Editing History of Italy

{{Short description|none}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{History of Italy}}
{{Culture of Italy}}
The European country of [[Italy]] has been inhabited by humans [[Prehistoric Italy|since the Paleolithic]]. During the period of classical antiquity, ancient [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]], various [[Italic peoples]] (such as the [[Latins]], [[Samnites]], and [[Umbri]]), [[Celts]], ''[[Magna Graecia]]'' colonists, and other [[List of ancient peoples of Italy|ancient peoples]] inhabited the [[Italian Peninsula]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Buti |first1=Gianna G. |title=Preistoria e storia delle regioni d'Italia |last2=Devoto |first2=Giacomo |author-link2=Giacomo Devoto |date=1974 |publisher=[[Sansoni (publisher)|Sansoni]] Università |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Farney |first1=Gary D. |title=The Peoples of Ancient Italy |last2=Bradley |first2=Guy |date=2018 |publisher=de Gruyter}}</ref>

Italy was the birthplace and centre of the [[ancient Rome|ancient Roman civilisation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lazenby |first=John Francis |url=https://archive.org/details/hannibalswarmili00laze |title=Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War |date=1998 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-3004-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hannibalswarmili00laze/page/29 29] |quote=Italy homeland of the Romans. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Maddison |first=Angus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ItsTDAAAQBAJ&q=italy+metropole+roman+empire&pg=PA45 |title=Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History |date=20 September 2007 |publisher= Oxford University Press |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-1992-2721-1}}</ref> [[Rome]] was founded as a kingdom in 753 BC and became a republic in 509 BC. The [[Roman Republic]] then [[Roman unification of Italy|unified Italy]] forming a confederation of the Italic peoples and [[rise of Rome|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. With the [[fall of Rome]] in AD 476, Italy was fragmented into numerous [[Italian city-states|city-states]] and regional polities, a situation that would remain until the complete unification of the country in 1871. The [[maritime republics]], in particular [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] and [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]], rose to prosperity.<ref>{{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> [[Central Italy]] remained under the [[Papal States]], while [[Southern Italy]] remained largely [[feudal]] due to a succession of [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]], [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|Norman]], [[Crown of Aragon|Spanish]], and [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] crowns.<ref name="macSmith70">{{Cite book |last=Mack Smith |first=Denis |title=Storia della Sicilia medioevale e moderna |date=1970 |publisher=Laterza |location=Bari |pages=27, 39, 45, 50–51, 98–108, 190–201 |language=it |authorlink=Denis Mack Smith}}</ref><ref name="natgeo">{{Cite book |last=Jepson |first=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f2jihJ0bq4EC&q=trade+routes+italy+new+world&pg=PA28 |title=National Geographic Traveler: Italy |date=2012 |publisher=National Geographic Books |isbn=978-1-4262-0861-4}}</ref> The [[Italian Renaissance]] spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in [[Renaissance humanism|humanism]], [[Renaissance science|science]], [[Renaissance exploration|exploration]], and [[Renaissance art|art]] with the start of the [[modern era]].<ref>Burke, P., ''The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries'' (1998)</ref>

By the mid-19th century, [[Italian unification]], led by the [[House of Savoy]], led to the establishment of an Italian nation-state. The new [[Kingdom of Italy]] quickly modernized and built [[Italian Empire|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 [[Italian fascism|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 of WWII|Allied powers]] and its occupation by [[Nazi Germany]] with [[Italian Social Republic|Fascist collaborators]] and then a co-belligerent of the [[Allies of World War II|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 [[Italian economic miracle|economic boom]], and co-founded the [[European Union]] ([[Treaty of Rome]]), [[NATO]], the [[Group of Six]] (later [[Group of Seven|G7]]), and the [[G20]].<ref>{{Cite book |url={{Google books|nTKBdY5HBeUC|keywords=Canada%20Among%20Nations%2C%202004%3A%20Setting%20Priorities Straight|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=Canada Among Nations, 2004: Setting Priorities Straight |date=17 January 2005 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP |isbn=978-0-7735-2836-9 |page=85 |quote=The United States is the sole world's superpower. France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom are great powers. |access-date=13 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sterio |first=Milena |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-QuI6n_OVMYC&q=The%20Right%20to%20Self-determination%20Under%20International%20Law%3A%20%22selfistans%22%2C%20Secession%20and%20the%20Rule%20of%20the%20Great%20Powers |title=The Right to Self-Determination Under International Law: "Selfistans", Secession, and the Rule of the Great Powers |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-4156-6818-7 |location=Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon |page=xii (preface) |quote=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. |access-date=13 June 2016}}</ref>

==Prehistory==
{{Main|Prehistoric Italy}}
{{Multiple image
|perrow=3
|total_width=350px
|image1=Matera from Piazzetta Pascoli-2930.jpg
|caption1=The ''[[Sassi di Matera|Sassi]]'' cave houses of [[Matera]] are believed to be among the first human settlements in Italy, dating back to the Paleolithic.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sassi di Matera |url=https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/04/sassi-di-matera-oldest-continuously.html?m=1 |publisher=AmusingPlanet}}</ref>
|image2=Paleolitico superiore, venere di savignano, 23.000-18.000 ac ca. (museo pigorini) 02.jpg
|caption2=[[Venus of Savignano]]
|image3=Parco archeologico e Museo all'aperto della Terramara di Montale.jpg
|caption3=Reconstructed [[Terramare]] houses
|image4=Otzi-Quinson.jpg
|caption4=[[Ötzi]], a natural mummy dating from the 4th millennium BC
|image5=Età nuragica, giganti di monte prama, xiii-ix secolo ac ca., da cabras, guerriero 05, 01.jpg
|caption5=[[Giants of Mont'e Prama]]
|image6=Civiltà nuragica, prima età del ferro, grande capotribù con mantello e bastone 01.jpg
|caption6=Bronze sculpture of a Nuragic chief from [[Uta, Sardinia|Uta]]
|image7=Antropomorfi detti astronauti (a) - R 1 - Area di Zurla - Nadro (ph Luca Giarelli).jpg
|caption7=[[Rock Drawings in Valcamonica|Petroglyph in Valcamonica]], [[Lombardy]], the largest collection of prehistoric [[petroglyph]]s in the world (10th millennium BC)
}}

The arrival of the first [[hominins]] was 850,000 years ago at [[Monte Poggiolo]].<ref name="nationalgeographic.it">[http://www.nationalgeographic.it/scienza/2012/01/20/news/erano_padani_iprimi_abitanti_ditalia-807204/ National Geographic Italia – Erano padani i primi abitanti d'Italia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626220707/http://www.nationalgeographic.it/scienza/2012/01/20/news/erano_padani_iprimi_abitanti_ditalia-807204 |date=26 June 2019}}{{In lang|it}}</ref> The presence of the ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'' has been demonstrated in archaeological findings near Rome and [[Verona]] dating to {{Circa|50,000}} years ago (late [[Pleistocene]]). [[Homo sapiens sapiens]] appeared during the upper [[Palaeolithic]].<ref>42.7–41.5 ka ([[68–95–99.7 rule|1σ CI]]).
{{Cite journal |last=Douka |first=Katerina |display-authors=etal |date=2012 |title=A new chronostratigraphic framework for the Upper Palaeolithic of Riparo Mochi (Italy) |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=286–299 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.11.009 |pmid=22189428|bibcode=2012JHumE..62..286D }}</ref> Remains of the later prehistoric age include [[Ötzi the Iceman]], dating to {{Circa|3400–3100}} BC ([[Copper Age]]).

During the Copper Age, Indoeuropean people migrated to Italy in four waves. A first Indoeuropean migration occurred around the mid-3rd millennium BC, from a population who imported [[coppersmithing]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 January 2020 |title=Età del rame, l'Italia era al centro di una rete di diffusione del metallo |url=https://ilbolive.unipd.it/it/news/eta-rame-litalia-era-centro-rete-diffusione |access-date=22 November 2021 |language=it}}</ref> The [[Remedello culture]] took over the [[Po Valley]]. The second wave occurred in the [[Bronze Age]], from the late 3rd to the early 2nd millennium BC, with tribes identified with the [[Beaker culture]] and by the use of [[bronze]] [[smithing]], in the [[Padan Plain]], in [[Tuscany]] and on the coasts of [[Sardinia]] and [[Sicily]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Campaniforme, bicchiere |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bicchiere-campaniforme |access-date=22 November 2021 |language=it}}</ref> In the mid-2nd millennium BC, a third wave arrived, associated with the [[Apennine culture|Apenninian civilization]] and the [[Terramare culture]].<ref name="Pearce1998">{{Cite journal |last=Pearce |first=Mark |date=1 December 1998 |title=New research on the terramare of northern Italy |journal=Antiquity |volume=72 |issue=278 |pages=743–746 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00087317 |s2cid=160050623}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Terramare culture – ancient culture |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Terramare-culture |access-date=13 February 2019 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> The Terramare people were hunters, but had domesticated animals and cultivated crops; they were fairly skilful metallurgists, casting bronze in moulds.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Terramara|volume=26|pages=658–659|first=John Malcolm|last=Mitchell}}</ref>
In the late Bronze Age, from the late 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BC, a fourth wave, the [[Proto-Villanovan culture]], brought iron-working to the Italian peninsula. Proto-Villanovan culture may have been part of the central European [[Urnfield culture]] system,<ref name="Gimbutas">{{Cite book |first=M. |last=Gimbutas |author-link=Marija Gimbutas |title=Bronze Age Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe |pp=339–345}}</ref><ref>John M. Coles ''The Bronze Age in Europe: An Introduction to the Prehistory of Europe C. 2000–700 BC'', pp. 422</ref> or a derivation from Terramare culture.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://iris.uniroma1.it/handle/11573/113859 |first=Andrea |last=Cardarelli |journal=Scienze dell'antichità: storia, archeologia, antropologia |title=The collapse of the Terramare culture and growth of new economic and social system during the late Bronze Age in Italy |date=2010 |volume=15 |issn=1123-5713}}</ref><ref>[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/protovillanoviano_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27-Arte-Antica%29/ Francesco di Gennaro. "Protovillanoviano", ''Enciclopedia dell'arte antica''], [[Treccani]], Rome, 1996</ref> Various authors, such as [[Marija Gimbutas]], associated this culture with the spread of the proto-[[Italic languages|Italics]] into the [[Italian Peninsula]].<ref name="Gimbutas"/>

===Nuragic civilization===
{{Main|Nuragic civilization|Torrean civilization}}
Born in [[Sardinia]] and [[southern Corsica]] (where it is called [[Torrean civilization]]), the [[Nuraghe]] civilization lasted from the 18th century BC to the 2nd century AD.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cicilloni |first1=Riccardo |last2=Cabras |first2=Marco |date=2014-12-22 |title=Aspetti insediativi nel versante oreintale del Monte Arci (Oristano -Sardegna) tra il bronzo medio e la prima età del ferro |url=https://quaderniarcheocaor.beniculturali.it/index.php/qua/article/view/116/115 |url-status=dead |journal=Quaderni |language=it |publisher=Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Cagliari e le province di Oristano e Sud Sardegna |issue=25 |page=84 |issn=2284-0834 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731083211/https://quaderniarcheocaor.beniculturali.it/index.php/qua/article/view/116/115 |archive-date=31 July 2021 |access-date=22 November 2021}}</ref><ref>G. Lilliu (1999) p.&nbsp;11{{Full citation needed|reason=No such document in sources section; perhaps 1966 intended.|date=December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Belmuth |first=Miriam S. |title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1950-7618-9 |editor-last=Fagan |editor-first=Brian M. |editor-link=Brian M. Fagan |volume=1: 'Ache'—'Hoho' |page=534 |chapter=Nuragic Culture |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ystMAgAAQBAJ&q=Nuragic+civilization&pg=PA535}}</ref><ref name="Chesworth">{{Cite book |last1=Martini |first1=I. Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1tcUc293W8C&q=Nuragic+civilization&pg=PA166 |title=Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases |last2=Chesworth |first2=Ward |date=2010 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-9-0481-9413-1 |page=169}}</ref> They take their name from the characteristic Nuragic towers, which evolved from the pre-existing megalithic culture, which built [[dolmen]]s and [[menhir]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lilliu |first=Giovanni |date=2006 |title=Sardegna Nuragica |url=http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2008040218311700023.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303205232/http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/mmt/fullsize/2008040218311700023.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-03 |publisher=Edizioni Maestrali}}</ref> Today more than 7,000&nbsp;nuraghes<ref>There is no complete census, but the figure of 7,000 in E. Contu, "L'architettura nuraghica", in Atzeni ''et al.'' (1985), (see {{Cite book |first1=E. |last1=Atzeni |display-authors=etal |title=Ichnussa |date=1985 |page=5}}{{Full citation needed|reason=No such ref in sources; may have meant Atzeni (1981), but no ''et al''. for that doc.|date=December 2019}}), is often repeated, and the Provincia di Cagliari website (see {{Cite web |title=Provincia di Cagliari |url=http://www.provinciadelsole.it/nuragica.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722045217/http://www.provinciadelsole.it/nuragica.html |archive-date=22 July 2011 |access-date=22 November 2021}}) estimates more than 7,000.</ref> appear in Sardinia.

No written records of this civilization have been discovered,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Monoja |first1=M. |title=Parole di segni, L'alba della scrittura in Sardegna |last2=Cossu |first2=C. |last3=Migaleddu |first3=M. |date=2012 |publisher=Carlo Delfino Editore |series=Sardegna Archeologica, Guide e Itinerari |location=Sassari}}</ref> apart from a few possible short epigraphic documents.<ref name="Ugas_2005">{{Cite book |last=Ugas |first=Giovanni |title=L'Alba dei Nuraghi |date=2005 |publisher=Fabula editrice |isbn=978-8-8896-6100-0 |location=Cagliari}}</ref> The only written information comes from classical literature of the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], and may be considered more mythological than historical.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perra |first=M. |title=La Sardegna nelle fonti classiche |date=1993 |publisher=S'Alvure editrice |location=Oristano}}</ref> The language (or languages) spoken in Sardinia during the Bronze Age is (are) unknown since there are no written records from the period, although research suggests that around the 8th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC the Nuragic populations may have adopted an alphabet similar to that used in [[Archaic Greek alphabets#Euboean|Euboea]].<ref name="Ug">{{Cite book |last=Ugas |first=Giovanni |title=Tharros Felix |date=2013 |publisher=Carocci |editor-last=Mastino, Attilio |volume=5 |location=Roma |pages=295–377 |chapter=I segni numerali e di scrittura in Sardegna tra l'Età del Bronzo e il i Ferro |editor-last2=Spanu, Pier Giorgio |editor-last3=Zucca, Raimondo}}</ref>

==Iron Age==
{{Main|Iron Age Italy}}

===Etruscan civilization===
{{Main|Etruscan civilization}}
The [[Etruscan civilization]] flourished in central Italy after 800 BC. The main hypotheses on the origins of the [[Etruscans]] are that they are indigenous,<ref name="plosone.org" /> probably stemming from the [[Villanovan culture]], or that they are the result of invasion from the north or the [[Near East]]. A 2007 study has suggested a [[Near East]]ern origin.<ref>{{Cite journal |vauthors=Achilli A, Olivieri A, Pala M, etal |date=April 2007 |title=Mitochondrial DNA variation of modern Tuscans supports the near eastern origin of Etruscans |journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet. |volume=80 |issue=4 |pages=759–68 |doi=10.1086/512822 |pmc=1852723 |pmid=17357081}}</ref> The researchers conclude that their data, taken from the modern Tuscan population, "support the scenario of a post-Neolithic genetic input from the Near East to the present-day population of Tuscany". In the absence of any dating evidence, there is however no direct link between this genetic input and the Etruscans. By contrast, a [[mtDNA|mitochondrial DNA]] study of 2013 has suggested that the Etruscans were probably an indigenous population. Among ancient populations, ancient Etruscans are found to be closest to a Neolithic population from Central Europe.<ref name="plosone.org">{{Cite journal |last1=Ghirotto |first1=Silvia |last2=Tassi |first2=Francesca |last3=Fumagalli |first3=Erica |last4=Colonna |first4=Vincenza |last5=Sandionigi |first5=Anna |last6=Lari |first6=Martina |last7=Vai |first7=Stefania |last8=Petiti |first8=Emmanuele |last9=Corti |first9=Giorgio |last10=Rizzi |first10=Ermanno |last11=De Bellis |first11=Gianluca |last12=Caramelli |first12=David |last13=Barbujani |first13=Guido |date=2013-02-06 |editor-last=Hawks |editor-first=John |title=Origins and Evolution of the Etruscans' mtDNA |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=8 |issue=2 |page=e55519 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...855519G |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0055519 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3566088 |pmid=23405165 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

It is widely accepted that Etruscans spoke a non-[[Indo-European language]]. Some inscriptions in a similar language, known as [[Lemnian language|Lemnian]], have been found on the Aegean island of [[Lemnos]]. Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing. The historical Etruscans had achieved a form of state with remnants of chiefdom and tribal forms. The first attestations of an [[Etruscan religion]] can be traced to the [[Villanovan culture]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Thomson de Grummond |first1=Nancy |author-link=Nancy Thomson de Grummond |title=The Religion of the Etruscans |last2=Simon |first2=Erika |author-link2=Erika Simon |date=2006 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=0-2927-0687-1 |location=Austin}}</ref>

Etruscan expansion was focused across the [[Apennines]]. The political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar, albeit more aristocratic, to Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western [[Mediterranean]]. Here their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the 6th century BC, when [[Phoceans]] of Italy founded colonies along the coast of France, Catalonia and [[Corsica]]. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with the [[Carthaginians]].<ref name="historyone">{{Cite book |last=Bonfante |first=Larissa |author-link=Larissa Bonfante |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4QaXZky58FIC&pg=PA58 |title=Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies |date=1986 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |isbn=0-8143-1813-4 |page=58}}</ref><ref name="historytwo">{{Cite book |last=Franklin Hall |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bUhT7i7XhOAC&pg=PA198 |title=Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era |date=1996 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-8425-2334-0 |page=198}}</ref>

Around 540 BC, the [[Battle of Alalia]] led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. [[Carthage]] expanded its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and [[Etruria]] saw itself relegated to Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century, the new international political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by [[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]].<ref name="historyone" /><ref name="historytwo" />

A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant [[Hiero I of Syracuse|Hiero]] defeated the Etruscans at the [[Battle of Cumae]]. Etruria's influence over the cities of [[Latium]] and Campania weakened, and it was taken over by Romans and [[Samnites]]. In the 4th century, Etruria saw a [[Gaul|Gallic]] invasion end its influence over the [[Po River|Po]] valley and the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] coast. Meanwhile, [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of their north provinces. [[Etruscia]] was assimilated by Rome around 500 BC.<ref name="historyone" /><ref name="historytwo" />

{{Gallery|align=center
|width=160 |File:Tomba dei Rilievi (Banditaccia).jpg|Necropolis of Banditaccia located in [[Cerveteri]], Lazio
|File:Chimera d'arezzo, fi, 03.JPG|[[Chimera of Arezzo]]
|File:Perugia, Museo archeologico Nazionale dell'Umbria, cippo di Perugia.jpg|[[Cippus Perusinus]]
}}

===Italic peoples===
{{Main|Italic peoples}}
[[File:Samnite theater of Pietrabbondante.JPG|thumb|[[Samnites|Samnite]] sanctuary complex at [[Pietrabbondante]]]]

[[File:Femmes peucètes dansant, fresque.jpg|thumb|Fresco of dancing [[Peucetians|Peucetian]] women in the [[Tomb of the Dancers]] in [[Ruvo di Puglia]], 4th–5th century BC]]
The Italic peoples were an [[ethnolinguistic group]] identified by use of [[Italic languages]]. Among the Italic peoples in the Italian peninsula were the [[Osci]], the [[Adriatic Veneti|Veneti]], the [[Samnites]], the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] and the [[Umbri]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-12 |title=I popoli italici: l'Italia prima di Roma |url=https://www.storicang.it/a/i-popoli-italici-litalia-prima-di-roma_15064 |access-date=2022-01-19 |website=storicang.it |language=it}}</ref>

In the region south of the [[Tiber]] (''Latium Vetus''), the [[Latial culture]] of the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] emerged, while in the north-east of the peninsula the [[Este culture]] of the [[Adriatic Veneti|Veneti]] appeared. Roughly in the same period, from their core area in central Italy (modern-day [[Umbria]] and [[Sabina (region)|Sabina]]), the [[Osci|Osco]]-[[Umbri]]ans began to emigrate in various waves, through the process of [[Ver sacrum]], the ritualized extension of colonies, in southern Latium, [[Molise]] and the whole southern half of the peninsula, replacing the previous tribes, such as the [[Opici]] and the [[Oenotrians]]. This corresponds with the emergence of the Terni culture, which had strong similarities with the Celtic cultures of Hallstatt and [[La Tène culture|La Tène]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farinacci |first=Manlio |title=Carsulae svelata e Terni sotterranea |date=1997 |publisher=Stampato a cura dell'autore |language=it}}</ref>

Before and during the period of the arrival of the Greek and Phoenician immigrants, Sicily was already inhabited by native Italics in three major groups: the [[Elymians]] in the west, the [[Sicani]] in the centre, and the [[Sicels]] (source of the name Sicily) in the east.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chi erano e cosa facevano i siciliani di 3.000 anni fa? |url=https://www.focus.it/cultura/storia/vita-siciliani-tremila-anni-fa |access-date=2022-01-27 |website=Focus.it}}</ref>

It is generally believed that around [[20th century BC|2000 BC]], the [[Ligures]] occupied a large area of the peninsula, including much of north-western Italy and all of northern Tuscany. Since many scholars consider the [[Ligurian (ancient language)|language]] of this ancient population to be [[Pre-Indo-European languages|Pre-Indo-European]], they are often not classified as Italics.<ref name="Treccanionline">{{Cite news |date=2011 |title=Liguri |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/liguri |work=Treccani.it |department=Enciclopedie on line |publisher=[[Treccani|Treccani -Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana]] |location=Rome |language=it |quote=Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa (preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo? Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico?).}}</ref>

By the mid-first millennium BCE, the Latins of [[Rome]] were growing in power and influence. After the Latins had liberated themselves from Etruscan rule they acquired a dominant position among the Italic tribes. Frequent conflict between various Italic tribes followed; the best documented are the [[Samnite Wars]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Catherine Mason |first=Carl Waldman |title=Encyclopedia of European Peoples |publisher=Infobase Publishing |pages=452–459}}</ref> The Latins eventually succeeded in unifying the Italic elements in the country. In the early first century BCE, several Italic tribes, in particular the [[Marsi]] and the Samnites, rebelled against Roman rule (the [[Social War (91–88 BC)|Social War]]). After Roman victory was secured, all peoples in Italy, except for the [[Celts]] of the Po Valley, were granted [[Roman citizenship]]. In the subsequent centuries, Italic tribes adopted [[Latin]] language and culture in a process known as [[Romanization (cultural)|Romanization]].<ref name=":0" />

===Magna Graecia===
{{Main|Magna Graecia}}
[[File:Magna Graecia ancient colonies and dialects-en.svg|thumb|left|Ancient Greek colonies and their [[:w:Ancient Greek dialects|dialect]] groupings in [[Magna Graecia]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodard |first=Roger D. |title=The Ancient Languages of Europe |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5216-8495-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00roge/page/51 51] |chapter=Greek dialects |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00roge/page/51}}</ref>
{{Legend|#cea980|NW Greek}}
{{Legend|#b5ad96|Achaean}}
{{Legend|#eacd85|Doric}}
{{Legend|#bebada|Ionian}}]]

In the eighth and seventh centuries BC, for reasons including demographic crisis, the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula, which became known as [[Magna Graecia]].<ref>Emilio Peruzzi, ''Mycenaeans in early Latium'', (Incunabula Graeca 75), Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, Roma, 1980</ref>

[[Greek culture]] was exported to Italy, in its dialects of the [[Ancient Greek language]], its religious rites and its traditions of the independent ''[[polis]]''. An original [[Hellenic civilization]] soon developed, later interacting with the native [[Italic languages|Italic]] and [[Rome|Latin civilisations]]. The most important cultural transplant was the [[Chalcis|Chalcidean]]/[[Cumaean alphabet|Cumaean]] variety of the [[Greek alphabet]], which was adopted by the [[Etruscans]]; the [[Old Italic alphabet]] subsequently evolved into the [[Latin alphabet]].

Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like ''Neapolis'' ([[Naples]]), ''[[Syracuse, Italy|Syracuse]]'', ''[[Akragas|Acragas]]'', and ''[[Sybaris]]''. Other cities in Magna Graecia included ''[[Taranto|Tarentum]]'', ''[[Locri|Epizephyrian Locri]]'', ''[[Rhegion|Rhegium]]'', ''[[Crotone|Croton]]'', ''[[Thurii]]'', ''[[Velia|Elea]]'', ''[[Nola]]'', ''[[Ancona]]'', ''[[Sessa Cilento|Syessa]]'', ''[[Bari]]'', and others.

After [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]] failed to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BC, the south fell under Roman domination. It was held by the [[Byzantine Empire]] after the [[Decline of the Roman Empire|fall of Rome]] in [[Western Roman Empire|the West]] and even the [[Lombards]] failed to consolidate it, though the centre of the south was theirs from [[Zotto]]'s conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zottóne duca di Benevento |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/zottone-duca-di-benevento |access-date=16 August 2023 |language=it}}</ref>

==Roman period==
{{Main|Ancient Rome}}

===Roman Kingdom===
{{Main|Founding of Rome|Roman Kingdom}}
[[File:Lupa Capitolina, Rome.jpg|thumb|left|The ''[[Capitoline Wolf]]'' sculpture in the [[Capitoline Museums]]. According to legend, [[founding of Rome|Rome was founded]] in 753 BC by [[Romulus and Remus]], who were raised by a [[She-wolf (Roman mythology)|she-wolf]].]]

Little is certain about the history of the Roman Kingdom, as nearly no written records from that time survive, and the histories written during the [[Roman Republic|Republic]] and [[Roman Empire|Empire]] are largely based on legends. According to the [[founding myth]] of Rome, the city was [[founding of Rome|founded]] on 21 April 753 BC by twin brothers [[Romulus and Remus]], who descended from the [[Troy|Trojan]] prince [[Aeneas]]<ref>Adkins, 1998. page 3.</ref> and who were grandsons of [[Numitor]] of [[Alba Longa]]. [[Natale di Roma]] (''Birthday of Rome'') is an annual festival held in [[Rome]] on 21 April to celebrate the [[founding of Rome|founding of the city]].<ref name="Plutarch12">[[Plutarch]], ''[[Parallel Lives]] - Life of Romulus'', [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Romulus*.html#12 12.2] (from [[LacusCurtius]])</ref> 

The traditional account of Roman history, which has come down through [[Livy]], [[Plutarch]], [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], and others, is that in Rome's first centuries, it was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The [[Gauls]] destroyed much of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the [[Battle of the Allia]] in 390 or 387 BC. With no contemporary records, all accounts of the kings must be carefully evaluated.<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''Asimov's Chronology of the World''. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. p. 69.</ref>

===Roman Republic===
{{Main|Roman Republic}}
{{Further|Roman conquest of Italy}}
[[File:Roman Republic Empire map.gif|thumb|left|Animation showing the growth and division of [[Ancient Rome]], years AD]]

According to tradition and later writers such as [[Livy]], the [[Roman Republic]] was established around 509 BC,<ref>Langley, Andrew and Souza, de Philip, "The Roman Times", Candle Wick Press, Massachusetts</ref> when the last of the seven kings of Rome, [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus|Tarquin the Proud]], was deposed by [[Lucius Junius Brutus]]. A system based on annually elected [[Roman Magistrates|magistrates]] and various representative assemblies was established.<ref>Matyszak, 2003. pages 43–44.</ref> A [[constitution of the Roman Republic|constitution]] set a series of checks and balances, and a [[separation of powers]]. The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority as ''[[imperium]]'', or military command.<ref>Adkins, 1998. pages 41–42.</ref> The consuls had to work with the [[Roman Senate|senate]], which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patricians]], but grew in size and power.<ref>[http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/REPUBLIC.HTM Rome: The Roman Republic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514025151/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/REPUBLIC.HTM |date=14 May 2011}} by Richard Hooker. [[Washington State University]]. Written 6 June 1999. Retrieved 24 March 2007.</ref>

In the 4th century BC, the Republic came under attack by the [[Gauls]], who initially prevailed and sacked Rome. The Romans then drove the Gauls back, led by [[Marcus Furius Camillus|Camillus]]. The Romans [[Roman conquest of Italy|gradually subdued]] the other peoples on the peninsula.<ref>Haywood, 1971. pages 350–358.</ref> The last threat to Roman [[hegemony]] in Italy came when [[Taranto|Tarentum]], a major [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] colony, enlisted the aid of [[Pyrrhus of Epirus]] in 281 BC, but this effort failed.<ref>[https://www.livius.org/ps-pz/pyrrhus/pyrrhus02.html Pyrrhus of Epirus (2)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414161122/http://www.livius.org/ps-pz/pyrrhus/pyrrhus02.html |date=14 April 2016}} and [https://www.livius.org/ps-pz/pyrrhus/pyrrhus03.html Pyrrhus of Epirus (3)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193524/http://www.livius.org/ps-pz/pyrrhus/pyrrhus03.html |date=3 March 2016}} by Jona Lendering. Livius.org. Retrieved 21 March 2007.</ref><ref>Haywood, 1971. pages 357–358.</ref>

In the 3rd century BC, Rome had to face a new and formidable opponent: [[Carthage]]. In the three [[Punic Wars]], Carthage was eventually destroyed and Rome gained control over Hispania, Sicily and North Africa. After defeating the [[Macedon]]ian and [[Seleucid Empire]]s in the 2nd century BC, the Romans became the dominant people of the Mediterranean.<ref name="Bagnall">Bagnall 1990</ref><ref>[http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/CONQHELL.HTM Rome: The Conquest of the Hellenistic Empires] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501115720/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/CONQHELL.HTM |date=1 May 2011}} by Richard Hooker. Washington State University. Written 6 June 1999. Retrieved 22 March 2007.</ref> The conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms provoked a fusion between Roman and Greek cultures and the Roman elite, once rural, became a luxurious and cosmopolitan one. By this time Rome was a consolidated empire – in the military view – and had no major enemies.
Roman armies occupied Spain in the early 2nd century BC but encountered stiff resistance. The [[Celtiberians|Celtiberian]] stronghold of [[Numantia]] became the centre of Spanish resistance in the 140s and 130s BC.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stevenson |title=Julius Caesar and the Transformation of the Roman Republic |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge}}</ref> Numantia fell and was razed to the ground in 133 BC. In 105 BC, the Celtiberians drove the [[Cimbri]] and [[Teutones]] from northern Spain,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rankin |first=David |title=Celts and the Classical World |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |page=176}}</ref> though these had [[Battle of Arausio|crushed Roman arms]] in southern Gaul, inflicting 80,000 casualties on the Roman army. The [[Roman conquest of the Iberian peninsula|conquest of Hispania]] was completed in 19 BC—but at a heavy cost.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate |publisher=University of California Press |page=400}}</ref>

[[File:Tavares.Forum.Romanum.redux.jpg|thumb|The [[Roman Forum]], the commercial, cultural, and political centre of the city and the Republic, which housed the various offices and meeting places of the government]]

Towards the end of the 2nd century BC, a huge migration of [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes took place, led by the Cimbri and the Teutones. These tribes overwhelmed the peoples with whom they came into contact and threatened Italy. At the [[Battle of Aquae Sextiae]] and the [[Battle of Vercellae]] the Germans were virtually annihilated. In these two battles the Teutones and [[Ambrones]] are said to have lost 290,000 men, and the Cimbri 220,000.<ref>Livy Ep. 68</ref>

In the mid-1st century BC, the Republic faced a period of political crisis and social unrest. [[Julius Caesar]] reconciled the two more powerful men in Rome: [[Marcus Licinius Crassus]] and [[Pompey]].<ref name="Scullard2">Scullard 1982, chapters VI-VII</ref> In 53 BC, the Triumvirate disintegrated at the death of Crassus. After being victorious in the [[Gallic Wars]], Caesar [[Caesar's Civil War|crossed the Rubicon]] and invaded Rome in 49 BC, rapidly defeating Pompey. Caesar was eventually granted a dictatorship for perpetuity but was murdered in 44 BC.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/caesar_julius.shtml Julius Caesar (100BC – 44BC)]. [http://bbc.co.uk/]. Retrieved 21 March 2007.</ref> Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil; without the dictator's leadership, Rome was ruled by his friend and colleague, [[Mark Antony]]. [[Augustus|Octavian]] (Caesar's adopted son), along with Antony and [[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)|Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]],<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html] Plutarch, Life of Caesar. Retrieved 1 October 2011</ref> established the [[Second Triumvirate]]. Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying Octavian in [[War between Sextus Pompey and the Second Triumvirate|Sicily]]. Antony settled in Egypt with his lover, [[Cleopatra VII]], which was seen as an act of treason.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html#ref57] Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', ''Life of Antony'', LXXI, 3–5.</ref>

Following Antony's [[Donations of Alexandria]], which gave Cleopatra the title of "Queen of Kings", and to their children the regal titles to the newly conquered Eastern territories, war between Octavian and Mark Antony broke out. Octavian annihilated Egyptian forces in the [[Battle of Actium]] in 31 BC. Mark Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Rome thus possessed unchallenged [[Roman navy|naval]] supremacy in the [[North Sea]], [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coasts, Mediterranean, [[Red Sea]], and the [[Black Sea]].

===Roman Empire===
{{Further|Roman Empire|Roman Italy}}
[[File:Augustus of Prima Porta (inv. 2290).jpg|thumb|upright|left|The [[Augustus of Prima Porta]], 1st century AD, depicting [[Augustus]], the first [[Roman emperor]]. He reorganized Italy into 11 ''regiones''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooley |first=Alison |chapter=Coming to Terms with Dynastic Power, 30 BC-AD 69 |date=2016 |title=A Companion to Roman Italy |editor-last=Cooley |editor-first=Alison|publisher=Blackwell |pages=103–104|isbn=978-1444339260}}</ref>]]

Octavian's leadership brought the [[zenith]] of the Roman civilization, which lasted for four decades. His adoption of the name ''[[Augustus (honorific)|Augustus]]'' in 27 BC is usually taken by historians as the beginning of the Roman Empire. Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/augustus.shtml Augustus (63 BC. – AD14)] from [[BBC Online|bbc.co.uk]]. Retrieved 12 March 2007.</ref><ref name="autogenerated14">Langley, Andrew and Souza, de Philip: ''The Roman Times'', pg.14, Candle Wick Press, 1996</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2025}} The Senate granted Octavian a unique grade of [[Proconsul]]ar ''imperium'', which gave him authority over all Proconsuls (military governors).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Frank Frost |author-link=Frank Frost Abbott |title=A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions |date=1901 |publisher=Elibron Classics |isbn=978-0-5439-2749-1 |page=269}}</ref> The unruly [[imperial provinces]] at the borders, where the vast majority of the legions were stationed, were under the control of Augustus. The peaceful [[senatorial provinces]] were under the control of the Senate. The Roman legions, which had reached an unprecedented number (around 50) because of the civil wars, were reduced to 28.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quanto era grande l'esercito romano? |url=https://www.focus.it/cultura/storia/come-era-composto-esercito-romano |access-date=16 August 2023 |language=it}}</ref>

Within Italy in times of peace, Roman magistrates exercised the {{Lang|la|[[Imperium]] domi}} (police power) as an alternative to the {{Lang|la|Imperium militiae}} (military power). Italy's inhabitants had [[Latin Rights]] as well as religious and financial privileges.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}
[[File:Colosseo 2020.jpg|thumb|The [[Colosseum]] in [[Rome]], built in the 1st century]]
Roman literature grew steadily in the [[Golden Age of Latin Literature]], with poets like [[Vergil]], [[Horace]], [[Ovid]] and [[Lucius Varius Rufus|Rufus]]. Augustus also continued the shifts on the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him.<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html] Suetonius, ''The Twelve Caesars'', ''Augustus'', XXI.</ref> Augustus' enlightened rule resulted in 200 years of peace for the Empire, known as ''[[Pax Romana]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pax Romana |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/447447/Pax-Romana |website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=30 September 2024 }}</ref>

In the Principate, Italy was legally distinguished from the provinces, and along with some favored provincial communities, enjoyed immunity from the [[Tributum soli|property tax]] and [[Tributum capitis|poll tax]]. However, under the Emperor [[Diocletian]], Italy lost these privileges and was subdivided into [[Roman diocese|provinces]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooley |first=Alison |chapter=Italy during the High Empire, from the Flavians to Diocletian |date=2016 |title=A Companion to Roman Italy |editor-last=Cooley |editor-first=Alison|publisher=Blackwell |pages=130–131|isbn=978-1444339260}}</ref>

[[File:Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png|thumb|{{Legend|#b23938|The [[Roman Empire]] at its greatest extent under [[Trajan]] in AD 117}}]]

Despite its military strength, the Empire made few efforts to expand, the most notable being the [[Roman conquest of Britain|conquest of Britain]], begun by emperor [[Claudius]] (47), and emperor [[Trajan]]'s conquest of [[Trajan's Dacian Wars|Dacia]] (101–102, 105–106). In the 1st and 2nd centuries, Roman legions were also employed in [[Germanic Wars|intermittent warfare with the Germanic tribes]] to the north and the [[Parthian Empire]] to the east. Meanwhile, armed insurrections (e.g. the Hebraic insurrection in [[Judea]], 70) and brief civil wars (e.g. in 68 AD the [[year of the four emperors]]) demanded the legions' attention. The seventy years of [[Jewish–Roman wars]] in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Potter |first1=David Stone |author-link=David Stone Potter |title=Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire |last2=Mattingly |first2=D. J. |author-link2=David Mattingly (archaeologist) |date=1999 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-4720-8568-2 |page=571}}</ref> An estimated 1,356,460 Jews were killed as a result of the [[First Jewish–Roman War|First Jewish Revolt]];<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wolfe |first=Robert |title=From Habiru to Hebrews and Other Essays |date=2011 |isbn=978-1-9367-8058-7 |page=65}}</ref> the [[Kitos War|Second Jewish Revolt]] (115–117) led to the death of more than 200,000 Jews;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=Bernard |title=True Jew: Challenging the Stereotype |date=2012 |isbn=978-0-8758-6904-9 |page=18|publisher=Algora }}</ref> and the [[Bar Kokhba revolt|Third Jewish Revolt]] (132–136) resulted in the death of 580,000 Jewish soldiers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Karen |title=Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-3077-9859-6 |page=163}}</ref>

After the 395 death of [[Theodosius I]], the Empire was divided into an [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern]] and a [[Western Roman Empire]]. The Western part faced increasing economic and political crises and frequent barbarian invasions, so the capital was moved from [[Mediolanum]] to [[Ravenna]]. In 476, the last Western Emperor [[Romulus Augustulus]] was deposed by [[Odoacer]].

==Middle Ages==
{{Main|Italy in the Middle Ages|Italian city-states}}
Odoacer's rule ended when the [[Ostrogoths]], under the leadership of [[Theodoric the Great|Theodoric]], conquered Italy. Decades later, the armies of Eastern Emperor [[Justinian]] entered Italy with the goal of re-establishing imperial Roman rule, which led to the [[Gothic War (535–554)|Gothic War]] that devastated the whole country with famine and epidemics. This ultimately allowed another Germanic tribe, the [[Lombards]], to take control over vast regions of Italy. In 751 the Lombards seized [[Exarchate of Ravenna|Ravenna]], ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy. Facing a new Lombard offensive, the Papacy appealed to the [[Franks]] for aid.<ref>Cristina La Rocca, ed. ''Italy in the Early Middle Ages: 476-1000'' (2002).</ref>

[[File:BattagliaLegnano.jpg|thumb|right|upright|The defense of the [[Carroccio]] during the [[battle of Legnano]] by [[Amos Cassioli]] (1832–1891)]]

In 756 Frankish forces defeated the Lombards and gave the Papacy legal authority over much of central Italy, establishing the [[Papal States]]. In 800, [[Charlemagne]] was crowned emperor of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. After the death of Charlemagne (814), the new empire disintegrated under his weak successors, resulting in a power vacuum in Italy and coinciding with the rise of Islam in North Africa and the Middle East. In the South, there were attacks from the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] and the [[Abbasid Caliphate]]. In the North, there was a rising power of [[Medieval commune|communes]]. In 852, the Saracens took [[Bari]] and founded an [[emirate]] there. Islamic rule over Sicily was effective from 902.

In the 11th century, trade slowly recovered as the cities started to grow again and the Papacy regained its authority. The [[Investiture controversy]], over whether secular authorities had any legitimate role in appointments to ecclesiastical offices, was resolved by the [[Concordat of Worms]] in 1122, although problems continued in many areas of Europe until the end of the medieval era. In the north, a [[Lombard League]] of communes launched a successful effort to win autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire, defeating Emperor [[Frederick Barbarossa]] at the [[Battle of Legnano]] in 1176. In the south, the [[Normans]] occupied the Lombard and Byzantine possessions.<ref>Holger Berwinkel, "Legnano, Battle of (1176)." in Gordon Martel ed ''The Encyclopedia of War'' (2011) ch 27.</ref>
The few independent city-states were also subdued. During the same period, the Normans ended Muslim rule in Sicily. In 1130, [[Roger II of Sicily]] began his rule as the first king of the Norman [[Kingdom of Sicily]]; he had succeeded in uniting all the Norman conquests in Southern Italy into one kingdom with a strong centralized government. In 1155, Emperor [[Manuel Komnenos]] attempted to regain Southern Italy, but the attempt failed and in 1158 the Byzantines left Italy. The Norman Kingdom lasted until 1194 when Sicily was claimed by the German [[Hohenstaufen Dynasty]].

Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy developed a peculiar political pattern, significantly different from feudal Europe north of the Alps. The oligarchic [[city-state]] became the prevalent form of government. Keeping direct Church control and Imperial power at arm's length, the many independent city-states prospered through commerce, ultimately creating the conditions for the artistic and intellectual changes produced by the [[Renaissance]].<ref>Rodney Stark, ''The Victory of Reason'' (Random House, 2005).</ref><ref>Skinner, Quentin, ''The Foundations of Modern Political Thought'', vol I: ''The Renaissance''; vol II: ''The Age of Reformation'', Cambridge University Press, p. 69</ref> Northern cities and states were notable for their [[merchant republics]], especially the [[Republic of Venice]].<ref>Martin, J. and Romano, D., Venice Reconsidered, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 2000</ref> Compared to feudal and absolute monarchies, the merchant republics enjoyed relative political freedom.<ref name="ReferenceA">Ferguson, Niall, ''The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World''. Penguin, 2008</ref>
[[File:Marco Polo Mosaic from Palazzo Tursi.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Marco Polo]], explorer of the 13th century, recorded his 24 years-long travels in the ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo|Book of the Marvels of the World]]'', introducing Europeans to Central Asia and China.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marco Polo – Exploration |url=http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/marco-polo |access-date=9 January 2017 |publisher=History.com}}</ref>]]

During this period, many Italian cities developed republican forms of government, such as the republics of [[Republic of Florence|Florence]], [[Republic of Lucca|Lucca]], [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]], [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] and [[Republic of Siena|Siena]]. During the 13th and 14th centuries these cities became major financial and commercial centres.<ref>{{Cite book |last=de Sismondi |first=Simonde |title=Storia delle Repubbliche Italiane nel Medioevo. |date=1968 |publisher=Avanzini e Torraca Editori |language=it}}</ref> Milan, Florence and Venice, among other city-states, played a crucial innovative role in financial development, devising the main instruments and practices of banking and new forms of social and economic organization.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

During the same period, Italy saw the rise of the [[Repubbliche Marinare|Maritime Republics]]: [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], [[Republic of Genoa|Genoa]], [[Republic of Pisa|Pisa]], [[Duchy of Amalfi|Amalfi]], [[Republic of Ragusa|Ragusa]], [[Republic of Ancona|Ancona]], [[Duchy of Gaeta|Gaeta]] and [[Republic of Noli|Noli]].<ref>Armando Lodolini ''Le repubbliche del mare'', Roma, Biblioteca di storia patria, 1967.</ref> From the 10th to the 13th centuries these cities built fleets of ships for their own protection and to support extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean, leading to an essential role in the [[Crusades]]. The maritime republics, especially Venice and Genoa, soon became Europe's main gateways to trade with the East, establishing colonies as far as the [[Black Sea]] and often controlling most of the trade with the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the Islamic Mediterranean world. The [[county of Savoy]] expanded its territory into the peninsula in the [[late Middle Ages]], while Florence developed into a highly organized commercial and financial city-state, becoming for many centuries the European capital of silk, wool, banking and jewellery. Central and southern Italy was far poorer than the north. Rome was largely in ruins, and the [[Papal States]] were a loosely administered region with little law and order. Partly because of this, the Papacy [[Avignon Papacy|had relocated to Avignon]] in France. Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia had for some time been under foreign domination. The [[Black Death]] in 1348 killed perhaps one-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</ref>

{{Gallery|align=center

|width=160 |File:Lombard (Kingdom of) Italy.png|The [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombard Kingdom]] in 740, under King [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards|Liutprand]]
|File:Aghlabid in 900 ad.png|[[Emirate of Sicily]] (831–1072)
|File:Maritime republics map - IT.png|Location and coat of arms of the [[Maritime republics]]
|File:Republik Venedig Handelswege01.png|Trade routes and colonies of the [[Genoese colonies|Genoese]] <small>(red)</small> and [[Stato da Màr|Venetian]] <small>(green)</small> empires
}}

==Renaissance==
{{Main|Italian Renaissance}}
[[File:'David' by Michelangelo Fir JBU005.jpg|thumb|[[Michelangelo's David]], one of the symbols of Italian Renaissance]]
[[File:Da Vinci Vitruve Luc Viatour.jpg|thumb|''The [[Vitruvian Man]]'' by [[Leonardo da Vinci]] is a quintessential masterpiece of the Renaissance.]]

The recovery from the demographic and economic disaster of the late Middle Ages led to a resurgence of cities, trade and economy. Italy was the main centre of the Renaissance, whose flourishing of the arts, architecture, literature, science, historiography, and political theory influenced all of Europe.<ref>J. R. Hale, '' A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance''</ref><ref>J. H. Plumb, ''The Italian Renaissance – A Concise Survey of its History and Culture'' (1985)</ref> The Renaissance represented a "rebirth" not only of economy and urbanization but also of arts and science, fuelled by rediscoveries of ancient texts and the migration west into Italy of intellectuals fleeing the [[Eastern Roman Empire]]. The [[fall of Constantinople]] led to the migration of [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Greek scholars]] and texts to Italy, fueling the rediscovery of Greco-Roman [[Humanism]].<ref name="Britannica1">Encyclopædia Britannica, ''Renaissance'', 2008, O.Ed.</ref><ref name="Harris">Har, Michael H. ''History of Libraries in the Western World'', Scarecrow Press Incorporate, 1999, {{ISBN|0-8108-3724-2}}</ref><ref name="Norwich">Norwich, John Julius, ''A Short History of Byzantium'', 1997, Knopf, {{ISBN|0-6794-5088-2}}</ref> Humanist rulers such as [[Federico da Montefeltro]] and [[Pope Pius II]] worked to establish [[ideal city|ideal cities]], founding [[Urbino]] and [[Pienza]] respectively. [[Pico della Mirandola]] wrote the ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', considered the manifesto of [[Renaissance Humanism]].

The Italian Renaissance began in Tuscany and spread south, having an especially significant impact on Rome, which was largely rebuilt by the Renaissance popes. The Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the region, especially in [[Renaissance literature]]. Prominent authors of the era include [[Petrarch]] and [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]. [[Italian Renaissance painting]] and [[Renaissance architecture|architecture]] exercised a dominant influence on subsequent European art. The Aldine Press, founded by the printer [[Aldo Manuzio]], developed [[Italic type]] and the small, relatively portable and inexpensive printed book that could be carried in one's pocket. In the early 16th century, Baldassare Castiglione with ''[[The Book of the Courtier]]'' laid out his vision of the ideal gentleman and lady, while [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] in ''[[The Prince]]'', laid down the foundation of [[modern philosophy]], especially modern [[political philosophy]]. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and [[scholasticism|scholastic]] doctrines of the time.<ref name="counter">{{Cite book |last=Bireley |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7UFQAQAAIAAJ |title=The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism Or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe |date=1990 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-1925-8}}</ref>

The Italian Renaissance was remarkable in economic development. Venice and Genoa were trade pioneers, first as maritime republics and then as regional states, followed by Milan, Florence, and the rest of northern Italy. Reasons for their early development include the relative military safety of Venetian lagoons, the high population density and the institutional structure which inspired entrepreneurs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baten, Jörg |title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present. |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1075-0718-0 |page=44}}</ref> [[Venice]] was the first real [[international financial center]], which slowly emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century.<ref name="Coispeau2016">{{Cite book |last=Coispeau |first=Olivier |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yor4DAAAQBAJ |title=Finance Masters: A Brief History of International Financial Centers in the Last Millennium |date=2016-08-10 |publisher=World Scientific |isbn=978-9-8131-0884-4}}</ref> Tradeable [[Bond (finance)|bonds]] were invented during this period.

===Age of Discovery===
Italian{{Efn|Though the modern state of Italy had yet to be established, the Latin equivalent of the [[Italians#Name|term Italian]] had been in use for natives of [[Italian geographical region|the region]] since antiquity. See [[Pliny the Elder]], ''[[Epistulae (Pliny)|Letters]]'' 9.23.}} [[List of Italian explorers|explorers]] and navigators from the dominant [[maritime republics]], eager to find an alternative route to the Indies to bypass the [[Ottoman Empire]], played a key role in the [[Age of Discovery]] and European colonization of the Americas. The most notable among them were [[Christopher Columbus]], who is credited with discovering the New World;<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 16, pp. 605ff / Morison, ''Christopher Columbus'', 1955 ed., pp. 14ff</ref> [[John Cabot]], the first European to set foot in "New Found Land" and explore parts of the North American continent in 1497;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007 |title=''Catholic Encyclopedia'' "John & Sebastian Cabot" |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03126d.htm |access-date=17 May 2008 |publisher=newadvent}}</ref> [[Amerigo Vespucci]], who first demonstrated in about 1501 that the New World was not Asia as initially conjectured but a different continent ([[Naming of the Americas|America]] is named after him);<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martone |first=Eric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MHJ1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |title=Italian Americans: The History and Culture of a People |date=2016 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-6106-9995-2 |page=504}}</ref> and [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]], the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greene |first=George Washington |author-link=George Washington Greene |url={{Google books|1qsuAAAAYAAJ|page=PA13|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=The Life and Voyages of Verrazzano |date=1837 |publisher=Folsom, Wells, and Thurston |location=Cambridge University |page=13 |access-date=18 August 2017 |via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Marcos de Niza|Marco da Nizza]] explored the region that later became [[History of Arizona|Arizona]] and [[History of New Mexico|New Mexico]] in 1539. [[Henri de Tonti]] explored the Great Lakes region and co-founded New Orleans. Italian missionaries, including [[Alessandro Geraldini]], [[François-Joseph Bressani]], and [[Eusebio Kino]], played a role in establishing Catholic missions in California. Kino explored and mapped the southwest and California.<ref>Rolle, ''The immigrant upraised'' pp. 339–349.</ref> In the beginning of the 15th century, adventurers and traders such as [[Niccolò Da Conti]] travelled as far as Southeast Asia.
{{Gallery|align=center
|width=160 |File:Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio - Ritratto di Cristoforo Colombo (1520).jpg|[[Christopher Columbus]], who is credited with discovering the New World
|File:Amerigo Vespucci (with turban) - cropped.jpg|[[Amerigo Vespucci]], who first demonstrated in about 1501 that the New World was not Asia as initially conjectured but a different continent ([[Naming of the Americas|America]] is named after him)
|File:John-cabot-2.jpg|[[John Cabot]], the first European to set foot in "New Found Land" and explore parts of the North American continent in 1497
|File:Giovanni da Verrazano.jpg|[[Giovanni da Verrazzano]], the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524
}}

===Warfare===
In the 14th century, Northern Italy was divided into warring city-states, the most powerful being [[Milan]], [[Florence]], [[Pisa]], [[Siena]], [[Genoa]], [[Ferrara]], [[Mantua]], [[Verona]] and [[Venice]]. High Medieval Northern Italy was further divided by the long-running battle for supremacy between the Papacy and the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Warfare between the states was common, and invasion from outside Italy was confined to intermittent sorties of [[Holy Roman Emperors]]. Since the 13th century, as armies became primarily composed of [[mercenaries]], prosperous city-states could field considerable forces despite their low populations. Over the 15th century, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbours: Florence took [[Pisa]] in 1406, Venice captured [[Padua]] and [[Verona]], while the [[Duchy of Milan]] annexed nearby areas including [[Pavia]] and [[Parma]].

The early Renaissance saw almost constant warfare on land and sea as the city-states vied for preeminence. On land, these wars were primarily fought by armies of mercenaries known as ''[[condottiere|condottieri]]'', bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe (especially Germany and Switzerland) led largely by Italian captains.<ref>Jensen, De Lamar. ''Renaissance Europe''. 1992, p. 64.</ref> Decades of fighting saw Florence, Milan and Venice emerge as the dominant players. These three powers agreed to the [[Peace of Lodi]] in 1454, which saw relative calm brought to the region for the next forty years. At sea, the main contenders were Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, but after a long conflict, the Genoese succeeded in reducing Pisa. Venice proved to be a more powerful adversary, and with the decline of Genoese power during the 15th century Venice became pre-eminent on the seas.

Foreign invasions of Italy (the [[Italian Wars]]) began with the 1494 invasion by France that wreaked widespread devastation on Northern Italy and ended the independence of many of the city-states. Originally arising from dynastic disputes over the Duchy of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples, the wars rapidly became a general struggle for power and territory. The French were routed by Holy Roman Emperor [[Charles V of Habsburg|Charles V]] at the [[Battle of Pavia]] (1525) and again in the [[War of the League of Cognac]] (1526–30). After years of inconclusive fighting and involvement by multiple countries, with the [[Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis]] (1559), France renounced its claims in Italy, while the south of Italy remained under Spanish rule.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/99311/Peace-of-Cateau-Cambresis |access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref>

Much of Venice's hinterland (but not the city itself) was [[Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503)|devastated by the Turks]] in 1499 and plundered by the [[League of Cambrai]] in 1509. Worst of all was the 6 May 1527 [[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sack of Rome]] by mutinous German mercenaries that all but ended the role of the Papacy as the largest patron of Renaissance art. The long [[Siege of Florence (1529–1530)]] brought the destruction of its suburbs, the ruin of its export business and the confiscation of its citizens' wealth. Italy's urban population halved; ransoms paid to the invaders and emergency taxes drained the finances. The wool and silk industries of Lombardy collapsed when their looms were wrecked by invaders. The defensive tactic of scorched earth only slightly delayed the invaders, and made the recovery much longer.<ref>John Julius Norwich, ''The Italians: History, Art and the Genius of a People'' (1983) p 165-66.</ref>

==From the Counter-Reformation to Napoleon==
{{Main|History of early modern Italy}}
[[File:Piazza Mercatello durante la peste del 1656 - Spadaro.jpg|thumb|left|Contemporary engraving of Naples during the [[Naples Plague]] in 1656]]

The 17th century was a tumultuous period in Italian history, marked by deep political and social changes. These included the increase of Papal power in the peninsula and the influence of the Catholic Church at the peak of the [[Counter Reformation]], the Catholic reaction against the Protestant [[Reformation]]. From the [[Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis]] to the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], the Spanish Habsburgs ruled Sicily, Naples, and Milan; these territories passed to the [[Habsburg monarchy|Austrian Habsburgs]] in 1700.

Despite important artistic and scientific achievements, such as the discoveries of [[Galileo]] and the flourishing of [[Baroque]] style, after 1600 Italy experienced an economic catastrophe. In 1600 Northern and Central Italy comprised one of the most advanced industrial areas of Europe, with an exceptionally high standard of living.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rota |first1=Mauro |last2=Weisdorf |first2=Jacob |date=December 2020 |title=Italy and the Little Divergence in Wages and Prices: New Data, New Results |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=80 |issue=4 |pages=931–960 |doi=10.1017/S0022050720000467 |issn=0022-0507 |s2cid=219359647 |doi-access=free}}</ref> By 1870 Italy was an economically backward and depressed area; its industrial structure had almost collapsed, its population was too high for its resources, its economy had become primarily agricultural. Wars, political fractionalization, limited fiscal capacity and the shift of world trade to north-western Europe and the Americas were key factors.<ref>Carlo M. Cipolla, "The Decline of Italy: The Case of a Fully Matured Economy." ''Economic History Review'' 5#2 1952, pp. 178–187. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2591055 online]</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Baten, Jörg |title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present. |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1075-0718-0 |page=45}}</ref>
The growing importance of the Atlantic trade undermined the importance of Venice as a commercial hub.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Martin |first1=John |url=https://archive.org/details/venicereconsider00mart |title=Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297–1797 |last2=Romano |first2=Dennis |date=2002 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-8018-7308-9 |edition=Johns Hopkins paperbacks |location=Baltimore |page=[https://archive.org/details/venicereconsider00mart/page/n423 405] |url-access=limited}}</ref> Spain's involvement in the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–48), financed in part by taxes on its Italian possessions, heavily drained the commerce and agriculture of the south; as Spain declined, it dragged its Italian domains down with it, spreading conflicts and revolts (such as the Neapolitan 1647 tax-related "[[Revolt of Masaniello]]").<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=The 17th-century crisis |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/297474/Italy/27710/The-17th-century-crisis |access-date=6 December 2014}}</ref>
The [[Italian plague of 1629–31|plague of 1630]] that ravaged [[northern Italy]], notably Milan and Venice, claimed possibly one million lives, or about 25% of the population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hays |first=J. N. |url=https://archive.org/details/epidemicspandemi0000hays |title=Epidemics and Pandemics Their Impacts on Human History |date=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-8510-9658-9 |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |page=[https://archive.org/details/epidemicspandemi0000hays/page/103 103] |url-access=registration}}</ref> The plague of 1656 killed up to 43% of the population of the [[Kingdom of Naples]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fusco |first=Idamaria |title=The plague in the Kingdom of Naples (1656–58): diffusion and mortality |url=http://www.iseg.utl.pt/aphes30/docs/progdocs/IDAMARIA%20FUSCO.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20110122123334/http://www.iseg.utl.pt/aphes30/docs/progdocs/IDAMARIA%20FUSCO.pdf |archive-date=22 January 2011 |access-date=6 December 2014 |publisher=Istituto di Studi sulle Società del Mediterraneo}}</ref> Historians believe the dramatic reduction in population (and, thus, in economic activity) contributed to Italy's downfall as a major commercial and political centre.<ref>{{Cite web |title=This Day In HISTORY. November 30, 1630 |url=http://www.historychannel.com.au/classroom/day-in-history/973/16000-venetians-die-of-plague-this-month |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924030518/http://www.historychannel.com.au/classroom/day-in-history/973/16000-venetians-die-of-plague-this-month |archive-date=24 September 2015 |access-date=6 December 2014 |publisher=[[History (U.S. TV channel)|History]]}}</ref> By one estimate, while in 1500 the GDP of Italy was 106% of the French GDP, by 1700 it was only 75% of it.{{sfnp|Maddison|2007|page=[https://archive.org/details/contoursworldeco00madd/page/n393 379], table A.4}}

===18th century===
The [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–1714) was triggered by the death without issue of the last Habsburg king of Spain, [[Charles II of Spain|Charles II]], who fixed the Spanish inheritance on [[Philip, Duke of Anjou]], the grandson of King [[Louis XIV]] of France. In face of the threat of a French hegemony over much of Europe, a [[Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg)|Grand Alliance]] between Austria, England, the Dutch Republic and other minor powers (including the [[Duchy of Savoy]]) was signed in [[Treaty of The Hague (1701)|The Hague]]. The Alliance successfully fought and defeated the Franco-Spanish "Party of the Two Crowns", and the subsequent [[Treaty of Utrecht]] and [[Treaty of Rastatt|Rastatt]] passed control of much of Italy (Milan, Naples and Sardinia) from Spain to Austria, while Sicily was ceded to the Duchy of Savoy. Spain attempted to retake territories in Italy and to claim the French throne in the [[War of the Quadruple Alliance]] (1718–1720), but was again defeated. As a result of the [[Treaty of The Hague (1720)|Treaty of The Hague]], Spain agreed to abandon its Italian claims, while Duke [[Victor Amadeus II of Savoy]] agreed to exchange Sicily with Austria for the island of Sardinia, after which he was known as the [[King of Sardinia]]. The Spaniards regained Naples and Sicily following the [[Battle of Bitonto]] in 1738. [[Corsica]] passed from the [[Republic of Genoa]] to France in 1769 after the [[Treaty of Versailles (1768)|Treaty of Versailles]]. [[Italian language|Italian]] was the official language of Corsica until 1859.<ref>Abalain, Hervé, (2007) ''Le français et les langues historiques de la France'', Éditions Jean-Paul Gisserot, p.113</ref>

===Age of Napoleon===
{{Further|Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars}}
[[File:Italy_1796.svg|thumb|left|Italy before the Napoleonic invasion (1796)]]

At the end of the 18th century, Italy was almost in the same political conditions as in the 16th century; the main differences were that [[Austria]] had replaced Spain as the dominant foreign power (though the [[War of the Polish Succession]] resulted in the re-installment of the Spanish in the south, as the [[House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies]]), and that the dukes of [[Savoy]] had become kings of [[Sardinia]]. In 1796 the French [[Army of Italy (France)|Army of Italy]] under [[Napoleon]] invaded Italy, with the aims of forcing the [[First Coalition]] to abandon Sardinia and forcing Austria to withdraw from Italy. Within only two weeks [[Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia]] was forced to sign an armistice. Napoleon then entered Milan, where he was welcomed as a liberator. Subsequently, beating off Austrian counterattacks and continuing to advance, he arrived in the [[Veneto]] in 1797. Here occurred the [[Veronese Easters]], an act of rebellion against French oppression, that tied down Napoleon for about a week.

Napoleon conquered most of Italy in 1797–99. He set up a series of new republics, complete with new codes of law and abolition of old feudal privileges. Napoleon's [[Cisalpine Republic]] was centered on Milan. Genoa the city became a republic while its hinterland became the [[Ligurian Republic]]. The [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] was formed out of the papal holdings while the pope himself was sent to France. The [[Neapolitan Republic (1799)|Neapolitan Republic]] was formed around Naples, but it lasted only five months before the Coalition recaptured it. In 1805, he formed the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]], with himself as king and his stepson as viceroy. All these new countries were satellites of France, and had to pay large subsidies to Paris, as well as provide military support for Napoleon's wars. Their political and administrative systems were modernized, the metric system introduced, and trade barriers reduced. Jewish ghettos were abolished. Belgium and Piedmont became integral parts of France.<ref>Alexander Grab, ''Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe'' (2003) pp 62–65, 78–79, 88–96, 115–17, 154–59</ref>
[[File:Flag of Repubblica Cispadana1.jpg|thumb|upright|Flag of the [[Cispadane Republic]], which was the first [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797)]]

[[Flags of Napoleonic Italy|During the Napoleonic era]], in 1797, the first official adoption of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the [[Cispadane Republic]], a [[sister republic]] of [[Revolutionary France]], took place.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera |last2=Marchetti Tricamo |first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |date=2002 |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore |isbn=978-8-8045-0946-2 |page=156 |language=it}}</ref><ref>[http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm The tri-coloured standard].Getting to Know Italy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (retrieved 5 October 2008) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223131121/http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm |date=23 February 2008}}</ref> This event is celebrated by the [[Tricolour Day]].<ref name="miolegale">Article 1 of the law n. 671 of 31 December 1996 ("National celebration of the bicentenary of the first national flag")</ref> The [[Italian national colours]] appeared for the first time on [[Cockade of Italy|a tricolour cockade]] in 1789,<ref name="Cita|Ferorelli |p. 662">{{Cite journal |last=Ferorelli |first=Nicola |date=1925 |title=La vera origine del tricolore italiano |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |url-status=dead |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |language=it |volume=XII |issue=fasc. III |pages=662 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181159/http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |archive-date=31 March 2019 |access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military [[war flag]], which was adopted by the [[Lombard Legion]] in 1796.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tarozzi |first1=Fiorenza |title=Gli italiani e il tricolore |last2=Vecchio |first2=Giorgio |date=1999 |publisher=Il Mulino |isbn=8-8150-7163-6 |pages=67–68 |language=it}}</ref>

In 1805, after the French victory over the [[Third Coalition]] and the [[Peace of Pressburg (1805)|Peace of Pressburg]], Napoleon recovered Veneto and [[Dalmatia]], annexing them to the Italian Republic and renaming it the [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]]. Also that year a second satellite state, the [[Ligurian Republic]] (successor to the old [[Republic of Genoa]]), was pressured into merging with France. In 1806, he conquered the [[Kingdom of Naples]] and granted it to his brother and then (from 1808) to [[Joachim Murat]], along with marrying his sisters [[Elisa Bonaparte|Elisa]] and [[Paolina Bonaparte|Paolina]] off to the princes of [[Felice Pasquale Bacciocchi|Massa-Carrara]] and [[Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese|Guastalla]]. In 1808, he annexed Marche and Tuscany to the Kingdom of Italy. In 1809, Bonaparte occupied Rome,<ref>Dalle grandi rivoluzioni alla Restaurazione. La biblioteca di Repubblica, 2004. pp.342</ref> exiling the Pope first to Savona and then to France.

After Russia, the other states of Europe re-allied themselves and defeated Napoleon at the [[Battle of Leipzig]], after which his Italian allied states abandoned him to ally with Austria.<ref>Dalle grandi rivoluzioni alla Restaurazione. La biblioteca di Repubblica, 2004. pp.349</ref> As Napoleon's reign began to fail, other national monarchs he had installed tried to keep their thrones by feeding nationalistic sentiments. Among these was the viceroy of Italy, [[Eugène de Beauharnais]], who tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to the Kingdom of Italy, and [[Joachim Murat]], who called for Italian patriots' help for the unification of Italy under his rule.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1815 |title=Proclamation of Rimini |url=http://www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento/immagine/00402.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080126164906/http://www.regione.piemonte.it/cultura/risorgimento/immagine/00402.htm |archive-date=26 January 2008 |access-date=21 February 2008}}</ref> Napoleon was defeated on 6 April 1814. The resulting [[Congress of Vienna]] (1814) restored a situation close to that of 1795, dividing Italy between Austria (in the north-east and Lombardy), the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], the Kingdom of the [[Two Sicilies]] (in the south and in Sicily), and [[History of Tuscany|Tuscany]], the [[Papal States]] and other minor states in the centre. However, old republics such as [[Venice]] and [[Genoa]] were not recreated, Venice went to Austria, and Genoa went to the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]].

On Napoleon's return to France (the [[Hundred Days]]), he regained Murat's support, but Murat proved unable to convince the Italians to fight for Napoleon with his [[Proclamation of Rimini]] and was beaten and killed. The Italian kingdoms thus fell, and Italy's Restoration period began, with many pre-Napoleonic sovereigns returned to their thrones. Piedmont, Genoa and Nice came to be united, as did Sardinia (which went on to create the State of Savoy), while Lombardy, Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia were re-annexed to Austria. The dukedoms of Parma and Modena re-formed, and the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples returned to the Bourbons. The political and social events in the restoration period of Italy (1815–1835) led to popular uprisings throughout the peninsula and greatly shaped what would become the Italian Wars of Independence. All this led to a new [[Kingdom of Italy]] and [[Italian unification]]. Frederick Artz emphasizes the benefits the Italians gained:
:For nearly two decades the Italians had the excellent codes of law, a fair system of taxation, a better economic situation, and more religious and intellectual toleration than they had known for centuries. ... Everywhere old physical, economic, and intellectual barriers had been thrown down and the Italians had begun to be aware of a common nationality.<ref>Frederick B. Artz, ''Reaction and Revolution: 1814–1832 '' (1934) pp 142–43</ref>

French historian [[Hippolyte Taine]] stated:
<blockquote>Napoleon, far more Italian than French, Italian by race, by instinct, imagination, and souvenir, considers in his plan the future of Italy, and, on casting up the final accounts of his reign, we find that the net loss is for France and the net profit is for Italy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Taine |first=H. A. |date=May 1, 1891 |title=Napoleon's Views of Religion |url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-25102177 |publisher=The North American Review |via=Internet Archive}}</ref></blockquote>

==Unification (1814–1861)==
{{Main|Italian unification}}
[[File:Italian-unification.gif|thumb|left|Animated map of the Italian unification from 1829 to 1871]]

The ''[[Risorgimento]]'' was the political and social process that unified different states of the [[Italian Peninsula]]. It is difficult to pin down exact dates for the beginning and end of Italian reunification, but most scholars agree that it began with the end of [[Napoleon]]ic rule and the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815, and approximately ended with the [[Franco-Prussian War]] in 1871, though the last [[irredentism|"città irredente"]] did not join until the Italian victory in [[World War I]].

In 1820, Spaniards successfully [[Ferdinand VII of Spain#Revolt|revolted]] over disputes about their Constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. A regiment in the army of the [[Two Sicilies|Kingdom of Two Sicilies]], commanded by [[Guglielmo Pepe]], a ''Carbonaro'' (member of the secret republican organization),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Carbonaro – definition of Carbonaro by The Free Dictionary |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Carbonaro |access-date=28 January 2015 |publisher=The free dictionary.com}}</ref> mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies|Ferdinand I]], agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, though, failed to court popular support and fell to Austrian troops of the [[Holy Alliance]]. Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began systematically persecuting revolutionaries, many of whom were forced into exile.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Austria Two Sicilies Revolt 1820–1821 |url=http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/all/austrohun/ftwosicilies1820.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010211055035/http://onwar.com/aced/nation/all/austrohun/ftwosicilies1820.htm |archive-date=11 February 2001 |access-date=30 September 2014 |publisher=Onwar.com}}</ref>
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| footer            = [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] (left), highly influential leader of the Italian revolutionary movement; and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] (right), celebrated as one of the greatest generals of modern times<ref name="scholar and patriot">{{cite web |url={{Google books|iWK7AAAAIAAJ |page=PA133 |keywords=Garibaldi+one+of+the+greatest+generals+of+modern+time |text= |plainurl=yes}}|title=Scholar and Patriot|publisher=Manchester University Press|via=Google Books}}</ref> and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe,<ref name="Garibaldi on Encyclopædia Britannica">{{Cite web|title=Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italian revolutionary)|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226091529/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/225978/Giuseppe-Garibaldi|archive-date=26 February 2014|access-date=6 March 2014}}</ref> who fought in many military campaigns that led to [[Italian unification]]
}}

The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in [[Piedmont]] was [[Santorre di Santarosa]], who wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under the [[House of Savoy]]. The Piedmont revolt started in [[Alessandria]]. The king's regent, prince [[Charles Albert of Sardinia|Charles Albert]], acting while the king [[Charles Felix of Sardinia|Charles Felix]] was away, approved a new [[constitution]] to appease the revolutionaries, but when the king returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from the [[Holy Alliance]]. Di Santarosa's troops were defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled to [[Paris]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Broers |first=Michael |date=1990 |title=Revolution as Vendetta: Patriotism in Piedmont, 1794–1821 |journal=Historical Journal |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=573–597|doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013534 }}</ref>
Artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; perhaps the most famous of proto-nationalist works was [[Alessandro Manzoni]]'s [[The Betrothed (Manzoni novel)|''I Promessi Sposi'' (The Betrothed)]], published in 1827. The 1840 version of ''I Promessi Sposi'' used a standardized version of the [[Languages of Italy|Tuscan dialect]], a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it.

At the time, the struggle for Italian unification was perceived to be waged primarily against the [[Austrian Empire]] and the [[Habsburg]]s, since they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of present-day Italy and were the single most powerful force against unification. The Austrian Empire vigorously repressed nationalist sentiment. Austrian Chancellor Franz Metternich, an influential diplomat at the Congress of Vienna, stated that the word ''Italy'' was nothing more than "a geographic expression."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Astarita |first=Tommaso |title=Between Salt Water And Holy Water: A History of Southern Italy |date=2000 |page=264}}</ref> Those in favour of unification also faced opposition from the [[Holy See]], particularly after failed attempts to broker a confederation with the [[Papal States]], which would have left the Papacy with some measure of autonomy over the region. [[Pius IX]] feared that giving up power in the region could mean the persecution of Italian Catholics.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hales |first=E. E. Y. |title=Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century |date=1954 |publisher=P.J. Kenedy}}</ref>

Even among those who wanted to see the peninsula unified, different groups could not agree on what form a unified state would take. [[Vincenzo Gioberti]] suggested a confederation of Italian states under the rulership of the Pope. His book, ''Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians'', was published in 1843 and created a link between the Papacy and the Risorgimento. Many leading revolutionaries wanted a republic, but eventually, it was a [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|king]] and his [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour|chief minister]] who had the power to unite the Italian states as a monarchy.

[[File:Image-Inno di Mameli 2.jpg|thumb|[[Holograph]]ic copy of 1847 of ''[[Il Canto degli Italiani]]'', the Italian [[national anthem]] since 1946]]
One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the [[Carbonari]] (charcoal burners), a secret organization formed in southern Italy early in the 19th century. Inspired by the principles of the [[French Revolution]], its members were mainly drawn from the middle class and intellectuals. After the Congress of Vienna, the ''Carbonari'' movement spread into the Papal States, the [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861)|Kingdom of Sardinia]], the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]], the [[Duchy of Modena]] and the [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]]. The revolutionaries were so feared that the reigning authorities passed an ordinance condemning to death anyone who attended a Carbonari meeting. The ''Carbonari'' condemned [[Napoleon III]] to death for failing to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858. Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time members of this organization.
In this context, in 1847, the first public performance of the song ''[[Il Canto degli Italiani]]'', the Italian [[national anthem]] since 1946, took place.{{Sfnp|Maiorino|Marchetti Tricamo|Zagami|2002|page=18}}
Two prominent radical figures in the unification movement were [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]. The more conservative constitutional monarchic figures included the [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour|Count of Cavour]] and [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II]], who would later become the first [[Kings of Italy|king of a united Italy]]. Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could – and therefore should – be unified and formulated his program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital. After Mazzini's release in 1831, he went to [[Marseille]], where he organized a new political society called [[Young Italy (historical)|''La Giovine Italia'' (Young Italy)]] seeking the unification of Italy. Garibaldi participated in an uprising in [[Piedmont]] in 1834, was sentenced to death, and escaped to South America. He returned to Italy in 1848. The creation of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of concerted efforts by Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the [[House of Savoy]] to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire [[Italian Peninsula]].

[[File:Battle of Calatafimi.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of Calatafimi]] between Garibaldi's [[Redshirts (Italy)|Redshirts]] and the troops of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, during the [[Expedition of the Thousand]]]]
[[File:Proclamation_of_the_Kingdom_of_Italy.jpg|thumb|right|Painting depicting the [[proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy]] in 1861]]

Sardinia industrialized from 1830 onward. A constitution, the [[Statuto Albertino]] was enacted in the year of revolutions, 1848, under liberal pressure. Under the same pressure, the [[First Italian War of Independence]] was declared on Austria. After initial success, the war took a turn for the worse and the Kingdom of Sardinia lost.

After the [[Revolutions of 1848]], the apparent leader of the Italian unification movement was Garibaldi, popular amongst southern Italians.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=15}} Garibaldi led the Italian republican drive for unification in southern Italy, but the northern Italian monarchy of the [[House of Savoy]] in the [[Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia]] whose government was led by [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]], also had the ambition of establishing a united Italian state. Although the kingdom had no physical connection to Rome (deemed the natural capital of Italy), the kingdom had successfully challenged [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] in the [[Second Italian War of Independence]], liberating [[Lombardy–Venetia]] from Austrian rule. On the basis of the [[Plombières Agreement]], the Kingdom of Sardinia ceded [[Savoy]] and [[Nice]] to France, an event that caused the [[Niçard exodus]], that was the emigration of a quarter of the [[Niçard Italians]] to Italy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 August 2017 |title="Un nizzardo su quattro prese la via dell'esilio" in seguito all'unità d'Italia, dice lo scrittore Casalino Pierluigi |url=https://www.montecarlonews.it/2017/08/28/notizie/argomenti/altre-notizie-1/articolo/un-nizzardo-su-quattro-prese-la-via-dellesilio-in-seguito-allunita-ditalia-dice-lo-scrittore.html |access-date=14 May 2021 |language=it}}</ref> The kingdom also had established important alliances which helped it improve the possibility of Italian unification, such as [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and France in the [[Crimean War]].

Garibaldi was elected in 1871 in Nice at the [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]] where he tried to promote the annexation of his hometown to the Italian unitary state, but he was prevented from speaking.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Times article dated February 13, 1871 |url=http://storage.canalblog.com/76/72/572678/57843167.png |access-date=20 October 2011}}</ref> Because of this denial, between 1871 and 1872 there were riots in Nice, promoted by the Garibaldini and called "[[Niçard Vespers]]",<ref>{{Cite web |title=I Vespri Nizzardi del 1871: conferenza storica e annullo speciale |url=http://www.philweb.it/i_vespri_nizzardi_del_1871_conferenza_storica_e_annullo_speciale-st1940.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909073731/http://www.philweb.it/i_vespri_nizzardi_del_1871_conferenza_storica_e_annullo_speciale-st1940.html |archive-date=9 September 2012 |access-date=20 October 2011}}</ref> which demanded the annexation of the city and its area to Italy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stuart |first=J. Woolf |title=Il risorgimento italiano |date=1981 |publisher=Einaudi |location=Turin |page=44 |lang=it}}</ref> Fifteen Nice people who participated in the rebellion were tried and sentenced.<ref>{{Cite book |last=André |first=Giuseppe |title=Nizza negli ultimi quattro anni |date=1875 |publisher=Editore Gilletta |location=Nice |pages=334–335 |lang=it}}</ref>

===Southern question and Italian diaspora===
{{See also|Southern question|Brigandage in Southern Italy after 1861|Italian diaspora}}
[[File:Carmine Crocco1.jpg|thumb|[[Carmine Crocco]]]]

The transition was not smooth for the south (the "[[Mezzogiorno]]"). The path to unification and modernization created a divide between Northern and Southern Italy called [[Southern question]]. The entire region south of Naples was afflicted with numerous deep economic and social liabilities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moe |first=Nelson |title=The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question |date=2002}}</ref> However, many of the South's political problems and its reputation of being "passive" or lazy (politically speaking) was due to the new government that alienated the South. On the other hand, transportation was difficult, soil fertility was low with extensive erosion, deforestation was severe, many businesses could stay open only because of high protective tariffs, large estates were often poorly managed, most peasants had only very small plots, and there was chronic unemployment and high crime rates.<ref name="Roland Sarti 2004 pp 567">{{Cite book |last=Sarti |first=Roland |title=Italy: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present |date=2004 |pages=567–568}}</ref>

Cavour decided the basic problem was poor government, and believed that could be remedied by strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result was an upsurge in [[brigandage in the Two Sicilies|brigandage]], which turned into a bloody civil war that lasted almost ten years. The insurrection reached its peak mainly in [[Basilicata]] and northern [[Apulia]], headed by the brigands [[Carmine Crocco]] and Michele Caruso.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Massari |first1=Giuseppe |title=Il brigantaggio nelle province napoletane |last2=Castagnola |first2=Stefano |date=1863 |publisher=Fratelli Ferrario |page=17, 20 |lang=it}}</ref> With the end of the southern riots, there was an outflow of millions of peasants in the [[Italian diaspora]], especially to the United States and South America. Others relocated to the northern industrial cities such as Genoa, Milan and Turin, and sent money home.<ref name="Roland Sarti 2004 pp 567" />

The first Italian diaspora began around 1880 and ended in the 1920s to the early 1940s with the rise of [[Kingdom of Italy under Fascism (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]].<ref name="Pozzetta, George E. 1992">{{Cite book |first1=George E. |last1=Pozzetta |title=The Italian Diaspora: Migration across the Globe |last2=Ramirez |first2=Bruno |last3=Harney |first3=Robert F. |date=1992 |publisher=Multicultural History Society of Ontario |location=Toronto}}</ref> Poverty was the main reason for emigration, specifically the lack of land as ''[[mezzadria]]'' [[sharecropping]] flourished in Italy, especially in the South, and property became subdivided over generations. Especially in [[Southern Italy]], conditions were harsh.<ref name="Pozzetta, George E. 1992" /> Until the 1860s to 1950s, most of Italy was a [[rural society]] with many small towns and cities and almost no modern industry in which land management practices, especially in the South and the [[Northeastern Italy|Northeast]], did not easily convince farmers to stay on the land and to work the soil.<ref name="MacDonald">{{Cite journal |last=McDonald |first=J. S. |date=October 1958 |title=Some Socio-Economic Emigration Differentials in Rural Italy, 1902-1913 |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=55–72 |doi=10.1086/449779 |issn=0013-0079 |s2cid=153889304}}</ref>

Another factor was related to the overpopulation of Southern Italy as a result of the improvements in socioeconomic conditions after [[Unification of Italy|Unification]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sori |first=Ercole |title=L'emigrazione italiana dall' Unità alla Seconda Guerra Mondiale |at=chapter 1 |lang=It}}</ref> That created a demographic boom and forced the new generations to emigrate en masse in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, mostly to the [[Americas]].<ref name="Italy's Many Diasporas">{{Cite book |last=Gabaccia |first=Donna |title=Italy's Many Diasporas |date=200 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |pages=58–80}}</ref> The new migration of capital created millions of unskilled jobs around the world and was responsible for the simultaneous mass migration of Italians searching for "work and bread" ({{Langx|it|pane e lavoro}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pozzetta |first=George E. |title=Pane e Lavoro: The Italian American Working Class |date=1980 |publisher=Multicultural History Society of Ontorio |location=Toronto}}</ref>

Unification broke down the feudal land system, which had survived in the south since the Middle Ages, especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats, religious bodies or the king. The breakdown of [[feudalism]], however, and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the south winding up owning arable land. Many remained landless, and plots grew smaller and smaller and so less and less productive, as land was subdivided amongst heirs.<ref name="MacDonald" /> Between 1860 and World War I, at least 9 million Italians left permanently of a total of 16 million who emigrated, most travelling to North or South America.<ref name="Hatton">{{Cite journal |last1=Hatton |first1=Timothy J. |last2=Williamson |first2=Jeffrey G. |date=September 1994 |title=What Drove the Mass Migrations from Europe in the Late Nineteenth Century? |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/h0043.pdf |journal=Population and Development Review |publisher=Population Council |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=533–559 |doi=10.2307/2137600 |issn=0098-7921 |jstor=2137600}}</ref><ref name="Italy's Many Diasporas" />

==Liberal period (1861–1922)==
{{Main|Kingdom of Italy}}
{{Multiple image
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| image2   = Tuminello, Lodovico (1824-1907) - Cavour cropped.jpg
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| footer   = [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II]] (left) and [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]] (right), leading figures in the Italian unification, became respectively the [[King of Italy|1st king]] and [[Prime Minister of Italy|1st Prime Minister]] of unified Italy.
}}

[[Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy|Italy became a nation-state]] on 17 March 1861, when most of the states of the peninsula were united under king [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy|Victor Emmanuel II]]. The architects of Italian unification were [[Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour]], and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]]. In 1866, Prussian Prime Minister [[Otto von Bismarck]] offered Victor Emmanuel II an alliance with the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] in the [[Austro-Prussian War]]. In exchange Prussia would allow Italy to annex Austrian-controlled [[Venice]]. King Emmanuel agreed to the alliance and the [[Third Italian War of Independence]] began. The victory against Austria allowed Italy to annex Venice. In 1870, France started the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and brought home its soldiers in Rome; Italy marched in to take over the Papal State. Italian unification was completed, and the capital was moved from Florence to Rome.{{Efn|The [[Vatican City]] by the [[Lateran Treaty]] of 1929 became an independent country, an enclave surrounded by Italy.}}

Some of the states that had been targeted for unification (''[[Italian irredentism|terre irredente]]''), [[Trentino-Alto Adige]] and [[Julian March]], did not join the Kingdom of Italy until 1918 after Italy defeated [[Austria-Hungary]] in the [[First World War]]. For this reason, historians sometimes describe the unification period as reaching completion only with the [[Armistice of Villa Giusti]] on 4 November 1918.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Arnaldi |first=Girolamo |title=Italy and Its Invaders |date=2005 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-6740-1870-2 |page=194}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Museo Centrale del Risorgimento di Roma |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/index.php?section=museo |access-date=6 July 2018 |website=Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento italiano |language=it}}</ref>

Parliamentary democracy developed considerably in the 19th century. The Sardinian [[Statuto Albertino]] of 1848, extended to the whole [[Kingdom of Italy]] in 1861, provided for basic freedoms, but the electoral laws excluded the non-propertied and uneducated classes from voting. Italy's political arena was sharply divided between broad camps of left and right which created frequent deadlock and attempts to preserve governments. [[Marco Minghetti]] lost power in 1876 and was replaced by the [[Liberalism and radicalism in Italy|Democrat]] [[Agostino Depretis]], who began a period of political dominance in the 1880s, but continued attempts to appease the opposition to hold power.

Depretis began his term by initiating an experimental political idea called ''[[Trasformismo]]'' (transformism). The theory of ''Trasformismo'' was that a cabinet should select a variety of moderates and capable politicians from a non-partisan perspective. In practice, ''trasformismo'' was authoritarian and corrupt: Depretis pressured districts to vote for his candidates if they wished to gain favourable concessions from Depretis when in power, resulting in only four representatives from the right being elected in 1876. Depretis put through authoritarian measures, such as banning public meetings, placing "dangerous" individuals in internal exile on remote penal islands, and adopting militarist policies. Depretis enacted controversial legislation for the time, such as abolishing arrest for debt, making elementary education free and compulsory while ending compulsory religious teaching in elementary schools.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|pages=95–107}} The first government of Depretis collapsed after his dismissal of his Interior Minister, and ended with his resignation in 1877. The second government of Depretis started in 1881. Depretis' goals included widening suffrage in 1882 and increasing the tax intake from Italians by expanding the minimum requirements of who could pay taxes and the creation of a new electoral system.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=123}} In 1887, Depretis was finally pushed out of office after years of political decline.

[[Francesco Crispi]] was prime minister from 1887 until 1891 and again from 1893 until 1896. Historian R.J.B. Bosworth says of his foreign policy that Crispi "pursued policies whose openly aggressive character would not be equaled until the days of the Fascist regime... His policies were ruinous, both for Italy's trade with France, and, more humiliatingly, for colonial ambitions in East Africa."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=R. J. B. |title=Italy and the Wider World: 1860–1960 |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-1347-8088-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VL1vjYQRR-0C&pg=PA29 29]}}</ref> Crispi's major concerns during 1887–91 was protecting Italy from Austria-Hungary. Crispi worked to build Italy as a great world power through increased military expenditures, advocation of expansionism, and trying to win Germany's favor even by joining the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]]. While helping Italy develop strategically, he continued ''trasformismo'' and was authoritarian, once suggesting the use of martial law to ban opposition parties. Despite being authoritarian, Crispi put through liberal policies such as the Public Health Act of 1888 and establishing tribunals for redress against abuses by the government.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith |1997|pages=128–32}}

The overwhelming attention paid to foreign policy alienated the agricultural community which needed help. Both radical and conservative forces in the Italian parliament demanded that the government investigate how to improve agriculture.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|pages=136–38}} The investigation showed that agriculture was not improving, that landowners were swallowing up revenue from their lands and contributing almost nothing to development of the land. There was aggravation by lower class Italians to the break-up of communal lands which benefited only landlords. Most of the workers on the agricultural lands were not peasants but short-term labourers who at best were employed for one year. Peasants without stable income were forced to live off meager food supplies, disease was spreading rapidly, plagues were reported, including a major [[cholera]] epidemic which killed at least 55,000 people.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=137}} The Italian government could not deal with the situation effectively due to the mass overspending that left Italy in huge debt. Italy also suffered economically because of overproduction of grapes in the 1870s and 1880s when France's vineyard industry was suffering from vine disease. Italy during that time prospered as the largest exporter of wine in Europe but following the recovery of France in 1888, southern Italy was overproducing and had to split in two which caused greater unemployment and bankruptcies.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=139}}
[[File:Piazza Venezia - Il Vittoriano (cropped).jpg|thumb|The [[Victor Emmanuel II Monument]] in Rome, a [[National symbols of Italy|national symbol of Italy]] celebrating the first king of the unified country, and resting place of the [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Italy)|Italian Unknown Soldier]] since the end of World War I. It was inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the 50th [[Anniversary of the Unification of Italy]].]]

From 1901 to 1914, Italian history and politics was dominated by [[Giovanni Giolitti]]. He first confronted the wave of widespread discontent that Crispi's policy had provoked: no more authoritarian repression, but acceptance of protests and therefore of strikes, as long as they are neither violent nor political, with the (successful) aim of bringing the socialists in the political life of the country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Giolitti, Giovanni |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giovanni-giolitti_%28Enciclopedia-dei-ragazzi%29 |access-date=23 November 2021 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=J. |title=The hunchback's tailor: Giovanni Giolitti and liberal Italy from the challenge of mass politics to the rise of fascism, 1882-1922 |date=2001 |publisher=Greenwood}}</ref> Giolitti's most important interventions were social and labor legislation, universal male suffrage, the nationalization of the railways and insurance companies, the reduction of state debt, and the development of infrastructure and industry. In foreign policy, there was a movement away from Germany and Austria-Hungary and toward the [[Triple Entente]] of France, Britain and Russia.

Starting from the late 19th century, Italy developed its own colonial Empire. It took control of [[Italian Somaliland|Somalia]]. Its attempt to occupy Ethiopia failed in the [[First Italo–Ethiopian War]] of 1895–1896. In 1911, Giolitti's government sent forces to occupy Libya and declared war on the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Italy soon annexed Libya (then divided in [[Italian Tripolitania|Tripolitania]] and [[Italian Cyrenaica|Cyrenaica]]) and the [[Italian Islands of the Aegean|Dodecanese Islands]] after the [[Italo-Turkish War]]. Nationalists advocated Italy's domination of the Mediterranean Sea by occupying Greece as well as the Adriatic coastal region of [[Dalmatia]] but no attempts were made.{{Sfnp|Bosworth|2005|page=49}} In June 1914 the left became repulsed by the government after the killing of three anti-militarist demonstrators. The [[Italian Socialist Party]] declared a general strike in Italy. The protests that ensued became known as "[[Red Week (Italy)|Red Week]]", as leftists rioted and various acts of civil disobedience occurred such as seizing railway stations, cutting telephone wires and burning tax-registers.

===World War I and crisis of the Liberal state===
{{See also|Italian entry into World War I|Italian Front (World War I)|Military history of Italy during World War I|Italian Campaign (World War I)}}
[[File:Italian empire 1914.png|thumb|left|Italy and its [[Italian Empire|colonial possessions]] in 1914]]

Italy entered into the [[First World War]] on 24 May 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, it is also considered the [[Fourth Italian War of Independence]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 March 2015 |title=Il 1861 e le quattro Guerre per l'Indipendenza (1848-1918) |url=http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075828/http://www.piacenzaprimogenita150.it/index.php?it%2F176%2Fil-1861-e-le-quattro-guerre-per-lindipendenza-1848-1918 |archive-date=19 March 2022 |access-date=12 March 2021 |language=it}}</ref> in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the [[unification of Italy]].<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web |title=La Grande Guerra nei manifesti italiani dell'epoca |url=http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183754/http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1239896580.html |archive-date=23 September 2015 |access-date=12 March 2021 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Genovesi |first=Piergiovanni |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_LntMIUOXngC&q=%22quarta+guerra+d%27indipendenza%22&pg=PA41 |title=Il Manuale di Storia in Italia, di Piergiovanni Genovesi |date=11 June 2009 |publisher=FrancoAngeli |isbn=978-8-8568-1868-0 |language=it |access-date=12 March 2021}}</ref>

The war forced the decision whether to honour the alliance with Germany and Austria. For six months, Italy remained neutral, as the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]] was only for defensive purposes. Italy took the initiative in entering the war in spring 1915, despite strong popular and elite sentiment in favour of neutrality. Italy was, since its unification, the [[least of the great powers]]: a relatively large, but only partialy industrialized country, whose political system was chaotic; its finances were heavily strained, and its army had not been prepared for a long conflict.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Renzi |first=William A. |title=In the Shadow of the Sword: Italy's Neutrality and Entrance into the Great War, 1914–1915 |date=1987}}</ref> The Triple Alliance meant little either to Italians or Austrians. Prime Minister [[Antonio Salandra]] and Foreign Minister [[Sidney Sonnino]] negotiated with both sides in secret for the best deal, and got one from the Entente, which was quite willing to promise large slices of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the [[History of Tyrol|Tyrol]] and [[Trieste]], as well as making [[Albania]] a protectorate. Russia vetoed giving Italy [[Dalmatia]]. Britain was willing to pay subsidies and loans to get 36 million Italians as new allies who threatened the southern flank of Austria.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lowe |first=C. J. |date=1969 |title=Britain and Italian Intervention 1914–1915 |journal=Historical Journal |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=533–548 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00007275 |s2cid=162738142}}</ref>
[[File:Promised Borders of the Tready of London.png|thumb|Territories promised to Italy by the 
[[Treaty of London (1915)]], i.e. [[Trentino-Alto Adige]], the [[Julian March]] and [[Dalmatia]] (tan), and the [[Snežnik (plateau)|Snežnik Plateau]] area (green). Dalmatia, after the WWI, however, was not assigned to Italy but to [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]]]

When the [[Treaty of London (1915)|Treaty of London]] was announced in May 1915, there was an uproar from antiwar elements. Reports from around Italy showed the people feared war, and cared little about territorial gains. Pro-war supporters mobbed the streets. The fervor for war represented a bitterly hostile reaction against politics as usual, and the failures, frustrations, and stupidities of the ruling class.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Martin |title=Modern Italy: 1871–1995 |date=1996 |publisher=Longman |edition=2nd |pages=180–185}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mack Smith |first=Denis |title=Italy: A Modern History |date=1969 |pages=292–305}}</ref> [[Benito Mussolini]] created the newspaper ''[[Il Popolo d'Italia]]'', which at first attempted to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gregor |first=Anthony James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTZ_holEfS0C&pg=PA200 |title=Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism |date=1979 |publisher=U. of California Press |isbn=978-0-5200-3799-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DTZ_holEfS0C&pg=PA200 200]}}</ref> The [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]], eager to draw Italy to the war, helped finance the newspaper.{{Sfnp|Clark|1996|p=183}} Later, after the war, this publication would become the official newspaper of the Fascist movement.
[[File:Liberazione di Trieste.jpg|thumb|Italian troops landing in [[Trieste]], 3 November 1918]]
[[File:Trento 3 novembre 1918.jpg|thumb|Italian cavalry in [[Trento]] on 3 November 1918, after the victorious [[Battle of Vittorio Veneto]]]]
[[File:Sacrario militare di Redipuglia agosto 2014.JPG|thumb|The [[Redipuglia War Memorial]] of [[Fogliano Redipuglia|Redipuglia]], with the tomb of [[Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta (1869–1931)|Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta]] in the foreground]]

Italy entered the war with an army of 875,000 men, but the Austrians had terrain advantage and superior artillery and machine guns. Italy's war supplies had also been depleted in [[Italo-Turkish War|the war of 1911–12]] against Turkey. Italy fought a long trench warfare, with fighting raging for three years on front along the [[Alps]] and the [[Battles of the Isonzo|Isonzo River]], and later on the [[Piave river]]. In 1916, Italy declared war on Germany. Some 650,000 Italian soldiers died and 950,000 were wounded, while the economy required large-scale Allied funding to survive.{{Sfnp|Clark|1996|pp=185–194}}{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1969|pp=307–313}}

Before the war the government had ignored labor issues, but now it had to intervene to mobilize war production. With the main working-class Socialist party reluctant to support the war effort, strikes were frequent and cooperation was minimal, especially in the Socialist strongholds of Piedmont and Lombardy. The government imposed high wage scales, as well as collective bargaining and insurance schemes.<ref>Luigi Tomassini, "Industrial Mobilization and the labour market in Italy during the First World War," ''Social History'', (1991), 16#1 pp 59–87</ref> Many large firms expanded dramatically. Inflation doubled the cost of living. Industrial wages kept pace but not wages for farm workers. Discontent was high in rural areas since so many men were taken for service, industrial jobs were unavailable, wages grew slowly and inflation was just as bad.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer C. |title=European Powers in the First World War |pages=375–376}}</ref>

The Italian victory,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burgwyn |first=H. James |title=Italian foreign policy in the interwar period, 1918–1940 |date=1997 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-2759-4877-3 |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Schindler |first=John R. |title=Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War |date=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-2759-7204-6 |page=303}}</ref>{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1982|p=31}} which was announced by the ''[[Bollettino della Vittoria]]'' and the ''[[Bollettino della Vittoria Navale]]'', marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] and was chiefly instrumental in [[Armistice with Germany|ending]] the First World War less than two weeks later. More than 651,000 Italian soldiers died on the battlefields.<ref name="Mortara">{{Cite book |last=Mortara |first=Giorgio |title=La Salute pubblica in Italia durante e dopo la Guerra |date=1925 |publisher=G. Laterza & figli |pages=28–29, 165 |lang=it}}</ref> The Italian civilian deaths were estimated at 589,000 due to malnutrition and food shortages.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hersch |first=Liebmann |author-link=Liebmann Hersch |title=La mortalité causée par la guerre mondiale |date=1927 |publisher=The International Review of Statistics |pages=52–59 |language=fr}}</ref> In November 1918, after the surrender of Austria-Hungary, Italy occupied militarily [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino Alto-Adige]], the [[Julian March]], [[Istria]], the [[Kvarner Gulf]] and [[Dalmatia]], all Austro-Hungarian territories. On the Dalmatian coast, Italy established the [[Governorate of Dalmatia#The first Governorate of Dalmatia|Governorate of Dalmatia]], which had the provisional aim of ferrying the territory towards full integration into the Kingdom of Italy, progressively importing national legislation in place of the previous one. The administrative capital was [[Zadar|Zara]]. The Governorate of Dalmatia was evacuated following the Italo-Yugoslav agreements which resulted in the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)]], although Zara was annexed.

As the war came to an end, [[Italian Prime Minister]] [[Vittorio Emanuele Orlando]] met with [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|British Prime Minister]] [[David Lloyd George]], [[Prime Minister of France]] [[Georges Clemenceau]] and [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]] in [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]] to discuss how the borders of Europe should be redefined to help avoid a future European war. The talks provided considerable territorial gains to Italy, but not all those promised in the Treaty of London, as Wilson championed freedom to all European nationalities to form their nation-states. As a result, the [[Treaty of Versailles]] did not assign [[Dalmatia]] (inhabited by a Slavic majority) to Italy as had been promised. Furthermore, the British and French decided to divide the German and Ottoman overseas possessions into their mandates, with Italy receiving only some colonial compensations. Despite this, Orlando agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which caused the uproar of nationalists against his government. The [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)]] and the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)]] allowed the annexation of [[Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol|Trentino Alto-Adige]], [[Julian March]], [[Istria]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]] as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n city of [[Zadar|Zara]].
[[Image:Fiume cheering D'Annunzio.jpg|thumb|Residents of [[Fiume]], now Rijeka, Croatia, cheering the arrival of [[Impresa di Fiume|Gabriele D'Annunzio and his ''Legionari'']] in September 1919, when Fiume had 22,488 (62% of the population) Italians in a total population of 35,839 inhabitants.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Fiume-question|title=Fiume question|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>]]

Furious over the peace settlement, the Italian nationalist poet [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]] led disaffected war veterans and nationalists to form the [[Free State of Fiume]] in September 1919. His popularity among nationalists led him to be called ''[[Il Duce]]'' ("The Leader"), and he used black-shirted paramilitary in his assault on Fiume. The leadership title of ''Duce'' and the blackshirt paramilitary uniform would later be adopted by the [[Italian fascism|fascist]] movement of [[Benito Mussolini]]. The demand for the Italian annexation of Fiume spread to all sides of the political spectrum.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|p=293}}

The subsequent [[Treaty of Rome (1924)]] led to the annexation of the city of [[Fiume]] to Italy. Italy's lack of territorial gain led to the outcome being denounced as a ''[[mutilated victory]]''. The rhetoric of ''mutilated victory'' was adopted by Mussolini and led to the [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|rise of]] [[Italian fascism]], becoming a key point in the [[propaganda of Fascist Italy]]. Historians regard ''mutilated victory'' as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel [[Italian imperialism]] and obscure the successes of [[liberal Italy]] in the aftermath of World War I.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sabbatucci |first=G. |title=Miti e storia dell'Italia unita |date=1999 |publisher=Il Mulino |editor-last=AA.VV. |location=Bologna |pages=101–106 |chapter=La vittoria mutilata |lang=it}}</ref> Italy also gained a permanent seat in the [[League of Nations]]'s executive council.

==Fascist regime and World War II (1922–1945)==
{{Main|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)}}

===Rise of Fascism into power===
{{Main|Italian Fascism}}
[[File:Mussolini mezzobusto.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Benito Mussolini]], who titled himself [[Duce]] and [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|ruled the country from 1922 to 1943]]]]

[[Benito Mussolini]] created the ''[[Fasci di Combattimento]]'' or Combat League in 1919. It was originally dominated by patriotic socialist and [[syndicalist]] veterans who opposed the pacifist policies of the Italian Socialist Party. This early Fascist movement had a platform more inclined to the left, promising social revolution, proportional representation in elections, women's suffrage (partly realized in 1925) and dividing rural private property held by estates.<ref>Passmore ''Women, Gender and Fascism'', pp.&nbsp;11–16.</ref>{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|pp=284–286}} They also differed from later Fascism by opposing [[censorship]], [[militarism]] and [[dictatorship]].{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|p=284}}

At the same time, the so-called ''[[Biennio Rosso]]'' (red biennium) took place in the two years following the war in a context of economic crisis, high unemployment and political instability. The 1919–20 period was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factory occupations. In [[Turin]] and [[Milan]], [[workers councils]] were formed and many [[factory occupations]] took place under the leadership of [[anarcho-syndicalist]]s. The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the [[Padan plain]] and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests and guerilla conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias. Thenceforth, the Fasci di Combattimento (forerunner of the [[National Fascist Party]], 1921) successfully exploited the claims of Italian nationalists and the quest for order and normalization of the middle class. In October 1922, Mussolini took advantage of a general strike to announce his demands to the Italian government to give the Fascist Party political power or face a coup. With no immediate response, a group of 30,000 Fascists began a long trek across Italy to Rome (the [[March on Rome]]), claiming that Fascists were intending to restore law and order. The Fascists demanded Prime Minister [[Luigi Facta]]'s resignation and that Mussolini be named to the post. Although the Italian Army was far better armed than the Fascist militias, the liberal system and King [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy|Victor Emmanuel III]] were facing a deeper political crisis. The King was forced to choose which of the two rival movements in Italy would form the government: Mussolini's Fascists, or the marxist [[Italian Socialist Party]]. He selected the Fascists.

Mussolini formed a coalition with nationalists and liberals, and in 1923 passed the electoral [[Acerbo Law]], which assigned two thirds of the seats to the party that achieved at least 25% of the vote. The Fascist Party used violence and intimidation to achieve the threshold in the [[Italian general election, 1924|1924 election]], thus obtaining control of Parliament. Socialist deputy [[Giacomo Matteotti]] was assassinated after calling for a nullification of the vote. The parliament opposition responded to Matteotti's assassination with the [[Aventine Secession (20th century)|Aventine Secession]].

Over the next four years, Mussolini eliminated nearly all checks and balances on his power. On 24 December 1925, he passed a law that declared he was responsible to the king alone, making him the sole person able to determine Parliament's agenda. Local governments were dissolved, and appointed officials (called "Podestà") replaced elected mayors and councils. In 1928, all political parties were banned, and parliamentary elections were replaced by plebiscites in which the Grand Council of Fascism nominated a single list of 400 candidates. [[Christopher Duggan]] argues that his regime exploited Mussolini's popular appeal and forged a cult of personality that served as the model that was emulated by dictators of other fascist regimes of the 1930s.<ref>Christopher Duggan, ''Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini's Italy'' (2012) [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fascist-Voices-Intimate-History-Mussolinis/dp/1847921035/ excerpt]</ref>

In summary, historian [[Stanley G. Payne]] says that Fascism in Italy was:
:A primarily political dictatorship. The Fascist Party itself had become almost completely bureaucratized and subservient to, not dominant over, the state itself. Big business, industry, and finance retained extensive autonomy, particularly in the early years. The armed forces also enjoyed considerable autonomy. ... The Fascist militia was placed under military control. The judicial system was left largely intact and relatively autonomous as well. The police continued to be directed by state officials and were not taken over by party leaders, nor was a major new police elite created. There was never any question of bringing the Church under overall subservience. Sizable sectors of Italian cultural life retained extensive autonomy, and no major state propaganda-and-culture ministry existed. The Mussolini regime was neither especially sanguinary nor particularly repressive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_MeR06xqXAC&pg=PA122 |title=A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |date=1996 |publisher=U of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-2991-4873-7 |page=122}}</ref>

===End of the Roman question===
[[File:Group of Vatican and Italian government notables posing at the Lateran Palace before the signing of the treaty.jpg|thumb|Vatican and Italian delegations prior to signing the [[Lateran Treaty]]]]

During the [[Italian unification|unification of Italy]] in the mid-19th century, the [[Papal States]] resisted incorporation into the new nation. The nascent Kingdom of Italy invaded and occupied [[Romagna]] (the eastern portion of the Papal States) in 1860, leaving only [[Lazio|Latium]] in the pope's domains. Latium, including Rome itself, was [[Capture of Rome|occupied]] and annexed in 1870. For the following sixty years, relations between the Papacy and the Italian government were hostile, and the status of the pope became known as the "[[Roman Question]]".

The [[Lateran Treaty]] was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between the Kingdom of Italy under King [[Victor Emmanuel III of Italy]] and the [[Holy See]] under [[Pope Pius XI]] to settle the question. The treaty and associated pacts were signed on 11 February 1929.<ref name="SignDate">{{Cite web |date=11 February 2020 |title=Vatican City turns 91 |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-02/vatican-city-lateran-treaty-holy-see-pope.html |access-date=2 September 2021 |website=Vatican News |quote=The world’s smallest sovereign state was born on 11 February 1929, with the signing of the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy}}</ref> The treaty recognized [[Vatican City]] as an [[independent state]] under the sovereignty of the Holy See. The Italian government also agreed to give the Roman [[Catholic Church]] financial compensation for the loss of the [[Papal States]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/sourcesofwestern0000unse |title=A History of Western Society |date=2010 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |edition=Tenth |page=900 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1948, the Lateran Treaty was recognized in the [[Constitution of Italy]] as regulating the relations between the state and the Catholic Church.<ref name="constitution7">[[s:Constitution of Italy|Constitution of Italy, article 7]].</ref> The treaty was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion.

===Foreign politics===
{{Further|Italian Empire|Italian irredentism}}
Lee identifies three major themes in Mussolini's foreign policy. The first was a continuation of the foreign-policy objectives of the preceding Liberal regime. Liberal Italy had allied itself with Germany and Austria, and had great ambitions in the Balkans and North Africa. Ever since it had been badly defeated in Ethiopia in 1896, there was a strong demand for seizing that country. Second was a profound disillusionment after the heavy losses of the First World War; the small territorial gains from Austria were not enough to compensate. Third was Mussolini's promise to restore the pride and glory of the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Stephen J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-mm5UDlzBEC&pg=PA157 |title=European Dictatorships, 1918–1945 |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-4154-5484-1 |pages=157–58}}</ref>

Italian Fascism is based upon [[Italian nationalism]] and in particular, seeks to complete what it considers as the incomplete project of ''[[Risorgimento]]'' by incorporating ''[[Italian irredentism|Italia Irredenta]]'' (unredeemed Italy) into the state of Italy.<ref name="autogenerated1922">{{Cite book |first=Aristotle A. |last=Kallis |title=Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945 |location=London, New York City |publisher=Routledge |date=2000 |p=41}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated3">{{Cite book |first=Terence |last=Ball |first2=Richard |last2=Bellamy |title=The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought |p=133}}</ref> To the east of Italy, the Fascists claimed that [[Italian irredentism in Dalmatia|Dalmatia]] was a land of Italian culture.<ref>Jozo Tomasevich. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California, US: Stanford University Press, 2001. P. 131.</ref> To the south, the Fascists claimed [[Italian irredentism in Malta|Malta]], which belonged to the United Kingdom, and [[Corfiot Italians#Corfiot Italians and the Risorgimento|Corfu]], which belonged to Greece, to the north claimed [[Italian irredentism in Switzerland|Italian Switzerland]], while to the west claimed [[Italian irredentism in Corsica|Corsica]], [[Italian irredentism in Nice|Nice]] and [[Italian irredentism in Savoy|Savoy]], which belonged to France.<ref>Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist Ideology: Expansionism in Italy and Germany 1922–1945''. London, England; UK; New York, New York, US: Routledge, 2000. P. 118.</ref><ref>''Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War''. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986, 1999. P. 38.</ref>
[[File:Italy aims Europe 1936.png|thumb|Ambitions of fascist Italy in Europe in 1936.<br/>Legend:{{Legend|#073A09|Metropolitan Italy and dependent territories:}}{{Legend|#0F7612|[[Client state]]s;}}{{Legend|#083A39|Claimed territories to be annexed;}}{{Legend|#107776|Territories to be transformed into client states.}} [[Albania]], which was a client state, was considered a territory to be annexed.]]

Mussolini promised to bring Italy back as a [[great power]] in Europe, building a "New Roman Empire" and holding power over the [[Mediterranean Sea]]. In [[Propaganda in Fascist Italy|propaganda]], Fascists used the ancient Roman motto "''[[Mare Nostrum]]''" ([[Latin]] for "Our Sea") to describe the Mediterranean. For this reason the Fascist regime engaged in [[interventionism (politics)|interventionist foreign policy]] in Europe. In 1923, the Greek island of [[Corfiot Italians#Corfiot Italians and the Risorgimento|Corfu]] was briefly occupied by Italy, after the assassination of [[Enrico Tellini|General Tellini]] in Greek territory. In 1925, [[Albanian Republic (1925–1928)|Albania]] came under heavy Italian influence as a result of the [[First and Second Treaties of Tirana|Tirana Treaties]], which also gave Italy a stronger position in the Balkans.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-first=Marija |editor-last=Wakounig |editor-first2=Karlo |editor-last2=Ruzicic-Kessler |title=From the Industrial Revolution to World War II in East Central Europe |date=2011 |publisher=[[LIT Verlag]] |isbn=978-3-6439-0129-3 |pages=193}}</ref> Relations with France were mixed. The Fascist regime planned to regain Italian-populated areas of France.<ref name="Smith_3">Smith. 1983. p172</ref> With the rise of Nazism, it became more concerned about the potential threat of Germany to Italy. Due to concerns about German expansionism, Italy joined the [[Stresa Front]] with France and the United Kingdom, which existed from 1935 to 1936. The Fascist regime held negative relations with Yugoslavia, as it continued to claim Dalmatia.

During the [[Spanish Civil War]] between the socialist [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]] and [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|Nationalists]] led by [[Francisco Franco]], Italy sent arms and over 60,000 troops to aid the Nationalist faction. This secured Italy's naval access to Spanish ports and increased Italian influence in the Mediterranean. During the 1930s, Italy strongly pursued a policy of naval rearmament; by 1940, the {{Lang|it|[[Regia Marina]]}} was the fourth-largest navy in the world.

Mussolini and [[Adolf Hitler]] first met in June 1934, when Mussolini opposed German plans to annex Austria to ensure that Nazi Germany would not become hegemonic in Europe. Public appearances and propaganda constantly portrayed the closeness of Mussolini and Hitler and the similarities between Italian Fascism and German [[Nazism|National Socialism]]. While both ideologies had significant similarities, the two factions were suspicious of each other, and both leaders were in competition for world influence.

[[File:Hitler and Mussolini June 1940.jpg|thumb|Mussolini and Hitler in June 1940]]
In 1935 Mussolini decided to invade [[Ethiopian Empire|Ethiopia]]; 2,313 Italians and 275,000 Ethiopians died.<ref>Clodfelter 2017: 355</ref> The [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]] resulted in the international isolation of Italy; the only nation to back Italy's aggression was Germany. After being condemned by the [[League of Nations]], Italy decided to leave the League on 11 December 1937.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |chapter=Introduction |date=1939 |title=The Illustrated London News: Marching to War, 1933–1939 |location=Toronto, Canada |publisher=Doubleday Canada |pp=137}}</ref> Mussolini had little choice but to join Hitler in international politics, thus he reluctantly abandoned support of Austrian independence. Mussolini later supported German claims on [[Sudetenland]] at the [[Munich Conference]]. In 1938, under the influence of Hitler, Mussolini supported the adoption of anti-semitic [[Manifesto of Race|racial laws]] in Italy. After Germany annexed [[Czechoslovakia]] in March 1939, [[Italian invasion of Albania|Italy invaded Albania]] and made it an [[Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)|Italian protectorate]].

As war approached in 1939, the Fascist regime stepped up an aggressive press campaign against France claiming that its Italian residents were suffering.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=397}} This was important to the alliance as both regimes mutually had claims on France: Germany on German-populated [[Alsace-Lorraine]] and Italy on the mixed Italian and French populated [[Nice]] and [[Corsica]]. In May 1939, a formal alliance with Germany was signed, known as the [[Pact of Steel]]. Mussolini felt obliged to sign the pact in spite of his own concerns that Italy could not fight a war in the near future. This obligation grew from his promises to Italians that he would build an empire for them and from his personal desire to not allow Hitler to become the dominant leader in Europe.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=401}} Mussolini was repulsed by the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] agreement where Germany and the [[Soviet Union]] agreed to partition the [[Second Polish Republic]] into German and Soviet zones for an impending invasion. The Fascist government saw this as a betrayal of the [[Anti-Comintern Pact]], but decided to remain officially silent.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=401}}

===World War II and fall of Fascism===
{{Main|Military history of Italy during World War II|Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy}}
[[File:Italian Colonial Empire (orthographic projection).svg|thumb|left|upright|Areas controlled by the [[Italian Empire]] during its existence{{Legend|#4a9447|Kingdom of Italy}}{{Legend|#CBFE75|Colonies of Italy}}
{{Legend|#666666|Protectorates and areas occupied during World War II}}]]

When Germany [[Invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] on 1 September 1939 beginning [[World War II]], Mussolini chose to stay [[non-belligerent]], although he declared his support for Hitler. In drawing out war plans, Mussolini and the Fascist regime decided that Italy would aim to annex large portions of Africa and the Middle East. Hesitance remained from the King and military commander [[Pietro Badoglio]] who warned Mussolini that Italy had too few [[tank]]s, [[armored car (military)|armoured vehicles]], and aircraft available to be able to carry out a long-term war.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=405}} Mussolini and the Fascist regime thus waited as France was invaded by Germany in June 1940 ([[Battle of France]]) before deciding to get involved.

Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940, fulfilling its obligations towards the Pact of Steel. Mussolini hoped to quickly capture [[Savoy]], Nice, Corsica, and the African colonies of Tunisia and Algeria from the French, but Germany signed an armistice (22 June: [[Second Armistice at Compiègne]]) with Marshal [[Philippe Pétain]] establishing [[Vichy France]], that retained control over southern France and colonies. This decision angered the Fascist regime.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=406}} In summer 1940, Mussolini ordered the [[Italian bombing of Mandatory Palestine in World War II|bombing of Mandatory Palestine]] and the [[Italian conquest of British Somaliland|conquest of British Somaliland]]. In September, he ordered the [[Italian invasion of Egypt|invasion of Egypt]]; despite initial success, Italian forces were soon driven back by the British (see [[Operation Compass]]). Hitler had to intervene with the sending of the [[Afrika Korps]] that was the mainstay in the [[North African campaign]].
[[File:El Alamein Italian prisoners 1942.jpg|thumb|right|Italian prisoners in El Alamein, November 1942]]
On 28 October, Mussolini launched [[Greco-Italian War|an attack]] on Greece. The [[Royal Air Force]] prevented the Italian invasion and allowed the Greeks to push the Italians back to Albania. Hitler came to Mussolini's aid by attacking the Greeks through the Balkans. The [[Balkans Campaign (World War II)|Balkans Campaign]] had as a result the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Greece's defeat. Italy gained [[Province of Ljubljana|southern Slovenia]], [[Governorate of Dalmatia|Dalmatia]], [[Italian governorate of Montenegro|Montenegro]] and established the puppet states of [[Independent State of Croatia|Croatia]] and [[Hellenic State]]. By 1942, it was faltering as its economy failed to adapt to the conditions of war and Italian cities were being heavily bombed by the Allies. Also, despite Rommel's advances, the campaign in North Africa began to fail in late 1942. The complete collapse came after the decisive defeat at [[Second Battle of El Alamein|El Alamein]].

By 1943, Italy was losing on every front. Half of the Italian forces [[Eastern Front (World War II)|fighting in the Soviet Union]] had been destroyed,{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|page=412}} the African campaign had failed, the Balkans remained unstable, and Italians wanted an end to the war.{{Sfnp|Mack Smith|1997|pages=412–413}} 

In July 1943, the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] [[Allied invasion of Sicily|invaded Sicily]] in an effort to knock Italy out of the war and establish a foothold in Europe. On 25 July, [[25 Luglio|Mussolini was ousted]] by the [[Gran Consiglio del Fascismo|Great Council of Fascism]] and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III, who appointed General [[Pietro Badoglio]] as new [[Prime Minister of Italy|prime minister]]. Badoglio stripped away the final elements of Fascist rule by banning the [[National Fascist Party]], then signed an [[Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces|armistice with the Allied armed forces]].

There is controversy on the effectiveness of Italy's performance in World War II. Donald Detwiler notes that "Italy's entrance into the war showed very early that her military strength was only a hollow shell."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Detwiler |first1=Donald S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XfzAAAAMAAJ |title=World War II German Military Studies |last2=Burdick |first2=Charles B. |last3=Rohwer |first3=Jürgen |date=1979 |publisher=Garland Pub. |isbn=978-0-8240-4313-1 |page=96}}</ref> 
MacGregor Knox argues that it was "first and foremost a failure of Italy's military culture and military institutions."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knox |first=MacGregor |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlersitalianal00knox |title=Hitler's Italian Allies: Royal Armed Forces, Fascist Regime, and the War of 1940–1943 |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge UP |isbn=978-1-1394-3203-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hitlersitalianal00knox/page/10 10] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen argue that "the Regia Aeronautica failed to perform effectively in modern conflict."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Polmar |first1=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=30gRAGjXrIIC&pg=PA421 |title=World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945 |last2=Allen |first2=Thomas B. |date=2012 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-4864-7962-0 |page=421}}</ref> James Sadkovich argues that inferior equipment, overextension, and inter-service rivalries meant that Italians had "more than their share of handicaps." Several authors (James Sadkovich, Peter Haining, [[Vincent O'Hara]], Ian Walker and others) have reassessed the performance of the Italian army, navy and air force, providing numerous examples of actions where Italian forces were effective. Gerhard L.Weinberg argues that "there is far too much denigration of the performance of Italy's forces during the conflict."<ref>James J. Sadkovich, "Understanding Defeat: Reappraising Italy's Role in World War II," ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (1989) 24#1 pp. 27–61 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/260699 online].</ref> 

====Italian resistance, co-belligerence with the Allies and Liberation====
{{Further|Italian resistance|Italian Civil War|Liberation of Italy}}
[[File:Quattrogiornate.jpg|thumb|left|Insurgents celebrating the liberation of Naples after the [[Four days of Naples]] (27–30 September 1943)]]

Soon after being ousted, Mussolini was rescued by a German commando in [[Gran Sasso raid|Operation Eiche]] ("Oak"). The Germans brought Mussolini to northern Italy where he set up a Fascist puppet state, the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI). Meanwhile, the Allies advanced in southern Italy. In September 1943, [[Four days of Naples|Naples]] rose against the occupying German forces. The Allies organized some royalist Italian troops into the [[Italian Co-Belligerent Army]], while other troops continued to fight alongside Nazi Germany in the ''Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano'', the [[National Republican Army]]. A large [[Italian resistance movement]] started a long [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] against the German and Fascist forces,<ref>G. Bianchi, ''La Resistenza'', in: AA.VV., ''Storia d'Italia'', vol. 8, pp. 368-369.</ref> while clashes between the Fascist RSI Army and the Royalist Italian Co-Belligerent Army were rare.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pavone |first=Claudio |title=Una guerra civile. Saggio storico sulla moralità della Resistenza |date=1991 |publisher=Bollati Boringhieri |isbn=8-8339-0629-9 |location=Torino |page=238 |language=it}}</ref> The Germans, often helped by Fascists, committed several [[War crimes of the Wehrmacht|atrocities]] against Italian civilians in occupied zones, such as the [[Ardeatine massacre]] and the [[Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre]]. The Kingdom of Italy declared war on Nazi Germany on 13 October 1943;<ref name="italyswitchesstayinwar">{{Cite news |date=13 October 2011 |title=Oct. 13, 1943 {{!}} Italy Switches Sides in World War II |url=https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/oct-13-1943-italy-switches-sides-in-world-war-ii |access-date=29 August 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Italy declares war on Germany |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/italy-declares-war-on-germany |access-date=30 August 2021 |publisher=History.com}}</ref> tensions between the Axis Powers and the Italian military were rising following the failure to defend Sicily.<ref name="italyswitchesstayinwar" />

On 4 June 1944, the German occupation of Rome came to an end as the Allies advanced. The final Allied victory over the Axis in Italy did not come until the spring offensive of 1945, after Allied troops had breached the [[Gothic Line]], leading to the surrender of German and Fascist forces in Italy on 2 May shortly before Germany finally surrendered ending World War II in Europe on 8 May. It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60,000 Allied and 50,000 German soldiers died in Italy.{{Efn|In ''Alexander's Generals'' Blaxland quotes 59,151 Allied deaths between 3 September 1943 and 2 May 1945 as recorded at AFHQ and gives the breakdown between 20 nationalities: United States 20,442; United Kingdom, 18,737; France, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal and Belgium 5,241; Canada, 4,798; India, Pakistan, Nepal 4,078; Poland 2,028; New Zealand 1,688; Italy (excluding irregulars) 917; South Africa 800; Brazil 275; Greece 115; [[Jewish Brigade|Jewish volunteers]] from the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate in Palestine]] 32. In addition, 35 soldiers were killed by enemy action while serving with pioneer units from Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Seychelles, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Cyprus and the West Indies<ref name="Blax11">Blaxland (1979), p. 11</ref>}}

During World War II, [[Italian war crimes]] included [[extrajudicial killing]]s and [[ethnic cleansing]]<ref name="JamesBurgwyn_2004">James H. Burgwyn (2004). [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rmis/2004/00000009/00000003/art00005 General Roatta's war against the partisans in Yugoslavia: 1942] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921054155/http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rmis/2004/00000009/00000003/art00005 |date=21 September 2013}}, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Volume 9, Number 3, pp. 314–329(16)</ref> by the deportation of about 25,000 people, mainly Jews, Croats, and Slovenians, to the [[List of Italian concentration camps|Italian concentration camps]], such as [[Rab concentration camp|Rab]], [[Gonars concentration camp|Gonars]], [[Monigo]], [[Renicci di Anghiari]] and elsewhere. [[Yugoslav Partisans]] perpetrated their own crimes against the local ethnic Italian population during and after the war, including the [[foibe massacres]]. In Italy and Yugoslavia, unlike in Germany, few war crimes were prosecuted.<ref name="RoryCarroll_2001">[https://web.archive.org/web/20130716012326/http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2001/jun/25/artsandhumanities.highereducation Italy's bloody secret] (archived by [[WebCite]]), written by [[Rory Carroll]], Education, [[The Guardian]], June 2001</ref><ref name="Pedaliu_JContHistory">[[Effie Pedaliu]] (2004) {{JSTOR|4141408?}} Britain and the 'Hand-over' of Italian War Criminals to Yugoslavia, 1945–48. Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 39, No. 4, Special Issue: Collective Memory, pp. 503–529</ref><ref name="oliva06">[[Gianni Oliva|Oliva, Gianni]] (2006) [http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/si-ammazza-troppo-poco-crimini/libro/9788804551294 ''«Si ammazza troppo poco». I crimini di guerra italiani. 1940–43''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720023109/http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/si-ammazza-troppo-poco-crimini/libro/9788804551294 |date=20 July 2011}}, Mondadori, {{ISBN|8-8045-5129-1}}</ref><ref name="blpp2004">Baldissara, Luca & Pezzino, Paolo (2004). ''Crimini e memorie di guerra: violenze contro le popolazioni e politiche del ricordo'', L'Ancora del Mediterraneo. {{ISBN|978-8-8832-5135-1}}</ref>

On 25 April 1945 the [[National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy]] proclaimed a general insurrection in all the territories still occupied by the Nazis, indicating to all the partisan forces active in Northern Italy that were part of the Volunteer Corps of Freedom to attack the fascist and German garrisons by imposing the surrender, days before the arrival of the Allied troops; at the same time, the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy personally issued legislative decrees,<ref>There are three fundamental decrees that seal the legislative work, already active since 1944: ''All powers to CLNAI''; ''Decree for the administration of justice''; ''Of socialization''.</ref> assuming power "in the name of the Italian people and as a delegate of the Italian Government", establishing among other things the death sentence for all fascist hierarchs,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fondazione ISEC – cronologia dell'insurrezione a Milano – 25 aprile |url=http://www.associazioni.milano.it/isec/ita/cronologia/crono25apr.htm |access-date=14 February 2022 |language=it}}</ref> Today the event is commemorated in Italy every 25 April by the [[Liberation Day (Italy)|Liberation Day]], [[National Day]] introduced on 22 April 1946, which celebrates the liberation of the country from [[fascism]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=DECRETO LEGISLATIVO LUOGOTENENZIALE 22 aprile 1946, n. 185 |url=http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaDettaglioAtto/originario?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=1946-04-24&atto.codiceRedazionale=046U0185&elenco30giorni=false |access-date=28 April 2015 |language=Italian}}</ref>

Mussolini was captured on 27 April 1945 and the next day was executed for high treason. On 2 May 1945, the German forces in Italy surrendered. On 9 June 1944, Badoglio was replaced as prime minister by anti-fascist leader [[Ivanoe Bonomi]]. In June 1945 Bonomi was in turn replaced by [[Ferruccio Parri]], who in turn gave way to [[Alcide de Gasperi]] on 4 December 1945. Finally, De Gasperi supervised the transition to a Republic following the abdication of Vittorio Emanuele III on 9 May 1946, the one-month-long reign of his son [[Umberto II of Italy|Umberto II]] ("King of May") and the [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|Constitutional Referendum]] that abolished the monarchy; De Gasperi briefly became acting Head of State as well as prime minister on 18 June 1946, but ceded the former role to Provisional President [[Enrico de Nicola]] ten days later.

===Anti-fascism against Mussolini's regime===
{{See also|Anti-fascism}}
[[File:Flag of the Arditi del Popolo Battalion.svg|thumb|left|upright|Flag of ''[[Arditi del Popolo]]'', an axe cutting a [[fasces]]. ''Arditi del Popolo'' was a militant [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] group founded in 1921.]]

In Italy, Mussolini's [[Italian fascism|fascist]] regime used the term ''[[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]]'' to describe its opponents. Mussolini's [[secret police]] was officially known as the [[Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism]] (OVRA). During the 1920s, anti-fascists, many of them from the [[labour movement]], fought against the violent [[Blackshirts]] and against the rise of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI) signed a [[Pact of Pacification|pacification pact]] with Mussolini and his [[Fasci Italiani di Combattimento|Fasces of Combat]] on 3 August 1921,<ref>Charles F. Delzell, edit., ''Mediterranean Fascism 1919-1945'', New York, NY, Walker and Company, 1971, p. 26</ref> and trade unions adopted a legalist and pacified strategy, members of the workers' movement who disagreed with this strategy formed ''[[Arditi del Popolo]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Working Class Defence Organization, Anti-Fascist Resistance and the Arditi Del Popolo in Turin, 1919-22 |url=https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319044401/https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf |archive-date=19 March 2022 |access-date=23 September 2021}}</ref>

The [[Italian General Confederation of Labour]] (CGL) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia and maintained a non-violent, legalist strategy, while the [[Communist Party of Italy]] (PCd'I) ordered its members to quit the organization. The PCd'I organized some militant groups, but their actions were relatively minor.<ref>[https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf Working Class Defence Organization, Anti-Fascist Resistance and the Arditi Del Popolo in Turin, 1919-22] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319044401/https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/17283245.pdf |date=19 March 2022}}, Antonio Sonnessa, in the ''[[European History Quarterly]]'', Vol. 33, No. 2, 183-218 (2003)</ref> The Italian anarchist [[Severino Di Giovanni]], who exiled himself to Argentina following the 1922 [[March on Rome]], organized several bombings against the Italian fascist community.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anarchist Century |url=http://anarchist_century.tripod.com/timeline.html |access-date=7 April 2014 |publisher=Anarchist_century.tripod.com}}</ref> The Italian liberal anti-fascist [[Benedetto Croce]] wrote his ''[[Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals]]'', which was published in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bruscino |first=Felicia |date=25 November 2017 |title=Il Popolo del 1925 col manifesto antifascista: ritrovata l'unica copia |url=https://www.ultimavoce.it/il-popolo-manifesto-antifascista |access-date=23 March 2022 |website=Ultima Voce |language=it-IT}}</ref> Other notable Italian liberal anti-fascists around that time were [[Piero Gobetti]] and [[Carlo Rosselli]].<ref>James Martin, 'Piero Gobetti's Agonistic Liberalism', ''History of European Ideas'', '''32''', (2006), pp. 205–222.</ref>

[[File:Mussolini e Petacci a Piazzale Loreto, 1945.jpg|thumb|The [[Death of Benito Mussolini|dead body]] of Benito Mussolini, Claretta Petacci and other executed fascists on display in Milan]]
[[Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana]] ({{Langx|en|Italian Anti-Fascist Concentration}}), officially known as Concentrazione d'Azione Antifascista (Anti-Fascist Action Concentration), was an Italian coalition of Anti-Fascist groups which existed from 1927 to 1934, trying to promote and to coordinate expatriate actions to fight fascism in Italy; they published a propaganda paper entitled ''La Libertà''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Pugliese |first1=Stanislao G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDyqHO2LVosC&pg=PA10 |title=Fascism, Anti-fascism, and the Resistance in Italy: 1919 to the Present |last2=Pugliese |first2=Stanislao |date=2004 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-3123-9 |page=10 |access-date=11 June 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tollardo |first=Elisabetta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A6JlDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |title=Fascist Italy and the League of Nations, 1922-1935 |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-3499-5028-7 |page=152}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Scala |first=Spencer M. Di |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8gGaCQDLUsC&pg=PA6 |title=Renewing Italian Socialism: Nenni to Craxi |date=1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1953-6396-8 |pages=6–8 |access-date=11 June 2020}}</ref> [[Giustizia e Libertà]] ({{Langx|en|Justice and Freedom}}) was an Italian [[anti-fascist]] [[resistance movement]], active from 1929 to 1945<ref name="jam">James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224.</ref> which shared a belief in active, effective opposition to fascism, compared to the older Italian anti-fascist parties. ''Giustizia e Libertà'' also made the international community aware of the realities of fascism in Italy, thanks to the work of [[Gaetano Salvemini]].

Between 1920 and 1943, several anti-fascist movements were active among the [[Slovenes]] and [[Croats]] in the territories annexed to Italy after [[World War I]], known as the [[Julian March]].<ref>[[Milica Kacin Wohinz]], [[Jože Pirjevec]], ''Storia degli sloveni in Italia: 1866–1998'' (Venice: Marsilio, 1998)</ref><ref>Milica Kacin Wohinz, ''Narodnoobrambno gibanje primorskih Slovencev: 1921–1928'' (Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1977)</ref> The most influential was the militant insurgent organization [[TIGR]], which carried out numerous sabotages, as well as attacks on representatives of the Fascist Party and the military.<ref>[[Milica Kacin Wohinz]], ''Prvi antifašizem v Evropi'' (Koper: Lipa, 1990)</ref><ref>Mira Cenčič, ''TIGR: Slovenci pod Italijo in TIGR na okopih v boju za narodni obstoj'' (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1997)</ref> Most of the underground structure of the organization was discovered and dismantled by the OVRA in 1940 and 1941,<ref>Vid Vremec, Pinko Tomažič in drugi tržaški proces 1941 (Trieste: Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1989)</ref> and after June 1941 most of its former activists joined the [[Slovene Partisans]]. Many members of the [[Italian resistance]] left their homes and went to live in the mountains, fighting against Italian fascists and [[Nazi Germany|German Nazi]] soldiers during the [[Italian Civil War]]. Many cities in Italy, including [[Turin]], [[Naples]] and [[Milan]], were freed by anti-fascist uprisings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Intelligence and Operational Support for the Anti-Nazi Resistance |url=http://darbysrangers.tripod.com/id102.htm |publisher=Darbysrangers.tripod.com}}</ref>

==Republican era (1946–present)==
{{Main|History of the Italian Republic}}

===Birth of the Republic===
{{Main|1946 Italian institutional referendum}}
[[File:Alcide de Gasperi 2.jpg|thumb|[[Alcide De Gasperi]], [[List of Prime Ministers of Italy|first]] republican [[Prime Minister of Italy]] and one of the [[Founding fathers of the European Union|Founding Fathers of the European Union]]]]

The aftermath of World War II left Italy with a destroyed economy, a divided society, and anger against the monarchy for its endorsement of the Fascist regime. These frustrations contributed to a revival of the Italian republican movement.<ref>{{Citation |title=Italia |date=1970 |volume=VI |page=456 |publisher=[[Treccani]] |language=it |encyclopedia=Dizionario enciclopedico italiano}}</ref> [[Umberto II of Italy|Umberto II]] was pressured by the threat of another civil war to call the [[1946 Italian institutional referendum]] to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. On 2 June 1946, the republican side won 54% of the vote and Italy officially became a republic.

Under the [[Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947]], [[Istria]], [[Kvarner Gulf|Kvarner]], most of the [[Julian March]] as well as the [[Dalmatia]]n city of [[Zadar|Zara]] was annexed by [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] causing the [[Istrian-Dalmatian exodus]], which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 local ethnic [[Italians]] ([[Istrian Italians]] and [[Dalmatian Italians]]), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic [[Istro-Romanians]], choosing to maintain Italian citizenship.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tobagi |first=Benedetta |title=La Repubblica italiana &#124; Treccani, il portale del sapere |url=http://www.treccani.it/scuola/lezioni/storia/la_repubblica_italiana.html |access-date=28 January 2015 |publisher=Treccani.it}}</ref> Later, the [[Free Territory of Trieste]] was divided between the two states. Italy also lost all of its colonial possessions, formally ending the [[Italian Empire]]. In 1950, [[Italian Somaliland]] was made a [[Trust Territory of Somaliland|United Nations Trust Territory]] under Italian administration until 1 July 1960. The Italian border that applies today has existed since 1975, when [[Trieste]] was formally re-annexed to Italy.

The [[Italian general election, 1946|General Elections of 1946]], held at the same time as the Constitutional Referendum, elected 556 members of a [[Constituent Assembly of Italy|Constituent Assembly]]. A [[Italian Constitution|new constitution]] was approved, setting up a [[parliamentary system|parliamentary]] democracy. In 1947, under American pressure, the communists were expelled from the government. The [[Italian general election, 1948]] saw a landslide victory for Christian Democrats, that dominated the system for the following forty years.

Italy joined the [[Marshall Plan]] (ERP) and [[NATO]]. By 1950, the economy had largely stabilized and started booming.<ref>Christopher Duggan, ''Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796'' (2008) ch 27</ref> In 1957, Italy was a founding member of the [[European Economic Community]], which later transformed into the European Union (EU). The Marshall Plan's long-term legacy was to help modernize Italy's economy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ellwood |first=David W. |date=2003 |title=The Propaganda of the Marshall Plan in Italy in a Cold War Context |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=225–236 |doi=10.1080/02684520412331306820 |s2cid=153463824}}</ref> By 1953, industrial production had doubled compared with 1938 and the annual rate of productivity increase was 6.4%, twice the British rate.

===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.

===Years of Lead===
{{Main|Years of lead (Italy)}}
[[File:Stragedibologna-2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bologna massacre|Attack]] of the far-right terrorist group [[Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari|NAR]] at the [[Bologna]] railway station on 2 August 1980, which caused the death of 85 people]]

During the 1970s, Italy saw an unexpected escalation of political violence. From 1969 to 1980, repeated neofascist outrages were launched such as the [[Piazza Fontana bombing]] in 1969. Red Brigades and many other groups decided on armed attacks as a revolutionary strategy. They carried out urban riots, as in Rome and Bologna in 1977. Known as the [[History of Italy (1970s-1980s)|Years of Lead]], this period was characterised by widespread social conflicts and terrorist acts carried out by extra-parliamentary movements. The assassination of the leader of the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] (DC), [[Aldo Moro]], led to the end of a "[[historic compromise]]" between the DC and the [[Italian Communist Party|Communist Party]] (PCI). In the 1980s, for the first time, two governments were managed by a Republican ([[Giovanni Spadolini]] 1981–82) and a Socialist ([[Bettino Craxi]] 1983–87) rather than by a Christian Democrat.<ref>Alessandra Diazzi and Alvise Sforza Tarabochia, ''The Years of Alienation in Italy: Factory and Asylum Between the Economic Miracle and the Years of Lead'' (2019), pp 1-40.</ref><ref>Richard Drake, "Italy in the 1960s: A Legacy of Terrorism and Liberation." ''South Central Review'' 16 (1999): 62-76. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3190077 online]</ref>

At the end of the Lead years, the PCI gradually increased their votes thanks to [[Enrico Berlinguer]]. The [[Italian Socialist Party|Socialist Party]] (PSI), led by [[Bettino Craxi]], became more and more critical of the Communists and of the [[Soviet Union]]; Craxi himself pushed in favour of US President [[Ronald Reagan]]'s positioning of [[Pershing II]] missiles in Italy.

===Second Republic (1992–present)===
Italy faced several terror attacks between 1992 and 1993, perpetrated by the [[Sicilian Mafia]] as a consequence of several life sentences pronounced during the "[[Maxi Trial]]", and of the new anti-mafia measures launched by the government. In 1992, two major dynamite attacks killed two judges,<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 March 2012 |title=New Arrests for Via D'Amelio Bomb Attack |url=https://www.corriere.it/International/english/articoli/2012/03/08/borsellino.shtml |publisher=corriere.it}}</ref> and a year later tourist spots, leaving 10 dead and 93 injured and causing severe damage to cultural heritage such as the [[Uffizi Gallery]]. The Catholic Church openly condemned the Mafia, and two churches were bombed and an anti-Mafia priest shot dead in Rome.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sentenza del processo di 1º grado a Francesco Tagliavia per le stragi del 1993 |url=http://www.ipezzimancanti.it/download/Tagliavia%20sentenza.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Audizione del procuratore Sergio Lari dinanzi alla Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia – XVI LEGISLATURA (PDF). |url=http://www.parlamento.it/application/xmanager/projects/parlamento/Reso.steno.26.3.2012Int..pdf}}</ref>
[[File:Echadas_de_Monedas.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bettino Craxi]], viewed by many as the symbol of [[Tangentopoli]], Leader of the [[Italian Socialist Party|Socialist Party]] and Prime Minister from 1983 to 1987, is greeted by a salvo of coins as a sign of loathing by protesters.]]

From 1992 to 1997, Italy faced significant challenges as voters disenchanted with political paralysis, massive government debt, extensive corruption, and organised crime's considerable influence collectively called the political system [[Tangentopoli]]. As Tangentopoli was under a set of judicial investigations by the name of [[Mani pulite]] (Italian for "clean hands"), voters demanded political, economic, and ethical reforms. Between 1992 and 1994 the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|DC]] underwent a severe crisis and was dissolved, splitting up into several pieces. The [[Italian Socialist Party|PSI]] (along with other minor governing parties) completely dissolved.<ref>Sarah Waters, "'Tangentopoli' and the emergence of a new political order in Italy." ''West European Politics'' (1994): 17#1 pp:169–182.</ref><ref>Donald Sassoon, "Tangentopoli or the democratization of corruption: Considerations on the end of Italy's first republic." ''Journal of Modern Italian Studies'' (1995) 1#1 pp: 124–143.</ref>

The [[Italian general election, 1994|1994 general election]] also swept media magnate [[Silvio Berlusconi]] (Leader of "[[Pole of Freedoms]]" coalition) into office as prime minister. Berlusconi was forced to step down in December 1994 when his [[Lega Nord]] partners withdrew support. The Berlusconi government was succeeded by a [[technical government]] headed by [[Lamberto Dini]]. At the [[Italian general election, 1996|1996 general election]], [[Romano Prodi]] led a centre-left coalition to victory. He narrowly lost a vote of confidence in October 1998. A new government was formed by [[Democrats of the Left]] leader [[Massimo D'Alema]], but in April 2000, following poor performance by his coalition in regional elections, he resigned.

The succeeding centre-left government was headed by [[Giuliano Amato]] (social-democratic), who previously served as prime minister from 1992 to 1993 and again from April 2000 until June 2001. That same year, a centre-right coalition [[Italian general election, 2001|formed the government]] and [[Silvio Berlusconi]] was able to regain power and keep it for a complete five-year mandate, becoming the longest-serving government in post-war Italy. Berlusconi participated in the US-led [[multinational coalition in Iraq]].

{{Multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| image1            = Romano Prodi 1999 (cropped).jpg
| width1            = 122
| image2            = Silvio Berlusconi 1996.jpg
| width2            = 131
| caption1          = [[Romano Prodi]], Prime Minister from 1996 to 1998 and from 2006 to 2008, and long-time leader of the [[Centre-left coalition (Italy)|centre-left coalition]]
| caption2          = [[Silvio Berlusconi]], Prime Minister from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2011, and long-time leader of the [[Centre-right coalition (Italy)|centre-right coalition]]
}}

The [[Italian general election, 2006|2006 general election]] returned Prodi to government, leading a coalition of 11 parties ([[The Union (political coalition)|The Union]]). Prodi followed a cautious policy of economic liberalisation and reduction of public debt. Berlusconi won the [[Italian general election, 2008|2008 general election]]. Italy was among the countries hit hardest by the [[Great Recession]] of 2008–09 and the subsequent [[European debt crisis]]. The national economy shrunk by 6.76% over seven quarters of recession.<ref name="OECD">{{Cite web |title=Quarterly Growth Rates of real GDP, change over previous quarter |url=http://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=350 |access-date=8 February 2015 |publisher=[[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development|OECD]]}}</ref> In November 2011, the Italian bond yield was 6.74 per cent for 10-year bonds, nearing a 7% level where Italy is thought to lose access to financial markets.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Moody |first1=Barry |last2=Mackenzie |first2=James |date=8 November 2011 |title=Berlusconi to resign after parliamentary setback |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-idUSTRE7A72NG20111108 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918220156/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/us-italy-idUSTRE7A72NG20111108 |archive-date=18 September 2012 |access-date=8 February 2015 |work=[[Reuters]]}}</ref> On 12 November 2011, Berlusconi resigned, and the economist [[Mario Monti]] was sworn in as prime minister at the head of a [[technocracy|technocratic]] government. To avoid the debt crisis and kick-start economic growth, Monti's [[national unity government]] launched a massive programme of [[austerity measures]]; that reduced the deficit but precipitated a [[double-dip recession]] in 2012 and 2013.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Krugman |first=Paul |date=24 February 2013 |title=Austerity, Italian-Style |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/opinion/krugman-austerity-italian-style.html |access-date=26 November 2017 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Orsi |first=Roberto |date=8 October 2013 |title=The Demise of Italy and the Rise of Chaos |url=http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/eurocrisispress/2013/10/08/the-demise-of-italy-and-the-rise-of-chaos |access-date=26 November 2017 |publisher=[[London School of Economics]]}}</ref>

On 24 and 25 February 2013, a [[Italian general election, 2013|general election]] was held; a centre-left coalition led [[Pier Luigi Bersani]], Leader of the [[Democratic Party (Italy)|Democratic Party]], won a slight majority in the Chamber of Deputies but did not control the Senate. On 24 April, President Napolitano gave to the Vice-Secretary of the Democratic Party, [[Enrico Letta]], the task of forming a government. Letta formed a short-lived [[Grand coalition (Italy)|grand coalition]] government which lasted until 22 February 2014. [[Matteo Renzi]] formed a new [[Renzi Cabinet|government]] with the support of some centrist parties. The government implemented numerous reforms, including changes to the [[Italian electoral law|electoral system]], a relaxation of labour and employment laws with the intention of boosting economic growth, a thorough reformation of the [[public administration]] and the introduction of [[Civil union|same-sex civil union]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |date=29 September 2015 |title=Italy Prime Minister Mattro Renzi on Senate Reform |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-09-29/italy-prime-minister-matteo-renzi-on-senate-reform |access-date=29 September 2015 |publisher=[[Bloomberg News]]}}</ref> However, Renzi resigned after losing a [[Italian constitutional referendum, 2016|constitutional referendum]] in December 2016, and was succeeded by [[Paolo Gentiloni]]. The centre-left Cabinets were plagued by the aftermath of the [[European debt crisis]] and the [[European migrant crisis]], which fuelled support for populist and right-wing parties.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 February 2018 |title=Fear of migrants feeds growth of Italy's far-right |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/fear-of-migrants-feeds-growth-of-italy-s-far-right-1.3393398 |access-date=10 June 2021 |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]}}</ref>
[[File:Covid-19 San Salvatore 09.jpg|thumb|Exhausted nurse takes a break in an Italian hospital during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Italy|COVID-19 emergency]].]]

The [[Italian general election, 2018|2018 general election]] resulted in a [[hung parliament]] once again, which led to an unlikely [[Conte I Cabinet|populist government]] led by [[Giuseppe Conte]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 May 2018 |title=Opinion – The Populists Take Rome |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/opinion/populists-rome-five-star-movement.html |access-date=2 June 2018 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> However, after only fourteen months, the League withdrew its support and Conte allied with the Democratic Party and other smaller left-wing parties to form a new Cabinet.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 September 2019 |title=Italy's Conte forms coalition of bitter rivals, booting far-right from power |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20190905-italy-coalition-conte-five-star-populists-democrats |access-date=9 September 2019 |work=France 24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=4 September 2019 |title=New Italian government formed, allying M5S and the centre-left {{!}} DW {{!}} 4 September 2019 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/new-italian-government-formed-allying-m5s-and-the-center-left/a-50287864 |access-date=9 September 2019 |work=Deutsche Welle}}</ref> In 2020, Italy was severely hit by the [[COVID-19 pandemic in Italy|COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref>[http://www.salute.gov.it/nuovocoronavirus Nuovo coronavirus], ''Minsitero della Salute''</ref> From March to May 2020, Conte's government imposed a [[2020 Italy coronavirus lockdown|national lockdown]] to limit the spread.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 March 2020 |title=Italy extends emergency measures nationwide |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51810673 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Beaumont |first1=Peter |last2=Sample |first2=Ian |date=10 March 2020 |title=From confidence to quarantine: how coronavirus swept Italy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/from-confidence-to-quarantine-how-coronavirus-swept-italy |access-date=12 March 2020 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The measures, despite being widely approved by public opinion,<ref>{{Cite web |last=De Feo |first=Gianluca |date=20 March 2020 |title=Sondaggio Demos: gradimento per Conte alle stelle |url=https://www.youtrend.it/2020/03/20/sondaggio-demos-gradimento-per-conte-alle-stelle |access-date=22 March 2020 |website=YouTrend |language=it-IT}}</ref> were also described as the largest suppression of [[constitutional right]]s in the history of the republic.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 March 2020 |title=Blog {{!}} Coronavirus, la sospensione delle libertà costituzionali è realtà. Ma per me ce la stiamo cavando bene |url=https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2020/03/18/coronavirus-la-sospensione-delle-liberta-costituzionali-e-realta-ma-per-me-ce-la-stiamo-cavando-bene/5739296 |access-date=22 March 2020 |work=Il Fatto Quotidiano |language=it-IT}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=24 March 2020 |title=Un uomo solo è al comando dell'Italia, e nessuno ha niente da ridire |url=https://www.linkiesta.it/2020/03/italia-coronavirus-conte-uomo-solo-al-comando |access-date=4 March 2020 |work=Linkiesta |language=it-IT}}</ref> With more than 100,000 confirmed fatalities, Italy had one of the highest total number of deaths in the [[COVID-19 pandemic|coronavirus pandemic]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 March 2021 |title=Italy mourns its 100,000 dead as third wave builds |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0318/1204668-corovirus-global |access-date=10 June 2021 |agency=[[Raidió Teilifís Éireann]]}}</ref> The pandemic caused also a [[Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic|severe economic disruption]].<ref>[https://www.agi.it/economia/news/2020-04-14/coronavirus-fmi-crisi-economica-8331041/ L'Italia pagherà il conto più salato della crisi post-epidemia], AGI</ref> In February 2021, these extraordinary circumstances resulted in the formation of a [[Draghi Cabinet|national coalition government]] led by former president of the European Central Bank [[Mario Draghi]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=13 February 2021 |title=Mario Draghi sworn in as Italy's new prime minister |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56049115 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref> In January 2022, President [[Sergio Mattarella]] was re-elected.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 January 2022 |title=Sergio Mattarella: At 80, Italy president re-elected on amid successor row |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60183929 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

On 21 July 2022, following a [[2022 Italian government crisis|government crisis]], Draghi resigned.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 July 2022 |title=Italy heads to early election after Draghi's coalition fails |url=https://apnews.com/article/elections-legislature-italy-802d6ab0965feebf4e3f7bda1659df42 |work=[[Associated Press News]]}}</ref> A [[2022 Italian general election|snap election]] resulted in the [[Centre-right coalition (Italy)|centre-right coalition]] gaining an absolute majority.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 September 2022 |title=Italy's far-right Meloni begins tricky government talks |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220927-italy-s-far-right-meloni-begins-tricky-government-talks |access-date=2 October 2022 |work=France 24 |publisher=Agence France-Press}}</ref> On 22 October 2022, [[Giorgia Meloni]] was sworn in as Italy's first female prime minister.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 October 2022 |title=Who is Giorgia Meloni? The rise to power of Italy's new far-right PM |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63351655 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Duchy of Urbino]]
* [[Genetic history of Italy]]
* [[History of Capri]]
* [[History of Naples]]
* [[History of Rome]]
* [[History of Sardinia]]
* [[History of Sicily]]
* [[History of the Republic of Venice]]
* [[History of Trentino]]
* [[History of Tuscany]]
* [[History of Verona]]
* [[Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia]]
* [[List of consorts of Montferrat]]
* [[List of consorts of Naples]]
* [[List of consorts of Savoy]]
* [[List of consorts of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]]
* [[List of consorts of Tuscany]]
* [[List of Italian queens]]
* [[List of Italian inventions and discoveries]]
* [[List of kings of the Lombards]]
* [[List of Milanese consorts]]
* [[List of Modenese consorts]]
* [[List of monarchs of Naples]]
* [[List of monarchs of Sardinia]]
* [[List of monarchs of Sicily]]
* [[List of monarchs of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]]
* [[List of Parmese consorts]]
* [[List of presidents of Italy]]
* [[List of prime ministers of Italy]]
* [[List of queens of the Lombards]]
* [[List of Roman and Byzantine Empresses]]
* [[List of grand dukes of Tuscany]]
* [[List of Sardinian consorts]]
* [[List of Sicilian consorts]]
* [[List of State Archives of Italy]]
* [[List of viceroys of Naples]]
* [[List of viceroys of Sicily]]
* [[Milan]]
* [[Military history of Italy]]
* [[Politics of Italy]]
{{Div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
* {{Cite book |last=Bosworth |first=Richard J. B. |title=Mussolini's Italy |date=2005}}
* {{Cite book |last=Mack Smith |first=Denis |author-link=Denis Mack Smith |title=Mussolini: A Biography |date=1982 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-3947-1658-9}}
** {{Cite book |last=Mack Smith |first=Denis |author-link=Denis Mack Smith |title=Modern Italy: A Political History |date=1997 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |isbn=0-4721-0895-6 |author-mask=2}}

==Further reading==
{{Main|Bibliography of Italy}}
* {{Cite book |last=Foot |first=John |author-link=John Foot (historian) |title=The Archipelago: Italy since 1945 |date=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-1-4088-2724-6}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gilmour |first=David |author-link=David Gilmour (historian) |title=[[The Pursuit of Italy|The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples]] |date=2011 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-1-8461-4251-2}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto6.asp?File=mappe_va&Tipo=index&Righe=50&Col=4 Detailed Maps of the History of Italy]
* [http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_Italy:_Primary_Documents History of Italy: Primary Documents]
* [http://www.italyrevisited.org/ Italy Revisited (historical photo archives)]
* [https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23766 Collection: Italy in 19th Century Photography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240708092045/https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23766 |date=8 July 2024 }} from the [[University of Michigan Museum of Art]]
* [https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1148/the-dolmens-of-sicily Salvatore Piccolo, The Dolmens of Sicily] from the [[World History Encyclopedia]]

{{Italy topics}}
{{Former monarchies Italian peninsula}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{European history by country}}
{{Former monarchies Italian peninsula}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of Italy| ]]