1905 in Italy


Events from the year 1905 in Italy.

Kingdom of Italy

Events

The year was marked by a crucial decision regarding the future of the railways – a choice between private ownership and state control – and the legal position of the railway workers. In February, the government introduced a bill proposing the full nationalisation of the railway system. The terms on which Prime Minister Alessandro Fortis agreed to take over the railways were so generous to the former private companies that the Historical Far Left denounced him for yielding to the interests of big business.

February

March

April

  • April – The Italian government acquired control of the coastal area around Mogadishu, and creates the colony of Italian Somaliland.
  • April 17 – Railroad workers go on strike on the eve of the presentation of the new railway bill to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Fewer than half of the railwaymen complied. Fortis remained steadfast, and after four days, the strikers gradually returned to work.
  • April 22 – The strike of railway workers ends with an agreement over arbitration between the government and railroad men. The Ferrovie dello Stato is instituted, taking control over the majority of the national railways, which were private until then, with a total of of lines. Railroad workers became public employees, which deprived them of the right to strike.

June

  • June 11 – Pope Pius X promulgates the encyclical ', which establishes Azione Cattolica as a non-political lay organization under the direct control of bishops. It was established after an earlier similar organization, Opera dei Congressi was disbanded in 1904 because many of its members were siding with modernism. Catholics were allowed by the Pope to vote "to help the maintenance of the social order", but without lifting the Non Expedit of 1868 that prohibited Italian Catholics to participate in political elections in the Kingdom of Italy and, by extension, in Italian national political life..
  • June 17 – The first Italian airship, the ' or Dirigibile Italia, designed and built by Count, took flight on from the city of Schio.

July

  • July 1 – The three principal railway companies in Italy are brought together with a number of private operators into the nationalised Ferrovie dello Stato, or FFSS, with a total of 10,557 km of lines.

September

  • September 8 – An earthquake strikes southern Italy with a magnitude of 7.2, damaging parts of Lipari Island and Messina Province, and killing between 557 and 2,500 people. The earthquake particularly affects the Calabria region, destroying as many as 25 villages, and 14,000 homes. Fortis visited the area and introduced a special law to aid these southern regions. This measure was the first real acknowledgment by the Italian state of the fundamental problems underlying southern underdevelopment.

December

  • December 3 – Foreign Minister Tittoni resigns over his proposal to reduce the duty on Spanish wine in connection with an Italo-Spanish commercial treaty that created turmoil among the rural classes.
  • December 17 – The government of Prime Minister Fortis resigns because of the proposal to reduce the duty on Spanish wine in connection with an Italo-Spanish commercial treaty.
  • December 23 – Fortis forms a new government, without Tittoni.

Births

Deaths