely held view in the years leading up to the First World War that Italy required a war to complete its unification process. Intellectuals and activists from across the political spectrum came to accept the view that Italian territorial unity had mostly been achieved by 1870, but that an Italian national consciousness, that bound together north and south, urban and rural, bourgeois and proletariat, had yet to be achieved. Many of these individuals also came to believe that war would create this national consciousness as Italy strove to expand its colonial empire and conquer the Italian lands held by the Austrian‐Hungarian Empire. Such commitment to war as the solution to the nation's various ills was instrumental in pushing Italy from its initial neutrality in 1914 to its declaration of war against its former allies in 1915.