‘to What Extent Do You Agree That the Nationalist Movement Was the Greatest Threat Facing the Liberal Government by 1914?’

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‘To what extent do you agree that the nationalist movement was the greatest threat facing the liberal government by 1914?’ By 1914, there were a number of threats to the liberal government. Examples of these are from the PSI (the socialist party), nationalists and the Catholic Church. The reasons why these groups were a threat to the liberal government was in part because of the weaknesses of the liberal government itself, and the poor state of the economy under the liberals. The economy especially led to a lack of Italian identity, with very high levels of emigration (mainly to the USA). These factors led to a fragile liberal government, with the main threat in my opinion being posed not by the nationalists but the socialists. The PSI was founded in 1895 and soon became a strong threat to the liberal government. They were fiercely opposed to the liberal regime, saying it was a cover for the capitalist exploitation of Italian working classes, and used evidence that wages were still low and hours were still long in comparison to the rest of Western Europe. Also welfare benefits compared unfavourably. This led to strong support of the socialists from working classes, so much so that a relatively new party was winning over 20% of the vote by 1913. This showed why they were such a threat to the liberals, as they were becoming increasingly popular and were clearly going places. Furthermore, the radical socialists gained control of the party in 1912, with Mussolini one of their leaders. With the radicals having a fierce drive and determination to achieve a full socialist state compared to the previous moderates, who would use peaceful pressure rather than something more threatening. These factors put together made the socialists a rapidly growing party, with driven and determined leaders who would stop at nothing to bring down the liberals: so they represented a huge

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