Italian general election, 1897

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Italian general election, 1897

Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg

←  1895 21–28 March 1897 1900  →
All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy

 Majority partyMinority partyThird party
  Giovanni Giolitti.jpg Rudini.jpg Felice Cavallotti.jpg
Leader Giovanni Giolitti Antonio Starabba di Rudinì Felice Cavallotti
Party Historical Left Historical Right Historical Far Left
Seats won3279942
Seat changeDecrease2.svg7Decrease2.svg5Decrease2.svg5
Popular vote799,517242,090103,043
Percentage64.4%19.5%8.3%
SwingIncrease2.svg5.8%Decrease2.svg2.1%Decrease2.svg3.4%
Prime Minister before election

Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì
Historical Right

Contents

Elected Prime Minister

Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì
Historical Right

General elections were held in Italy on 21 March 1897, with a second round of voting on 28 March. [1] The "Ministerial" left-wing bloc, led by Giovanni Giolitti remained the largest in Parliament, winning 327 of the 508 seats. [2]

Italy republic in Southern Europe

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.

Giovanni Giolitti Italian politician

Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history, after Benito Mussolini. He was a prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union. Giolitti is widely considered one of the most powerful and important politicians in Italian history and, due to his dominant position in Italian politics, he was accused by critics of being a parliamentary dictator.

Historical background

The humiliating defeat of the Italian army at Adwa in March 1896 in Ethiopia during First Italo-Ethiopian War, brought about Francesco Crispi's resignation after riots broke out in several Italian towns. [3] [4]

Battle of Adwa Battle between the Ethiopian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy near the town of Adwa,

The Battle of Adwa was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. Led by Emperor Menelik II, Ethiopian forces defeated an invading Italian and British force on March 1, 1896, near the town of Adwa in Tigray. The decisive victory thwarted the Kingdom of Italy's campaign to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa and secured the Ethiopian Empire's sovereignty for another forty years. As the only African nation to successfully resist European conquest during the scramble for Africa, Ethiopia became a preeminent symbol of the pan-African movement and international opposition to colonialism.

First Italo-Ethiopian War 1895–1896 war between the Ethiopian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy

The First Italo-Ethiopian War was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from 1895 to 1896. It originated from the disputed Treaty of Wuchale which, the Italians claimed, turned the country into an Italian protectorate. Much to their surprise, they found that Ethiopian ruler Menelik II, rather than being opposed by some of his traditional enemies, was supported by them, so the Italian army, invading Ethiopia from Italian Eritrea in 1893, faced a more united front than they expected. In addition, Ethiopia was supported by Russia, an Orthodox Christian nation like Ethiopia with military advisers, army training, and the sale of weapons for Ethiopian forces during the war. Ethiopia was also supported diplomatically by the French in order to prevent Italy from becoming a colonial competitor. In response, the United Kingdom supported the Italians to challenge Russian influence in Africa. Full-scale war broke out in 1895, with Italian troops having initial success until Ethiopian troops counterattacked Italian positions and besieged the Italian fort of Meqele, forcing its surrender. Italian defeat came about after the Battle of Adwa, where the Ethiopian army dealt the heavily outnumbered Italians a decisive blow and forced their retreat back into Eritrea. The Italians suffered about 7,000 killed during the battle with 3,000 taken prisoner ; Ethiopian losses were estimated to be 7,000.

Francesco Crispi Italian patriot and statesman

Francesco Crispi was an Italian patriot and statesman. He was among the main protagonists of the Italian Risorgimento and a close friend and supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi, and one of the architects of the unification of Italy in 1860.

The ensuing Antonio di Rudini cabinet lent itself to Cavallotti’s campaign, and at the end of 1897 the judicial authorities applied to the Chamber of Deputies for permission to prosecute Crispi for embezzlement. A parliamentary commission of inquiry discovered only that Crispi, on assuming office in 1893, had found the secret service coffers empty, and had borrowed money from a state bank to fund it, repaying it with the monthly installments granted in regular course by the treasury. The commission, considering this proceeding irregular, proposed, and the Chamber adopted, a vote of censure, but refused to authorize a prosecution.

Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì Prime Minister of Italy

Antonio Starabba, Marquess of Rudinì was an Italian statesman, Prime Minister of Italy between 1891 and 1892 and from 1896 until 1898.

The crisis consequent upon the disaster of Adowa enabled Rudinì to return to power as premier and minister of the interior in a cabinet formed by the veteran Conservative, General Ricotti. He signed the Treaty of Addis Ababa that formally ended the First Italo–Ethiopian War recognizing Ethiopia as an independent country. [5] He endangered relations with Great Britain by the unauthorized publication of confidential diplomatic correspondence in a Green-book on Abyssinian affairs.

Cesare Ricotti-Magnani Italian general

Cesare Francesco Ricotti Magnani was an Italian general, minister of War of the Kingdom of Italy and Cavaliere della Santissima Annunziata. He was born at Borgolavezzaro, near Novara.

The Treaty of Addis Ababa, signed 23 October 1896, formally ended the First Italo-Ethiopian War on terms mostly favorable to Ethiopia. This treaty superseded a secret agreement between Ethiopia and Italy negotiated days after the decisive Battle of Adwa in March of the same year, in which Ethiopian forces commanded by Menelik II defeated the Italians. The most important concession the Italians made was the abrogation of the Treaty of Wuchale and recognizing Ethiopia as an independent country.

Ethiopia country in East Africa

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country in the northeastern part of Africa, popularly known as the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, and Somalia to the east, Sudan to the northwest, South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With over 102 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and the second-most populous nation on the African continent that covers a total area of 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi). Its capital and largest city is Addis Ababa, which lies a few miles west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate.

Di Rudinì recognized the excessive brutality of the repression of the Fasci Siciliani under his predecessor Crispi. Many Fasci members were pardoned and released from jail. [6]

Fasci Siciliani

The Fasci Siciliani[ˈfaʃʃi sitʃiˈljani], short for Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori, were a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, which arose in Sicily in the years between 1889 and 1894. The Fasci gained the support of the poorest and most exploited classes of the island by channeling their frustration and discontent into a coherent programme based on the establishment of new rights. Consisting of a jumble of traditionalist sentiment, religiosity, and socialist consciousness, the movement reached its apex in the summer of 1893, when new conditions were presented to the landowners and mine owners of Sicily concerning the renewal of sharecropping and rental contracts.

A new party participated to the election, the Italian Republican Party (PRI), led by Carlo Sforza. The PRI traces its origins from the time of Italian unification and, more specifically, to the democratic-republican wing represented by figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini, Carlo Cattaneo and Carlo Pisacane.

Italian Republican Party political party

The Italian Republican Party is a liberal and social-liberal political party in Italy. Founded in 1895, the PRI is the oldest political party still active in Italy.

Carlo Sforza Italian politician

Count Carlo Sforza was an Italian diplomat and anti-Fascist politician.

Italian unification political and social movement that consolidated different Italian states into a single state

Italian unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy in the 19th century. The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

Parties and leaders

PartyIdeologyLeader
Historical Left Liberalism, Centrism Giovanni Giolitti
Historical Right Conservatism, Monarchism Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
Historical Far Left Republicanism, Radicalism Felice Cavallotti
Italian Republican Party Republicanism, Radicalism Giovanni Bovio
Italian Socialist Party Socialism, Revolutionary socialism Filippo Turati

Results

← Summary of March 1897 Chamber of Deputies election results →
Italian Parliament 1897.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/−
Historical Left 799,517 [lower-alpha 1] 64.4327−7
Historical Right 242,090 [lower-alpha 1] 19.599−5
Historical Far Left 103,043 [lower-alpha 1] 8.342−5
Italian Republican Party 60,833 [lower-alpha 1] 4.925New
Italian Socialist Party 37,245 [lower-alpha 1] 3.015±0
Invalid/blank votes41,911–––
Total1,241,486100508±0
Registered voters/turnout2,120,90958.5––
Source: Nohlen & Stöver
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Estimate
Parliamentary seats
Left
 
64.4%
Right
 
19.5%
Far-Left
 
8.3%
PRI
 
4.9%
PSI
 
3.0%

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See also: 1892 in Italy, other events of 1893, 1894 in Italy.

See also: 1893 in Italy, other events of 1894, 1895 in Italy.

See also: 1894 in Italy, other events of 1895, 1896 in Italy.

See also: 1895 in Italy, other events of 1896, 1897 in Italy.

See also: 1890 in Italy, other events of 1891, 1892 in Italy.

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The Dissident Left, commonly named The Pentarchy like its five leaders, was a progressive and radical parliamentary group active in Italy during the last decades of the 19th century.

See also: 1896 in Italy, other events of 1897, 1898 in Italy.

References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1083
  3. ↑ Vandervort, Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830–1914, pp. 162-64
  4. ↑ Italy’s African Fiasco, The New York Times, July 5, 1896
  5. ↑ Harold Marcus, The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844-1913 (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1995), pp. 174-177
  6. ↑ Pardon for Italian Socialists, The New York Times, March 14, 1896
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