How Far Does The North-South Divide Explain The We

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How far does the North-South divide explain the weaknesses of the liberal state in the years 1896-1914? The North-South divide in Italy was the economic and political split evident, and questionably still evident today within Italy. Northern Italy was dominated by a rapidly-developing and a capitalistic economy, whilst Southern Italy was far less advanced and more based on agriculture. The significance of the divide in relation to what extent it accounts for the weaknesses of the liberal state is subjective to not only the divide itself, but along with other factors which also effected the stability of the state. These factors include weaknesses in politics, international reputation, national unity and culture. To evaluate the significance of the North-South divide it is important to access the extent of which the problem rooted itself into the liberal state, and how detrimental this was. The North-South divide was primarily a weakness of Italy’s economy, accompanied with other economic issues that faced the liberal governments. In the late nineteenth century, Italy was still predominantly agricultural and its industrial development was limited compared to Britain, France or Germany. Agriculture tended to be inefficient and backward, particularly in the South where the ‘latifondi’ dominated. The industrial development that did occur did so exclusively in the North and this reinforced an existing economic divide between North and South, as the North was developing economically and the south remained backward and deprived of industry. Poor economic conditions resulted in large-scale emigration particularly to North America. Therefore, the basis of the division within Italy was economic failure, and as the economics of a country is fundamental to its success, the north-south divide in relation to economics was a significant attribute to the weaknesses of the
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