Southwest Europe (1828–1971 CE)

Nationhood, Civil War, and the Making of Modern Iberia

Geography & Environmental Context

Southwest Europe comprises two fixed subregions:

• Mediterranean Southwest Europe — Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Malta, southeastern Spain, and the Balearic Islands.

• Atlantic Southwest Europe — northern Spain and central to northern Portugal, including Lisbon, the Tagus Valley, and the Cantabrian Mountains.

Anchors include the Apennines, the Po and Ebro valleys, the Italian Peninsula’s volcanic south, the Tagus, Douro, and Guadalquivir rivers, and key coastal and urban centers—Rome, Naples, Milan, Barcelona, Valencia, Lisbon, and Porto. The region bridges the Atlantic and Mediterranean, uniting maritime trade routes, mountain frontiers, and deep agricultural basins that have long sustained dense populations and layered civilizations.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

A Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters dominated much of the south, while the northwest’s Atlantic façade received abundant rainfall. Deforestation and soil exhaustion from centuries of cultivation gave way to reforestation and terracing programs in the 19th century. Earthquakes occasionally struck southern Italy and Portugal’s coast. By the mid-20th century, irrigation and dam projects modernized agriculture, while industrialization, urban air pollution, and rural depopulation reshaped landscapes.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Agriculture: Grain, olives, vines, and citrus remained staples; the 19th century saw agrarian reforms and consolidation under liberal monarchies. Mechanization and fertilizers expanded yields by mid-century, but sharecropping and land inequality persisted in southern Italy, Sicily, and Spain.

• Urbanization: Lisbon, Barcelona, Milan, Rome, and Naples grew as administrative and industrial centers. Northern Italy industrialized rapidly after unification, while southern regions lagged.

• Migration: Seasonal and transatlantic migration (to the Americas and later to northern Europe) served as economic safety valves. After WWII, internal migration filled factory towns in northern Italy and Catalonia.

• Fishing and maritime trade: Coastal economies thrived on shipbuilding, sardine and tuna fisheries, and maritime commerce linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins.

Technology & Material Culture

Railways (Lisbon–Madrid, Milan–Turin, Naples–Rome) and telegraphs in the 19th century integrated national markets. Industrialization centered on textiles, steel, and shipbuilding, while southern agrarian zones remained semifeudal. After WWII, infrastructure and consumer industries (automobiles, household goods) expanded under European reconstruction aid. Architecture ranged from neoclassical state projects to fascist monumentalism and postwar modernism. Artistic modernism flourished: Gaudí’s Catalan designs, Marinetti’s Futurism, and Morandi’s minimalist painting exemplified divergent paths to modernity.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Maritime corridors: The Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts connected ports like Genoa, Barcelona, and Lisbon to imperial routes across Africa and the Americas.

• Rail and road networks: Bound the interior to ports; after 1950, highways and airports tied Iberia and Italy to Western Europe’s tourism boom.

• Labor migration: Italians and Portuguese joined transatlantic migrations to Brazil, Argentina, and the U.S.; by the 1960s, many worked in France, Germany, and Switzerland.

• Tourism routes: The French and Italian Rivieras, Spanish Balearics, and Portuguese Algarve became global tourist zones after WWII.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Romantic nationalism merged with Catholic revival and liberal reform.

• Italy: Giuseppe Verdi’s operas and Garibaldi’s campaigns symbolized unification (Risorgimento). Postwar cinema—Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini—portrayed social reconstruction.

• Spain: Writers and artists such as Goya, Unamuno, and Picasso reflected political trauma and creative rebellion; Flamenco and Andalusian folk arts embodied enduring regional identities.

• Portugal: Fado captured nostalgia under authoritarian rule; poets like Fernando Pessoa gave voice to existential modernism.

• Malta and the Balearics: Maritime cultures blended Catholic ritual, seafaring craft, and multilingual exchange.
  Catholicism remained culturally dominant, yet anticlerical movements and republicanism spurred secular education and reform.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Irrigation and terrace maintenance stabilized fragile mountain agriculture; coastal marshes were drained; reforestation curbed erosion. Postwar hydroelectric and dam projects (notably on the Tagus and Po) modernized water and power supply. Cooperative farming and later Common Market integration improved productivity. Rural depopulation and emigration altered traditional village structures but relieved demographic pressure on marginal lands.

Political & Military Shocks

• Liberal revolutions: Spain and Portugal alternated between monarchy and republic amid 19th-century liberal uprisings.

• Italian Unification (Risorgimento, 1848–71) created a single kingdom under Victor Emmanuel II; regional disparities persisted.

• Republics and dictatorships:

  • Spain’s First Republic (1873–74) failed amid instability; the Second Republic (1931–39) collapsed in the Spanish Civil War, leading to Francisco Franco’s dictatorship (1939–75).

  • Portugal’s Estado Novo, founded by António Salazar (1933), maintained corporatist authoritarianism until the Carnation Revolution (1974).

  • Italy’s Fascist regime under Mussolini (1922–43) joined the Axis powers; postwar reconstruction created a republic (1946).

• World Wars: Italy fought on both sides; Spain and Portugal remained neutral in WWII but served as refuges and transit corridors.

• Decolonization: Italy lost Libya, Eritrea, and Somaliland; Portugal clung to its African colonies; Spain withdrew from Morocco’s protectorate (1956).

• Cold War: Italy and Portugal joined NATO (1949); Spain aligned with the U.S. (1953 agreements) despite Franco’s isolation.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, Southwest Europe traversed the arc from agrarian monarchies and fragmented kingdoms to industrial, authoritarian, and democratic states. The Risorgimento, Iberian revolutions, and postwar transitions forged modern nations marked by stark contrasts—prosperous industrial norths and impoverished rural souths, deep religiosity and militant secularism, dictatorship and democracy. The rebuilding after WWII brought integration into Western alliances and the first wave of tourism-led growth. By 1971, the region—its olive terraces, factory belts, and crowded ports—stood as both the southern pillar of Western Europe and a crossroads of lingering empires and emerging modern identities.

Mediterranean Southwest Europe (1828–1971 CE): Nation-Building, Dictatorship, and the Reinvention of Mediterranean Economies

Geography & Environmental Context

Mediterranean Southwest Europe encompasses Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Malta, southeastern Spain (Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia’s southern coast, and the Balearic Islands). Anchors include the Po Valley and northern Italian plain, the Apennines, Mount Vesuvius and Etna, the Sicilian interior, the Ebro and Guadalquivir valleys, the Balearic archipelagos, and Malta’s limestone plateaus. This is a region of rugged Mediterranean coastlines, volcanic soils, and irrigated plains that supported agriculture, industry, and rapidly growing urban centers such as Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Palma de Mallorca, and Valletta.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The climate remained characteristically Mediterranean: hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Drought cycles in Andalusia and Sicily produced periodic crop failures in the 19th century, while devastating floods affected northern Italy (notably the Adige flood of 1882). Volcanic eruptions at Etna and Vesuvius (most famously 1906 and 1944) threatened nearby settlements. Reforestation and irrigation works expanded in the 20th century, particularly under Fascist Italy’s land reclamation schemes (Pontine Marshes) and Spain’s Franco-era irrigation projects.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Agriculture:

  • Italy: Wheat in the south; olives, vines, and citrus across peninsular and insular zones; dairy and maize in the Po Valley.

  • Spain: Wheat, citrus, rice (Valencia), and olives; Andalusia’s latifundia coexisted with smallholders.

  • Malta: Dryland farming of wheat and barley with reliance on imported food.

• Industry:

  • Italy’s “industrial triangle” (Milan–Turin–Genoa) became Europe’s key steel, textile, and automotive hub.

  • Barcelona developed as Spain’s textile and industrial center.

  • Naples, Palermo, Andalusian cities lagged behind, locked in agrarian economies.

• Urban growth: Rome became Italy’s capital (1871); Barcelona and Valencia expanded port industry; Valletta was transformed by British naval dominance. By the mid-20th century, rapid urbanization created sprawling suburbs and modernist housing.

Technology & Material Culture

• Transport: Railways (Piedmont, Catalonia, Andalusia, Naples–Rome) and modern ports transformed connectivity in the 19th century. After WWII, motorways and airports (Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino, Barcelona El Prat, Palma de Mallorca) anchored tourism.

• Industry & energy: Coal in Asturias and Sardinia; hydroelectric in the Alps and Pyrenees; Fiat (Turin) symbolized Italian industrial growth; postwar petrochemicals reshaped Sicilian and Andalusian coasts.

• Everyday life: Rural material culture—stone farmhouses, terraced vineyards, hand looms—gave way to urban consumer goods: radios, Vespa scooters, Fiat cars, and televisions by the 1960s.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Migration:

  • 19th century: Italians emigrated en masse to the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, the U.S.), and Spaniards to Cuba, Mexico, and Argentina.

  • 20th century: Postwar flows sent workers to France, Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium; remittances fueled local economies.

• Colonial ties:

  • Spain retained colonies in Africa until mid-20th century; Italy pursued expansion (Libya, East Africa, Albania, Dodecanese).

  • Malta, as a British fortress colony, was central in Mediterranean naval strategy until independence (1964).

• Tourism: Began in the 19th century with aristocratic visits to Naples, Sicily, and the Balearics; exploded in the 1950s–60s with charter flights to Mallorca, Ibiza, Costa del Sol, Amalfi, and Capri.

• War corridors: Italian unification wars (Risorgimento), Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), both World Wars, and Cold War naval deployments in Malta all militarized the region.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Nationalism: Italy’s Risorgimento (Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cavour) culminated in unification (1861–1871). Spain oscillated between monarchy, republic, dictatorship, and Franco’s authoritarianism (1939–1975). Malta blended Catholic and British influences, asserting independence mid-century.

• Arts & literature: Italian Romanticism (Verdi), Futurism, and postwar neorealist cinema (Rossellini, De Sica). Spanish cultural figures (Goya’s late works, Gaudí’s Barcelona architecture, Picasso, Miró, Lorca) shaped global modernism.

• Religion & tradition: Catholicism dominated, with papal authority central in Italy; local fiestas, processions, and Mediterranean folk traditions persisted.

• Tourist imagery: Romantic depictions of Capri, Amalfi, and Andalusia, later mass-marketed as sun-and-sea resorts, reshaped cultural perception of the Mediterranean.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Agrarian reform: Land reforms in Italy (1950s–60s) and Spain (Franco’s agrarian policy) redistributed holdings, though inequality persisted.

• Irrigation: Expansion of canals and reservoirs modernized citrus and rice production in Valencia and Sicily.

• Terracing: Maintained soil fertility in hilly regions; mechanization after 1950 reduced reliance on labor-intensive terrace farming.

• Urban resilience: Cities devastated in WWII (Naples, Rome, Barcelona, Valletta) were rebuilt with modernist architecture and new transport systems.

Political & Military Shocks

• Italy: Unification (1861–71); Fascist rule (1922–43); WWII defeat and transition to republic (1946).

• Spain: Carlist Wars; colonial loss in 1898; Civil War (1936–39) leading to Franco’s dictatorship; neutrality in WWII; tourism-led development by the 1960s.

• Malta: Great Siege memories lived on under British rule; WWII bombardments earned it the George Cross; independence achieved in 1964.

• Allied & Axis strategy: Mediterranean ports and islands were pivotal in both World Wars, especially Sicily, Malta, and Gibraltar’s approaches.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, Mediterranean Southwest Europe moved from agrarian economies under monarchy and empire toward industrialization, dictatorship, and postwar integration. Italy unified and industrialized unevenly, its north surging ahead while the south lagged. Spain suffered civil war and Francoist repression, yet by the 1960s pivoted toward mass tourism. Malta endured as a fortress colony, emerging into independence. Across the region, emigration and remittances provided lifelines, while the rise of modern tourism, consumer culture, and European integration marked the final transformation of this Mediterranean arc into a keystone of 20th-century Europe.

The man chiefly responsible for the Triple Alliance is Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany.

Austria-Hungary, to counter Russian and French interests in Europe, had concluded an alliance with Germany in October 1879 and concluded a similar alaiance with Italy in May 1882.

By the late 1870s, Austrian territorial ambitions in both the Italian peninsula and Central Europe had been thwarted by the rise of Italy and Germany as new national powers.

With the decline and failed reforms of the Ottoman Empire, Slavic discontent in the occupied Balkans had grows, and both Russia and Austria-Hungary saw an opportunity to expand in this region.

In 1876, Russia had offered to partition the Balkans, but Hungarian statesman Gyula Andrássy had declined because Austria-Hungary was already a "saturated" state and it could not cope with additional territories.

On the heels of the Great Balkan Crisis, Austro-Hungarian forces had occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878 and the empire will eventually annex Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908 as a common holding under the control of the finance ministry, rather than attaching it to either Austria or Hungary.

The occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina was a step taken in response to Russian advances into Bessarabia.

Unable to mediate between Turkey and Russia over the control of Serbia, Austria–Hungary had declared neutrality when the conflict between the two powers escalated into the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878).

The Kingdom of Italy, like some of the other European powers, wants to set up colonies and build up an overseas empire.

With this aim in mind, Italy joins the German–Austrian Alliance to form the Triple Alliance, partly in anger at the French seizure of Tunisia in 1881 (the so-called Schiaffo di Tunisi by Italian press), which many Italians had seen as a potential colony, and partly to guarantee herself support in case of foreign aggression: the main alliance compelled any signatory country to support the other parties if two other countries attacked.

At the time, most European countries try to ensure similar guarantees, and because of the Tunisian crisis, Italy finds no other big potential ally than its historical enemy, Austria-Hungary, against which Italy had fought three wars in the thirty-four years before the first treaty signing.

However, Italian public opinion remains unenthusiastic about their country's alignment with Austria-Hungary, a past enemy of Italian unification, and whose Italian-populated districts in the Trentino and Istria are seen as occupied territories by Italian irredentists.

In the years before the First World War, many distinguished military analysts will predict that Italy will attack its supposed ally in the event of a large scale conflict.

Italy's adherence to the Triple Alliance will be doubted and from 1903 plans for a possible war against Rome will again be maintained by the Austrian general staff.

Mutual suspicions will lead to reinforcement of the frontier and speculation in the press about a war between the two countries into the first decade of the twentieth century.

As late as 1911 Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, will be advocating a military preemptive strike against Austria's supposed Italian ally.

This prediction will be strengthened by Italy's invasion and annexation of Libya, bringing it into conflict with the German-backed Ottoman Empire.

Greece, perceiving Macedonia as an essential element of the Megali Idea, will hold vehemently to its claims, first against the Ottoman Empire and then against other Balkan nations. (Elements of this policy remain in force today.)

The incorporation of Thessaly has brought the northern frontier of Greece to the borders of Macedonia, which, with its mixed population of Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, and Gypsies, is a byword for ethnic complexity.

It has also brought Greece into contention with Serbia and Bulgaria, all of which cast covetous eyes over Macedonia, which remains under Ottoman rule.

Initially, the contest is conducted by means of ecclesiastical, educational, and cultural propaganda.

Efforts to impose either Greek or Slavic culture in Macedonia will eventually lead to terrorist violence and atrocities and a perpetually volatile situation.

 

Bulgaria experiences a period of dictatorship under the Conservatives and the Russian generals Leonid N. Sobolev and Alexander V. Kaulbars.

Prince Alexander, however, soon finds it more difficult to deal with his Russian allies than their Liberal predecessors.

Because the conservative approach to governing Bulgaria has little popular support, Alexander in September 1883 compromises with his opponents, dismisses the Russians, essentially restores the constitution by agreement between Tsankov and the Conservatives, and accepts a Conservative-Liberal coalition government.

In only the first two years of Bulgaria's existence, two parliaments and seven cabinets have been dissolved, but more stable times lie ahead.

An entirely Liberal government under Petko Karavelov, the brother of brother of revolutionary leader Liuben Karavelo, soon supplants the coalition government.

King Carol's main objective in Romania’s foreign policy (shared by the majority of Liberal and Conservative leaders) is to make his country a regional power and an indispensable ally of the Great Powers in maintaining international stability, thereby guaranteeing his kingdom's security and vital interests.

To this end Carol and a small number of ministers, harboring an almost obsessive distrust of Russia, sign a secret treaty of alliance with Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy in 1883.

The primary attraction is Germany, whose military and economic power they admire and hope to use as protection against Russia, but because the majority of Romanians are sympathetic to France, the treaty is kept a closely guarded state secret.

Moreover, Romania's adherence to the Triple Alliance is under constant strain because of friction with Germany's partner, Austria-Hungary.

King Carol is  of German ancestry.

That, coupled with his wish to turn Romania into a center of stability in Southeastern Europe (as well as his fear of Russian expansion and their competing claims on Bessarabia), leads Romania secretly joining the Triple Alliance on October 18, 1883.

Only the King and a handful of senior Romanian politicians know about it.

Romania and Austria-Hungary pledge  to help each other in the event of a Russian, Serbian, or Bulgarian attack.

There are, however, several disputes between the two countries, the most notable being the policy of Magyarization of Transylvania's Romanian population.

Romania will eventually manage to achieve the status of Regional Power in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest, but less than a year later, the First World War will start and Romania, after a period of neutrality, in which both the Central Powers and the Allies try persuading Romania to join their respective sides, will eventually join the Allies in 1916, after being promised Romanian-inhabited Austro-Hungarian lands.

Romania's official reason for not siding with the Triple Alliance when the war starts will be the same as Italy's: the Triple Alliance is a defensive alliance, but Germany and Austria-Hungary have taken the offensive.

Bulgaria’s conservative faction has left the government by 1884, but the liberals split over the high price of purchasing the Ruse-Varna Railway from the British, as required by the Treaty of Berlin.

As on earlier issues, the more radical faction, led by Petko Karavelo, seeks to reduce the influence of the European powers who had imposed the Treaty of Berlin.

The most important issue of this period is Bulgaria's changing relationship with Russia.

Bulgarian hostility towards the Russian army, refusal to build a strategic railway for the Russians through Bulgaria, and poor relations between Prince Alexander and Tsar Alexander III of Russia all contribute to increasing alienation.

Because conservative Russia now fears unrest in the Balkans, Karavelov tries to appease the tsar by quelling the uprisings that continue in Macedonia.

Radical factions in Bulgaria are persuaded to lower their goals from annexation of Macedonia and Thrace to a union between Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia.

The kaleidoscopic coalitions of internal Greek politics in earlier years have given way to a two-party system, in which power alternates between two men, Charilaos Trikoupis, Prime Minister of Greece and Theodoros Deligiannis.

Trikoupis represents the modernizing, Westernizing trend in politics, while his archrival Deligiannis is a political boss in the traditional mold, whose only real program is the overturning of the reforms of Trikoupis.

Believing the modernization of the political system and economic development to be the essential preconditions of territorial expansion, Trikoupis struggles to establish Greece's credit-worthiness in international markets and encourages the country's hesitant steps in the direction of industrialization.

He also promotes infrastructural projects such as road building, railway construction, the building of the Corinth Canal, and the draining of Lake Kopaïs in Thessaly.

Such measures, however, together with Trikoupis' concurrent efforts to modernize the country's armed forces, must be paid for, and the increased taxation they entail, prove an easy target for the populist demagogue Deligiannis.

Deligiannis is able to court further popularity by advocating an aggressive policy toward the Ottoman Empire, but his belligerence is to have disastrous economic consequences.