Editing Unification of Italy (section)

===From ancient times to early modern era===
[[Italy]] was unified by the [[Roman Republic]] in the latter part of the third century BC. For 700 years, it was a ''de facto'' territorial extension of the capital of the [[Roman Republic]] and [[Roman Empire|Empire]], and for a long time experienced a [[Roman Italy|privileged status but was not converted into a province]]. Under [[Augustus]], the previous differences in municipal and political rights were abolished and Roman Italy was subdivided into administrative regions ruled directly by the Roman Senate.

After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]] remained united under the [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] and after 568 was disputed between the [[Kingdom of the Lombards]] and the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire]], losing its unity for centuries. Following conquest by the [[Frankish Empire]], the title of [[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|King of Italy]] merged with the office of [[Holy Roman Emperor]]; however, the emperor was an absentee [[German language|German]]-speaking foreigner who had little interest in governing Italy and indeed never controlled the entire peninsula. As a result, Italy gradually developed into a system of [[Italian city-states|city-states]]. [[Southern Italy]] was governed by the long-lasting [[Kingdom of Sicily]] or [[Kingdom of Naples]], which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the pope as a temporal kingdom known as the [[Papal States]].

This situation persisted through the [[Renaissance]] but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern [[nation-state]]s in the [[early modern period]]. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of [[proxy war]]s between the major powers, notably the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (including [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]]), [[Spain]], and [[Kingdom of France|France]]. Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the [[Italic League]], in 1454, and the 15th century foreign policy of [[Cosimo de' Medici]] and [[Lorenzo de' Medici]]. Leading Renaissance Italian writers [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]], [[Petrarch]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]], [[Niccolò Machiavelli|Machiavelli]] and [[Francesco Guicciardini|Guicciardini]] expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the "ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead" in ''Italia Mia''. Machiavelli later quoted four verses from ''Italia Mia'' in ''[[The Prince]]'', which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy "to free her from the [[barbarians]]".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLY2tlPZqvsC&q=petrarch+l%27antico+valor&pg=PA257 |title=Machiavelli and Empire&nbsp;– Mikael Hörnqvist&nbsp;– Google Books |date=2004 |access-date=1 August 2012|isbn=978-1139456340|last1=Hörnqvist |first1=Mikael |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref>

The [[Italian Wars]] saw 65 years of French attacks on some of the Italian states, starting with [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII's]] invasion of Naples in 1494. However, the [[Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis]] (1559) saw parts of Italy fall under the direct or indirect control of the [[Habsburg Spain|Spanish Habsburgs]]. The [[Peace of Westphalia]] in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the [[House of Habsburg]], which ruled the [[Spanish Empire]], continued to rule southern Italy and the [[Duchy of Milan]] until the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–14). Following this war the Austrian Habsburgs struggled for dominance with the Spanish Bourbons until the end of the [[War of the Austrian Succession]].

A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in [[Gian Rinaldo Carli]]'s ''Della Patria degli Italiani'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trampus |first1=Antonio |title=Gianrinaldo Carli at the centre of the Milanese Enlightenment |journal=History of European Ideas |date=December 2006 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=456–476 |doi=10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2006.08.001 }}</ref> written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a café in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. {{"'}}Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian', he explained."{{sfn|Holt|1971|pp=22–23}}