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Italy 1832–1969: British Foreign Office Confidential Print Coming Soon Overview

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A photograph of Benito Mussolini saluting to a crowd from the Palazzo Venezie.

Unification, war, the papacy, fascism, and national identity through British eyes

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Explore how British officials made sense of—and navigated—the dramatic changes which Italy experienced through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A painting of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.

Few European countries have experienced as much upheaval and transformation in the last two centuries as Italy. Throughout this period, Britain’s fate has often been entangled with Italy’s in complex ways—as allies, rivals, and outright enemies. This collection comprises 44 items, including diplomatic correspondence and reports, amounting to over 16,000 pages. It offers unrivalled insights into the numerous changes and reconfigurations which Italy experienced in this period. 

Topics covered include the revolutionary activity of 1848, the unification campaigns of the 1850s and 1860s (and Britain’s role therein), the emergence of Italian fascism and the establishment of Mussolini’s dictatorship, as well as the role of Italy in the two world wars. Reports from British envoys to the Holy See also document key developments within the organisation and outlook of the Roman Catholic Church throughout this tumultuous era. This collection will appeal to those interested in the history of Italy, modern political and religious thought, war and diplomacy, as well as economics, international relations, and political science.

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Contents

Italy 1832–1969: British Foreign Office Confidential Print...

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A collage of documents, including title pages of reports and correspondence.

Highlights

Section of a letter from Consul-General Dawkins to Viscount Palmerston sent on 6 March 1848 and received 12 March.

Licensed to access Five Days of Milan (FO 482/14)

Revolutions swept across Europe in 1848 as rising liberal and national movements clashed with autocratic monarchies and empires. In Italy, this first took shape as an attempt, by certain northern regions, to seek independence from the Austrian Empire, beginning with a major armed insurrection known as the Five Days of Milan. This document shows that the British monitored these events carefully. 
Letter from Sir J. Hudson to Lord J. Russell sent on 19 March 1861 and received 23 March, with a section of an enclosure titled Law empowering King Victor Emmanuel to assume the Title of King of Italy.

Licensed to access Unification of Italy (FO 482/19)

The process of Italian unification, often known as the Risorgimento, took decades to complete. Arguably, the most historically significant moment happened on 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia, formally adopted the title of King of Italy. This change to power structures in Europe prompted a flurry of British diplomatic correspondence, such as that shown in this source. 
Section of a page of typed text, showing two paragraphs beginning with 76 and 77.

Licensed to access The March on Rome (FO 482/32)

Benito Mussolini had been building support for his Fascist movement throughout the turbulent post-war years. In October 1922, tens of thousands of Fascists marched on Rome, prompting a political crisis which only ended when the king appointed Mussolini as prime minister. These dramatic events were recorded in some detail in an annual report produced by the British Embassy in Rome. 
Section of a document titled The First Session of the Second Vatican Council, produced 26 December 1962.

Licensed to access The Second Vatican Council (FO 482/37)

In 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council with a view to bringing the Roman Catholic Church up to date with the modern age—the last such ecumenical council had been convened by Pope Pius IX almost a hundred years earlier. The Second Vatican Council discussed social, religious, and political matters. It was the latter which British diplomatic observers followed most closely. 

Insights

  • In 1847, the powerful Austrian diplomat, Klemens von Metternich, wrote that “Italy is a geographical expression”, by which he meant that there was no such thing as a country of Italy, only an area on the map occupied by many different kingdoms, duchies, and imperial possessions. This statement was opposed vigorously by Italian nationalists who strove, and eventually succeeded, in creating a unified nation by the 1870s. This was achieved through a mixture of military conflict, political manoeuvring, and international intervention, including by the British, who supported Italian unification. 
  • Unified Italy sought to become a major player in European politics. Yet the fledging state struggled to catch up with the great empires of Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. Italy entered the First World War in 1915 on the side of the Entente, but victory did not deliver all that the ambitious state had hoped. This disappointment led, in part, to the rise of Mussolini, who turned Italy into the first major Fascist state in Europe, embarked on grandiose colonial adventures, and eventually drew the country into the Second World War, with disastrous results. 
  • From its spiritual home in Rome, the Catholic Church has long had a powerful influence over Italian, and broader European, affairs. In the nineteenth century, large swathes of central Italy constituted the Papal States. By 1871, these had been wrested from the pope’s control and integrated into the Italian nation. This resulted in a fraught relationship between the papacy and the new state, a period during which Pius IX and his successors promulgated the idea of the pope as the “prisoner of the Vatican”. In 1829, the independence of the Vatican City as a micro-state was affirmed via the Lateran Treaty. Since 1914, Britain has maintained direct diplomatic relations with the Holy See. The records generated by this relationship form a key part of this collection. 
  • The Confidential Print series offers some of the most fascinating British Foreign Office material. It is of extremely high value to scholars and students situated within a range of academic fields. Significantly, these files represent the reports and correspondence which the Foreign Office deemed most important to preserve for posterity. In many cases, the material is clearly printed and organised chronologically, often in volumes which feature detailed contents pages, making it simple to navigate. As such, this collection offers an easy entry point into this rich and detailed archival content. 

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