ndependence, revolutionary literature in general,
and especially the works of Herzen and Michael Bakunin, had a great
sale among the younger generation, and so it came to pass that the
idea of nationalism was imperceptibly fostered by Socialist and
Nihilist influences. The leading part taken by a number of Italian
revolutionaries, especially Cipriani,--afterwards the leader of the
Apennine Anarchists,--in the Commune of 1871, contributed very
considerably to promote Socialist demagogy in the revolutionary
centres of Italy, in the Romagna, and the Marches. Closer contact with
Bakunin proved to be the decisive touch.

In those memorable days when the "International" separated into two
heterogeneous parts, we already find the majority of the Italian
Socialists adopting the standpoint of Bakunin; indeed the Italians,
even before the Hague Congress, took sides in favour of Bakunin
against the "Authority-Communists" of Marx. This first Anarchist
movement became no more important in Italy than elsewhere, and an
attempt at riot in April, 1877, near Benevento, headed by Cafiero and
Malatesta, gave an impression of childishness and comicality rather
than of menace. It was put down by a handful of soldiers; Malatesta
and Cafiero were taken prisoners, but set free. The severe repressive
measures afterwards adopted by the Government kept Anarchism down for
some time.

In Spain, also, at the beginning of the seventies, there was--as was
the case with all the Romance countries--a strong Bakuninist party,
which was said to have amounted to 50,000 men in 1873. During the
Federalist risings the Anarchists made common cause with the
Intransigeants, and succeeded in taking possession of several cities
for a short time. Their successes, however, did not last long, and
they were only able to hold out till 1874 in New Carthagena, where
they had finally to surrender after a regular siege by the Government
troops. The Anarchist societies and newspapers were suppressed, and
the severest measures taken against Anarchists, which only roused them
to the most sanguinary form of propaganda. The Anarchists declared
that if they were to be treated as wild beasts, they would act as
such, and cause death and destruction to the Government and to any
existing form of society at any time, in any place, and by any means.

In Belgium about this period there was also a great increase of
Proudhonish Anarchism, which, later on, as in Switzerland, Italy, and