A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861-1950
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A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861-1950
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Overview
As the first English-language book on the modern history of Italian citizenship, this work highlights often-overlooked precedents, continuities, and discontinuities within and between liberal and fascist Italies. It invites the reader to compare the Italian experiences with other European ones, such as French, British, and German citizenship traditions.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780804784511 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
| Publication date: | 06/26/2013 |
| Pages: | 424 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d) |
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A POLITICAL HISTORY of NATIONAL CITIZENSHIP and IDENTITY IN ITALY, 1861â?"1950
By Sabina Donati
Stanford University Press
Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-8451-1
CHAPTER 1
National Risorgimento, the Piedmontese Solution and the Origins of Italian Monarchical Subjecthood (1859–1866)
* * *
In March 1861, after almost thirteen centuries of political fragmentation and multiple states, the divided Italian peninsula was unified under the House of Savoy and the Italian kingdom proclaimed from the city of Turin. This Italian state stretched from the Western Alps to Sicily and excluded, for important reasons of international politics, the Venetian and the Roman provinces that remained under Austrian and pontifical rule until 1866 and 1870 respectively. Even though realized in a "truncated" way, the national ideal of political unification was finally achieved, thanks to a combination of skilled diplomatic negotiations, Piedmontese dynastic aspirations, French military interventions and mounting nationalist hopes.
The historical developments leading to a unified Italy under the Savoy King Vittorio Emanuele II shaped and determined not only the Italian process of attaining independent statehood but also the origins of the national citizenship link that came to unite the "divided" peoples of the peninsula. In particular, the period from 1859 to 1866 establishes the historical roots of the post-unification juridical membership status that will subsequently develop throughout the liberal and the fascist epochs. The purpose of this first chapter is therefore to focus on this eight-year period of pre- and post-unification Italian history with a view to discussing the genesis and the first characteristics of the national civic bond uniting the Italians of the 1861 state within a peculiar context of internal divisions—linguistic, economic, social and mental—that were also enriched with specific racial considerations. In this way, the still relatively unknown and distant origins of today's Italian citizenship will finally emerge fully from the dust of archives and of public libraries.
1.1. THE SAVOY ROAD TO POLITICAL UNIFICATION AND THE BIRTH OF ITALIAN MONARCHICAL SUBJECTHOOD (1859–1861)
The nineteenth-century period of Italian Risorgimento saw the burgeoning of a variety of nationalist political programs that aimed in different ways and through different means to accomplish the political unification of the Italian peninsula. These diverse nationalist projects ranged, among others, from radical revolutionary republicanism—as personified by Giuseppe Mazzini—to liberal Catholic patriotism—as represented by Vincenzo Gioberti—to moderate liberal monarchism—as symbolized by Camillo Benso di Cavour.
"Patriot and democrat, prophet and politician," the Genoese Mazzini (1805–1872) strove for an Italy that in his view had to become a unitary and democratic republic, free from foreign occupation and enjoying statehood within the highest objective of contributing, with all other nation-states, to the development of humanity. This optimistic and idealist program was a radical one and had to be carried out through both education and popular insurrection. The Piedmontese cleric Vincenzo Gioberti (1801–1852), by contrast, a liberal-catholic, supporting neo-Guelphian principles and seeking to reconcile a commitment to Italian independence with loyalty to Catholicism, called for establishment of an Italian confederation of existing rulers and states under the guidance and the leadership of the pontiff.
Eventually, both patriotic programs—the Mazzinian and the Giobertian—were to be overturned by events as the final outcome of the various revolutionary movements of the nineteenth century in the peninsula demonstrated: on the one hand, popular insurrections lacked means, coordination and common "patriotic" agendas; on the other hand, the Pope would never declare war against a Catholic country (Austria) in the name of Italian nationalism. And in fact, the road that ultimately led in a successful way to Italian statehood was the Savoy solution under the leadership of Vittorio Emanuele II and of his skillful Prime Minister Cavour. The Savoy moderate program was characterized by a piecemeal approach to Piedmontese leadership in the Italian peninsula and by a gradual project of political unification through Piedmontese territorial expansions to be realized via international alliances, military aid, diplomacy, war and, ultimately, the organization of plebiscites.
Interestingly, had Mazzini's or Gioberti's visions been realized in practice—as to make unified Italy a republic, in the first case, and a confederation of states, in the second—their respective forms of statehood would have led to two different citizenship links uniting all the populations of the peninsula. In the first case, the Italians would have been linked through a republican citizenship bond, similar, probably, to the status that was enshrined in the 1849 constitution of the short-lived Roman Republic, where, after the flight of Pius IX to Gaeta, Mazzini's ideals were put into action and Mazzini himself elected as triumvir. In the second case, on the contrary, since the peninsula would have become a political confederation under papal authority, the populations would have kept the current subjecthood related to each state and, probably, enjoyed an additional federal juridical link of pontifical loyalty—uniting all of them to the pope.
* * *
The history of Italian citizenship, though, was to take another course—ensuing from the actual historical process of Italian statehood as it took place between 1859 and 1861 under the Savoy dynasty. The reader will recall that in 1859 the Italian peninsula was divided into seven states: the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, the Duchy of Modena, the Duchy of Parma, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Papal State and Legations as well as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Because of the existence of these seven political territorial entities, an inhabitant of the Italian peninsula was linked to one of seven sovereigns via seven juridical links of subjecthood, according to the state from which the person originated. This is why, traveling to and across the pre-unification states of northern Italy, one encountered the "Piedmontese subjects" or "regnicoli" of King Vittorio Emanuele II, the "Austrian subjects" of Emperor Franz Joseph, the "Modenese subjects" of Duke Francesco V as well as the "Parmese subjects" of the regent Duchess Luisa Maria and of her son the Duke Roberto I. Also, moving down the center and the south of the Italian boot, the same traveler found the "Tuscan subjects" of Grand-Duke Leopoldo II, the "Pontifical subjects" of Pope Pius IX and, finally, the "subjects of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" living in the Bourbon state of King Francesco II. Each of these populations enjoyed a status that was regulated according to the civil codes and legislation of the various Restoration states and, each link of subjecthood made a person, automatically, a foreigner in another state of the peninsula.
Following the 1859 outbreak of hostilities against Austria, the Franco-Piedmontese victories in Magenta and Solferino as well as the subsequent armistice and treaties of Villafranca and Zurich (drawn up by the French and the Austrian emperors without any consultation with Turin), Piedmont was allowed to annex the region of Lombardy in December 1859. In the meantime, the power vacuum created by Austrian withdrawal and by the flight of the old rulers from Parma, Modena, Tuscany and the Papal Legations made possible conversion of local elites in central Italy to the idea of a union with the Kingdom of Piedmont. Within this context, Cavour's diplomatic negotiations, tacit approval by Napoleon III in exchange of Nice and Savoy, creation of pro-Piedmontese provisional governmental authorities in the pre-unification states and the results of national plebiscites carried out in loco through male universal suffrage led, in March 1860, to incorporation of Parma, Modena and Tuscany into the Savoy state as well as to the latter's annexation of the pontifical province of Bologna in the Romagne region. Finally, after the expedition of the Thousand Red Shirts led by Garibaldi as well as Cavour's risky, but successful, plan to recapture the initiative by sending Piedmontese troops headed by the king as well as by rapidly organizing further national plebiscites in the South, the Savoy state incorporated Sicily and the Neapolitan provinces in December 1860 and, in the same month, completed this territorial expansionist process with annexation of the pontifical provinces of Marche and Umbria. By March 1861, the first national parliament was elected; Vittorio Emanuele II was recognized as king of Italy and the European powers were notified of the official proclamation of il Regno d'Italia (the Kingdom of Italy).
As the geographical borders of the Savoy state were gradually being extended in this way in 1859 and 1860, not only lands but also populations came under the sovereignty of Vittorio Emanuele II. Consequently, the already mentioned pre-unification subjecthood links that embodied the status civitatis of the populations living in each ex-Italian state went through a fundamental transformation on the basis of the so-called phenomenon of collective naturalizations—referring to the change of citizenship of an entire population after a territorial change has taken place. In fact, with only some minor individual exceptions, all the inhabitants of the annexed provinces became subjects of the Savoy king and lost their previous membership status.
In particular, the people of annexed Lombardy—holding Austrian subjecthood—became sudditi (subjects) of Vittorio Emanuele II, except those who opted for keeping their Austrian juridical link (within one year from the ratification of the 1859 Zurich treaty) and emigrated to a part of the Austrian empire. A similar fate was also reserved for the pontifical subjects living in the annexed provinces of Romagne, Marche and Umbria as these inhabitants became sudditi of the Savoy House, except those who could provide explicit proof of wanting to keep their pontifical subjecthood (for instance, by accepting a governmental function in a commune that was still under papal rule). This means that with the exclusion of very limited individual cases in which the liberal principle of giving priority to the person's will was taken into account, all these people living in the north and in the center of the peninsula became Savoy subjects en masse. Finally, the populations of Parma, Modena and Tuscany as well as those of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies acquired the monarchical subjecthood of the Savoy dynasty, but contrary to the Austrian Lombards and to the just-mentioned pontifical subjects, they were not given the right of option because the Duchies of Parma and Modena, the Grand-Duchy of Tuscany and the Southern Kingdom disappeared with their final incorporation into the Savoy state and were abolished together with their pre-unification citizenship status. Clearly, within this context the inhabitants concerned could not have been granted a right of option because their previous subjecthood no longer existed and there was no alternative membership status to opt for.
In short, while the Savoy state expanded geographically, the demographic circle of its subjects grew accordingly as the legal status uniting the residents of the Italian lands was now Savoy monarchical subjecthood. This means that both the historical process of Italian statehood and the genesis of Italian national post-unification citizenship are directly linked to the Restoration state (and to the dynasty) that took the lead and accomplished successfully the political unification of Italy. This is why, from a strictly juridical point of view, the 1861 Kingdom of Italy is "the ex-Piedmontese kingdom with a new name" (Regno d'Italia) and with new borders. And this is why, as shown by our findings, the 1861 Italian monarchical subjecthood (sudditanza del Regno d'Italia) is former Piedmontese subjecthood—as it had been extended from Piedmont-Sardinia to all the new provinces—with a new name, acquired with the official proclamation of March 1861. A juridical continuity exists, therefore, between the two membership statuses; however, from the historian's perspective, such legal continuity is also enriched with a "new" national flavor because from March 1861 Savoy monarchical subjecthood was no longer Piedmontese but Italian. It is the historical change of name (from Kingdom of Piedmont to Kingdom of Italy) that brings about a new national era for the sudditanza of the peninsula, although from the standpoint of international law both the 1861 state and its related monarchical subjecthood are not new entities.
So, when the first national parliament proclaimed the birth of il Regno d'Italia, the people who were united under Vittorio Emanuele II became sudditi italiani (Italian subjects), or as they were also called, regnicoli of the Italian kingdom. Similarly to many countries in other epochs, the expression cittadini (citizens) was applied as well and used as a synonymous word despite the fact that from a historical standpoint the term cittadinanza (citizenship) should refer to a more substantial and "thicker" status, involving the active participation of the individual, than the word sudditanza (subjecthood), which usually connotes an idea of passive relationship between the sovereign and the subject.
As sudditi italiani, they now shared the same national monarchical bond that, from a theoretical point of view, was based on the traditional principle of "allegiance" owed by the subjects to their sovereign and making the sovereign, in return, provide them with "protection." This special abstract relationship, created around what we can call the "allegiance-protection binomial," is common to monarchical states and draws its origins from the ancient feudal tenet of allegiance that the writer Robert Kiefé defines in this way: "Allegiance is the feudal obligation of fealty and obedience which a vassal owes to his overlord, an obligation which has its counterpart in the protection, guardianship, that the lord owes to his vassal."
In other words, between the sovereign and the subject—"the legal superior and the legal inferior"—there is a double and reciprocal tie that binds them mutually since "protectio trahit subjectionem et subjectio protectionem"; the King's guardianship entails the subjects' duty of obedience vis-à-vis the monarch and, ex adverso, the subjects' loyalty entails the monarch's protection. Obviously this is a royal link that, even though imagined, nonetheless unites all subjects of a territory to the same king, as well as distinguishing in a very clear way the sudditi (subjects) from the stranieri (aliens). In fact, the obligation of allegiance owed to the Crown is not expected from foreigners, although the latter have to respect the laws of a country if they emigrate there.
Savoy monarchical subjecthood was therefore the first institutional cement binding the populations of the peninsula together, the first national juridical link that started uniting the twenty-two million Italians of the 1861 state after centuries of political fragmentations.
1.2. LEFTOVERS FROM THE RESTORATION PERIOD: CIVIC DIVISIONS IN THE UNIFIED PENINSULA (1861–1865)
Despite the creation of a politically united Italy and the initial civic merger of the Italians, the post-1861 regnicoli continued to be "divided" paradoxically from a citizenship perspective that has been overlooked by historians and that will finally be brought to light. This issue concerns the fact that geographic civic divisions persisted for another five years of post-unification history because of important legal and administrative civic frontiers that were to be dismantled only in 1866.
During this period, the Italians were in fact subject to a variety of citizenship (or subjecthood) norms, some of which were applied in the entire Savoy state in a uniform way (because they had been extended to all the annexed provinces) whereas others were in force only regionally according to the political geography of the pre-unification ex-Italian states. This peculiar application of "national" and "regional" provisions was due to the fact that in the aftermath of the 1861 proclamation the young and weak Italian nation-state had to face a plethora of pressing problems menacing its very existence (e.g., the brigands' war in the South, high military expenses, serious budget deficits) and therefore had to postpone the national legislative unification that was needed to unite the peninsula—internally—by introducing and extending the same laws over the entire country. Consequently, until 1865, when national legislative unification was finally approved, most of the civil norms of the pre-1859 Restoration states were kept in force in unified Italy.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A POLITICAL HISTORY of NATIONAL CITIZENSHIP and IDENTITY IN ITALY, 1861â?"1950 by Sabina Donati. Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. Excerpted by permission of Stanford University Press.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations Used in the Main Text xv
Introduction 1
1 National Risorgimento, the Piedmontese Solution and the Origins of Italian Monarchical Subjecthood (1859-1866) 15
Part 1 Historical Developments During the Liberal Period (1866-1922)
2 "Becoming Visible": Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State 37
3 Foreign Immigration, Citizenship and Italianità in the Peninsula: Italiani non regnicoli, Non-Italian Immigrants and Notions of Alienhood 69
4 "O migranti o briganti": Italian Emigration and Nationality Policies in the Peninsula 95
5 Liberal Italy's Expansionism and Citizenship Issues (1880s-1922): Colonial Subjects, Citizens of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and Dodecanesini 119
Part 2 Historical Evolution During the Fascist Epoch (1922-1945)
6 Citizenship of Women and Their Counterpart Throughout the Ventennium 155
7 Fascist Italy's Colonized, Annexed and Occupied Territories: Citizenship Policies and Native Populations in Mussolini's Roman Empire 183
8 The Armistice of 8 September, Brindisi and Salò: Reflections on Citizenship Issues (1943-1945) 217
9 The Birth and First Developments of Italy's Democratic Republican Citizenship (1946-1950) 239
Conclusion: National Citizenship and Italianità in Historical Perspective 261
Abbreviations Used in the Notes 277
Notes 281
Bibliography 341
Index 395