1888 in Italy


Events from the year '''1888 in Italy'''

Kingdom of Italy

The total population of Italy in 1888 was 31.160 million. Life expectancy in 1888 was 37.0 years.

Events

As prime minister Crispi pursued an aggressive foreign policy and assumed a resolute attitude towards France. The Triple Alliance (1882) committed Italy to a possible war with France, requiring a vast increase in the already heavy Italian military expenditure, making the alliance unpopular in Italy. As part of his anti-French foreign policy, Crispi began a tariff war with France in 1888. The Franco-Italian trade war was an economic disaster for Italy which over a ten-year period cost two billion lire in lost exports, and ended in 1898 with the Italians agreeing to end their tariffs on French goods in exchange for the French ending their tariffs on Italian goods.

February

  • In February an Italo-German military convention was signed. If the Triple Alliance would be at war with France and Russia, Italy's main effort would be to send five army corps and three cavalry divisions to fight on the Rhine. An indiscretion at the Italian court revealed the existence of the convention to the French and the delegation that negotiated a Franco-Italian trade agreement immediately left Rome, declaring that no trade treaty would be signed while Italy remained in the Triple Alliance.

March

  • 1 March — As a reaction to the strict protectionist tariff established in Italy in July 1887, France introduced a discriminatory trade tariff, and Italy raised their duties on French goods by 50%; initiating a full-scale tariff war.
The short-term effects of the tariff war would be dramatic: "Trade between the two countries was halved. Italian exports to France fell from an average of 444 million lire in 1881-87 to an average of 165 million lire in 1888-90; the French share of Italian exports fell from 41 per cent to 18 per cent. Imports from France went down from 307 million to 164 million lire. Only about one-third of the lost export market could be made up elsewhere. Silk and wine were particularly affected, although rice, dairy produce and cattle exports all suffered."

July

August

  • 8 August — Battle of Segheneyti, a clash fought between Italian troops and Abyssinian irregulars towards the end of the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887-1889. The battle resulted in the destruction of Italian attachment that was deployed to Segheneyti. The defeat, though minor, drew heavy criticism towards general Baldissera.

October

December

  • 22 December – The Crispi government enacted the first Italian law for the national healthcare system including cremation after a cholera pandemic in 1884–1885 killed approximately 50,000 persons, with a serious outbreak in the city of Naples in August–September 1884, killing 8,000 persons.
  • 30 December – The Crispi government enacted the first Italian law introducing timid regulations on migrant protection to regulate expanding emigration from Italy. The Emigration Act of 1888 is also known as the Crispi Law on emigration. The law proclaimed the freedom to emigrate, as long as those intending to leave were in order with the military draft. It regulated the activities of emigration agents and regulated the contract of maritime transport. Married women could leave but only with their husband's consent. Transatlantic emigration had risen from about 20,000 a year before 1879 to 130,000 in 1887, and to nearly 205,000 in 1888.

Births

Deaths