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.[1] As part of his anti-French foreign policy, Crispi began a tariff war with France in 1888.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
December
22 December – The Crispi government enacted the first Italian law for the national healthcare system including
cremation[6] after a
cholera pandemic in 1884–1885 killed approximately 50,000 persons,[7][8] with a serious outbreak in the city of
Naples in August–September 1884, killing 8,000 persons.[9][10]
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)