الأزمة الرومانية ومعضلة الدولة الايطالية (من سقوط روما إلى تسوية لاتران) 1870-1929

Abstract

The research examines the development of the Roman Question, the conflict between the Catholic Church and the Italian state, from the annexation of Rome in 1870 to the Lateran Settlement of 1929. The crisis began when the Kingdom of Italy completed its national unification by annexing Rome, which had previously been under papal authority. Pope Pius IX rejected this action and considered it an illegitimate seizure of Church territory, declaring himself a “prisoner of the Vatican” and refusing to recognize the Italian state. The Italian government attempted to resolve the dispute through the Law of Guarantees in 1871, which granted the Pope certain religious and diplomatic privileges, but the Church rejected it and maintained a political boycott of the Italian state for decades. With the political and social transformations in Italy, especially the rise of socialism after the First World War, the Church gradually moved toward reconciliation with the state. Benito Mussolini exploited these circumstances to strengthen relations with the Vatican. Secret negotiations eventually led to the Lateran Agreements of 1929, which recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City and regulated relations between the Church and the Italian state, thus ending a conflict that had lasted nearly sixty years.