ABSTRACT
WHEN Serbia received the Austrian ultimatum Italy was in a state of political and social crisis. Some months earlier in March the Chamber had debated the balance sheet of the Libyan campaign, as finally drawn up. The socialists thus had their chance of taking some sort of revenge, and of condemning the war, which had embittered the party and class struggle and endangered the moderate policy followed since 1900 by Giovanni Giolitti. To escape his budgetary difficulties and a threatened railway strike Giolitti resigned on March 10, 1914, nominally on the score of a hostile resolution put through by the radicals, thus avoiding a debate, although he had a strong majority in the Chamber. He assumed that he was certain, as always, to return to power after a short interregnum, once the storm was over. But this time his calculations were to be defeated.
