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| 1948, Feb. 2 |
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| Italy signed a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation with the United States. | 1 |
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| April 18 |
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| In the crucial first national elections under the new constitution, with Communist control as the main issue, the Christian Democrats won an absolute majority. The Popular Front of Socialists and Communists received 30.7 percent of the votes cast. | 2 |
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| May 23 |
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| Prime Minister de Gasperi formed a new government that was severely hampered by Communist-inspired unrest, such as the general strike proclaimed by the Communist-dominated Federation of Labor (CGIL) in protest against an attempt on the life of Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti (July 14), who was shot and seriously wounded by a student. | 3 |
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| June 28 |
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| Italy was allocated $601 million under the Marshall Plan to aid her economic rehabilitation. | 4 |
| Economically, Italy had suffered less damage from the war than other countries; only 15 percent of industrial installations in the north had been destroyed. Despite its ability to restore production quickly, however, the Italian economy suffered from the wide disparity between the industrial north and agricultural south. As a whole, the postwar Italian economy began to prosper only in 1956, and the price for prosperity for many was internal migration from the south to the north. The continued economic, political, and social differences between the north and south remain a source of tension in Italian life to this day. | 5 |
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| Oct. 18 |
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| The noncommunist elements in the CGIL seceded and formed a separate trade union. | 6 |
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