Editing Italy (section)

=== Middle Ages ===
{{Main|Italy in the Middle Ages}}
After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], Italy fell under the [[Kingdom of Italy (476–493)|Odoacer's kingdom]], and was seized by the [[Ostrogoths]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sarris|first=Peter|title=Empires of faith: the fall of Rome to the rise of Islam, 500–700|publisher=Oxford UP|year=2011|isbn=978-0-1992-6126-0|edition=1st. pub.|location=Oxford|page=118}}</ref> Invasions resulted in a chaotic succession of kingdoms and the supposed "[[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]]". The invasion of another [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribe]] in the 6th century, the [[Lombards]], reduced Byzantine presence and ended political unity of the peninsula. The north formed the [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombard kingdom]], central-south was also controlled by the Lombards, and other parts remained Byzantine.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Italy|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Lombards-and-Byzantines|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929150112/https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Lombards-and-Byzantines|archive-date=29 September 2022|access-date=29 September 2022|website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>
[[File:Marco Polo Mosaic from Palazzo Tursi.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.7|[[Marco Polo]], 13th-century explorer]]

The Lombard kingdom was absorbed into [[Francia]] by [[Charlemagne]] in the late 8th century and became the Kingdom of Italy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Carolingian and post-Carolingian Italy, 774–962|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Carolingian-and-post-Carolingian-Italy-774-962|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007160553/https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/Carolingian-and-post-Carolingian-Italy-774-962|archive-date=7 October 2022|access-date=7 October 2022|website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> The Franks helped form the [[Papal States]]. Until the 13th century, politics was dominated by relations between the [[Holy Roman Emperor]]s and the Papacy, with city-states siding with the former ([[Ghibellines]]) or with the latter ([[Guelphs]]) for momentary advantage.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nolan|first=Cathal J.|title=The age of wars of religion, 1000–1650: an encyclopedia of global warfare and civilization |publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-3133-3045-2|edition=1. publ.|location=Westport (Connecticut)|page=360}}</ref> The Germanic emperor and Roman pontiff became the [[universal power]]s of medieval Europe. However, conflict over the [[Investiture Controversy]] and between Guelphs and Ghibellines ended the imperial-feudal system in the north, where cities gained independence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Philip|author-link=Philip Jones (historian)|title=The Italian city-state: from Commune to Signoria|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-1982-2585-0|location=Oxford|pages=55–77}}</ref> In 1176, the [[Lombard League]] of city-states, defeated Holy Roman Emperor [[Frederick Barbarossa]], ensuring their independence.

City-states—e.g. [[Milan]], [[Florence]], [[Venice]]—played a crucially innovative role in financial development by devising banking practices, and enabling new forms of social organisation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Niall|first=Ferguson|title=The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World|publisher=Penguin|year=2008}}</ref> In coastal and southern areas, maritime republics dominated the Mediterranean and monopolised trade to the Orient. They were independent [[Thalassocracy|thalassocratic]] city-states, in which merchants had considerable power. Although oligarchical, the relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement.<ref name="Lane">{{Cite book|last=Lane|first=Frederic C.|title=Venice, a maritime republic|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-8018-1460-0|edition=4. print.|location=Baltimore|page=73}}</ref> The best-known maritime republics were Venice, [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]], [[Republic of Pisa|Pisa]], and [[Duchy of Amalfi|Amalfi]].<ref>G. Benvenuti – Le Repubbliche Marinare. Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, Venezia – Newton & Compton editori, Roma 1989; Armando Lodolini, ''Le repubbliche del mare'', Biblioteca di storia patria, 1967, Roma. {{Cite book|last=Peris|first=Persi|title=Conoscere l'Italia|publisher=Istituto Geografico De Agostini|year=1982|pages=74}}; {{Cite web|title=Repubbliche Marinare|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/repubbliche-marinare|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829104758/http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/repubbliche-marinare|archive-date=29 August 2019|access-date=13 September 2019|website=Treccani.it|publisher=Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana|language=it}}; {{Cite web|title=Repubbliche marinare|url=https://thes.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/termine.php?id=29771|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101131949/https://thes.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/termine.php?id=29771|archive-date=1 January 2020|access-date=13 September 2019|website=thes.bncf.firenze.sbn.it|publisher=[[National Central Library (Florence)]]|language=it}}</ref> Each had dominion over overseas lands, islands, lands on the Adriatic, Aegean, and Black seas, and commercial colonies in the Near East and North Africa.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zorzi|first=Alvise|author-link=Alvise Zorzi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IP5OAAAAMAAJ&q=%22even+in+countries+where+aid+is+near+at+hand+%22+%22attack+from+the+sea%22|title=Venice: The Golden Age, 697 – 1797 |publisher=Abbeville Press|year=1983|isbn=0-8965-9406-8|location=New York|page=255|access-date=16 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202182132/https://books.google.com/books?id=IP5OAAAAMAAJ&q=%22even+in+countries+where+aid+is+near+at+hand+%22+%22attack+from+the+sea%22|archive-date=2 February 2023|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{Multiple image
| align             = right
| total_width       = 345
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| image1            = Naval Jack of Italy.svg
| width2            = 280
| image2            = Republik Venedig Handelswege01-IT.png
| alt2              = Map
| footer            = Left: flag of the [[Italian Navy]]. Clockwise, from upper left: the coat of arms of [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]], [[Republic of Pisa|Pisa]] and [[Duchy of Amalfi|Amalfi]].<br/>Right: trade routes, colonies of the [[Genoese colonies|Genoa]] and [[Stato da Màr|Venice]].
}}

Venice and Genoa were Europe's gateways to the East, and producers of fine glass, while Florence was a centre of silk, wool, banking, and jewellery. The wealth generated meant large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned. The republics participated in the [[Crusades]], providing support, transport, but mostly taking political and trading opportunities.<ref name=Lane/> Italy first felt the economic changes which led to the [[commercial revolution]]: Venice was able to [[Sack of Constantinople|sack Byzantine's capital]] and finance [[Marco Polo]]'s voyages to Asia; the first universities were formed in Italian cities, and scholars such as [[Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas]] obtained international fame; capitalism and banking families emerged in Florence, where [[Dante]] and [[Giotto]] were active around 1300.<ref name="See">{{Cite web |last=Sée |first=Henri |title=Modern Capitalism Its Origin and Evolution |url=http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/see/ModernCapitalism.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007010542/http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/see/ModernCapitalism.pdf |archive-date=7 October 2013 |access-date=29 August 2013 |website=University of Rennes |publisher=Batoche Books}}</ref> In the south, Sicily had become an [[Emirate of Sicily|Arab Islamic emirate]] in the 9th century, thriving until the [[Italo-Normans]] conquered it in the late 11th century, together with most of the Lombard and Byzantine principalities of southern Italy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ali |first=Ahmed Essa with Othman |title=Studies in Islamic civilization: the Muslim contribution to the Renaissance |year=2010 |publisher=International Institute of Islamic Thought |location=Herndon, VA |isbn=978-1-56564-350-5 |pages=38–40}}</ref> The region was subsequently divided between the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] and [[Kingdom of Naples]].{{efn|Kingdom of Naples is used by historians, but not by its rulers, who kept the original 'Kingdom of Sicily' (i.e., there existed two Kingdoms of Sicily).}}<ref>Eleni Sakellariou, ''Southern Italy in the Late Middle Ages: Demographic, Institutional and Economic Change in the Kingdom of Naples, c.1440–c.1530'' (Brill, 2012), pp. 63–64.</ref> The [[Black Death]] of 1348 killed perhaps a third of Italy's population.<ref>Stéphane Barry and Norbert Gualde, "The Biggest Epidemics of History" (La plus grande épidémie de l'histoire), in ''L'Histoire'' n° 310, June 2006, pp. 45–46; "[http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/effects/death_toll.shtml Plague]". Brown University. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090831003435/http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb/plague/effects/death_toll.shtml|date=31 August 2009}}</ref>