Sabina Donati is Research Associate of the Pierre du Bois Foundation for Current History, Pully, Switzerland.

A POLITICAL HISTORY of NATIONAL CITIZENSHIP and IDENTITY IN ITALY, 1861–1950

By Sabina Donati

Stanford University Press

Copyright © 2013 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-8451-1

Contents

Acknowledgments……………………………………………………xiAbbreviations Used in the Main Text………………………………….xvIntroduction………………………………………………………11. National Risorgimento, the Piedmontese Solution and the Origins of
Italian Monarchical Subjecthood (1859–1866)…………………………..152. “Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the
Liberal State……………………………………………………..373. Foreign Immigration, Citizenship and Italianità in the Peninsula:
Italiani non regnicoli, Non-Italian Immigrants and Notions of Alienhood….694. “O migranti o briganti”: Italian Emigration and Nationality Policies in
the Peninsula……………………………………………………..955. Liberal Italy’s Expansionism and Citizenship Issues (1880s–1922):
Colonial Subjects, Citizens of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica and
Dodecanesini………………………………………………………1196. Citizenship of Women and Their Counterpart Throughout the Ventennium….1557. Fascist Italy’s Colonized, Annexed and Occupied Territories:
Citizenship Policies and Native Populations in Mussolini’s Roman Empire….1838. The Armistice of 8 September, Brindisi and Salò: Reflections on
Citizenship Issues (1943–1945)………………………………………2179. The Birth and First Developments of Italy’s Democratic Republican
Citizenship (1946–1950)…………………………………………….239Conclusion: National Citizenship and Italianità in Historical Perspective..261Abbreviations Used in the Notes……………………………………..277Notes…………………………………………………………….281Bibliography………………………………………………………341Index…………………………………………………………….395

CHAPTER 1

National Risorgimento,the Piedmontese Solutionand the Origins of Italian MonarchicalSubjecthood (1859–1866)

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In March 1861, after almost thirteen centuries of political fragmentationand multiple states, the divided Italian peninsula was unified under theHouse 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 Romanprovinces that remained under Austrian and pontifical rule until 1866 and1870 respectively. Even though realized in a “truncated” way, the nationalideal of political unification was finally achieved, thanks to a combinationof skilled diplomatic negotiations, Piedmontese dynastic aspirations,French military interventions and mounting nationalist hopes.

The historical developments leading to a unified Italy under the SavoyKing Vittorio Emanuele II shaped and determined not only the Italian processof attaining independent statehood but also the origins of the nationalcitizenship link that came to unite the “divided” peoples of the peninsula.In particular, the period from 1859 to 1866 establishes the historical rootsof the post-unification juridical membership status that will subsequentlydevelop throughout the liberal and the fascist epochs. The purpose of thisfirst chapter is therefore to focus on this eight-year period of pre- and post-unificationItalian history with a view to discussing the genesis and the firstcharacteristics of the national civic bond uniting the Italians of the 1861state 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’sItalian citizenship will finally emerge fully from the dust of archivesand of public libraries.

1.1. THE SAVOY ROAD TO POLITICAL UNIFICATION AND THEBIRTH OF ITALIAN MONARCHICAL SUBJECTHOOD (1859–1861)

The nineteenth-century period of Italian Risorgimento saw the burgeoningof a variety of nationalist political programs that aimed in differentways and through different means to accomplish the political unificationof the Italian peninsula. These diverse nationalist projects ranged,among others, from radical revolutionary republicanism—as personifiedby Giuseppe Mazzini—to liberal Catholic patriotism—as represented byVincenzo Gioberti—to moderate liberal monarchism—as symbolizedby 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 unitaryand democratic republic, free from foreign occupation and enjoyingstatehood within the highest objective of contributing, with all othernation-states, to the development of humanity. This optimistic and idealistprogram was a radical one and had to be carried out through botheducation and popular insurrection. The Piedmontese cleric VincenzoGioberti (1801–1852), by contrast, a liberal-catholic, supporting neo-Guelphianprinciples and seeking to reconcile a commitment to Italianindependence with loyalty to Catholicism, called for establishment of anItalian confederation of existing rulers and states under the guidance andthe leadership of the pontiff.

Eventually, both patriotic programs—the Mazzinian and the Giobertian—wereto be overturned by events as the final outcome of the variousrevolutionary movements of the nineteenth century in the peninsulademonstrated: on the one hand, popular insurrections lacked means, coordinationand common “patriotic” agendas; on the other hand, the Popewould never declare war against a Catholic country (Austria) in the nameof Italian nationalism. And in fact, the road that ultimately led in a successfulway to Italian statehood was the Savoy solution under the leadershipof Vittorio Emanuele II and of his skillful Prime Minister Cavour.The Savoy moderate program was characterized by a piecemeal approachto Piedmontese leadership in the Italian peninsula and by a gradual projectof political unification through Piedmontese territorial expansions tobe 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—asto make unified Italy a republic, in the first case, and a confederationof states, in the second—their respective forms of statehood wouldhave led to two different citizenship links uniting all the populationsof the peninsula. In the first case, the Italians would have been linkedthrough a republican citizenship bond, similar, probably, to the statusthat was enshrined in the 1849 constitution of the short-lived Roman Republic,where, after the flight of Pius IX to Gaeta, Mazzini’s ideals wereput into action and Mazzini himself elected as triumvir. In the secondcase, on the contrary, since the peninsula would have become a politicalconfederation under papal authority, the populations would have keptthe current subjecthood related to each state and, probably, enjoyed anadditional federal juridical link of pontifical loyalty—uniting all of themto the pope.

* * *

The history of Italian citizenship, though, was to take another course—ensuingfrom the actual historical process of Italian statehood as it tookplace between 1859 and 1861 under the Savoy dynasty. The reader willrecall that in 1859 the Italian peninsula was divided into seven states: theKingdom of Sardinia, the Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, theDuchy 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 inhabitantof the Italian peninsula was linked to one of seven sovereigns viaseven juridical links of subjecthood, according to the state from which theperson originated. This is why, traveling to and across the pre-unificationstates of northern Italy, one encountered the “Piedmontese subjects” or”regnicoli” of King Vittorio Emanuele II, the “Austrian subjects” of EmperorFranz Joseph, the “Modenese subjects” of Duke Francesco V aswell as the “Parmese subjects” of the regent Duchess Luisa Maria and ofher son the Duke Roberto I. Also, moving down the center and the southof the Italian boot, the same traveler found the “Tuscan subjects” ofGrand-Duke Leopoldo II, the “Pontifical subjects” of Pope Pius IX and,finally, the “subjects of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies” living in theBourbon state of King Francesco II. Each of these populations enjoyed astatus that was regulated according to the civil codes and legislation ofthe 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-Piedmontesevictories in Magenta and Solferino as well as the subsequentarmistice and treaties of Villafranca and Zurich (drawn up by the Frenchand the Austrian emperors without any consultation with Turin), Piedmontwas allowed to annex the region of Lombardy in December 1859.In the meantime, the power vacuum created by Austrian withdrawaland by the flight of the old rulers from Parma, Modena, Tuscany andthe Papal Legations made possible conversion of local elites in centralItaly to the idea of a union with the Kingdom of Piedmont. Within thiscontext, Cavour’s diplomatic negotiations, tacit approval by Napoleon IIIin exchange of Nice and Savoy, creation of pro-Piedmontese provisionalgovernmental authorities in the pre-unification states and the results ofnational plebiscites carried out in loco through male universal suffrageled, in March 1860, to incorporation of Parma, Modena and Tuscanyinto the Savoy state as well as to the latter’s annexation of the pontificalprovince of Bologna in the Romagne region. Finally, after the expeditionof the Thousand Red Shirts led by Garibaldi as well as Cavour’s risky,but successful, plan to recapture the initiative by sending Piedmontesetroops headed by the king as well as by rapidly organizing further nationalplebiscites in the South, the Savoy state incorporated Sicily and theNeapolitan provinces in December 1860 and, in the same month, completedthis territorial expansionist process with annexation of the pontificalprovinces of Marche and Umbria. By March 1861, the first nationalparliament was elected; Vittorio Emanuele II was recognized as king ofItaly and the European powers were notified of the official proclamationof il Regno d’Italia (the Kingdom of Italy).

As the geographical borders of the Savoy state were gradually beingextended in this way in 1859 and 1860, not only lands but also populationscame under the sovereignty of Vittorio Emanuele II. Consequently,the already mentioned pre-unification subjecthood links that embodiedthe status civitatis of the populations living in each ex-Italian statewent through a fundamental transformation on the basis of the so-calledphenomenon of collective naturalizations—referring to the change ofcitizenship of an entire population after a territorial change has takenplace. In fact, with only some minor individual exceptions, all the inhabitantsof the annexed provinces became subjects of the Savoy king andlost their previous membership status.

In particular, the people of annexed Lombardy—holding Austrian subjecthood—becamesudditi (subjects) of Vittorio Emanuele II, except thosewho opted for keeping their Austrian juridical link (within one year fromthe ratification of the 1859 Zurich treaty) and emigrated to a part of theAustrian empire. A similar fate was also reserved for the pontifical subjectsliving in the annexed provinces of Romagne, Marche and Umbria asthese inhabitants became sudditi of the Savoy House, except those whocould provide explicit proof of wanting to keep their pontifical subjecthood(for instance, by accepting a governmental function in a communethat was still under papal rule). This means that with the exclusion of verylimited individual cases in which the liberal principle of giving priorityto the person’s will was taken into account, all these people living in thenorth and in the center of the peninsula became Savoy subjects en masse.Finally, the populations of Parma, Modena and Tuscany as well as thoseof the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies acquired the monarchicalsubjecthood of the Savoy dynasty, but contrary to the Austrian Lombardsand to the just-mentioned pontifical subjects, they were not given the rightof option because the Duchies of Parma and Modena, the Grand-Duchyof Tuscany and the Southern Kingdom disappeared with their final incorporationinto the Savoy state and were abolished together with theirpre-unification citizenship status. Clearly, within this context the inhabitantsconcerned could not have been granted a right of option becausetheir previous subjecthood no longer existed and there was no alternativemembership status to opt for.

In short, while the Savoy state expanded geographically, the demographiccircle of its subjects grew accordingly as the legal status unitingthe residents of the Italian lands was now Savoy monarchical subjecthood.This means that both the historical process of Italian statehoodand the genesis of Italian national post-unification citizenship are directlylinked to the Restoration state (and to the dynasty) that took the leadand accomplished successfully the political unification of Italy. This iswhy, from a strictly juridical point of view, the 1861 Kingdom of Italyis “the ex-Piedmontese kingdom with a new name” (Regno d’Italia) andwith new borders. And this is why, as shown by our findings, the 1861Italian monarchical subjecthood (sudditanza del Regno d’Italia) is formerPiedmontese subjecthood—as it had been extended from Piedmont-Sardiniato all the new provinces—with a new name, acquired with theofficial proclamation of March 1861. A juridical continuity exists,therefore, between the two membership statuses; however, from the historian’sperspective, such legal continuity is also enriched with a “new”national flavor because from March 1861 Savoy monarchical subjecthoodwas no longer Piedmontese but Italian. It is the historical change ofname (from Kingdom of Piedmont to Kingdom of Italy) that brings abouta new national era for the sudditanza of the peninsula, although fromthe standpoint of international law both the 1861 state and its relatedmonarchical subjecthood are not new entities.

So, when the first national parliament proclaimed the birth of il Regnod’Italia, the people who were united under Vittorio Emanuele II becamesudditi italiani (Italian subjects), or as they were also called, regnicoli ofthe Italian kingdom. Similarly to many countries in other epochs, theexpression cittadini (citizens) was applied as well and used as a synonymousword despite the fact that from a historical standpoint the termcittadinanza (citizenship) should refer to a more substantial and “thicker”status, involving the active participation of the individual, than the wordsudditanza (subjecthood), which usually connotes an idea of passive relationshipbetween the sovereign and the subject.

As sudditi italiani, they now shared the same national monarchicalbond that, from a theoretical point of view, was based on the traditionalprinciple of “allegiance” owed by the subjects to their sovereign and makingthe sovereign, in return, provide them with “protection.” This specialabstract relationship, created around what we can call the “allegiance-protectionbinomial,” is common to monarchical states and draws itsorigins from the ancient feudal tenet of allegiance that the writer RobertKiefé defines in this way: “Allegiance is the feudal obligation of fealtyand obedience which a vassal owes to his overlord, an obligation whichhas its counterpart in the protection, guardianship, that the lord owes tohis vassal.”

In other words, between the sovereign and the subject—”the legal superiorand the legal inferior”—there is a double and reciprocal tie thatbinds them mutually since “protectio trahit subjectionem et subjectioprotectionem“; the King’s guardianship entails the subjects’ duty of obediencevis-à-vis the monarch and, ex adverso, the subjects’ loyalty entailsthe monarch’s protection. Obviously this is a royal link that, eventhough imagined, nonetheless unites all subjects of a territory to the sameking, as well as distinguishing in a very clear way the sudditi (subjects)from the stranieri (aliens). In fact, the obligation of allegiance owed to theCrown is not expected from foreigners, although the latter have to respectthe laws of a country if they emigrate there.

Savoy monarchical subjecthood was therefore the first institutional cementbinding the populations of the peninsula together, the first nationaljuridical link that started uniting the twenty-two million Italians of the1861 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 civicmerger of the Italians, the post-1861 regnicoli continued to be “divided”paradoxically from a citizenship perspective that has been overlooked byhistorians and that will finally be brought to light. This issue concernsthe fact that geographic civic divisions persisted for another five yearsof post-unification history because of important legal and administrativecivic 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 entireSavoy state in a uniform way (because they had been extended to all theannexed provinces) whereas others were in force only regionally accordingto the political geography of the pre-unification ex-Italian states. Thispeculiar application of “national” and “regional” provisions was due tothe fact that in the aftermath of the 1861 proclamation the young andweak Italian nation-state had to face a plethora of pressing problemsmenacing its very existence (e.g., the brigands’ war in the South, high militaryexpenses, serious budget deficits) and therefore had to postpone thenational legislative unification that was needed to unite the peninsula—internally—byintroducing and extending the same laws over the entirecountry. Consequently, until 1865, when national legislative unificationwas finally approved, most of the civil norms of the pre-1859 Restorationstates were kept in force in unified Italy.
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