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]
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]
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]
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)