Crispi’s career anticipated twentieth-century Italian nationalism and fascism

Evidence

Francesco Crispi (1818-1901). At first a Sicilian autonomist, he became linked with Mazzini and converted to the aim of a unitary post-Risorgimento Italian state. In 1859 he organised an insurrection in Sicily, and played an important part in Garibaldi’s expedition of 1860. After the achievement of national unity, he became a parliamentary deputy of the Left. In 1865 he broke with Mazzini and rallied to the monarchy. He was Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister on various occasions between 1876 and 1896, and was the most consistent advocate of Italian colonial expansion, notably into Ethiopia. In 1893-94 he repressed the Sicilian Fasci (see following note) with extreme savagery. In many ways he can be seen as a precursor of the nationalist and fascist movements of the twentieth century. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1901

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: This biographical note on Crispi as precursor of fascism feeds the reader’s toolkit on how colonial expansion and state repression conjoined in proto-fascist national identity — relevant to later understanding of racialized/colonial selfhood in Italian nationalism.
• DEFINE: Establishes who Crispi was, a figure Gramsci will reference throughout the prison notebooks; needed for following the argument.