Modernism, politics, and Futurism (Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italy)

Inspired by the late eighteenth century American Revolution, the subsequent 1789 French Revolution introduced Nationalism to Europe, and the Industrial Revolution transformed economic and social life, which made Great Britain the world's industrial leader. The nineteenth century opened with competition from Germany, France, and North America in science and technology. Germany developed innovations in chemistry, and France introduced photography and the cinema. North America introduced the telegraph and the telephone. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876--1944) wanted Italy to enjoy these same advances. In 1909, he created Futurism, a revolutionary philosophical and literary art movement that repudiated the past and extolled the beauty of revolution and dynamism of the machine and technology. By 1915, Italy entered WWI, and Marinetti urged Futurist members to join the military. After 1916, he transformed Futurism into a socio-political program that followed the tenants of Fascism.