Storia d'Italia
The Romans
The Romans ruled Italy and the Roman Empire for many centuries ( around 200 years) and, although the boundaries of their empire advanced and retreated over the years, the city of Rome and the Italian peninsula remained secure. The Fall of the Romans After the fall of the Roman Empire and the reorganization of the peninsula, from the 6th to the 13th century, Italy suffered a variety of invaders and rulers: the Lombards in the 6th century, the Franks in the 8th century, the Saracens in the 9th, and the Germans in the 10th. The German emperors (of the Holy Roman Empire), the popes, and the rising Italian city-states vied for power from the 10th to the 14th century, and Italy was divided into several, often hostile, territories: in the south, the Kingdom of Naples, under Norman and Angevin rule; in the central area, the Papal States
Visigoths, Huns & Vandals
By the 5th century AD, even the boundaries of the roman state itself were under threat. Powerful warrior tribes from the north had Italy in their sights. Three times during the 5th century the entire state was threatened: The Visigoths reached Rome in 410; -
The Lombards
In 568 the Lombards entered Italy. In four years, the whole of the northern swathe of the country had been captured. Refugees, fleeing the advance of the Lombards, were responsible for establishing a settlement in the lagoons of the Po delta - a settlement that would eventually become Venice. In the face of this invasion, the Byzantine emperor tried to protect Ravenna and his other possessions in Italy, but by 751 the country had been taken by the Lombards in the north, and by local Dukes in the south, and could no longer be said to be part of the Roman Empire.
History
The migrations of Indo-European peoples into Italy probably began about 2000 B.C. and continued until 1000 B.C.From about the 9th century B.C. until it was overthrown by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C. , the Etruscan civilization was dominant. By 264 B.C. , all Italy south of Cisalpine Gaul was under the leadership of Rome. For the next seven centuries, until the barbarian invasions destroyed the western Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuriesA.D. , the history of Italy is largely the history of Rome. From 800 on, the Holy Roman Emperors, Roman Catholic popes, Normans, and Saracens all vied for control over various segments of the Italian peninsula. Numerous city-states, such as Venice and Genoa, whose political and commercial rivalries were intense, and many small principalities flourished in the late Middle Ages. Although Italy remained politically fragmented for centuries, it became the cultural center of the Western world from the 13th to the 16th century.
Italy was not isolated from the outside world, and neighboring people had much impact on its population. There were several foreign invasions of Italy during the period leading up to the Roman conquest that had important effects on the people of Italy. First there was the invasion of Alexander I of Epirus in 334 BC, which was followed by that of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 280 BC. Hannibal of Carthage invaded Italy during the Second Punic War (218–203 BC) with the express purpose of convincing Rome’s allies to abandon her. After the war, Rome rearranged its relations with many of the native people of Italy, much influenced by which peoples had remained loyal and which had supported their Carthaginian enemies. The sides different peoples took in these wars had major impacts on their destinies. In 91 BC, many of the peoples of Italy rebelled against Rome in the Social War. Though Rome emerged victorious in 88 BC, it granted the other cities of Italy full citizenship, thus making all Italians in a sense Romans. At this point cultural differences slowly disappeared, and a unified, Latin-speaking Italian population emerged.
Native people and ancient civilizations
Ancient Italic people, any of the peoples diverse in origin, language, traditions, stage of development, and territorial extension who inhabited pre-Roman Italy, a region heavily influenced by neighbouring Greece, with its well-defined national characteristics, expansive vigour, and aesthetic and intellectual maturity. Italyattained a unified ethnolinguistic, political, and cultural physiognomy only after the Roman conquest, yet its most ancient peoples remain anchored in the names of the regions of Roman Italy—Latium, Campania, Apulia, Bruttium, Lucania, Samnium, Picenum, Umbria, Etruria, Venetia, and Liguria.
Ancient italic people
Important wars
The 1st Italian War of 1494–98 or King Charles VIII's War, The Second Italian War or King Louis XII's War (1499–1504), War of the League of Cambrai (1508–1516),War of the League of Cognac (1526–1530),Italian War of 1536–38, Italian War of 1542–46, Italian War of 1551–59,
World war 2 800-600 B.C.
Current History
1945 - The immediate post-war period
In April 1945, at the end of the WWII, Italy recovered its freedom but the scars left by the fight between fascist and anti-fascist political forces were deep. Resistance groups, mostly of the Left (Communists and Socialists) were settling old scores, with weekly killings and assassinations. The political system had to be completely redesigned.
1946 - Italy becomes a Republic
In 1946, King Vittorio Emanuele III abdicated in favour of his son, Umberto II. On June 2, 1946, a referendum was held to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. Twelve million voted for the republic and 10 for the monarchy. Women were granted the right to vote for the first time and participated in the plebiscite. As a result, Italy became a republic, and King Umberto II went into exile.
1950s - Reconstruction and the economic boom
In the 1950s and 1960s the country enjoyed prolonged economic growth, accompanied by a dramatic rise in the standard of living of ordinary Italians. Through land reform and industrial development, the country gradually achieved prosperity.
1960s - Fanfani, Moro and the Center Left
In 1958, Christian Democrat leader and economist Amintore Fanfani invited the Socialists of Pietro Nenni that had distanced themselves from the Communists, to become part of a center-left Government.
1980s - Bettino Craxi’s Socialists in power
In the 1980s, for the first time, two governments were managed by a republican Giovanni Spadolini (1981-82) and by a socialist Bettino Craxi (1983-87) rather than by a Christian Democrat. Moreover, another socialist and a Resitance leader, Sandro Pertini was elected President of the Italian Republic.
1994 - Berlusconi’s Forza Italia
The 1994 elections swept Milanese media tycoon and real-estate broker Silvio Berlusconi, founder of a new party, Forza Italia, and leader of the Polo delle Liberta’ (Pole of Freedoms coalition) into office as Prime Minister.
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini had a huge impact on Italy and the rest of the world during world war as he led Italy into Axis powers and changed the war and is also known for creating the Fascist party. Mussolini first appeared in Italian politics during the years leading up to world war 1. At this time he was an active revolutionary socialist, becoming in 1912 the editor of Avanti, the official publication of the Italian Socialist party. Growing ever more distant from his original allies, he formed the 'Fasci di Combattimento' or 'league for combat' in March 1919. When world war 2 arrived he transformed Italy by siding with the Nazis and Japan as he was the prime minister during that time and his choices have made a huge impact on Italy and its society. Mussolini was publicly executed on April 28 1945 and hung up from a building due to his horrible acts.
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