As Italy worked itself through the hard decades between 1870 and 1900, it gradually built
its domestic infrastructure. The suffrage was repeatedly broadened. The development of
hydro-electricity on a large scale gave new impetus to industrial development in the north.
Giolitti’s policies of meeting the just demands of labor half-way, seemed to presage social
stability. New wealth and a thriving urban culture supported a remarkable flowering of
literature, opera, and theater, which DiScala describes. In the north, Italy shared with the
rest Europe most  of the attributes of the “Belle Epoque”; in  many ways, Italy’s future
seemed bright. 

At the same time there were problems, among the landless peasants, the “bracianti,” in the
north and especially among the peasantry in the south. The ever-increasing stream of
emigration testified that fundamental problems in the south had not been resolved. 

The Twentieth Century, then brought both promise and problems to Italy. It also brought
new intellectual currents. One was a rejection of “mechanistic” view of life, as exemplified
by contemporary science and Darwinism. Another was a rejection of the placid, stable 
existence symbolized by the comfortable bourgeois and contemporary parliamentary life.
Such critics of society included the German Friederich Nietsche, the Frenchman Georges
Sorel, the Russian Fedor Dostoyevsky. In Italy they were echoed by poets like Gabriele
D’Annunzio and Futurists like Filippo Marinetti. What united these disparate voices was
dissatisfaction with complacency and the elevation of the individual over the masses. The
result has often been called a neo-romanticism or a new irrationalism in society. In Italy it
meant a rejection of the status quo and the search for novelty, excitement, and action. The
Futurist Manifesto, which Marinetti wrote in what must have been a fevered state,
captures the dissatisfaction with the old and the striving for action which was a major facet
of this period.

In August 1914 the First World War broke out. And that changed everything in Europe,
forever. All told, it constituted a major revolution. Although the initial cause was the
incompatibility of Serbian nationalism with the multi-national Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the treaty systems which had involved all of the major powers broadened the conflict. Italy
might have joined in, too, but argued that her treaty obligations did not oblige her to fight.
The relief of the general population that Italy had remained neutral was disguised by the
Futurists and extreme nationalists. They constituted a vocal and visible minority pushing
for war. The leaders of the state, Prime Minister Antonio Salandra, Foreign Minister
Sidney Sonnino, and Victor Emanuel III,  meanwhile plunged into negotiations with both
sides. Them, this was a unique opportunity to complete Italian unification by incorporating
Trento and Trieste, both held by Austria. The Entente powers were far more willing, of
course, to concede them this territory than Austria. Having signed the Treaty of London
with Britain and France, Italy cast its lot with those powers.