Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:35:35.278Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

Chapter 2 - The Making of the Colony

Get access

Summary

Origins: the late 1870s and Tito Zanardelli

Repression of the social conflicts that erupted across new and old European nation-states during the 1870s and early 1880s led to waves of political refugees who swelled the communities of expatriates already present in London: French, German, and Russian in particular. Following the fall of the Paris Commune and its bloody aftermath in 1871 around 3,500 men, women and children fled to England. A few years later, hundreds of militants fled Germany to escape persecution under Bismarck's anti-socialist law of 1878. In Russia, the killing of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 sparked violent reaction; more than 225,000 Jews left the country, driven by pogroms and repressive regulations. The majority went to the United States but a good number found shelter in the East End of London.

In Italy, Giovanni Passanante's failed attempt on the life of King Umberto I on 17 November 1878 led to a surge in repression against the International. The assassination attempt caused the fall of the Cairoli-Zanardelli government. Agostino Depretis constituted a new cabinet in which he was both Prime Minister and Minister of Interior. Government repression denied the Italian Federation of the First International political importance or legitimacy – it was legally considered to be an ‘association of malefactors’. Therefore its associates were considered members of criminal organisations unconnected to politics and, consequently, they were ‘persecuted almost at will as criminals and outlaws’. Although the government's judicial offensive did not succeed in its aim of outlawing the International, the repression destroyed the organisation and virtually put paid to the Italian Federation of the I.W.A. Many Italian anarchists chose exile over imprisonment; some of them eventually reached England, often after passing through several countries on the way.

The beginnings of anarchist militancy in London's Italian community emerged with the arrival of Tito Zanardelli in the city following his expulsion from France in 1878.

Born in the northern Italian town of Vittorio Veneto in 1848, Zanardelli began his political life in the Republican Party. Mazzini's ideas, particularly regarding the education of the working classes, had a strong influence on him. Zanardelli oscillated between reformist socialism and anarchism throughout his life; he ‘probably never accepted the premises that impelled Costa, Malatesta and Cafiero to argue a dialectical incompatibility between their vision of a future society and that envisaged by a Mazzini or a Garibaldi’.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Knights Errant of Anarchy
London and the Italian Anarchist Diaspora (1880–1917)
, pp. 37 - 58
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×