A Box of Sand

by Charles Stephenson

  74 Martin Clark, Modern Italy 1871-1995 (London; Longman, 1996) p. 126.

  75 Benedetto Croce (Cecilia M Ady Trans.) A history of Italy, 1871-1915 (New York; Russell & Russell, 1963) p. 187. Marc Brianti, Bandiera rossa: un siècle d’histoire du Mouvement ouvrier italien du Risorgimento (1848) a la republique (1948) (Paris; Connaissances et savoirs, 2007) pp. 163-5. Carl Levy, Gramsci and the Anarchists (New York; Berg, 2000) p. 37.

  76 It can perhaps be argued that Crispi had good, and personal, reasons for adopting these illiberal measures. He had been the victim of an assassination attempt on 16 June 1894 when Paolo Lega, an anarchist, had unsuccessfully shot at him from close range.

  77 John Gooch, Army, State and Society in Italy, 1870-1915 (London; Palgrave Macmillan, 1989) p. 71.

  78 Jonathan Dunnage, ‘Continuity in Policing Politics in Italy, 1920-1960’ in Mark Mazower (Ed.), The Policing of Politics in the Twentieth Century: Historical Perspectives (Oxford; Berghahn, 1997) pp. 60-1. See also: Jonathan Dunnage, The Italian Police and the Rise of Fascism: A Case Study of the Province of Bologna, 1897-1925 (Westport CT; Praeger, 1997); Richard Bach Jensen, Liberty and Order: The Theory and Practice of Italian Public Security Policy, 1848 to the Crisis of the 1890s (New York: Garland, 1991); Romano Canosa and Amedeo Santosuosso, Magistrati, anarchici e socialisti alla fine dell’ottocento in Italia [Magistrates, Anarchists and Socialists at the end of the Eighteen Hundreds in Italy] (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1981).

  79 Nunzio Pernicone, ‘Luigi Galleani and Italian Anarchist Terrorism in the United States,’ in David C Rapoport (Ed.), Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science (Abingdon; Routledge, 2006) p. 193. The term ‘subversive’ (sovversivo) has somewhat different connotations in Italian than it does in English, and, whilst almost impossible to accurately define, might best be expressed as dislike, even hatred, of officialdom rather than of the state itself. Indeed, there was a long tradition of subversiveness (sovversivismo) within Italian society, and the working class particularly, that preceded the foundation of an Italian socialist party in 1892. This has been said to date back to, and have evolved from, Italy’s ‘pre-industrial’ and ‘pre-urban’ society, and was an attitude that was not confined to the political left. See: Kate Crehan, Gramsci, Culture and Anthropology (Los Angeles; University of California Press, 2002) p. 99-100. Franco Andreucci, ‘“Subversiveness” and Anti-Fascism in Italy’ in Raphael Samuel (Ed.) People’s History and Socialist Theory (London; Routledge & Kegan Paul) p. 200. Richard Bessel, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: Comparisons and Contrasts (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1996) p. 41. See also: Carl Levy, ‘“Sovversivismo”: The Radical Political Culture of Otherness in Liberal Italy,’ in the Journal of Political Ideologies, Volume 12, Issue 2 June 2007, pp. 147-161.

  80 Aldobrandino Malvezzi, L’Italia e L’lslam in Libia (Firenze-Milano; Fratelli Treves, 1913) p. x.

  81 Benjamin C Fortna, ‘The Reign of Abdülhamid II,’ in Re at Kasaba (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 4, Turkey in the Modern World (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2008) p. 47.

  82 Thomas Palamenghi-Crispi (Ed.) (Trans. Mary Prichard-Agnetti) The Memoirs Of Francesco Crispi: Compiled from Crispi’s Diary and other Documents. Vol. II The Triple Alliance (London; Hodder and Stoughton, 1912) p 347.

  83 William I. Shorrock, ‘The Tunisian Question in French Policy toward Italy, 1881-1940’ in The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 16, No. 4 (1983), pp. 631-651, Arthur Marsden, ‘Britain and her Conventional Rights in Tunis, 1888-1892’ in Revue de l’Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée, Vol. 8, No. 1. (1970) pp. 163-173. See also: Ezio M Gray, Italy and the Question of Tunis (Milan; A Mondadori, 1939).

  84 Okbazghi Yohannes, Eritrea, a Pawn in World Politics (Gainesville, FL; University Press of Florida, 1991) pp. 46-7, 74.

  85 Festus Ugboaja Ohaegbulam, Towards an Understanding of the African Experience from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Lanham, MD; University Press of America, 1990) pp. 185-7. Saheed A Adejumobi, The History of Ethiopia (London; Greenwood, 2006) p. 29.

  86 For the history of the territory see: Guido Corni (Ed.), Somalia italiana (Milan; Editoriale Arte e Storia, 1937); Robert L Hess, Italian Colonialism in Somalia (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 1966).

  87 Hess, Italian Colonialism in Somalia. p. 101.

  88 Quoted in Paulos Milkias and Getachew Metaferia (Eds.), The Battle of Adwa: Reflections on Ethiopia’s Historic Victory Against European Colonialism (New York; Algora, 2005) p. 126. The description of the battle is taken from this work.

  89 Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa 1876-1912 (London; Abacus, 1992) p. 475.

  90 Richard Bellamy and Darrow Schecter, Gramsci and the Italian State (Manchester; Manchester University Press, 1993) p. 14.

  91 Charles Klopp, Sentences: The Memoirs and Letters of Italian Political Prisoners from Benvenuto Cellini to Aldo Moro (Toronto; University of Toronto Press, 1999) p. 113.

  92 This section, unless otherwise stated, is taken from the following: Paolo Valera, I cannoni di Bava Beccaris (Milano; Giordano, 1966). Hubert Heyriès, ‘L’armée italienne et le maintien de l’ordre dans les villes de 1871 à 1915 d’après les attachés militaires français: Guerre de rue, guerre dans la rue’ in Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains. avril-juin 2002, No 206. pp. 11-28.

  93 Thomas Okey, ‘United Italy’ in A W Ward, G W Prothero and Stanley Leathes (Eds.) The Cambridge Modern History (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1910) Vol. XII. p. 220.

  94 Milan’s Central Station was, at that time, situated next to the modern station of Porta Garibaldi. A new Central Station was officially inaugurated in 1931. Andrea Giuntini ‘Downtown by the Train: The Impact of Railways on Italian Cities in the Nineteenth Century – Case Studies’ in Ralf Roth and Marie-Noëlle Polino (Eds.) The City and the Railway in Europe (Aldershot; Ashgate, 2003) p .124

  95 Abraham Ascher, The Revolution of 1905: A Short History (Stanford CA; Stanford University Press, 2004) p. 27.

  96 Arthur James Whyte, The Evolution of Modern Italy (Oxford; Basil Blackwell & Mott, 1959) p. 207.

  97 James Joll, The Second International, 1889-1914 (London; Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974) p. 87.

  98 Luciano Regolo, Jelena: tutto il racconto della vita della regina Elena di Savoia (Milano; Simonelli Editore, 2003) p. 309. Arthur James Whyte, The Evolution of Modern Italy (Oxford; Basil Blackwell & Mott, 1959) p. 207.

  99 Percentages of total population amongst the European Great Powers enfranchised for lower chambers in 1900: France 29, Germany 22, Austria 21, Hungary 6 (Austria and Hungary had separate legislatures and governments), UK 18, Russia 15, Italy 8. Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War (London; Allen Lane, 1998) p. 29.

  100 See: Christopher Seton-Watson, Italy From Liberalism to Fascism, 1870-1925 (London; Methuen, 1967) pp. 193-5; John Whittam, Fascist Italy (Manchester; Manchester University Press, 1995) pp. 11-2.

  101 Humbert L Gualtieri, The Labor Movement in Italy (New York; S F Vanni, 1946) p. 245.

  102 Christopher Duggan, The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796 (London; Allen Lane, 2007) p. 349.

  103 Bava-Beccaris retired in 1902, but continued to involve himself in politics. He supported Italain participation in World War I, and in 1922 he recommended that power be handed Mussolini. He wrote a book on the army; F Bava-Beccaris, Esercito Italiano: Sue origini, suo successivo ampliamento, suo stato attuale (Roma; Accademia dei Lincei, 1911).

  104 T.Boston Bruce, ‘The New Italian Criminal Code’ in Law Quarterly Review, Vol. 5, 1889. p. 287.

  105 Maria Sophia Quine, Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe (London; Routledge, 1996) p. 23. J Bowyer Bell, Assassin: Theory and Practice of Political Violence (New Brunswick, NJ; Transaction Publishers, 2005) p. 31. Perhaps surprisingly, the city council at Carrara in northern Italy decided, in the mid 1980s, to donate public land for a monument honouring Bresci. As may be imagined, much controversy ensued. See the Los Angeles Times of
7 December 1986 http://articles.latimes.com/1986-12-07/news/mn-1250_1_king-umberto and the 4 May 1990 edition of La Republica http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1990/05/04/gaetano-bresci-gli-anarchici-in-piazza.html

  106 Arthur James Whyte, The Evolution of Modern Italy (Oxford; Basil Blackwell & Mott, 1959) p. 212.

  107 Richard Drake, Apostles and Agitators: Italy’s Marxist Revolutionary Tradition (Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press, 2003) pp. 93-4.

  108 Report of a speech made by Ferri at Suzzara, Lombardy; reported in La Stampa 27 December 1909. Ferri, editor of the party paper Avanti!, was an intellectual, an eminent criminologist, and ‘the architect of a remarkably vulgar Darwinian Marxism.’ Geoff Eley, Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000 (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2002) p. 45.

  109 Oda Olberg, ‘Der italienische Generalstreik,’ in Die Neue Zeit, 23:1 (1904-05), p. 19.

  110 As Karl Kautsky put it: ‘The political general strike succeeds more frequently if it be sudden and unexpected, brought about spontaneously by some plainly outrageous act of the bourgeois government.’ E. Pataud and E. Pouget: Syndicalism and the Co-operative Commonwealth (Oxford: New Internationalist Publications, 1913) p. 227.

  111 André Tridon, The New Unionism (New York; B W Huebsch, 1913) p. 149.

  112 James Joll, The Second International, 1889-1914 (London; Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974) p. 88.

  113 For the history of the general strike and subsequent events see: Zeev Sternhell with Mario Sznaidr and Maia Asheri (Trans. David Maisel), The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution (Princeton NJ; Princeton University press, 1994) 133-5. Carl Levy, ‘Currents of Italian Syndicalism before 1926’ in International Review of Social History (2000), Vol. 45, Issue 2. pp. 209-250. Oda Olberg, ‘Der italienische Generalstreik,’ in Die Neue Zeit, 23:1 (1904-05), pp. 18-21. One recruit to the revolutionary wing of the PSI was Benito Mussolini; in 1909 he was working as a journalist for the paper L’Avvenire del Lavoratore (The Future of the Worker) in the Trentino, then a part of Italia Irredenta under austro-Hungarian rule. His espousal of revolutionary methods saw him imprisoned on several occasions and eventually expelled from the area. Peter Neville, Mussolini (London; Routledge, 2004) p. 28. R N L Absalom, Mussolini and the Rise of Italian Fascism (London; Methuen, 1969) p. 21.

  114 William C Askew, Europe and Italy’s acquisition of Libya, 1911-1912 (Durham, NC; Duke University Press, 1942) p. 4.

  115 He actually said ‘Unfortunately we have made Italy, but we have not created Italians.’ Luciano Cheles and Lucio Sponza, ‘Introduction: National Identities and Avenues of Persuasion’ in Luciano Cheles and Lucio Sponza (Eds.), The Art of Persuasion: Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s (Manchester; Manchester University Press, 2001) p. 1.

  116 Paolo Varvaro, L’orizzonte del Risorgimento: l’Italia vista dai prefetti (Napoli; Dante & Descartes, 2001) p. 47.

  117 Don H Doyle, Nations Divided: America, Italy, and the Southern Question (Athens, GA; University of Georgia Press, 2002) p. 39.

  118 ‘Blood, sacrifice, revenge, martyrdom and slaughter of the tyrannous foreigner were all crucial themes in Italian patriotic writings in the mid-nineteenth century’ Christopher Duggan, ‘Nation-Building in 19th Century Italy: The Case of Francesco Crispi’ in History Today, Volume 52 (2) February 2002. p. 13.

  CHAPTER THREE

  1 Leonard Woolf, Empire & Commerce in Africa: A Study In Economic Imperialism (London; Labour Research Department, 1920) p. 121

  2 Lady Gwendolen Cecil, Life of Robert Marquis of Salisbury, Volume IV 1887-1892 (London; Hodder and Stoughton, 1932) p. 323.

  3 C E Callwell, Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: His Life and Diaries, (London: Cassell, 1927) Volume I. p. 105.

  4 Cesare Balbo, Delle speranze d’italia (Firenze [Florence]; Felice le Monnier, 1855) p. 133. Naples, at the time of his writing, was the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; a polity that had been formed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 by combining the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. For an account of Balbo’s political viewpoint see: Ettore Passerin d’Entreves, La giovinezza di Cesare Balbo (Firenze [Florence]; Felice Le Monnier, 1940.) pp. 22-26.

  5 Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati (Eds.) (Trans. Stefano Recchia) A Cosmopolitanism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini’s Writings on Democracy (Princeton NJ; Princeton University Press, 2009) p. 238.

  6 Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati (Eds.) (Trans. Stefano Recchia) A Cosmopolitanism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini’s Writings on Democracy (Princeton NJ; Princeton University Press, 2009) p. 239.

  7 Alan Cassels, ‘Reluctant Neutral: Italy and the Strategic Balance in 1939’ in B J C McKercher and Roch Legault (Eds.), Military planning and the origins of the Second World War in Europe (Westport CT; Praeger, 2001) p. 38. James Muldoon, Empire and Order: The Concept of Empire, 800-1800 (Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan, 1999) p. 22.

  8 George B Manhart, Alliance and Entente, 1871 –1914 (New York; F S Crofts, 1932) p. 27.

  9 Supplement to Secret Dispatch No. 496, Rome, 1 July 1902. ‘Copy of the declaration transmitted to the Royal Italian Government with regard to Tripoli.’ Alfred Franzis Pribram, The Secret Treaties of Austria-Hungary 1879-1914 (Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 1920) Vol. I. pp. 232-3. Quoted in part in: George B Manhart, Alliance and Entente, 1871 –1914 (New York; F S Crofts, 1932) p. 34.

  10 Andre Tardieu, France and the Alliances: The Struggle for the Balance of Power (New York; Macmillan, 1908) p. 91.

  11 ‘Naval Notes: The French Mediterranean and Italian Squadrons at Toulon’ in The RUSI Journal, Volume 45, Issue 277, 1901. p. 613.

  12 ‘King of Italy in Paris: Victor Emmanuel and Queen Helena Warmly Welcomed’, in The New York Times, 15 October, 1903.

  13 Bernard de Montferrand, Diplomatie: des volontés françaises (Versailles; Alban, 2006) p. 178.

  14 Wedel to Holstein, 12 April 1901. Norman Rich And M H Fisher (Eds), The Holstein Papers: Volume 4: Correspondence 1897-1909 (London; Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1963) p. 221.

  15 Sidney B Fay, The Origins of the World War (New York; Macmillan, 1928) Vol. I. p. 145.

  16 For a description of the results of the rapprochement in a European context, see: Dwight E Lee, Europe’s Crucial Years: The Diplomatic Background of World War I, 1902-1914 (Hanover, NH; University Press of New England for Clark University Press, 1974) pp. 43-5. Edward E McCullough, How the First World War Began: The Triple Entente and the Coming of the Great War of 1914-1918 (Montre al; Black Rose, 1999) p. 26. Denna Frank Fleming, The Origins and Legacies of World War I (London; Allen & Unwin, 1969) pp. 79-80.

  17 George B Manhart, Alliance and Entente, 1871 –1914 (New York; F S Crofts, 1932) p. 33.

  18 Gino J Naldi, ‘The Aouzou Strip Dispute-A Legal Analysis’ in Journal of African Law, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Spring, 1989), p. 72.

  19 Thomas Palamenghi-Crispi (Ed.) (Trans. Mary Prichard-Agnetti) The Memoirs Of Francesco Crispi: Compiled from Crispi’s Diary and other Documents. Vol. III International Problems (London; Hodder and Stoughton, 1914) p. 22.

  20 Zeev Sternhell with Mario Sznajder and Maia Ashéri (Trans. David Maisel), The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution (Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press, 1994) p. 21.

  21 Donald F Busky, Communism in History and Theory: The European Experience (Westport, CT; Praeger, 2002) p. 93. A selection of Labriola’s writings can be viewed at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/labriola/index.htm

  22 John Rees, The Algebra of Revolution: The Dialectic and the Classical Marxist Tradition (London; Routledge, 1998) p. 259.

  23 Gian Mario Bravo, ‘Antonio Labriola e la questione coloniale’ in I sentieri della ricerca: Rivista di storia contemporanea, No.1/June 2005. p. 58.

  24 Nino Valeri, La lotta politica in Italia dall’unità al 1925: Idee e documenti (Firenze [Florence]; Le Monnier, 1945) p. 327.

  25 Francis McCullagh, Italy’s War For A D
esert: Being Some Experiences Of A War Correspondent With The Italians In Tripoli (Chicago, IL; F G Browne, 1913) p. 41.

  26 For a brief overview of these matters see: Charles Stephenson, The Fortifications of Malta, 1530-1945 (Oxford; Osprey, 2004) pp. 29-37.

  27 Paul G Halpern, The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1914-1918 (Boston; Allen & Unwin, 1986) p. 1.

  28 Quoted in Holger H Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet: The German Imperial Navy 1888–1918 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980) p. 1.

  29 Hew Strachan, The First World War. Volume One: To Arms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.) p. 376.

  30 Paul G Halpern, The Mediterranean Naval Situation, 1908-1914 (Cambridge, MA; Harvard University Press, 1971) p. 45.

  31 Inflexible transferred to the theatre as flagship in November 1912; Indomitable and Invincible joined in August 1913. Dennis Castillo, The Maltese Cross: A Strategic History of Malta (Westport, CT; Praeger, 2006) p. 132.

  32 Richard Wilkinson, ‘Lord Lansdowne and British Foreign Policy 1900-1917’ in History Today, Issue 36, March 2000, p. 9.

  33 J L Glanville, Italy’s Relations with England (Baltimore; John Hopkins Press, 1934) p. 118.

  34 R J B Bosworth, Italy the Least of the Great Powers: Italian Foreign Policy before the First. World War (London: Cambridge University Press, 1979) p. 138

  35 Tommaso Tittoni (Trans. Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino), Italy’s Foreign and Colonial Policy: A Selection From the Speeches Delivered in the Italian Parliament by the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Tommaso Tittoni during his Six Years of Office (1903-1909), (London; Smith, Elder, 1914) p. 20.

  36 Tommaso Tittoni (Trans. Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino), Italy’s Foreign and Colonial Policy: A Selection From the Speeches Delivered in the Italian Parliament by the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Tommaso Tittoni during his Six Years of Office (1903-1909), (London; Smith, Elder, 1914) p. 20.

  37 The ‘Sublime Porte’ was the term used for the Ottoman Government, in much the same way as the ‘Wilhelmstrasse’ was sometimes a metonym for the German Foreign Office and ‘Westminster’ was, and is, similarly applied to the British government.