ith the
development of other countries to pay much attention to events outside
Italy, or, at all events, outside Europe.

In the meanwhile, considerable progress in the economic and social
conditions of the Italian people had been achieved, and by grinding
economy and incredible sacrifices the finances were being restored.
There came a moment, however, when the need for colonial expansion
began to be felt. As a sop to public opinion, which had been
exasperated by the French occupation of Tunis, the Italian Government
decided in 1885 to occupy Massowah and the surrounding territories on
the Red Sea coast. But that country was not suited to Italian
colonization, and Italy was not yet ready to develop a purely trading
colony at so great a distance from the homeland. A long series of
errors were committed, relieved at times by the heroism and devotion of
the army fighting against huge odds in an inhospitable and unknown
land, culminating in the disaster of Adowa in 1896. What wrought the
greatest injury to Italian prestige was not so much the defeat in
itself as the fact that it was allowed to remain unavenged. There was a
fresh Italian army on the scene under an admirable leader, General
Baldissera, who enjoyed the full confidence of his men, and it was
clear that the Abyssinian forces could not hold together much longer.
The Premier, however, Signor Crispi, a man of unquestioned ability, but
who lived in advance of his time, before the nation was ready to follow
him in his Imperial policy, was overwhelmed by a storm of indignation,
and his successor, Marchese di Rudini, terrified by the riots promoted
by unscrupulous Socialist and Anarchist agitators as a protest against
the African campaign, concluded a disastrous peace with the enemy.

In the meanwhile, Italian Socialism, which had found a suitable field
for action in the unsatisfactory condition of the working class, had
evolved a theory of government which, although common to some extent to
the Socialists of other countries, was nowhere carried to such lengths
as in Italy. Socialism in theory has everywhere adopted an attitude of
hostility to militarism, imperialism, and patriotism, and professes to
be internationalist and pacificist, and regards class hatred and civil
disorders as the only moral and praiseworthy forms of warfare. But in
countries where the masses have reached a certain degree of political
education such views, if carried to their logical conclusion,