Editing History of Italy (section)

===Southern question and Italian diaspora===
{{See also|Southern question|Brigandage in Southern Italy after 1861|Italian diaspora}}
[[File:Carmine Crocco1.jpg|thumb|[[Carmine Crocco]]]]

The transition was not smooth for the south (the "[[Mezzogiorno]]"). The path to unification and modernization created a divide between Northern and Southern Italy called [[Southern question]]. The entire region south of Naples was afflicted with numerous deep economic and social liabilities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moe |first=Nelson |title=The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question |date=2002}}</ref> However, many of the South's political problems and its reputation of being "passive" or lazy (politically speaking) was due to the new government that alienated the South. On the other hand, transportation was difficult, soil fertility was low with extensive erosion, deforestation was severe, many businesses could stay open only because of high protective tariffs, large estates were often poorly managed, most peasants had only very small plots, and there was chronic unemployment and high crime rates.<ref name="Roland Sarti 2004 pp 567">{{Cite book |last=Sarti |first=Roland |title=Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present |date=2004 |pages=567–568}}</ref>

Cavour decided the basic problem was poor government, and believed that could be remedied by strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result was an upsurge in [[brigandage in the Two Sicilies|brigandage]], which turned into a bloody civil war that lasted almost ten years. The insurrection reached its peak mainly in [[Basilicata]] and northern [[Apulia]], headed by the brigands [[Carmine Crocco]] and Michele Caruso.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Massari |first1=Giuseppe |title=Il brigantaggio nelle province napoletane |last2=Castagnola |first2=Stefano |date=1863 |publisher=Fratelli Ferrario |page=17, 20 |lang=it}}</ref> With the end of the southern riots, there was an outflow of millions of peasants in the [[Italian diaspora]], especially to the United States and South America. Others relocated to the northern industrial cities such as Genoa, Milan and Turin, and sent money home.<ref name="Roland Sarti 2004 pp 567" />

The first Italian diaspora began around 1880 and ended in the 1920s to the early 1940s with the rise of [[Kingdom of Italy under Fascism (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]].<ref name="Pozzetta, George E. 1992">{{Cite book |first1=George E. |last1=Pozzetta |title=The Italian Diaspora: Migration across the Globe |last2=Ramirez |first2=Bruno |last3=Harney |first3=Robert F. |date=1992 |publisher=Multicultural History Society of Ontario |location=Toronto}}</ref> Poverty was the main reason for emigration, specifically the lack of land as ''[[mezzadria]]'' [[sharecropping]] flourished in Italy, especially in the South, and property became subdivided over generations. Especially in [[Southern Italy]], conditions were harsh.<ref name="Pozzetta, George E. 1992" /> Until the 1860s to 1950s, most of Italy was a [[rural society]] with many small towns and cities and almost no modern industry in which land management practices, especially in the South and the [[Northeastern Italy|Northeast]], did not easily convince farmers to stay on the land and to work the soil.<ref name="MacDonald">{{Cite journal |last=McDonald |first=J. S. |date=October 1958 |title=Some Socio-Economic Emigration Differentials in Rural Italy, 1902-1913 |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=55–72 |doi=10.1086/449779 |issn=0013-0079 |s2cid=153889304}}</ref>

Another factor was related to the overpopulation of Southern Italy as a result of the improvements in socioeconomic conditions after [[Unification of Italy|Unification]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sori |first=Ercole |title=L'emigrazione italiana dall' Unità alla Seconda Guerra Mondiale |at=chapter 1 |lang=It}}</ref> That created a demographic boom and forced the new generations to emigrate en masse in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, mostly to the [[Americas]].<ref name="Italy's Many Diasporas">{{Cite book |last=Gabaccia |first=Donna |title=Italy's Many Diasporas |date=200 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |pages=58–80}}</ref> The new migration of capital created millions of unskilled jobs around the world and was responsible for the simultaneous mass migration of Italians searching for "work and bread" ({{Langx|it|pane e lavoro}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pozzetta |first=George E. |title=Pane e Lavoro: The Italian American Working Class |date=1980 |publisher=Multicultural History Society of Ontorio |location=Toronto}}</ref>

Unification broke down the feudal land system, which had survived in the south since the Middle Ages, especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats, religious bodies or the king. The breakdown of [[feudalism]], however, and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the south winding up owning arable land. Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and so less and less productive, as land was subdivided amongst heirs.<ref name="MacDonald" /> Between 1860 and World War I, at least 9 million Italians left permanently of a total of 16 million who emigrated, most travelling to North or South America.<ref name="Hatton">{{Cite journal |last1=Hatton |first1=Timothy J. |last2=Williamson |first2=Jeffrey G. |date=September 1994 |title=What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century? |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/h0043.pdf |journal=Population and Development Review |publisher=Population Council |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=533–559 |doi=10.2307/2137600 |issn=0098-7921 |jstor=2137600}}</ref><ref name="Italy's Many Diasporas" />