Visit Italy Online
Background
Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula,
along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL. An era
of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito
MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi
Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced
the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a charter member
of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It has been at the forefront
of European economic and political unification, joining the European Monetary
Union in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime,
corruption, high unemployment, and the low incomes and technical standards of
southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.
Additional History of Italy in English. MORE.
Italy, history of since earliest times the history of Italy has been
influenced by cultural and political divisions resulting from the peninsula's
disparate geography and by circumstances that made Italy the scene of many of
Europe's most important struggles for power.
EARLY ITALY
Recent excavations throughout Italy and Sicily have revealed evidence of
human activity during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. By the beginning
of the Neolithic period (c.5000 BC), the small communities of hunters of earlier
times had been replaced by agricultural settlements, with some stock breeding
and widespread use of stone implements and pottery. Painted vessels that seem to
have been influenced by contemporary styles in Greece have been found at
Castellaro Vecchio on the island of Lipari.
The Bronze Age
By 2000 BC new immigrants from the east had introduced metalworking into
southern Italy and Sicily; the northern Italian Polada culture of the same
period left evidence of strong links with cultures north of the Alps. During the
Bronze Age (c.1800-1000 BC), much of central and southern Italy had a unified
culture known as the Apennine, characterized by large agricultural and pastoral
settlements; on the southeastern coast and in Sicily evidence indicates trading
contacts with the Mycenaeans. After c.1500 BC, in the Po Valley to the north,
the terramara culture--with its villages constructed on wooden piles, its
advanced techniques of bronze working, and its cremation rites--rose to
prominence. By the time of the introduction of iron into Italy (c.1000 BC),
regional variations were well established.
The Etruscans
The diverse cultural patterns of the early Iron Age were further complicated in
the late 8th century BC by the arrival of Greek colonizers in the south and in
Sicily and by the appearance of the ETRUSCANS in central Italy and the Po
Valley. Historians generally agree that Etruscan culture was the result of
outside (probably eastern) influence on indigenous peoples; the source, degree,
and chronology of that outside influence remain uncertain. By the end of the 7th
century BC, LATIUM and part of CAMPANIA had joined central Italy under Etruscan
rule. As the Etruscans expanded their rule, many city-states were founded by the
Italians.
ROMAN ITALY
According to later Roman historians, the city of ROME, founded in
c.753--probably by local LATINS and SABINES--was ruled by Etruscan kings from
616 BC. But after the expulsion of the last of these kings, Lucius TARQUINIUS
SUPERBUS in 510 BC, and the foundation of the Roman republic in 509, the power
of the Etruscans declined as the Romans began the unification of Italy (see
ROME, ANCIENT). This process reached its final stage in 89 BC, when the right of
Roman citizenship was extended throughout Italy, with the consequent diffusion
of Roman institutions and the Latin language and culture from the Alps to
Sicily.
The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire began effectively with the defeat of Mark ANTONY and CLEOPATRA
in 31 BC by the man who would later become Emperor AUGUSTUS. During the
following centuries the increasing extent of the Roman possessions outside Italy
and the complexity of the imperial bureaucracy resulted in a decline in the
importance of Italy itself, a process accelerated by the growing number of
emperors born outside Italy, whose allegiances lay elsewhere. The Edict of
Caracalla (AD 212 or 213), which extended Roman citizenship to nearly all free
provincials throughout the empire, further undermined Italy's special status. In
330, Emperor CONSTANTINE I transferred his capital from Rome to Constantinople,
built on the site of Byzantium. Italy's administrative autonomy was lost shortly
afterwards when two dioceses were joined with that of Africa to form a single
prefecture. The loss of temporal power, however, was to some degree compensated
for by the growing importance of Italy as a center of Christianity: starting in
the 2d century AD several bishoprics were founded--in Milan, Ravenna, Naples,
Benevento, and elsewhere--in addition to that of Rome. After 476, when the
Germanic chieftain ODOACER deposed the last western emperor, Romulus Augustulus
(r. 475-76), military control of Italy passed into barbarian hands. Under the
Ostrogothic king, THEODORIC (r. 493-526; see GOTHS), in practical terms Italian
political and social ties were with the West, in spite of continuing theoretical
ties with the BYZANTINE EMPIRE. By 553, however, internal feuds permitted the
Byzantine emperor JUSTINIAN I to regain control. Peninsular Italy was
administered from its capital at RAVENNA as merely one division of the empire,
although the Byzantines gradually and grudgingly admitted the ecclesiastical
primacy of Rome in the West.
THE MIDDLE AGES
During the early Middle Ages, Italian ties with the "New Rome" of
the East (Constantinople) were first threatened and later severed after a series
of invasions from the west and north into Italy. The severing of ties with the
East was confirmed by the eventual emergence of the PAPACY and the Italian
cities as powers in their own right.
The Lombards
After the Ostrogoths, another Germanic people, the LOMBARDS, arrived in
Italy--in 568; their control soon spread from the north to Tuscany and Umbria,
although much of southern and eastern Italy remained in Byzantine hands. The
Lombards were resisted chiefly by the popes--most notably GREGORY I (r.
590-604)--who acted as de facto political and military as well as ecclesiastical
leaders and held a band of land stretching across the peninsula that later
became the PAPAL STATES. By the end of the 7th century, papal resistance had
induced the Lombards to consolidate their power in northern and central Italy,
where they achieved a high degree of political unification. Meanwhile, the
unrest in the Byzantine centers in the south reflected the disturbances taking
place in Byzantium itself (see ICONOCLASM), and popular revolts broke out in
Rome, Naples, Venice, and elsewhere. Thus by 728 the Lombards, under Liutprand
(r. 712-44), were able to extend their influence in spite of further papal
attempts at intervention. During Liutprand's reign, many of the Lombards
converted from ARIANISM to Roman Catholicism. By this time they were accepting
many other elements of Roman culture, including the Latin language; their law
and administration reflected both Roman and Germanic influences (see GERMANIC
LAW).
The Franks The success of the Lombards, however, was
temporary. Under the pretense of restoring to the papacy its lost territories,
Pope Stephen II (r. 752-57) invited the FRANKS, still another Germanic tribe, to
invade Italy. In 774 the Franks expelled the Lombard rulers; Lombard territory
passed into the hands of the Frankish ruler CHARLEMAGNE, who was crowned emperor
in Rome on Dec. 25, 800. The following century was characterized by continual
feuding between Franks and Byzantines, the chief beneficiaries being the
SARACENS, newly arrived from North Africa. These Arabs originally came to assist
rebels against the Byzantine Empire. The Saracens remained to conquer (827-78)
Sicily, however, and to establish outposts in southern Italy; in 846 they
launched an attack on Rome itself. The collapse of the Carolingian empire in the
9th century, at the same time as the resurgence of Byzantium under the
Macedonian dynasty, caused a brief return to eastern influence.
The Ottonians This constant alternation of power was
temporarily ended by the arrival in Italy--once again by papal invitation--of
the German king OTTO I, who was crowned Holy Roman emperor in 962 (see HOLY
ROMAN EMPIRE). The Ottonian dynasty fell, however, shortly after 1000, leaving
in the north a vacuum to be exploited by the local small landowners and town
merchants. Meanwhile, local insurrections weakened the Saracens' hold on the
southern coastal cities, although the Arabs remained strong in Sicily. The Rise
of the Italian City-States In this climate of political and social
fragmentation, individual Italian cities began to assert their autonomy. During
the 11th century an elaborate pattern of communal government began to evolve
under the leadership of a burgher class grown wealthy in trade, banking, and
such industries as woolen textiles. Many cities--especially FLORENCE, GENOA,
PISA, MILAN, and VENICE--became powerful and independent CITY-STATES. Resisting
the efforts of both the old landed nobles and the emperors to control them,
these COMMUNES hastened the end of feudalism in northern Italy and spawned
deeply rooted identification with the city as opposed to the larger region or
country. The cities were often troubled by violent and divisive rivalries among
their citizens, the most famous being the papal-imperial struggle--between the
GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES, the supporters respectively of the popes and the
emperors. Despite such divisions, however, the cities contributed significantly
to the economic, social, and cultural vitality of Italy.
The Kingdom of Sicily Unlike the north, with its network of
vigorously independent urban centers, southern Italy experienced a significant
consolidation after its conquest by the NORMANS. Bands of these invaders arrived
in Italy early in the 11th century. Starting c.1046, ROBERT GUISCARD and his
successors expelled the Saracens and Byzantines and carved a powerful domain out
of APULIA CALABRIA, Campania, and Sicily. Although the Norman territories
remained a fief of the papacy, papal overlordship became a mere formality in the
12th century--especially after 1127, when ROGER II united the southern part of
the peninsula with Sicily; he assumed the title of king of Sicily in 1130 (see
NAPLES, KINGDOM OF; SICILY). While the Normans were consolidating their rule in
southern Italy, the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire continued their struggle
for dominance in northern and central Italy. In 1077, Pope GREGORY VII humbled
Holy Roman Emperor HENRY IV at Canossa during the INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY.
Later, Pope ALEXANDER III successfully supported an alliance of northern cities
known as the Lombard League against the efforts of Emperor FREDERICK I (Barbarossa;
r. 1152-90) of the HOHENSTAUFEN dynasty to impose imperial authority over them.
Early in the 13th century the Hohenstaufen FREDERICK II succeeded in uniting the
thrones of German and Norman Sicily. Although Pope INNOCENT III (r. 1198-1216)
opposed the emperor and advanced far-reaching claims of political and religious
supremacy, Frederick established one of the wealthiest and most powerful states
in Europe, centering on his brilliant court at PALERMO, with its great cultural
innovations.
The papal-imperial conflict culminated in 1262 with a papal invitation to
Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France, to conquer Sicily.
Charles, the founder of the ANGEVIN dynasty of Naples, ruled from 1266 as
CHARLES I, king of Naples and Sicily. French rule, which introduced feudalism to
the south at a time when it was weakening elsewhere, was highly unpopular, and
in 1282 a successful revolt (the SICILIAN VESPERS) resulted in the separation of
Sicily from the mainland. PETER III of Aragon was made king of Sicily while the
former Norman domains on the mainland remained under Angevin rule as the Kingdom
of Naples. In the 15th century both kingdoms became Spanish possessions; they
were then reunited under the title Kingdom of the TWO SICILIES.
THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND
FOREIGN DOMINATION
After 1300 both the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire turned their attention
away from Italy. The emperors concentrated on German affairs while the popes met
increasing resistance--especially from the French--as they tried to assert their
authority in Europe. For much of the 14th century the papacy was situated
outside Italy--at Avignon, in southern France. The weakening of papal and
imperial authority accompanied great intellectual changes in Italy. An
intellectual revival, stimulated in part by the freer atmosphere of the cities
and in part by the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Latin writings, gave rise to
the humanist attitudes and ideas that formed the basis of the RENAISSANCE. About
the same time, many of the communal governments of the city-states fell under
the rule of dictators called signori, who curbed their factionalism and became
hereditary rulers. In Milan the VISCONTI family rose to power in the 13th
century, to be succeeded by the SFORZA family in the mid-15th century--a few
decades after the MEDICI family had seized control of Florence. Meanwhile the
ESTE family ruled Ferrara from the 13th through the 16th century. Although they
subverted the political institutions of the communes, the signori (who became
known as principi, with royal titles) were instrumental in advancing the
cultural and civic life of Renaissance Italy. Under the patronage of the Medici,
for example, Florence became the most magnificent and prestigious center of the
arts in Italy. During the 14th and 15th centuries, Italian thought and style
influenced all Europe.
As the larger cities expanded into the surrounding countryside, absorbing many
of the smaller cities, they involved themselves in the complex international
politics of the age. The frequent wars between city-states brought to Italy the
mercenary leaders known as the CONDOTTIERI and ultimately resulted in foreign
intervention. In 1494, CHARLES VIII of France invaded Italy (see ITALIAN WARS),
signaling the beginning of a period of foreign occupation that lasted until the
19th century. By 1550 almost all Italy had been subjugated by the Habsburg ruler
CHARLES V, who was both Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain; when Charles
abdicated in 1555-56, dividing the Habsburg territories between his brother
Emperor FERDINAND I and his son PHILIP II of Spain, Italy was part of the
latter's inheritance. Spain remained the dominant power in Italy until Austria
replaced it after the War of the SPANISH SUCCESSION (1701-14). In the 18th
century some areas of Italy achieved independence. SAVOY (the Kingdom of
Sardinia after 1720) annexed SARDINIA and portions of LOMBARDY (see SARDINIA,
KINGDOM OF); in 1735 the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies became an independent
monarchy under the junior branch of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty. Italy itself,
however, no longer played a central role in European politics.
ITALIAN UNIFICATION
In the 18th century, as in the Renaissance, intellectual changes began to
break down traditional values and institutions. Enlightenment ideas from France
and Britain spread rapidly, and from 1789 the French Revolution excited liberal
Italians.
The Napoleonic Era in Italy Europe was soon involved, however, in a series of
wars (see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS; NAPOLEONIC WARS) that eventually involved
Italy. Between 1796, when troops under General Napoleon Bonaparte (see NAPOLEON
I) invaded Italy, and 1814, when they withdrew, the entire peninsula was under
French domination. Several short-lived republics were proclaimed early in the
period. After two decades of Napoleon's modern but often harsh rule, profound
changes took place in Italy; many Italians began to see the possibilities of
forging a united country free of foreign control. Following the restoration of
European peace in 1815, Italy consisted of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont,
Sardinia, Savoy, and Genoa); the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (including Naples
and Sicily); the Papal States; and TUSCANY and a series of smaller duchies in
north central Italy. Lombardy and Venetia were now controlled by the Austrians.
The Risorgimento The repressive and reactionary policies
imposed on Italy by the Austrian leader Klemens, Furst von METTERNICH, and the
Congress of Vienna (see VIENNA, CONGRESS OF) aggravated popular discontent, and
the expansion of Austrian control in Italy stimulated intense antiforeign
sentiment. These conditions gave rise to the Italian unification movement known
as the RISORGIMENTO. Revolutionaries and patriots, especially Giuseppe MAZZINI,
began to work actively for unity and independence. A series of unsuccessful
revolts led in the 1820s by the CARBONARI, a conspiratorial nationalist
organization, and in the 1830s by Mazzini's Young Italy group, provided the
background for the REVOLUTIONS OF 1848, felt in every major Italian city and
throughout Europe. Charles Albert, king of Sardinia (1831-49), declared war on
Austria and, along with some other Italian rulers, gave his people a
constitution; but both the war of liberation and the revolutionary republics set
up in Rome, Venice, and Tuscany were crushed by Austria in 1849. Charles Albert
abdicated in favor of his son, VICTOR EMMANUEL II, who retained the Sardinian
constitution.
Unity Under the progressive, liberal leadership of Camillo
Benso, conte di CAVOUR, Sardinia led Italy to final unification. In 1859, after
gaining the support of France and England, Cavour, in alliance with the French
emperor NAPOLEON III, seized Lombardy; in 1860 all of Italy north of the Papal
States--except Venetia--was added to Sardinia. Giuseppe GARIBALDI, a popular
hero and guerrilla leader, led an expedition of 1,000 "Red Shirts" to
Sicily in the same year and subsequently seized the southern part of peninsular
Italy, which with Sicily constituted the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Garibaldi
turned his conquests over to Victor Emmanuel, and in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy
was proclaimed. Only Venetia and Rome were not included in the new state (the
former was added in 1866 and the latter in 1870). Italians at last had their own
country.
THE KINGDOM OF ITALY
The new nation faced many serious problems. A large debt, few natural
resources, and almost no industry or transportation facilities combined with
extreme poverty, a high illiteracy rate, and an uneven tax structure to weigh
heavily on the Italian people. Regionalism was still strong, and only a fraction
of the citizens had the right to vote. To make matters worse, the pope, angered
over the loss of Rome and the papal lands, refused to recognize the Italian
state. In the countryside, banditry and peasant anarchism resulted in government
repression, which was often brutal. Meanwhile during the 1880s a socialist
movement began to develop among workers in the cities. The profound differences
between the impoverished south and the wealthier north widened. Parliament did
little to resolve these problems: throughout this so-called Liberal Period
(1870-1915), the nation was governed by a series of coalitions of liberals to
the left and right of center who were unable to form a clear-cut majority. (The
most notable leaders of the period were Francesco CRISPI and Giovanni GIOLITTI.)
Despite the fact that some economic and social progress took place before World
War I, Italy during that time was a dissatisfied and crisis-ridden nation. In an
attempt to increase its international influence and prestige, Italy joined
Germany and Austria in the TRIPLE ALLIANCE in 1882; in the 1890s Italy
unsuccessfully tried to conquer Ethiopia; and in 1911 it declared war on Turkey
to obtain the North African territory of Libya (see ITALO-TURKISH WAR). After
the outbreak of WORLD WAR I in 1914, Italy remained neutral for almost a year
while the government negotiated with both sides. In 1915, Italy finally joined
the Allies, after having been promised territories that it regarded as Italia
irredenta (unliberated Italy; see IRREDENTISM). The country was unprepared for a
major war, however; aside from a few victories in 1918, Italy suffered serious
losses of men, materiel, and morale (see CAPORETTO, BATTLE OF). Moreover,
despite the efforts of Vittorio Emmanuele ORLANDO at the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE,
the treaties that followed the war gave Italy only Trentino and Trieste--a small
part of the territories it had expected. These disappointments produced a
powerful wave of nationalist sentiment against the Allies and the Italian
government.
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So many resources. So little time. Click on, scholar.
Another take. Italy has more history than the remainder of Europe because
for a period of time all of Europe, give or take, was Roman. MORE
Some say that the people of Italy have civilized Europe twice, once in
ancient times and again after the Middle Ages. The Roman Empire, born in what is
now Italy, ruled portions of Europe, Africa and Asia for almost 700 years (from
202 BC until AD 476, when the western empire fell). Greek ideals and Roman
justice were spread throughout the Mediterranean region by the empire's legions.
Today, Rome's legal, cultural and scientific legacies endure everywhere. Places
as diverse as Japan, Louisiana and Brazil are ruled by modern versions of Roman
law, and the Romance languages (including French, Italian, Portuguese and
Spanish), as well as scientific terminology, derive from ancient Latin. At its
height, Rome controlled lands from the Irish Sea to the Caspian Sea; Roman ruins
can be found across a wide expanse, including portions of Great Britain,
Morocco, Turkey and Jordan. Italy rose to the forefront of Western civilization
again during the Renaissance, when such notable citizens as Galileo,
Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci made their contributions to mankind.
Though it gave Europe a vision of cultural unity, Italy itself only achieved
political unity in 1870. Before then, modern-day Italy was a collection of
squabbling kingdoms, dukedoms, city-states and papal states often dominated by
outside forces. Although currently unified under the government in Rome, the
country is still divided into 20 distinct regions, each with its own landscape,
history, dialects, artistic styles, foods and architecture. For many visitors,
it is Italy's diversity that lends the country its most distinctive charms.
In the past 100 years, Italy has gone from monarchy to parliamentary system to
fascism to a seemingly unending series of coalition governments - an average of
one a year since 1946. The political situation, however, appears to have
stabilized a bit in recent years. After a half decade under the leftist Ulivo
coalition, there has been a backlash to the right. In 2001, the country voted
into power Silvio Berlusconi, the controversial media magnate and leader of the
Forza Italia coalition. However, the general shift toward the right
(particularly in the north) is not as important as Italy's new obligations to
the European Union. Infrastructure, law, labor policies and finance are rapidly
being made more efficient in order to comply with E.U. standards.
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