The Unification of Italy in 1861-70 broke down the feudal land system that had survived in the South since Middle Ages, especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats, religious bodies, or the king. The redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the South winding up with land of their own or land they could work and profit from. Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and thus more and more unproductive as land was subdivided among heirs. At the same time, the early industrialization process that characterized the northern and central parts of the country starting from the 1880s, completely excluded large areas in the North-East. The resulting Italian diaspora concerned nearly 25 million Italians, the most part emigrated in the period 1880-1914, and it is considered the biggest mass migration of contemporary times. During the Great War, the Italian Royal Army increased in size from 15,000 men in 1914 to 160,000 men in 1918, with 5 million recruits in total entering service during the war. This came at a terrible cost: by the end of the war, Italy had lost 700,000 soldiers and had a budget deficit of billions of lira.
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