Italian nationalism

The Altare della Patria in Rome
Flag of Italy

Italian nationalism (Italian: Nazionalismo italiano) is a movement which believes that the Italians are a nation with a single homogeneous identity, and therefrom seeks to promote the cultural unity of Italy as a country. From an Italian nationalist perspective, Italianness is defined as claiming cultural and ethnic descent from the Latins, an Italic tribe which originally dwelt in Latium and came to dominate the Italian peninsula and much of Europe. Because of that, Italian nationalism has also historically adhered to imperialist theories.[1] The romantic (or soft) version of such views is known as Italian patriotism, while their integral (or hard) version is known as Italian fascism.

Italian nationalism is often thought to trace its origins to the Renaissance,[2] but only arose as a political force in the 1830s under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini.[3] It served as a cause for Risorgimento in the 1860s to 1870s. Italian nationalism became strong again in World War I with Italian irredentist claims to territories held by Austria-Hungary, and during the era of Italian Fascism.[4]

  1. ^ Aaron Gillette. Racial theories in fascist Italy. 2nd edition. London, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2003. Pp. 17.
  2. ^ Trafford R. Cole. Italian Genealogical Records: How to Use Italian Civil, Ecclesiastical & Other Records in Family History Research. Salt Lake City, Utah, USA: Ancestry Incorporated, 1995. Pp. 15.
  3. ^ J. P. T. Bury, ed. The new Cambridge modern history: The zenith of European power 1830–70 1964. Pp. 224.
  4. ^ Genovesi, Piergiovanni (11 June 2009). Il Manuale di Storia in Italia, di Piergiovanni Genovesi (in Italian). ISBN 9788856818680.

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