Francesco Crispi's relationship with Britain: from admiration to disillusionment

Abstract

This article examines the changing attitude of the Sicilian statesman Francesco Crispi towards Britain between the 1850s and the end of the century. While Crispi had enormous admiration for Britain, and recognised that Italy had much to learn from its political system, he also acknowledged that the British constitution was the product of a long process of historical evolution and could never be imitated slavishly in Italy. From the end of the 1870s in particular, Crispi felt that Italy could not concede the degree of freedom permitted in Britain until the state had completed its work of what he called ‘political education’. As prime minister in the 1880s and 1890s Crispi looked to an aggressive foreign policy to strengthen Italy's beleaguered institutions, and he counted on British support to achieve this. The refusal of Britain to back him in the way he hoped left him perplexed and ultimately disillusioned about what he had felt was a special friendship between the two countries.

Keywords:

• Francesco Crispi
• foreign policy
• British Constitution
• colonialism
• liberalism

Notes

1. Il Mattino, May 27, 1942 (‘Le “Memorie” che Crispi non scrisse’).

2. Archivio centrale dello stato (ACS), Carte Crispi (CC), Deputazione storia patria di Palermo (DSPP), b. 59, fasc. 376, draft of speech (?) on Adua (no date, but 1896).

3. Atti parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Discussioni, December 7, 1878, February 20, 1884, February 9, 1889.

4. La Riforma, July 4, 1867 (‘Il Senato elettivo’).

5. Atti parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Discussioni, December 7, 1878.

6. Atti parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Discussioni, February 15, 1879.

7. ACS, CC, DSPP, b. 23, fasc. 193, Crispi to Mancini, July 29, 1882.

8. Atti parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Discussioni, May 14, 1884, June 28, 1884, May 7, 1885.

9. ACS, Gabinetto Crispi , Ministero dell’Interno (GC), b. 67, Baron Alberto Blanc to Crispi, January 10, 1888.

10. Documenti diplomatici italiani, Seconda serie, vol. XXII, Ministero degli affari esteri, Rome, 1994, p. 19 (Goiran to Cosenz, April 17, 1888).

11. Ibid.

12. Salisbury Papers (Hatfield) (SP), 3M A/64, Salisbury to Malet, September 1, 1888; Lady G. Cecil, Life of Robert Marquis of Salisbury (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1921–1932), vol. 4, 236 (Salisbury to Goschen, October 14, 1888).

13. SP, 3M A/68, Salisbury to Dufferin, December 28, 1888.

14. ACS, GC, b. 67, Crispi to De Zerbi, September 29, 1888.

15. News International, Stillman Papers, Stillman to Wallace, January 29, 1896.