History of Italy

Italy has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic. During antiquity, there were many peoples in the Italian peninsula, including Etruscans, Latins, Samnites, Umbri, Cisalpine Gauls, Greeks in Magna Graecia and others.^[1]^[2] Most significantly, Italy was the cradle of the Roman civilization.^[3]^[4] Rome was founded as a kingdom in 753 BC and became a republic in 509 BC. The Roman Republic then unified Italy forming a confederation of the Italic peoples and rose to dominate Western Europe, Northern Africa, and the Near East. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman Empire dominated Western Europe and the Mediterranean for centuries, contributing to the development of Western culture, philosophy, science and art.

During the early Middle Ages, Italy experienced the succession in power of Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Longobards and the Holy Roman Empire and fragmented into numerous city-states and regional polities, a situation that would remain until the unification of the country. These polities and the maritime republics, in particular Venice and Genoa, rose to prosperity.^[5] Eventually, the Italian Renaissance emerged and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art with the start of the modern era.^[6] In the medieval and early modern era, Southern Italy was ruled by the Norman, Angevin, Aragonese, French and Spanish crowns.^[7]^[8] Central Italy was largely part of the Papal States.

In the 19th century, Italian unification led to the establishment of an Italian nation-state under the House of Savoy. The new Kingdom of Italy quickly modernized and built a colonial empire, controlling parts of Africa and countries along the Mediterranean. At the same time, Southern Italy remained rural and poor, originating the Italian diaspora. Victorious in World War I, Italy completed the unification by acquiring Trento and Trieste and gained a permanent seat in the League of Nations's executive council. The partial infringement of the Treaty of London (1915) led to the sentiment of a mutilated victory among radical nationalists, contributing to the rise of the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in 1922. During World War II, Italy was part of the Axis powers until the Italian surrender to Allied powers and its occupation by Nazi Germany with Fascist collaborators and then a co-belligerent of the Allies during the Italian resistance and liberation of Italy.

Following the end of the German occupation and the killing of Benito Mussolini, the 1946 Italian institutional referendum abolished the monarchy and became a republic, reinstated democracy, enjoyed an economic boom, and co-founded the European Union (Treaty of Rome), NATO, the Group of Six (later G7), and the G20.^[9]^[10]

^ Buti, Gianna G.; Devoto, Giacomo (1974). Preistoria e storia delle regioni d'Italia (in Italian). Sansoni Università.
^ Farney, Gary D.; Bradley, Guy (2018). The Peoples of Ancient Italy. de Gruyter.
^ Lazenby, John Francis (1998). Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8061-3004-0. Italy homeland of the Romans.
^ Maddison, Angus (20 September 2007). Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1992-2721-1.
^ Sée, Henri. "Modern Capitalism Its Origin and Evolution" (PDF). University of Rennes. Batoche Books. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
^ Burke, P., The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries (1998)
^ Mack Smith, Denis (1970). Storia della Sicilia medioevale e moderna (in Italian). Bari: Laterza. pp. 27, 39, 45, 50–51, 98–108, 190–201.
^ Jepson, Tim (2012). National Geographic Traveler: Italy. National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-1-4262-0861-4.
^ Canada Among Nations, 2004: Setting Priorities Straight. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. 17 January 2005. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7735-2836-9. Retrieved 13 June 2016. The United States is the sole world's superpower. France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom are great powers.
^ Sterio, Milena (2013). The Right to Self-Determination Under International Law: "Selfistans", Secession, and the Rule of the Great Powers. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. xii (preface). ISBN 978-0-4156-6818-7. Retrieved 13 June 2016. The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan.

[1] Buti, Gianna G.; Devoto, Giacomo (1974). Preistoria e storia delle regioni d'Italia (in Italian). Sansoni Università.

[2] Farney, Gary D.; Bradley, Guy (2018). The Peoples of Ancient Italy. de Gruyter.

[3] Lazenby, John Francis (1998). Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8061-3004-0. Italy homeland of the Romans.

[4] Maddison, Angus (20 September 2007). Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1992-2721-1.

[5] Sée, Henri. "Modern Capitalism Its Origin and Evolution" (PDF). University of Rennes. Batoche Books. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.

[6] Burke, P., The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries (1998)

[macSmith70-7] Mack Smith, Denis (1970). Storia della Sicilia medioevale e moderna (in Italian). Bari: Laterza. pp. 27, 39, 45, 50–51, 98–108, 190–201.

[natgeo-8] Jepson, Tim (2012). National Geographic Traveler: Italy. National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-1-4262-0861-4.

[9] Canada Among Nations, 2004: Setting Priorities Straight. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. 17 January 2005. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7735-2836-9. Retrieved 13 June 2016. The United States is the sole world's superpower. France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom are great powers.

[10] Sterio, Milena (2013). The Right to Self-Determination Under International Law: "Selfistans", Secession, and the Rule of the Great Powers. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. xii (preface). ISBN 978-0-4156-6818-7. Retrieved 13 June 2016. The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan.

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