V. Italy’s Colonial Situation

For some time, colonization and emigration were two parallel events. They supported and influenced each other and their coming together increased the power, strength and glory of the nations that used them wisely. However, these two noble functions of social life, which thus far proceeded together, must now part company by force of circumstances.

While emigration keeps increasing by the day and is reaching numbers never attained so far, colonization, for lack of new lands to subdue, must limit itself only to maintenance and to defense of the rights of the first inhabitant.

Italy does not have colonies, unless one considers colonies those strips on occupied land of the shores of the Red Sea, and it is in no position to acquire any more colonies without clearly violating international law and getting involved in bloody conflicts. In this regard, the English General Brow had this to say in a recent article in Nuova Antologia: “Italians are too practical a people to feed on ideals and realize they have emerged on the world scene too late to have rich and abundantly rewarding colonies, like those England has. By now, the world has all been claimed, and Italy is not powerful, or big enough to covet someone else’s space. On the other hand, to acquire colonies, a country needs people and money. Italy does indeed have a large number of emigrants but they lack the energy, the spirit of initiative and the money that are absolutely necessary to establish colonies. In everything, the Government has to be much too frugal; the mere prospect of wars, like the one we fought in Abyssinia in 1867, wars that cost several hundred million lire, just to maintain its colonial prestige, frightens everybody.”

Italy, then, does not have colonies and does not seem to be in a position to acquire any, after having been the queen of the seas for centuries. Few nations, in fact, have colonial traditions like Italy. One after the other, our glorious medieval Republics dominated all the ports of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. The ships of Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice brought the grandeur and fear of the Italians among the infidels. And for centuries the Republics fought, now winning, now losing, but always valiantly, in defense of country, religion, and Christian civilization against cruel Muslim invaders.

It does not pay, at this point, to seek out the historical and providential reasons for its fall as a military and international power. It is a fact that, after their unification and the final settlement of their government, modern nations gradually found the strength to remain united and to expand, while Italy, amidst municipal and princely feuds, slowly got poorer and poorer, until it lost all its influence. And, while other countries lorded over old and new continents and got hold of immense riches, Italy not only was losing political influence in the world but also on the surrounding seas, which had once been known as Italian lakes. It was

almost excluded from those very ports where its merchants had exercised a monopoly for centuries. But, when it comes to colonies, says General Brow in the above-mentioned article, the pound sterling counts more than old parchments. The Cyprus incident should teach us a lesson.

The fact that we Italians do not have colonies for our emigrants should at least tell us that their condition is worse, much worse, than that of emigrants from other countries.

When British, French, Spanish and Portuguese emigrants leave their birthplace and cross the sea, they know they will land on a shore, an island, or a continent where they will be protected by and judged according to the laws of their own country, where their mother tongue is spoken, where the same flag is waving, a flag they perhaps have fought for, where altars are raised by the same religion that once smiled on their youth, that blessed their marriage, that invoked eternal rest at the graves of their forefathers. In a word, they know that they will find elsewhere a vibrant and glorious image of their own motherland, with all its appeal and allure.

And still, despite these advantages – which our countrymen cannot enjoy – there is so much the various governments and private organizations have done and keep doing in those very countries to defend and assist the emigrants!