Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "486499771",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Italy, Situation Report 15",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499771"
}

{
    "id": "486499771",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499771",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Italy, Situation Report 15",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499771",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875504/875504-02-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875504/875504-02-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875504/875504-02-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 78,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486499771",
    "naId": 486499771,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1948-01-01",
            "month": 1,
            "year": 1948
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 9,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875504/875504-02-009.tif",
    "mediaId": "0d41945a80bb0ff6",
    "ocrText": "SECTION I\nPOLITICAL SITUATION\n1. GENESIS OF THE PRESENT POLITICAL SYSTEM.\na. Political and Social Inheritance of Modern Italy.\nHowever insubstantial and remote from modern Italy the tradition of ancient\nRome may be, it is possible to perceive traces of the Empire's influence even today,\npartly in the conscious fostering of a stimulating dream by a people of somewhat frus-\ntrated ambitions, partly in the survivals of Roman law and a tradition of local self-\ngovernment, partly in the influence of the Church whose structure, in a sense, sup-\nplanted the imperial government. The social organization which tends to concentrate\nwealth in the hands of powerful landholders at the expense of the poverty-stricken\nmass, the strong discipline and loyalty of patriarchal family life, and the existence of\npeasants bound to large estates (lati fundi), have also stood without essential change\nfor two thousand years.\nAlso perceptible in modern Italy are vestigial remains from the successive inva-\nsions of the disintegrated Roman empire and of the city-state despotisms that governed\nthe peninsula during the middle ages and renaissance. Partly as a result of these politi-\ncal divisions, a distinct regionalism grew up and is shown today not only in the differ-\nentiation between the impoverished agricultural south as opposed to the relatively\nprosperous industrial north, but in a deepseated and excessive regional pride and preju-\ndice. This regionalism has fostered many of the numerous political parties, groups,\nand movements which still plague Italy. Recently, the powerful pressure of region-\nalism has led to a section in the new republican constitution granting autonomy to\nvarious areas.\nSuch national unity as exists in Italy dates from the 1870's when, following the\nmid-nineteenth century movements toward republicanism and independence led by\nGaribaldi, Mazzini, and Cavour, and the expulsion of the Austrians and French, a con-\nstitutional monarchy was organized under King Victor Emmanuel I.\nIt was natural that the new nation, having achieved its independence against\ngreat odds and thinking of itself as the inheritor of a great tradition, should come for-\nward with extraterritorial aspirations. The irredentist movement - the demand for\nthe return of Nice and Savoy from France and of Trentino and Venezia Giulia from\nAustria - was the first manifestation of this spirit. Irredentism became an outstand-\ning reason for Italy's shift from the Triple Alliance to the Allies in World War I, and\nis proving again a source of serious friction arising from the fact that the present peace\ntreaty has awarded most of \"Italia Irredenta\" to Yugoslavia.\nNationalism in conjunction with the need of land for colonization and for new\nmarkets led to Italy's African colonial ventures of the nineteenth century which were\nfor the most part a fiasco but which seemed to add somewhat to Italian prestige. Mus-\nI-1\nSECRET"
}