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History of Italy

  A nighttime view of Trajan's Market in Rome.
 Now a complex of ruins, it was built in A.D. 100-110 

 

Excavations throughout Italy reveal a modern human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago.  In the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonies were established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. Subsequently, Romans referred to this area as Magna Graecia, as it was so densely inhabited by Greeks.

 

Ancient Rome was at first a small agricultural community founded circa the 8th century BC that grew over the course of the centuries into a colossal empire encompassing the whole Mediterranean Sea, in which Ancient Greek and Roman cultures merged into one civilization. This civilization was so influential that parts of it survive in modern law, administration, philosophy and arts, forming the ground that Western civilization is based upon.

 

In its twelve-century existence, it transformed itself from republic to monarchy and finally to autocracy. In steady decline since the 2nd century AD, the empire finally broke into two parts in 285 AD: the Western Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire in the East. The western part under the pressure of Goths finally dissolved, leaving the Italian peninsula divided into small independent kingdoms and feuding city states for the next 14 centuries, and leaving the eastern part sole heir to the Roman legacy.

 

 

Florence

 

Following a short recapture of the Italian peninsula by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD from the Ostrogoths, a new wave of Germanic tribes, the Lombards, soon arrived in Italy from the north. For several centuries the armies of the Byzantines were strong enough to prevent Arabs, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Papacy from establishing a unified Italian Kingdom, but were at the same time too weak to fully unify the former Roman lands themselves. Nevertheless, during early Middle Ages Imperial dynasties such as the Carolingians, the Ottonians and the Hohenstaufens managed to impose their overlordship in Italy.

 

Italy's regions were eventually subsumed by their neighbouring empires with their conflicting interests and would remain divided up to the 19th century. It was during this vacuum of authority that the region saw the rise of the Signoria and the Comune. In the anarchic conditions that often prevailed in medieval Italian city-states, people looked to strong men to restore order and disarm the feuding elites. In times of anarchy or crisis, cities sometimes offered the Signoria to individuals perceived as strong enough to save the state, most notably the Della Scala family in Verona, the Visconti in Milan and the Medici in Florence.

 

Italy during this period became notable for its merchant Republics. These city-states, oligarchical in reality, had a dominant merchant class which under relative freedom nurtured academic and artistic advancement. The four classic Maritime Republics in Italy were Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi, listed in order of the temporal sequence of their dominance. During the late Middle Ages Italy was divided into small city states and kingdoms.

 

 

A nighttime view of the Roman Colosseum  

 

Venice and Genoa were Europe's gateways to trade with the East, with the former producer of the renowned venetian glass. Florence was the capital of silk, wool, banks and jewelry. The Maritime Republics were heavily involved in the Crusades, taking advantage of the new political and trading opportunities, most evidently in the conquest of Zara and Constantinople funded by Venice.

 

During the late Middle Ages Italy was divided into smaller city-states and territories: the kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States the centre, the Genoese and the Milanese the north and west, and the Venetians the east. Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanised areas in Europe and the birthplace of Renaissance. Florence in particular, with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313–1375), as well as the painting of Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337), is considered the centre of this cultural movement. Scholars like Niccolò de' Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini scoured the libraries in search of works of classical authors, such as Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Cicero and Vitruvius.

 

The Black Death pandemic in 1348 left its mark on Italy by killing one third of the population. The recovery from the disaster led to a resurgence of cities, trade and economy which greatly stimulated the successive phases of Humanism and the Renaissance. In 1494 the French king Charles VIII opened the first of a series of invasions, lasting up to sixteenth century, in a competition between France and Spain for the possession of the country. Ultimately Spain prevailed through the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis which recognised Spanish dominance over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples. The holy alliance between Habsburg Spain and the Holy See resulted in the systematic persecution of any Protestant movement. Austria succeeded Spain as hegemon in Italy under the Peace of Utrecht. Through Austrian domination, the northern part of Italy gained economic dynamism and intellectual fervor. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815) introduced the ideas of equality, democracy, law and nation 

 

Industrialization and modernization increased through the 19th century but Italy’s participation in WWI extracted a heavy price. Economic and political instability made it easy for Benito Mussolini to seize power and establish his dark, fascist reign over the country in 1922. The Fascist movement lasted for 21 years during which a totalitarian regime was put into place and earlier ties with France and the United Kingdom gave way to an alliance with Nazi Germany. Italy was defeated by the Allied forces in WWII and liberated from fascism by a national uprising on 25 April 1945. Italy became a Republic after the result of a popular referendum held on 2 June 1946.

 

Trevi Fountain

 

Today, Italy is a democratic republic and a developed country with the 8th-highest quality-of-life index rating in the world.  It is a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, and a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a member of the G8, having the world's 7th-largest nominal GDP, and is also a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Central European Initiative. Italy is a Schengen state. It has the world's 7th-largest defence budget and shares NATO's nuclear weapons. On 1 January 2007, Italy began a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.  

Italy: Facts & Figures

Italy is made up of 20 regions, 5 of all autonomous* Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia*, Lazio (Latium), Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte (Piedmont), Puglia (Apulia), Sardegna* (Sardinia), Sicilia* (Sicily), Toscana (Tuscany), Trentino-Alto Adige* (Trentino-South Tyrol), Umbria, Valle d'Aosta* (Aosta Valley), Veneto (Venetia)

 

Italy is a founding member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a member of the G8 and is also a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Central European Initiative. Italy is a Schengen state.

 

Italy is a strategic location dominating central Mediterranean as well as southern sea and air approaches to Western Europe.          

 

Capital: Rome

 

Coordinates: 41 54 N, 12 29 E

 

Time Zone: CET (Central European Time)

 

Area:  Total: 301,230 sq km (includes Sardinia and Sicily)
           Land: 294,020 sq km
           Water: 7,210 sq km

 

Land boundaries: Total: 1,899.2 km

 

Border Countries: Austria 430 km, France 488 km, Holy See (Vatican City) 3.2 km, San Marino 39 km, Slovenia 199 km, Switzerland 740 km

 

Coastline: 7,600 km

 

Climate: Predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south

 

Natural resources: Coal, mercury, zinc, potash, marble, barite, asbestos, pumice, fluorspar, feldspar, pyrite (sulfur), natural gas and crude oil reserves, fish, arable land

 

Population: 58,126,212 (July 2009 est.)

 

People: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south)

 

Religion: Roman Catholic 90% (approximately; about one-third practicing), other 10% (includes mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community)

 

Language: Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

 

Government type: Republic

 

Independence: 17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed; Italy was not finally unified until 1870)

 

National holiday: Republic Day, 2 June (1946)

 

Constitution: Passed 11 December 1947, effective 1 January 1948; amended many times

 

Legal system: Based on civil law system; appeals treated as new trials; judicial review under certain conditions in Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

 

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal (except in senatorial elections, where minimum age is 25)

 

Executive branch: Chief of state: President Giorgio Napolitano (since 15 May 2006)

 

Head of Government: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (since 8 May 2008); note - in Italy the Prime  Minister is referred to as the President of the Council of Ministers

 

Cabinet: Council of Ministers nominated by the Prime Minister and approved by the President;

 

Elections: President elected by an electoral college consisting of both houses of parliament and 58 regional representatives for a seven-year term (no term limits); election last held 10 May 2006 (next to be held in May 2013); Prime Minister appointed by the President and confirmed by Parliament

 

Legislative branch: Bicameral Parliament or Parlamento consists of the Senate or Senato della Repubblica (315 seats; members elected by proportional vote with the winning coalition in each region receiving 55% of seats from that region; to serve five-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies or Camera dei Deputati (630 seats; members elected by popular vote with the winning national coalition receiving 54% of chamber seats; to serve five-year terms)

 

Judicial branch: Constitutional Court or Corte Costituzionale (composed of 15 judges: one-third appointed by the President, one-third elected by parliament, one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative Supreme Courts)

 

Economy – overview: Italy has a diversified industrial economy, which is divided into a developed industrial north, dominated by private companies and an agricultural south. The Italian economy is driven in large part by the manufacture of high-quality consumer goods produced by small and medium-sized enterprises. Italy also has a sizable underground economy, which by some estimates accounts for as much as 15% of GDP. These activities are most common within the agriculture, construction, and service sectors.

 

Agriculture products: fruits, vegetables, grapes, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, grain, olives; beef, dairy products; fish.

 

Industries: tourism, machinery, iron and steel, chemicals, food processing, textiles, motor vehicles, clothing, footwear, ceramics

 

Currency: Euro €

 

Country Dialing Code: +39

 

Internet domain: .it

 

National Holidays:     

 

January 1st, New Years Day

January 6th, Epiphany

April 4th, Easter Sunday

April 5th, Easter Monday
April 25th, Liberation Day
May 1st, Labor Day
August 15th, Assumption
November 1st, All Saints Day
December 8th, Immaculate Conception
December 25th, Christmas
December 26th, St. Stephen  
 

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