Editing History of Italy (section)

===Economic miracle===
{{Main|Italian economic miracle}}
[[File:1962 Fiat 500 -- 2012 DC 2.JPG|thumbnail|The [[Fiat 500]], launched in 1957, is considered a symbol of Italy's economic miracle.<ref>{{cite news |last=Tagliabue |first=John |date=11 August 2007 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/business/worldbusiness/11fiat.html |title=Italian Pride Is Revived in a Tiny Fiat |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=8 February 2015 }}</ref>]]

In the 1950s and 1960s, the country enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, which was accompanied by a dramatic rise in the standard of living of ordinary Italians.<ref>Modern Italy 1871–1995 by Martin Clark</ref> The so-called [[Italian economic miracle]] lasted almost uninterruptedly until the "[[Hot Autumn]]'s" massive strikes and social unrest of 1969–70, that combined with the later [[1973 oil crisis]], gradually cooled the economy. It has been calculated that the Italian economy experienced an average rate of growth of GDP of 5.8% per year between 1951 and 1963, and 5.0% per year between 1964 and 1973.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Crafts |first1=Nicholas |url=https://archive.org/details/economicgrowtheu1945craf_729 |title=Economic growth in Europe since 1945 |last2=Toniolo |first2=Gianni |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-5214-9627-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/economicgrowtheu1945craf_729/page/n452 428] |url-access=limited}}</ref> Between 1955 and 1971, around 9 million people are estimated to have been involved in [[Internal migration in Italy|inter-regional migrations in Italy]], uprooting entire communities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ginsborg |first=Paul |title=A history of contemporary Italy |date=2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=1-4039-6153-0 |location=New York |page=219}}</ref> Emigration was especially directed to the factories of the so-called "industrial triangle", a region encompassed between the major manufacturing centres of [[Milan]] and [[Turin]] and the seaport of [[Genoa]].

The needs of a modernizing economy demanded new transport and energy infrastructures. Thousands of kilometres of railways and highways were completed in record times to connect the main urban areas, while dams and power plants were built all over Italy, often without regard for geological and environmental conditions. Strong urban growth led to uncontrolled urban sprawl. The natural environment was constantly under threat by wild industrial expansion, leading to ecological disasters like the [[Vajont Dam]] inundation and the [[Seveso disaster|Seveso]] chemical accident.