American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

The Ligurian migration phenomenon: the "internal" case of , from the Unification of to the early Twentieth Century.

Emanuele Poli* – Anna Rosa Candura**

* Professor of Geography at Education Department of the University of Venice ** Professor of Geography at Humanistic Department of the University of Pavia.

Abstract

The paper aims to focus on the Ligurian migration phenomenon between 1800s and 1900s, analyzed from a geographical point of view and from a historical and anthropological point of view. Specifically, by examining first the 1800 Ligurian migration, we will highlight the tendency, inherent in the Ligurian inhabitants, with a planetary projection of economic activities that led to a substantial flow of capital to Genoa, which, however, throughout the first half of the Nineteenth Century was exclusively controlled by the aristocracy who held economic and political monopoly without manifesting any ability to renewal. In the second part we proceed to identify the "focus" that led to the economic and social transformations, which determined the big change of Genoa: thanks to the Italian scientist’s congress, held in this city in 1946, banks, scientific manufacturing and trade companies that led gradually to investments in naval, engineering and building sectors began to thrive. In little more than two decades the city became a major industrial centre and the aristocracy is supplanted by a more enterprising bourgeoisie, able to determine a change in the physiognomy of the city. This fact is particularly interesting for the purpose of the work: in fact we want to show how the economic and historical turning point was the cause of a migratory movement that sees Genoa as a centre of internal migration that leads the city and to double its population in 150 years. Migrations that sees immigrants arriving from all over Italy, and that has no obstacles in its path, because Genoa welcomes them with a high degree of integration without segregate them in neighborhoods without fostering ethnic-religious conflicts. Genoa, therefore, has become during its industrial development not only the starting point for migrants to the Americas but also the centre of internal migration that helped to determine the new face of the city.

1. A growing knowledge of the world

First of all, we need to highlight the evolution history of the world's knowledge, which apparently is very simple; things, though, get complicated as you should start from the birth of man, introducing theories (the monogenic and polygenic, for example) on his origins, his first (even if unknown) movements and their motivations (Barozzi, Bernardi, 1986).

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

It is true that in any era man has reached lands previously unknown to him, there he always found men (or their traces),without knowing each other; not only does this demonstrate how old world population is and how complex the movements were, but also how easily men have forgot it! We can skip the long periods when the primitive human groups, looking for places suitable to live in, gradually populated the world (widely less intensely than it is today), we can briefly discuss how gradually populations of the various parts of the Earth became aware of other places and other people (conquering them or just visiting them) until you reach, only closer to our times, the complete knowledge of the planet.

Civilizations and populations of the past were numerous, varied and developed in different eras in Asian territories, Europe and the Mediterranean (Egyptians, Cretans, Hittites, Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Medes, Chaldeans, Celts, Slavs, delusions, plot, Greeks, Romans, Aryan, Indo-European populations, Semitic, Dravidian, Mongolian, Chinese such as the Shang and Chou, etc.), Africa (empires of Mali and Songhai, Ethiopians, afloat, Somali, Kikuyu, Ibo, Berbers, Masai, etc.) and the Americas (the Aztec and Inca empires, Apaches, Sioux, Toltec, Maya, Chibcha, Araucani, etc.). These populations were certainly in contact because of business, cultural conquest (and includes, for example, who studied the history of the Greeks and Romans), but, in fact, they didn’t really know the location, the extent and the features of their territories. Knowledge and overall geographical consciousness were lacking (Poli, Bernardi, 2015). Thanks to the great geographical discoveries of European navigators who expanded and almost completed the knowledge of the world, until then limited to what the Romans and the Greeks (eastern North Africa, Europe, and West Asia) as well as the missionaries and merchants (Russia, Asia East) knew.

We need to remember, at least, four of Christopher Columbus trips in the Caribbean (1492-93 / 1493-96 / 1498-1500 / 1502-1504); the discovery by Vasco de Gama in the south-east passage (1497), which allowed him, by sailing around Africa, to reach India; the discovery by Ferdinand Magellan in the south-west passage (1521) which allowed him to enter the Pacific Ocean and to implement the first circumnavigation of the globe; the Wilhelm Janszoon’s travel (1605), which reached Cape York in Australia believing it to be a part of New Guinea; Louis Vaez de Torres (1606), who traveled between New Guinea and Australia without seeing the continent and Abel Tasman (1642), who discovered New Zealand (in 1644) and took over part of the northern coast of Australia; James Cook’s explorations, from 1768 to 1779, when he traveled in the Pacific Ocean implementing the knowledge of Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, the Antarctic coast, Hawaii, the Bering Strait and the ice cap; finally the Robert Peary trips (in 1909 to the North Pole, after several preparatory trips) and Roald Amundsen (1911), who reached the South Pole. The cognitive conquest and possession of all parts of the world began with the man’s appearance on Earth and it had the most varied reasons. It can be assumed, and already it has been said, that primitive men were distributed on Earth by chance and without a specific strategy, taking very partial knowledge, looking for food or safer places to escape to aggressive animals, men or devastating natural phenomena (such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) or even just out of curiosity and spirit of adventure.

Later, when human groups became more consistent and organized, they moved mainly to find more hospitable lands, to escape human or natural hazards, to dominate the territories of the enemy. 2

American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

When people had already organized in states and local entities, the "new lands" were reached then conquered by the armies who subjugated peoples that were pushed to unknown areas. This meant that many parts of the Earth were characterized by the presence of rulers (as in Asia, in Africa, the Americas and Europe) that gave birth to great civilizations, which developed in isolation disregarding their mutual understanding, knowledge of territories between a civilization and the other (this is the case of the Americas, Australia, the many oceanic islands, Antarctica), as well that of entire continents (Dainelli, 1954).

It is only in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth century, because of the consolidation of the European state entities, the now insufficient supply of "walkers" (merchants, such as Polo, missionaries such as Giovanni da Montecorvino, or Oderico from Pordenone, Giovanni from Pian Carpini, William of Rubruk) and especially the evolution of nautical and scientific techniques (like caravels, cabins and galleons, able, thanks to the shape to the size of sails, sail in oceans, compass, dial, astrolabe, sextant and log to assess the latitude and longitude, pilot books, nautical charts, which the Pisan card of the thirteenth century, and the plan sphere of increasingly precise), they begin the great exploration voyages following Columbus routes, typically sent by the various European sovereigns (Spanish and Portuguese, then the French, Dutch and English) or adventurers looking for new lands to dominate and wealth. With the Enlightenment, the history of exploration took a decisive scientific orientation that led to understand previously discovered places (topographic studies, mineral research, useful plants and animals, slaves, etc.), But also the discovery of lands (especially islands) formerly ignored and the search for new outlets and sales channels. This quest previously, but especially in the Eighteenth century, gave birth to exploration targeted to that more rational economic exploitation that will culminate in the European Nineteenth century colonialism. They define, in general, those colonialist explorations of the Nineteenth century; and it is an approximate definition, closer to a cliché. But, like all clichés, there is no denying that contains the essence of truth. Besides the territorial conquest ambitions were already well established in the explorations of the past, whether they were justified by a theocratic principle that any European state would have the right of ownership over the lands discovered, or were justified from a commercial principle that the new lands they could acquire -if inhabitated- with the usual procedures applicable to deserted areas by simply taking possession, because they are considered res nullius.

It remains to understand what colonialism really meant in the Nineteenth century and in previous centuries. And here we can see the economic aspect which, with the beginning of industrial era, created the premise of a growing race for raw materials, the more appetite, the lower was their cost, as they were rare and as much as lent themselves to manufacturing need continuous development. Thus there is a substantial difference between the Nineteenth century colonialism and the conquest of previous periods, which sought to hoard the intense economic advantages (gold and spices), but limited in the territory.

Therefore, if the exploitation has always been part of those who, the richest and most powerful, took possession of the lands and other people's products, such exploitation in the Nineteenth century became not much more rapacious thrusts, how different in implementation arrangements, with particularly evident effects in the second half of the century, then continued in the first decades of the Twentieth century.

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

Moreover, it was wealth the natives ignored or did not exploit in any case, such, for example, in their eyes, bartering it with necklaces and mirrors assumed an advantageous feature, at least at first. But there is no denying that, closely linked to this form of meddling in other people's territories, there was also a more noble and disinterested principle: to bring the progress of European origin to clearly less developed nations, especially in the field of technology and healthcare. Then they trampled local traditions, imposed forcibly cultural but incomprehensible aspects, ignored that technological development is not the only criterion we use to measure the degree of civilization of a social group, it is something quite different: to understand this concept long years of rebellions, of waste, of massacres, of humiliation were needed. Only after the World War II, in fact, the concept was understood, but unfortunately, often it was true only on theoretical terms, the right that every people have to govern themselves and to choose their lifestyle. Also, obviously, the immobility. Relations between Europeans and peoples of the other parts of the world were always marked by mutual incomprehension, motivated by the large cultural difference and the technology gap that separated them. Europeans called the archipelago "of the thieves" islands and they drew the belief that the natives had no moral sense, since ignoring the Seventh Commandment and, therefore, probably did not know the others. No one thought that the theft was simply the manifestation of a way of life marked by a kind of "natural communism", according to which "thieves" completely ignored the European concept of private property. Even then the situation improved and, indeed, the gap between European technological development and the strong non-European populations went more and more increasing; they were basically static, suffered reflections of a way of life alien to them, which produced large conflicting effects. In a period characterized by a strong industrial expansion and widespread intense nationalism, which was precisely the Nineteenth century, it is clear that the exploration took on a role of considerable importance in the opening of new roads and increasing the national prestige; and sometimes also they underwent obvious manipulation: the massacre of the explorer, missionaries or doctors, by the "savages" increased the spirit of vengeance in the public opinion, to justify sending the gunboat and to legitimize the military occupation. The Nineteenth century explorer was, nonetheless, a member of a community characterized by movements of opinion, from economic aspirations, to political, ideological and cultural convictions. In addition, there was only a greater awareness of being directly partaker of "progress". So the history of exploration returned to be heroic, but this time the heroism assumed different reflections in public opinion: no longer the epic Camoçs that glorified Vasco da Gama’s features in a transfiguration of a classical and baroque structure in the form, but the epic of Kipling that identified the best part of mankind in advanced regiments to extend British rule and validate the heralds line with improvement in those who, through their work, had opened the way to those regiments. But it was not always necessary to bring out the poet to the highest manifestation of human aspiration and to his sacrifice and the painful tribute to the progress (think Pascoli hymn dedicated to the death of Salomon Andrée): it is epic enough to make the journalist who often became himself explorer (in the case of Stanley) and that, however, assured that the explorer had never been able to enjoy fame before. It is in this new conception, which puts the last century explorer in the most direct and immediate contact with an audience much wider than it had its predecessors, which should see the development of Nineteenth- century explorations which, while retaining the traditional components (missionary, economic, scientific), developed other ones: the popularization, precisely journalistic, that preordained political understanding, aimed subsequent territorial conquests, the military matter, looking for strategic points to occupy, the humanitarian, view as identifying new areas to which direct medical

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021 research, and finally, the one that led people to leave their countries to go to make an enterprise ever attempted or no one ever succeeded (Newby, 1976). Because of the changing times and to shrink the totally unknown areas (the polar ice caps and some parts of Africa), the history of exploration well in the Nineteenth century lives its particular time that lasts until the first decades of the Twentieth century, and that finishes a few years later than the Belle Époque, when it ceased to be exploratory expeditions to take on more and more concretely the specialist aspect as the geodetic survey, paleontological research, cartographic survey, botanic wildlife, ethnological, sociological, archaeological missions. And so that the Twentieth century's long history of research of the geographical discovery of new lands may be considered completed (not the geographical knowledge of the world, a dynamic and complex evolving, always in need of new and more detailed investigations). Paying attention to Liguria, it is undoubtedly the trend towards global projection of its economic activities, which has always seen its inhabitants go to territories far away to experience new shopping streets, anticipating the expansionist phenomenon, but also the migration that developed later in a more complex way.

2. Some geo-historical notes on the Ligurian migrations between '700 and '800

During the first few decades of the Nineteenth century, Liguria played an important role in the estuaries of the Rio de la Plata basin and trade routes with Brazil, North America and the Antilles. In 1830s there are over three thousands Ligurians in the Rio de la Plata area, some of them (given the experience) with important government positions such as geographic and topographic survey of the territories which, emerging from wars of liberation, will be political and administrative restructured (Surdich, 1994). Until the fall of the aristocratic (1797), Genoa remained a very rich city. Financial investments, between the Sixteenth and the Eighteenth century had guaranteed a large flow of capital that over time the aristocracy had immobilized in beautiful possessions. Fernand Braudel called Genoa a "devilishly capitalist city", but the wealth was in the aristocrats’s hands and not in the bourgeoisie’s, guaranteeing them an even stronger supremacy of the political monopoly. The (Pic. 1) despite its regional dimensions remained a typically city state; the population was concentrated in urban areas, those with the exception of Genoa, were of modest size: Sanremo, Novi, Alassio, Savona, Porto Maurizio, Sarzana and Chiavari, did not count more than a few thousand souls. The political class that owned the capital neglected any form of economic development, refusing to provide it with new roads and ports and concentrating the traffic in the capital. In the last decades of the Eighteenth century critics of the aristocratic Genoese monopoly and political power, that was selfish and incapable of economic strategies, were raised. The small group of reformers, intellectuals, aristocrats and bourgeois debated the prospect of a renewal of the territory: from the improvement of the agricultural, manufacturing and the development of a restructuring of the form of political participation. But there was no real alternative to the "arrangements without opposition and consensus" when it seemed no one wanted to control or decide. They thought to France to import democratic ideas, urging the change, but this renewal surge did not last long. As it happened in the rest of Italy, the weight of wars and taxes paralyzed everything. In 1805 incorporated it into his own empire and the Ligurian Republic was then reduced to an impoverished state of little importance, where only the aristocracy continued to maintain his weight. The new class of imperial leaders was somehow "enlightened" counting among its ranks the

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021 rich bourgeoisie who had mixed with the elite, displacing the more radical elements, but for a long time Genoese stubbornness in claiming autonomy for the city continued to manifest itself. The annexation was an obvious choice, as what remained of the splendor of the Republic was now worthless and the limit of the ruling class and the Genoese elite was clear, pulling the cynicism from the merchants they understood the convenience of seeing their good positions reserved in the new political order and gave the Republic to the Napoleonic Empire. Obviously many called to higher charges proved to be incompetent, obstructionist and only capable of defending their interests. With the fall of Napoleon the Genoese elites hoped that the previous government was restored. The new lists of nobles and full political right holders were an abundant representation of the great Genoese families and soon their business was to restore the old oligarchic republic with some new legal, administrative tax introduced by Napoleon. This helped to increase the process of impoverishment, with a rising unemployment and a significant population decline. But the decision of the to award the Republic of Genoa to the King of Sardinia changed the fate of the future of the territory. Many Ligurian lands had been advantaged by the French domination: the department had received significant impulses for renewal, the Ligurian coast was hit by a massive design of public works and the union territories of some of the lower as Acqui, Ceva Mondovi with Ligurian countries had strengthened the already dense commercial relations. It is to remember the ambitious Napoleonic administration project to create a military airport in the Gulf of La Spezia, anticipating what Cavour made fifty years later. Attempts to restore the Old Republic were many, but in the old ways: international competition, though, was growing and demanded new solutions for a changing world. For many years the union of Genoa and Piedmont manifested grudges and disagreements; distrust and delay of the desired benefits with the annexation to the Kingdom of Savoy helped to feed them. In addition, the massive presence of Piedmontese military in Genoa, justified by the strategic position of the city, did nothing but increase the Genoese discomfort. In spite of all we cannot really say that Torino treated Genoa as a winning possession. High offices were assigned to the nobles and bourgeois of Genoa, which allowed a monopoly in the offices of their region especially in the Genoa area, while in Western Liguria the presence of even Piedmontese officials stands out. The mentality that has long permeated the consideration of the two peoples saw Genoa as a commercial, capitalist, modern (for those times trade was synonymous with modernity) city, as opposed to a Piedmont generally an absolutist agrarian and backward region.

The imbalance also stemmed particularly from the attention that the Savoy policy reserved to the city of Genoa, so much as to cause concern to the nobles that the king wanted it to be their home. Also the title of "Duke of Genoa" since the former republic, which did not provide the name of Liguria did nothing but accentuate the primacy and importance of Genoa also in respect to the territory, so that the inhabitants of the rivers, when they went to foreign countries, called themselves "Genovesi". Only during the Napoleonic Empire departments were assigned taking the physical aspect into consideration, trying to abolish the distinction between town and country, but the forgot these divisions, as no attention was paid to the annexation of the province Acqui Savona and Genoa Novi delivering them to the province of Alessandria, thus helping to confine the Liguria increasingly towards the sea as in the current configuration. Despite everything, the moans of the Genoese on commercial and industrial problems asking for more freedom and privileges were continuous and without wanting to put his hand to an economic structure that had become obsolete.

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

The value of the Genoese thrift was to realize that accumulation of capital that allowed the ruling class that was formed between 1815-1845 to achieve and sustain later industrial development, despite the Savoy monarchy pointed it as an old and aristocratic political class, so because the decisions were mainly taken from Turin, appearing impositions. The beginning of the turning point for Genoa was tied to the dream of the monarchy to create a military and merchant marine fleet with its own flag, stimulating shipbuilding and the maritime armament. By 1822 by implementing other initiatives, such as commercial treaties with the Grisons, Morocco, Algeria, Belgium and the United States, the settlement of a Nautical School, the foundations were laid for a restart of Genoa's economy, stimulating the abandonment of the old features to assume more modern ones. The same Piedmont, for the purchase of Liguria, took part to the construction of new roads and opening new maritime trade outlets. The only areas that still did not change their status were the smaller towns and the hinterland. In general the entire agricultural system, characterized by excessive fragmentation of the funds and maritime cabotage system suffered, as it was stifled by the concentration of activities in the port of Genoa. The neglection for policies that could raise the fortunes of smaller ports and the slow memory of the smaller factories, would fuel the strong overseas emigration of the following years, which would have its effects in the abandonment of many centers, some, haven’t changed their social set-up almost to the present day, when because of tourism or building speculative reasons they are again affected by a certain restocking.

We have to wait until the Mid-Nineteenth century to see the real change of Genoa.

It was during this period that the backwardness town was even clearer; moreover the social and human conditions of urban decline were difficult. Also a renewed journalistic spirit deploring the now old industrial structures, the lack of entrepreneurship and spirit of association, the lack of schooling and professional helped to raise the controversy. A key step in this reawakening was the congress of Italian scientists, held in Genoa in September 1846. Around this event a number of initiatives were created: the birth of the Bank of Genoa (original center of the National Bank, 1844), the opening of first scientific society (physical and medical sciences, economic sciences and manufacturing trade and scientific society of history, geography and archeology in 1845), the founding of the first modern mechanical facilities (the Westermann of Sestri Ponente and Taylor and Prandi Sampierdarena) and the opening of the Genoa Savings Bank (1846). It aimed to bring together the most active characters to become accredited interlocutors at the Savoy government and decide a better future for Genoa and the entire region. There was the awareness of the fundamental role of the state as a promoter of public procurement and thus incentives to production and development. Between 1852-1853 a real economic boom happened. Strong investments interested the machine- building, cotton, construction, rail, shipbuilding, maritime armament, navigation and the exploitation of the Sardinian mines sectors. It was not a linear growth, but it continued in some sectors for quite some time. It was an important experience for the city, which in those times, was also breeding intellectual energy and immigrant policies in Genoa from all over Italy for political reasons, thanks to the freedoms granted by the 1848 Statute Albertino, which contributed to its civil growth, of course not without difficulties and mistrust. New people found themselves as the intellectual and political figures, the entrepreneurs and skilled workers that would have permanently established in Liguria. Without doubt, the fundamental contribution that triggered the economic boom of Genoa, was the strong government support that Cavour offered the Ligurian entrepreneurs, 7

American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021 subsidizing the Sardinian mining, the salt, the Sardinian port work, shipping lines, the mechanical industry and the construction of railway lines. The big industry developed mainly in Western Liguria, from Sampierdarena to Voltri and encountered the hostility of the nobles, who in those territories owned splendid villas and cultivated farmland, but the earnings outlooks were significant and several capitals came precisely from that social stratum. The distribution of work in the Nineteenth century Genoese area saw a large occupation in the artisan activity, small manufacturers, port activities and a host of servants and domestic staff of large families.

Pic. 1: Genova in 1855

2.1 "Internal" migrations and demographic aspects: Liguria as a center of Italian migration

The focus on the composition of the working reality in Italy from the period following the unification introduces a particularly interesting topic: internal migrations. "Internal", it is understood as movements that did not exceed the national borders, but falling within the Italian state perimeter. The Italian history has occupied much of the migration from the south to the

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021 northern industrial city of Fifties and Sixties, but how was experienced the same phenomenon in the last decades of the Nineteenth and the early Twentieth century? What were the reactions of the societies in respect of compatriots who sought fortune, such as reception methods and attitude of the public authorities? The sources we have are the migration balance of the first censuses, freshman company’s books or individual personal or family biographies, noting that today's reality now happening in the macroscopic proportions have the same dynamics, the same sufferings and social and public order issues.

In modern times, the peninsula was crossed by various social and industrial migrations and it opened new factories, merchants, laborers, artisans, farmers, herders and beggars. Internal migrations were a natural consequence of the seasonality, but also to the creation of opportunities and government incentives aimed at supporting industrialization. The industrial location in large portions subtracted to rural areas as well as distorts the geographical features of some territories and then the habits of their inhabitants determined the availability of labor before used in agricultural activities.

"3/4 emigration stays in the village and only ¼ expatriates": this was estimated by the 1861 census about migration. Each year about 185,000 Italian citizens earned their living thanks to periodic movements, of which more than 140,000 turned within the boundaries. The economist Leone Carpi, in a population of 22,171,946 in 1861 to 27,295,509 in 1871, estimated an average of about 121,000 direct emigrations abroad every year between 1861 and 1870, emphasizing the greater consistency of flows directed to internal areas. Significant transfers of urban populations, related to settling dynamics of a network of cities hit by major policy and administrative changes related to the unification process; movement of businessmen and investors who were decisive in the development of local economies. The relationship between cities and their surroundings was important: every town had at his disposal a demographic basin, consisting of those who partially worked the land, partly lent their services to the urban population (maids, servants, porters) and unskilled jobs (construction workers, laborers...).

The core of the industrial zone in Genoa was being organized along the Polcevera stream, while the agricultural economies still drew ample sustenance and the crafts of Sottoripa: shops, warehouses of the dock and the small alleys of the merchants made up the wealth of the city and precisely towards Sampierdarena (Fig. 2) was targeting the migratory trend that would bring new energy and would fit in the new industries and small existing factories or in the process of creation. The industrial fabric of the future metalworking pole Sampierdarenese consisted of the soap, yarn and cotton, the Foundry of Balleydier Brothers, chemical industries for the production of white lead, cooking oil, sugar mills, canneries then to follow a diverse set of factories from different manufactures. But the company which will mark the geographic, historical, social and cultural Sampierdarena destiny was the Taylor and Prandi "Mechanic". Founded by Eng. Taylor in 1846 with its real emigration from his native England in the middle of the industrial revolution, headed Sampierdarena where he had spotted a land located at the corner of the mouth of the Polcevera and the sea; an area of about 35,000 square meters of beach where he had the idea to build a machine shop and a shipyard for the construction of ships in iron. Taylor joined the Cavalier Fortunato Prandi, a wealthy businessman from Piedmont, expert in railway activities, and it would be the construction of machines and railway tools, the main activity of the Taylor & Prandi (Asseretos, 1994). 9

American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

Pic. 2: Sampierdarena, Ansaldo area at the beginning of 1900s

In Italy in the 1800s, there was an average annual increase of the population, although lower than the European average, registering a 5.8 per thousand inhabitants, half the English growth. Infant mortality rates were still high and showed the result of the voluntary restraint behaviors originated by urbanism. In Liguria it sees an average annual growth rate of population more modest compared to national values in particular from 1880 to 1900; it was among the lowest birth rates among the Italian regions with lower adult and infant mortality rate, albeit only for the lower mortality. The most interesting aspect of the Ligurian population growth is the development of urbanization and population. Looking at the census data of the first four censuses carried out after unification (Tab. 1), the urban population belonging to the nine largest towns in Liguria remained stationary and then increased gradually. The first census counts 829,138 Ligurian, more than half of them (456,889, 55.1%) concentrated in the . 150 years later Ligurian population grew to 1,615,986, with the majority (883,180, 54.7%) increasingly concentrated in the province of Genoa. In Liguria, the population has nearly doubled (+ 94.9%) in 150 years. And this first fact says a lot about the characteristics of the demographic history of Liguria.

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Census Population Var % Note

num. year Date

1° 1861 31st December 829.138 - The first population census is carried out in the year of the unification of Italy.

2° 1871 31st December 883.864 +6,6% As in the previous census, the detection unit based on the concept of "family" does not distinguish between households.

3° 1881 31st December 936.476 +6,0% The method of detection of resident population lives is adopted, residents and temporary absents are part of the groups.

4° 1901 10th February 1.086.213 +16,0% The reference date of the census is moved to February. Individual cards for each family member are introduced.

Tab. 1: Ligurian population data from censuses between 1861 and 1901. Source Istat, 20111

1 http://www.istat.it/it/files/2011/11/analisi-storica-1861-2011.pdf 11

American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

This shows, immediately, Liguria as a "city region" related to the migratory movement. In Liguria throughout the Nineteenth century there was high immigration to urban municipalities and an equally consistent flow of emigration from rural municipalities. The demographic development of Genoa and Liguria follows the rhythms of economic and industrial growth. The other side of the coin is represented by depopulation of the inner mountain, whose common high record negative changes. In the last two decades of the Nineteenth century Liguria was able to attract more labor than they reject to the Americas and emigration in general, in particular immigration is to Genoa, but also towards La Spezia (between 1881 and 1901 it doubled its population from about 36,000 to over 73,000) and from Savona (from 29,379 to 38,645, more between 1881 and 1901). Liguria is also linked in a very special way to the history of Italian emigration, whose biblical proportions are estimated, between 1861 and 1970, in 27 million expatriates and why its harbor is the heart of the history of Italian emigration throughout the Nineteenth century: for at least a century from Genoa the long journey of millions of Italians in search of better luck in the new world began. This huge phenomenon had a heavy impact on the city, invaded for years as a "foreign body" of between 15 and 25% of the resident population of the time. At the end of 1873 in the newspaper "The Exchange" Jacopo Virgilio, scholar and publicist, complained that everything was left "in the hands of God". In 1894 a religious, Don Pietro Maldotti, described the migrants’ hardships migrants since the arrival of the Principe Station. The square looks "... invaded by over two thousand of these poor people. The show was touching and, for many reasons, creepy. A multitude of people suspect, bellhops, emigration subagents, real or improvised, tossed between the army of misery, dragging by force the families of those unfortunates behind for unknown destinations ". The census of 1881 the resident population in the municipality of Genoa (Tab. 2) is 176,585 units; at the beginning of the new century (1901 census) the population living in Genoa is of 219,507 people. The census of 1901 (598,550 units) reports another phenomenon, a result of the industrialization of the west: in twenty years the town of Sampierdarena increased from 21,777 inhabitants in 1901 to 34,084, with a 56.5% increase.

Census Resident Var % Note population No. Year date

1° 1861 31st December 456.889 - The first population census is carried out in the year of the unification of Italy.

2° 1871 31st December 484.720 +6,1% As in the previous census, the detection unit based on the concept of "family" does not distinguish between households.

3° 1881 31st December 515.946 +6,4% The method of detection of resident population lives is adopted, residents and temporary absents are part of the groups.

4° 1901 10th February 598.550 +16,0% The reference date of the census is moved to February. Individual cards for each family member are introduced.

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

Tab. 2: Genoa population data from censuses between 1861 and 1901. Source Istat, 2011

3. The new face of Genoa: workers, movement and port infrastructure In the early Fifties, the Genoese bourgeoisie began the expansion of the city towards the hilly areas, beginning the process of transformation that would change the face of Genoa. New roads, railways, the expansion of industry, the growth of the popular districts will help to shape a semi-rural and seafaring town into a metropolis divided into three entities: between the Polcevera and Lantern (but also Sestri and Voltri) industrial city, with its shipyards and industries; Bisagno from the Lantern, the merchant city with docks, the big palaces and seats of power; and beyond Bisagno unto the river Sturla, the residential town, with small villas, gardens and vegetable gardens: three faces of the same Genoa. Although the data are not always readily available, internal migration towards the new Genoese industrial basin can be followed through the growth of the town of Sampierdarena, where the workers convey, taken mostly by Ansaldo, which required an ever increased manpower, thanks to numerous railway and mechanical projects that the new Italian State had subscribed. The censuses of 1848, 1858 and 1861 gave respectively: 1,083, 2,904 and 2,895 families, as well as 535, 686, and 681 homes. Sampierdarena offered to modern industry and then to demographic expansion and urban space and tax breaks: his vast plain allowed the passage to the railway, the port of Passo Nuovo, the tunnel of San Benigno and the connection to the station increased the traffic arriving at the levels of loading. Storage in Sampierdarena had ample room solutions, enabling the development of what was called the "Italian Manchester," by binding with other villages of the west until Voltri. The building constructions developed especially in the western coast, forming compact groups in line with the axis of the transit routes and railway axis that runs still Sampierdarena throughout its length.

Censun Resident Var % Note population num. year Date

1° 1861 31stDecember 4.635 - The first population census is carried out in the year of the unification of Italy.

2° 1881 31stDecember 7.151 +64% The method of detection of resident population lives is adopted, residents and temporary absents are part of the groups.

3° 1901 10thFebruary 21.777 +304% The reference date of the census is moved to February. Individual cards for each family member are introduced.

Tab. 3: Population data in Sampierdarena from censuses between 1861 and 1901. SourceT. Tuvo, M. G. Campagnol, 1975.

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

From 1853 to 1860, it shows that 36.7% of workers employed came from Sampierdarena and the percentage rises to 47.5% between 1860 and 1877. The percentage increases if the investigation also includes the cities of Genoa, Sestri Ponente, Cornigliano Rivarolo and coming to 73.2% between 1860 and 1877. Hiring staff from the rest of Northern Italy represents a very small percentage, confirming the majority of local labor recruitment; 12.7% between 1853-1860 and 22.5% between 1860 and 1877. The rest of Italy provides labor in very low percentages: 22.5% between 1853 and 1860 and even 3.4% between 1860 and 1870. Foreigners are chosen through a rigorous selection process: the two periods indicate a 2.8% and 1.1% that fits into more skilled labor. In summary we can say that the employees are mostly local: the initial nucleus in 1853 includes 55.5% of sampierdarenesi, 17.5% from North Italy, 0.9% from the rest of Italy and the 1 , 8% Foreign (Tab. 3). Interestingly, a small group of women working in offices and secretariats and a very low number of young people under 15 whom slowly decreases due to art. 86 of the 1883 regulation banning the recruitment of children fewer than 13 apprentices.

Thanks to an original archival research, the origins and historical development of the Swiss community of Genoa from the Sixteenth to the late Nineteenth century were also reconstructed. During these four centuries, the Swiss arrived in Genoa first as soldiers and then as active promoters of the economy and the Genoa-based company had set up an articulated community of bankers-merchants, textile, artisans, pastry chefs. By the end of 1700 the Swiss elite was such a thriving and well-integrated group that in 1799 Genoa was chosen to be the seat of the first Swiss Consulate of the Italian peninsula. In the decades after Unification (1861-80s), the investment of Swiss capital have moved into new economic sectors (steamers), who contributed to the modernization of Genoa and the Italian merchant fleet. During Nineteenth century, the Swiss community had created its own social spaces and identities within the city - a church, a cemetery, a school and a charitable foundation, consolidating the Swiss integration with the Genoese upper class. What unites the high and low strata of the population is the high degree of integration into the urban area, an emigration that shows no obstacles in its path. It should be noted that especially in times of war, conflict feeds discriminatory behavior and persecutors, but Genoa, like other Italian cities (Turin, Milan, Bergamo and Naples) welcome foreigners without much difficulty, without segregating them in specific neighborhoods or fueling religious or national conflicts. The same government authorities encourage the settlement of foreigners because often they filled the voids of the labor market vacated by those who had emigrated (Caglioti, 2009).

The port of Genoa appeared in 1860 in first place in Italy followed by Messina, Livorno, Naples, Venice, Civitavecchia, Palermo and although in Genoa it lingered in the expansion and development. The donation of the Duke of Galliera would start the work needed which would end in 1891 and in 1905 the port basin of the Lantern was started. In the years 1867 to 1906 railroads were enhanced as useful points to ports and communications: the railway line of the Ponente Savona and Ventimiglia, the Levante in Chiavari and La Spezia, the link with Milan, the Giovi line, Sampierdarena -Ovada-Acqui (Pic. 3), the Turin-Savona, La Spezia-Parma. In this period we had a number of industrial initiatives that would lead the localization of plants and directions to other parts of Liguria in both coastal and inland centers or towards areas of lower Piedmont (in the Novi

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021 and Ovada areas). The activities that developed in the three decades since 1861 see concentrations of factories and corporate offices of Ansaldo, but also Piaggio, Terni, Odera and Ilva which were promoted through food settlements and sugar plants: Ligure Lombarda, Eridania, Industria per gli zuccheri. Eridania and Industria per gli zuccheriwere two companies that despite having the facilities concentrated in the Veneto region, they had the decision-making centers in Genoa. It therefore originated a sort of flow to and from Liguria and Veneto of workers and manpower. The last decade of the Nineteenth century also sees the exodus to the Americas that depopulated the Veneto after the Unification; the masses of peasants for the most part had to reach Genoa and then embark. The city of Genoa was reached by forced stages, by all means, and more than one immigrant said that he had to walk the road from Treviso, Padua or Vicenza to Genoa because he had not money enough to buy a train ticket. In this world of despair the figure of the ''migration agent in the countryside “or "mediator " emerged: he promoted the emigration paid by shipping companies, relying on absolute poverty and thus on the urgent need to work for poor people, dramatically increasing the flows that escaped easily the police control. The mass phenomenon is still limited to specific negative agrarian economy of the late Nineteenth century and there was an attraction not only to America, but even some wretches were "driven" and forced to emigrate, strongly channeled in undertaking the journey often it is offered free of charge (Franzina, 1994). In this regard we can mention the story of Giacomo De Lazzari and Antonio Frizzo, a farmer and a carpenter of Marcon, a village between Treviso and Venice, who had contacted a mediator who had already "embarked" hundreds of families of Treviso to America. The two having had the little information you need about the Genoese company that organized the shipment or the "Clodomiro De Bernardis" could even become themselves mediators and notify the company the names of others who wished to reach Brazil. The trip was free and on arrival each would receive enough land to feed his family. Giacomo decided to leave, while Antonio who didn’t want to become a farmer, remained in Marcon. The cost of the train ticket for Genoa was twenty-four pounds each, it was very expensive; some had to sell the furniture at home or work tools, mattresses or the barrels of the cellar. Giacomo arrived in Genova after a travel day, but the shipping company delayed the journey and hundreds of emigrants bearing the expulsion order had to be repatriated. Giacomo was one of those and he initially refused to go back to Veneto and sought work in the Ligurian town, like many of his fellow citizens, but after days of fruitless search he had to return (Brunello, 1994).

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

Pic. 3: Sampierdarena, railway between the city and the Ansaldo area (today Fiumara shopping centre)

Conclusion

At a time when immigration is at the heart of many public debates and directly involves our lives daily, we felt it was appropriate to reflect on what has taken place in a not very distant past, but that is "hard" to remember. The peninsula not only was and still is a crossroads of continue migratory movements, but it has had important internal movements that have contributed to creating the identity and the homogeneity of us Italians. These changes sometimes slow, sometimes impetuous, sometimes almost imperceptible will continue to be there and to influence our society, insinuating itself in our customs, in our private lives, in our attitudes and often our very identity is difficult to acknowledge and recognize in it. But it's the same identity which results daily in a strong collective will, allowing us to build, to grow, to make great and small things and should help us to tolerate and understand those who are now living the same hardships and difficulties that Italians faced not long ago.

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American Journal of Humanities and Social Science (AJHSS) Volume 10, 2021

References

1) Archivio Comunale di Sampierdarena, Cartella 509 (Istituto Mazziniano Genova). 2) P. Arvati, L’Ansaldo e la sua città da Storia dell’Ansaldo, vol.9. 3) P. Arvati, Rapporto Statistico Liguria 2010, Analisi Storica 1861-2011. 4) G. Assereto, Dall’antico Regime all’Unità, in Storia d’Italia, le Regioni, la Liguria Ed. Einaudi 1994 5) H. Baker, Geografia storica, Milano, Franco Angeli, 1981. 6) P. Barozzi, R. Bernardi, Cercando il mondo, Bologna, Patron,1986. 7) P. Brunello, Emigranti, in Storia d’Italia, le Regioni, il Veneto, Ed. Einaudi 1994. 8) D. L. Caglioti, Migrazioni d’élite e diaspore imprenditoriali da Storia d’Italia, Annali 24 Migrazioni, Ed. Einaudi 2009 9) G. Dainelli, La conquista della Terra, Torino, Utet, 1954. 10) E. Franzina, Una regione all’estero, in Storia d’Italia, le Regioni, Il Veneto, Ed. Einaudi, 1994. 11) Ministero dell’agricoltura, dell’industria e del commercio, Statistica del Regno d’Italia. Popolazione. Censimento generale (31 dicembre 1861), Vol.3. 12) E. Newby (a cura di), Il grande libro delle esplorazioni, Milano, Vallardi, 1976. 13) E. Poli, R. Bernardi, La globalità del sistema Mondo. Verso una ecogeografia operativa, Milano, Edizioni Unicopli, 2015. 14) F. Surdich, I viaggi, i commerci, le colonie, in Storia d’Italia, le Regioni, la Liguria, Ed. Einaudi, 1994 15) T. Tuvo, M.. G. Campagnol, Storia di Sampierdarena, Genova,Ed. D’Amore, 1975.

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