1888 in Italy

Events from the year 1888 in Italy

Kingdom of Italy

 * Monarch – Umberto I (1878–1900)
 * Prime Minister – Francesco Crispi (1887–1891)

Events
As prime minister Crispi pursued an aggressive foreign policy and assumed a resolute attitude towards France. The Triple Alliance (1882) committed Italy to a possible war with France, requiring a vast increase in the already heavy Italian military expenditure, making the alliance unpopular in Italy. As part of his anti-French foreign policy, Crispi began a tariff war with France in 1888. The Franco-Italian trade war was an economic disaster for Italy which over a ten-year period cost two billion lire in lost exports, and ended in 1898 with the Italians agreeing to end their tariffs on French goods in exchange for the French ending their tariffs on Italian goods.

February

 * In February an Italo-German military convention was signed. If the Triple Alliance would be at war with France and Russia, Italy's main effort would be to send five army corps and three cavalry divisions to fight on the Rhine. An indiscretion at the Italian court revealed the existence of the convention to the French and the delegation that negotiated a Franco-Italian trade agreement immediately left Rome, declaring that no trade treaty would be signed while Italy remained in the Triple Alliance. On 1 March France introduced a discriminatory trade tariff, and Italy raised their duties on French goods by 50%; initiating a full-scale tariff war.

August

 * 8 August — Battle of Segheneyti, a clash fought between Italian troops and Abyssinian irregulars towards the end of the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1887-1889.

October

 * 11 October — German Emperor Wilhelm II in Rome on an official state visit. Visiting the Italian King Umberto I in Rome would be regarded as recognizing his right to rule the Holy City, while the Vatican did not recognise the Italian king's right to rule in Rome. To appease the situation, Wilhelm II also met Pope Leo XIII the next day.

December

 * 22 December – The Crispi government enacted the first Italian law for the national healthcare system including cremation after a cholera pandemic in 1884–1885 killed approximately 50,000 persons, with a serious outbreak in the city of Naples in August–September 1884, killing 8,000 persons.

Births

 * 27 February – Roberto Assagioli, psychiatrist who founded the psychological movement known as psychosynthesis (died 1974)
 * 30 April – Antonio Sant'Elia, architect and a key member of the Futurist movement in architecture (died 1916)
 * 14 July – Scipio Slataper, writer (died 1915)
 * 30 August – Eduardo Ciannelli, baritone and character actor with a long career in American films (died 1969)
 * 15 September – Antonio Ascari, Grand Prix motor racing champion (died 1925)
 * 10 November – Edvige Mussolini, the younger sister of Benito Mussolini (died 1952)
 * 30 December – Mario Carli, poet, novelist, essayist and journalist (died 1935)

Deaths

 * 31 January – Don Bosco, Catholic priest, educator, writer, and saint who dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth (born 1815)
 * 29 February – Jacques Savorgnan de Brazza, naturalist, mountaineer and explorer (born 1859)
 * 25 March – Francesco Faà di Bruno, priest and advocate of the poor, and leading mathematician of his era (born 1825)
 * 17 May – Giacomo Zanella, poet (born 1820)
 * 17 October – Carlo Felice Nicolis, conte di Robilant, diplomat and minister for foreign affairs in the Depretis cabinet (1885–1887) (born 1826)
 * 26 December – Pasquale Stanislao Mancini, newspaper editor, lawyer and diplomat (born 1817)