Men and Culture from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
The earliest human settlements within the territory of present-day Italy date almost certainly to the initial phase of the Quaternary era (Pleistocene). This period was characterized by frequent alternation in climatic conditions, with consequent phases of expansion and retreat in the Alpine and Apennine glaciers and relative variations in sea level.
These settlements were generally situated in coastal caves, in shelters at the base of rock walls or near lake shores. They date to around 500 000 years ago and correspond to the Lower Palaeolithic, the longest period of human prehistory, which was dominated by the notable diffusion of tools made from flaked stone and ended some 10 000 years ago. Among the earliest sites of this period are Pineta di Isernia, recently discovered and dating to some 730 000 years ago, and Quinzano (Verona), from over 400 000 years ago. Other important Lower Palaeolithic sites have been found near Imola (Valle del Correcchio), in Lazio (Torre in Pietra, Fontana Liri, Anagni, Arce), in Abruzzo (Teramano, Maiella), in Basilicata (Venosa), in Puglia (Gargano), in Campania (Capri), in Liguria (Balzi Rossi).
Although rich in tools and animal bones, only some of these sites have provided a small quantity of human skeletal remains resembling those from the more recent sites of the Middle Palaeolithic, dating to the Riss-Würm interglacial period and part of the succeeding Würm glaciation (circa 120 000 to 36 000 years ago). These bones belong to a species named `Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis', who lived in the caves of Circeo (Lazio), the terraces of the Tiber Valley (Rome), the coasts of the Salento (Grotta Romanelli) and the Gargano (Puglia), those of Western Liguria (Balzi Rossi and Finalese) and many other sites. Here they left traces of an industry known as Mousterian and characterized by the presence of scrapers (flakes of flint retouched only on one side).
During the Upper Palaeolithic, the successive period covering from circa 36 000 to 10 000 years ago, the Neanderthals gave way to the present species of man `Homo sapiens sapiens' during the final phases of the Würm glaciation. The numerous traces from this period are particularly rich in burials, animal bones and tools, the latter having been worked with increased precision. The first examples of rock art now appear (engravings and graffiti in the caves of M. Pellegrino and Levanzo in Sicily, in Grotta Romanelli on the Salento Coast and the Balzi Rossi in Liguria) and statues like the small female ones from Savignano and Chiozza di Scandiano in Emilia and the Venus figurines from the Balzi Rossi.
In the few thousand years of the following Mesolithic period (circa 10 000 to 6 000 years ago) the climate continued to grow milder. Tools became very small (microliths) and inhumation came into use. Sites from this period have been found throughout the entire Italian peninsula, principally at the Balzi Rossi, Arene Candide, in the Colli Berici (Covolo della Paina), on Capri (Grotta delle Felci) and at Positano (Grotta La Porta), being along the coasts in the plains and on the mountains.
With the Neolithic period, from circa 6000 BC to 2800 BC, the traditional hunting and gathering economy was replaced by the introduction of agriculture, stock rearing, weaving and pottery. This new cultural influence came particularly from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Using the pottery productikon above all, it has been possible to reconstruct fairly accurately the various phases of this complex period. Initially it was characterized by Impressed Ware, such as that found on the Tremiti Isles, in Sicily (Stentinello) and Liguria (Arene Candide) and then by the painted forms (Southern Italy). Among the noted Neolithic cultures are those of Lagozza (Varese), Fiorano, Chiozza and Pescale (Emilia), with their square-mouthed and scratched decorated pots. Some interesting Neolithic traces have remained in the hut villages of the lower Brescian area, in Emilia and the Teramo area (Valle della Vibrata) or in the rock dwellings and tombs of Pulo di Molfetta (Puglia), Stentinello, Megara Iblea and Matrensa (Sicily).
The second half of the third millennium BC is characterized by the use of copper, introduced into Italy from the Eastern Mediterranean, alongside stone. The Copper Age has produced interesting pottery types from Rinaldone (Viterbo), Gaudo (Paestum) and Remedello (Brescia); these were pastoral settlements with rock-cut tombs or trench graves. The working of flint, as still practised by the Campignians in parts of the Gargano and Veneto, declined. Instead, the Camunian culture, which has left its traces in the rock engravings of the lower Val Camonica (Brescia), began the development that was to continue throughout the Bronze Age.
Also in the Copper Age appeared the first examples of palafitte or villages of pile dwellings built on the pre-alpine lakes. These reached their maximum development in the subsequent Bronze Age (corresponding to the second millennium BC), which was characterized by the widespread growth of metallurgy. The type site for this culture is Polada (Lake Garda), contemporary with which there flourished on the southern margin of the Po Plain the Terramare culture of sedentary agriculturists. The pastoral way of life is instead represented by the Apennine culture that developed especially in Central-Southern Italy and was also characterized by a war-like spirit.
The Bronze Age also saw the flowering of true regional groupings, with highly organized social structures and territorial ranges. This can ben seen from the remains of their permanent settlements and respective megalithic constructions, like the nuraghi in Sardinia, the castellieri in the Eastern Alps, and the dolmens and menhirs on the Salento, of clearly Middle Eastern derivation. The rock engravings on M. Bego (Maritime Alps, now in France) belong to the late Bronze Age, as do the urnfield cultures that spread so rapidly and mark the change of rite from inhumation to cremation. The Iron Age then followed with the beginning of the first millennium BC.
During all this period there were increasing contacts with the Phoenician and Greek colonists: the former being largely present on the coasts of Sardinia and western Sicily and the latter in Southern Italy. These colonies had a considerable influence on the development of local cultures (from the Picenian to Campano-Samnite and the Apulian to Bruttio-Lucanian). Among the main Iron Age cultures are those of Golasecca (Varese) in north-west Italy and Atestine (Adige Valley) mainly in the Veneto, while the Villanovan culture, direct heir of the urnfield cultures (indicated as proto-Villanovan) spread throughout Emilia and the remainder of Central Italy, even reaching Campania (Pontecagnano). This was the cultural base on which the Etruscan civilization was to develop.
THE EARLY ITALIC TRIBES
With the Iron Age Italy and her population practically enter the historical period, even if some while after the more advanced Eastern Mediterranean and Near East civilizations from where arrived particular influences. At the beginning of the first millennium BC the following native tribes could be distinguished on Italian territory: the Ligures, on the coast that bears their name, in the northern Apennine valleys, part of the pre-alpine valleys and the western Po Valley; the Sicani, in the interior of Sicily; and the Itali, in present-day Calabria (from whom comes the name `Italy', which was to be extended to all the territory of the peninsula). Besides the already mentioned Terramare tribe, on the southern edge of the Po Valley, and the Villanovans, probably from Eastern Europe and settled throughout Central Italy, there were also the Umbrians to the east of the upper basin of the Tiber. The Veneti, who occupied the territory that still bears their name, originally came from Illyria as did the Messapii and Iapyges, who settled in present-day Puglia (Apulia).
Many other populations of Central-Southern Italy were created by the mixing of local and foreing elements dating back to the previous millennium. As in the case of the Sabines and Latini who settled in Lazio together with Falisci, Aequi, Volsci, Hernici and Ausones. The interior of Abruzzo was dominated by the Vestini, Paeligni and Marsi, while the central Adriatic coast was populated by Picentes, Marrucini and Frentani. The Apennine area of Molise and Basilicata was peopled by the Samnites and Lucanians. In Calabria and Sicily there were also the Bruttii and Siculi.
The Phoenician colonisation of the coasts of the Western Mediterranean were limited in Italy to Sardinia and western Sicily and preceded that of the Greeks. It was followed by Punic settlements (Trapani, Palermo, Cagliari) linked to the ancient Phoenician colony of Carthage.
During the 8C BC the Greeks arrived in Italy. They came from Euboea, Argolis, Locris, Crete and the Aegean islands, settling on the southern coasts (from Campania to Apulia) and eastern and southern Sicily. They founded many prosperous colonies whose economy was generally based on agriculture and commerce. Often they allied together against common enemies but they were also divided by disagreement and rivalry. The term `Magna Grecia' describes a population and civilization rather than a political reality. Among the first to settle on the Italian coasts were the Achaeans (of Dorian origins) who founded towns like Taranto, Metaponto, Posidonia (Paestum), and Sibari. They were followed by Locrians and then Chalcidians from Euboea who founded Naxos (Taormina), Zancle (Messina) and, after the occupation of Pitecusa (Ischia), Cuma in Campania. The Corinthians founded Siracusa, still in the 8C BC, and the Megarians Megara Hyblaea on the Gulf of Augusta. Finally, the Phocaeans founded Elea (Velia) in Campania.
While in Northern Italy, during the first half of the first millennium BC, there began the increasing penetration of the Gauls (of Celtic origins) from beyond the Alps, who would gradually occupy the entire Po Valley, on the Tyrrhenian slopes of Central Italy the Etruscans began to take form (circa 8C BC). The latter had an advanced civilization whose origins are still not clear. Whether they migrated from the East (as many aspects of their civilization suggest) by land or sea, or developed on the peninsula itself as direct heirs of the Villanovans, it is clear that the Etruscans formed the most important Italic cultural and political ethnic group before the advent of Roman power.
Already during the Copper Age the area of the Alban Hills, just to the south of the mouth of the Tiber, was inhabited by an Italic agricultural and pastoral tribe called Latini. And it was due to them, in all probability, that Rome was founded towards the middle of the 8C BC on one of the numerous hills (the Palatine) in the marshy depressions surrounding the river. The town and territory occupied by the Latini expanded gradually during the royal period (753-510 BC, under the seven kings of Rome: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquin Priscus, Servius Tullius and Tarquin the Proud). In this period the juridical and social organization of the new nation evolved, revealing clear influence from the nearby Etruscan civilization. Territorially, at the end of the 6C BC, Roman Lazio extended over some 2000 sq km. It covered the lower Aniene Valley as far as its junction with the Tiber and from there to the sea, besides including the major part of the Alban Hills and the coast from the mouth of the Tiber to the promontory of Anzio. Alongside stock rearing and agriculture the economy of the Latin monarchy was based on commerce, favoured by Rome's geographic position between Campania (Magna Grecia) and Etruria as well as by the proximity of the mouth of the Tiber, which was a harbour of growing importance also because of the presence of productive salt pans.
The passage from monarchy to republic (510-509 BC) was not only a simple institutional change. It also involved a profound juridical and social transformation, as with the emancipation of the plebs who succeeded in gaining access to the highest offices of State, previously a monopoly of the patrician oligarchy. The complex events of the social struggles with the latter class produced the promulgation of written laws for the first time. These Laws of the Twelve Tables, carved in bronze (450 BC), were soon followed by others.
While developing its own institutions and social structure, the Roman State found itself involved in a series of conflicts with the neighbouring populations. Rome so succeeded in strengthening her position that at the end of the 3C BC rivalled the other four great military Mediterranean powers: Carthage, Egypt, Syria and Macedonia.
After having survived the danger of new Gallic invasions, which in 390 BC had crossed the Po Valley and the Apennines to sack Rome itself after having defeated armies first at Chiusi and then on the banks of the Allia (387 BC), Rome completed the conquest of Lazio. It did this by conquering the towns of the Volsci (Anzio) to the south and those of the Etruscans (Tarquinia, Faleri and Caere) to the north of the Tiber; Veio had already been acquired after a ten-year siege at the beginning of the century (396 BC) by Furius Camillus.
In mid-4C BC, following its gradual expansion, Rome necessarily came up against the Samnites who had descended from the heart of the central-southern Apennines towards the fertile lands of Campania, where they rapidly conquered the flourishing towns of Capua (438 BC) and Cuma (421 BC). The rich town of Paestum had already been occupied by the Lucanians. Rome wisely entered an alliance with the Samnites (354 BC) against the pressure of the nearby populations. Conflict with the Samnites for Campanian dominance was however inevitable and lasted for over half a century (343-290 BC). It had three distinct phases with alternating fortunes, such as the crushing Roman defeat at Caudine Forks (321 BC), until Rome won the definitive victory at Sentinum (295 BC) against a coalition that also included Etruscans and Senones, a Gallic tribe.
With her predominance in Central Italy consolidated, Rome prepared to extend it over the rest of the peninsula during a ten-year conflict with Taranto (282-272 BC), who was allied with the king of Epirus, Pyrrhus. While they enjoyed a modest victory at Ausculum (279BC), they were heavily defeated at Beneventum (275 BC). Rome thus achieved total supremacy of the Italian peninsula and set up a complicated system of alliances between the territory of Rome, towns and colonies enjoying full or partial Roman citizenship (`civitates sine suffragio') and the others who, while being independent, recognized Roman sovereignty in the context of a confederation extending over some 130 000 sq km and equipped with well over half a million soldiers Romans and allies).
The economy of the whole Italic federation, whose territory now extended from Tuscany (through Pisa-Pistoia-Fiesole-Rimini, but excluding the upper course of the Arno) to southern-most Calabria, was strengthened by the construction of the first important inland road, the Via Appia, running from Rome to Capua and Benevento (312-268 BC), as well as the development of the fleet and marine transport. At the same time the monetary system was expanded with the minting of bronze (300 BC) and silver (269 BC) coins.
For more than two centuries, since when in 509 BC the new Roman Republic had made a friendship treaty with Carthage, relations between the two states had remained good. Indeed, in 306 BC they were reinforced with the reciprocal recognition of a Roman sphere of influence over Italy and a Carthaginian one over Sicily. On the island, in fact, the last tyrant of Syracuse, Agatocles, was defeated at Ecnomus in 310 by the Carthaginians who had been opposed by the Syracusians for almost a century.
With their expansionist policy, the young and powerful Rome certainly could not be content with only the Italian peninsula. The conquest of Magna Grecia had to be completed with that of Sicily, even if it meant breaking with Carthage. The opportunity came with the revolt of the Mamertine mercenaries, who had seized Messina and asked Rome for help against the Carthaginian garrison (265 BC). The struggle between Rome and Carthage was to continue until the end of the century (264-201 BC) ending in two separate conflicts: Sicily was the scene of the first (264-241 BC) until it became a Roman province; and slightly later (238-227 BC) Sardinia and Corsica met the same fate. In this way the Tyrrhenian became the first entirely Roman sea (`Mare nostrum').
The Second Punic War (218-201 BC) began from the Carthaginians besieging Saguntum (219 BC), an Iberian town allied with Rome. Despite Hannibal's legendary crossing of the Pyrenees and Alps into the heart of Italy and his repeated defeats of the Romans (at the rivers Ticino and Trebbia, Lake Trasimeno and Canne), the Romans still managed to definitively defeat the Carthaginians at Zama (202 BC). Gaining this victory under Scipio Africanus.
Forced, during the conflict with the Carthaginias, to fight on different fronts and against different allied enemies, from the Iberian peninsula to the Po Valley and from Illyria (on the op posite shore of the Adriatic) to Macedonia, Rome took the occasion of its many victories over the Celtic (Iberi and Galli) and Hellenic (Greeks and Macedonians) peoples, who were often allied with Carthage, to enlarge her territorial domain and political sphere of influence over a large part of the Mediterranean basin.
Of particular importance in this regard was the conquest of Greece, through the three Macedonian Wars (215-146 BC), and the control of Asia Minor (133 BC). While with the destruction of Carthage (146 BC, at the end of the brief Third Punic War), Corinth (146 BC) and Numantia (133 BC) Rome had become the major Mediterranean military power.
Meanwhile, to the traditional Roman economic activities of agriculture and pastoralism, which had declined due to war destruction (with the consequent abandonment of the fields and rural deterioration), there were added military and commercial interests. The latter was a monopoly of the equites (the knightly or propertied class) who, also thanks to contracts for revenue collection and public works, began to form a rich urban middle-class.
The conquest of Greece also had a profound effect on the cultural development of the Roman world. This took the form of Hellenisation, which changed society and customs while handing on the inheritance of Greek civilization to successive centuries. Finally, under the socio-economic heading, came the agricultural crisis. This was to cost the lives of the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus (133-121 BC), tribunes of the plebs, who came up against the conservatism of the oligarchical senate.
However, the agrarian question gradually led to the rebellion of the Italic peoples, who were still excluded from Roman citizenship and therefore the allotment of land to cultivate in the `ager publicus'. In 90 BC a league was formed that, after varying military fortunes, finally achieved its aspirations. In this way too the political unification of Italy became concrete and was not to be interrupted even during the following periof of bitter civil wars: between Gaius Marius and Lucius Sulla (88-82 BC); Caesar and Pompey (49-46 BC); Octavian and Anthony (3630 BC); or even by the fierce struggles provoked by the slave revolts.
The events of the first century BC in Italy are marked by a move from republican liberties to dictatorial regimes and a return to a democratic-type structure (rather similar to present-day presidential republics) with the advent of the principate of Augustus (27 BC-AD 14). At this stage the State was transformed into the Roman Empire, which gradually became a kind of elective monarchy although hereditary transmission was also not a rare occurrence. The Empire was to formally last until beyond mid 5C AD (476 was the year in which the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed) but came to an end for all practical purposes at the death of Emperor Theodosius (AD 395).
During the forty years of his principate, Octavian sought to give his empire a better organized territorial structure, which was necessary for the administrative, judicial and military reforms that were to flow. In this structure Italy formed one of the senatorial provinces in which the Empire was divided; this province was divided in its turn into eleven independent administrative regions, with the exceptions of Sardinia and Corsica that were imperial provinces.
Much later, under Diocletian (284-305), these last two, together with the Italian peninsula and the addition of Rhaetia, formed the diocese of Italy, which was united to that of Africa as one of the four prefectures of the Empire. Octavian also took particular care to construct an efficient road network to link the various imperial provinces. These roads are represented in detail on the `Tabula Peutingeriana', which shows the entire imperial road network and probably dates to AD 4C.
Though retaining the Empire's capital (until it was transferred to Constantinople at the beginning of the 4C), the imperial period saw a radical economic and political change. In Italy this was characterized by the gradual loss of its pre-eminence in comparison with the other provinces with which it had to compete.
The possibility of importing from many parts of the world all types of products, including foodstuffs, signalled the progressive decline of cultivation by small and medium proprietors and favoured the large cereal and pastoral estates to which flocked as tenants the old peasant class. Also, after the relative prosperity of the Augustan and Antonine periods, there was a profound reduction in cultivation and large-scale crops partially replaced specialized forms, such as grapes and olives. Another aspect was the growth of towns, which became the centres of political and economic life and thus also attracted an increasing population. Industrial production was organized by the State through its `fabricae', while craftsmanship took a corporate form that served to further harden social structures.
MEDIEVAL ITALY
The last hundred years of the Western Roman Empire, from the second half of the 4C, coincided with large migrations of Germanic peoples (Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, Huns, Heruli, Alemanni etc.) who on different occasions settled within her territories. At the same time economic conditions also reflected the political instability of the imperial government, it deteriorated gradually and was accompanied by a chronic fall in population.
Already by the 5C the Italian population had been reduced to some six million inhabitants.
With the end of the Western Roman Empire the Italian territory remained basically united, first under the rule of Odoacer and then that of Theodoric the Ostrogoth (493-526). Under the latter, the country had periods of relative economic prosperity and peace. This was also due to the contribution of illustrious Romanists such as Boethius, Cassiodorus and Symmachus.
It was in this period that the influence of the Christian church began to make itself felt more consistently. This was in contrast to the progressive orientalization of the Empire, now focused on its new capital of Costantinople, founded by the emperor Constantine between 326-330 on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium. The Christian church sought to continue the authority and prestige of Rome. In particular there emerged the figures of popes such as Leo I (440-461) and Gregory the Great (590-604) who were capable of bringing prestige to the institution they represented. Under the latter in particular, the church also began to assume political and administrative functions due to repeated territorial acquisitions (St. Peter's patrimony).
Also at the end of the 4C there began to flower western monachism, with its major figure in St. Benedict of Nursia (480-543). The Benedictine monasteries and abbeys, but also those of other orders, became already in the early Middle Ages not only places of religion but centres for the preservation and spread of culture. In addition, they took an important economic role due to their schemes for the drainage and use of lands devastated and depopulated by recurrent war. The papacy, monasteries and other ecclesiastical institutions found themselves in possession of huge estates, often enlarged by further donations, that contributed to strengthen their political authority and power.
The deterioration in relations between Theodoric's successors and the Eastern Empire offered the emperor Justinian (527-565) the opportunity to re-unite the Empire.
This he did at the price of a difficult conflict, the Graeco-Gothic War (535-553), which had grave consequences for the Italian territory as it was placed under the government of the Exarchate of Ravenna.
Byzantine dominion was however short-lived. In 568 a new Barbarian invasion brought the Lombards of Alboin to Italy. They reached as far as the southern regions and built a large kingdom, with its capital at Pavia, which was to last for over two hundred years (774). This put an end to the political and territorial unity that the country had preserved thus far. In fact, alongside the Lombards the temporal power of the church began to take shape. It acquired the Exarchate and the Pentapolis, former Byzantine territory corresponding to today's Marche and eastern Emilia, obtained from the Lombards themselves after their conversion to christianity. Meanwhile, the island and both extremities of the peninsula, Calabria (modern Puglia) and Bruttia (modern Calabria), remained under Byzantium.
Italy was now incapable of taking an independent political initiative and after the Lombards had to submit to another European people. The Franks descended into Italy to support the pope against the Lombards. With the victory of Charlemagne over the Lombard Desiderius, Italy was to remain for over two centuries (774) in the orbit of the Carolingian dynasty, which had substituted the Lombards in the Kingdom of Italy.
It was, however, a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire in the context of which it co-existed with the Patrimony of St. Peter, which was to become the future Papal States. The Lombards retained the Duchy of Benevento, which was transformed into a principality and maintained considerable independence until the beginning of the 11C when it provided the origins for the principalities of Salerno and Capua.
In the meantime, there occurred the Arab expansion throughout the Mediterranean and Italy herself was involved. During the 9C, in fact (827-902), Sicily fell entirely into Saracen hands and became the base for raids along the coasts or even into the interior of the Italian peninsula. Still in the South of Italy, there began to appear in this period the first independent city-states with the formation of independent signorie such as at Naples, Amalfi and Gaeta, which because of their position on the sea were able to develop a mercantile economy. These are the first examples of the free communes that were to flourish slightly later in Central-Northern Italy. In Southern Italy instead they were to be suffocated after a brief season by the arrival, towards the middle of the 11C, of another conquering northern people.
The Normans were professional soldiers and rapidly took control of all Southern Italy, Sicily included. Their rule lasted for almost two centuries, from 1029 (acquisition of Aversa) to 1220, which was the year of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen's accession to the Sicilian throne.
With first the Normans and then the Hohenstaufen (1220-1266), besides the institution of particularly efficient state structures that formed a network of control throughout the territory, there was introduced into Italy, with all its juridical implications, the feudal system. This further favoured the expansion of large establishments, whether civil or ecclesiastical, but conserved for the towns sufficient independence to guarantee the development of economic activities.
Frederick II also made a notable cultural contribution. He founded the University of Naples and encouraged the formation of the Sicilian School, which made a fundamental contribution to the development of the new Italian language, alongside the contemporary Tuscan poets and prose-writers. The enlightened absolutism of Frederick II was however accompanied by an administrative reform (Constitution of Melfi, 1231) favouring bureaucracy and tax collection. The latter, in particular, imposed restrictions on economic activities.
Northern and Central Italy after the bitter contests of feudal lords, like Guy of Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli, was conquered, after the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, by Otto I of Saxony(951). He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor (962) by the pope, thus uniting the crowns of Italy and Germany in a relationship that was to last for some thousand years.
Again in Northern Italy, the city of Venice had managed to become independent. Founded on the lagoon by refugees from Aquileia destroyed by the Huns of Attila, it had initially developed under the protection of Byzantium.
Lacking a hinterland for centuries, the city was governed by a Maggior Consiglio presided over by a doge, supporting itself essentially by sea trade. It managed to achieve a monopoly over Eastern Mediterranean traffic by establishing permanent commercial bases (fondachi) that were often transformed into colonies.
In this quest for sea trade, Venice was often in competition with other marine republics. Genoa, for example, managed at the beginning of the 11C to conquer Corsica and Sardinia. Amalfi codified maritime law with its `Tabulae Amalfitanae'. While Pisa, who beseiged Sardinia (1116), was permanently defeated by Genoa at the sea battle of Meloria (1284). Perhaps the most significant factor in their development, however, were the Crusades (10-13C).
This development of mercantile activity by the maritime cities (which also favoured the accumulation of capital as a necessary condition for economic enterprises, apart from often being an instrument of political influence) was accompanied, over the period spanning the first and second millennium AD, by a slow but sure social, economic and cultural growth in the rest of Italy. A new religious spirit can be seen in the initiatives of various, rulers, as in the case of Henry II, the last emperor from the House of Saxony (1002-24). Agriculture, crafts and commerce prospered, the latter two in particular becoming the foundations of an urban economy that was to produce the Free Communes so characteristic of a large part of Central-Northern Italy.
Notwithstanding their formal subjection to the emperor, his Italian feudal lords (and with them, though often in opposition, the newly emerging urban middle-classes, the religious and military aristocracy and the administrative bureaucracy) were particularly attached to the personal and caste privileges they had gradually acquired. Thus it was not surprising that they rebelled, led by Arduin, marquis of Ivrea, who was elected king of Italy (1002-14), against the excessive demands of the bishops and counts and the imperial attempts to re-establish supremacy.
The particular interest of the German imperial dynasties (Saxons and Franks) in Italy and the Church of Rome's constant assertions of independence, combined with identical claims for supremacy, inevitably led to conflict between emperor and pope. The ensuing investiture contest was to last for over sixty years (1059-1122) before being settled, in favour of the church, by the Concordat of Worms.
With the replacement of the Swabian House of Hohenstaufen over that of Bavaria at the head of the empire, the Italian Free Communes formed the Lombard League and, supported by the pope, defeated the new Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick I Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano (1176). This was soon claimed as a symbol of refound national unity in the face of foreign intervention but can more realistically be seen as a particular reaction of Italian society of that period against the sovereignty of the emperor.
An echo of this conflict was to occur in the following century with the tragic end of the House of Hohenstaufen, following the deaths of Manfred, Frederick II's illegitimate son, at Benevento (1266) and then of Conradin (1268). These events marked the decline of the Ghibelline idea of imperial and lay supremacy against the consolidation of the church's temporal power and the prevailing Guelf ideal of papal authority over the State.
The resolution of differences between lay and religious ideals, realized with a further request for help from foreign powers, was a choice that was very soon to damage Italian liberty. The pope's request to the Angevins for assistance against the last of the Hohenstaufen only laid Italy open to new foreign occupations and the division of her territory among the early European nations.
The Angevins were to remain in Southern Italy for almost two centuries (1266-1442), only initially encountering the obstacle of the war following the Sicilian Vespers Revolt (1282-1302) with the island consequently passing to the House of Aragon. In 1287 the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily was transferred to Naples, while the strongly fiscal and centralizing policy of the new rulers led to the surrounding territory being sacrificed to the capital, traces of which can still be seen today in the social and economic imbalance of Southern Italy.
THE RENAISSANCE AND THE SIGNORIE
Developments in Trade and Industry
The ending of imperial authority, quickly followed by the papal crisis involving its transfer to France from 1309 to 1377, was accompanied by a strengthening in the independence of the Northern and Central Italian communes. There was also a notable economic improvement for the majority of towns in the Po Valley and Tuscany.
The scarse inclination of the newly-formed urban middle-class for military activities led to a search for the protection and support of their interests by the powerful feudal families. In a short time, although in the name of the people, they acquired the signoria or lordship of the old communes. Their sphere of interest then often spread considerably beyond the original town and its surrounding district, forming a much more extensive territory. In practice, the change from commune to new signoria also signified the transformation of the first city-states into true and proper States, whose political force was therefore directly connected to their economic power. FOREIGN DOMINATION
The Spanish and French
The solemn intentions declared at the Peace of Lody only lasted a short time. Scarcely ten years later the Sforzas took over Genoa (1464), which had become a pale reflection of the once glorious republic and the energetic rule of Simone Boccanegra (1339-63, with a gap between 1344 and 1356) and now gravitated towards French influence. Plots and disagreements underlined some of the best-established signorie, such as the Sforza and Medici, fostered by papal interests that in this period were characterized by the most blatant nepotism. TOWARDS ILLUMINISM AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Economy, Society and Culture
The next fifty years saw a period of relative political stability and economic progress for all the various Italian States. Judicial and administrative reforms were carried out, generally marked by increased efficiency in state structures. This was also due to the actions of statesmen and enlightened sovereigns like Maria Teresa of Austria and Joseph II in Lombardy, Bernardo Tanucci at Naples, Pietro Leopoldo in Tuscany and Pius VI at Rome. ITALY UNDER NAPOLEON
Economy, At the End of 18th Century
The Italian political and territorial picture, which at the end of the 18C seemed to have stabilised, rapidly disintegrated in the face of Napoleon Bonaparte's first military campaign across the peninsula so as to successfully attack the Austrian Empire on its southern flank. After the Peace of Paris (16 May 1796) reached with the neighbouring kingdom of Savoy, that of Campoformio (17 October 1797) marked the end of the now enfeebled Republic of Venice. The latter was exchanged with Austria for the Duchy of Milan, which went to form the Repubblica Transpadana (November 1796). THE RISORGIMENTO
The Advent of the Monarchy
But the seeds of liberty and change had been sown in Italy above all with the First Napoleonic Campaign and a sense of national unity had been aroused by the establishment of first republican structures and then the Kingdom of Italy. These, united to the administrative and judicial reforms extended from France into Italy (especially the introduction of the Code Napoléon), began to take root despite the restoration.
The following decade coincides with the presence of Count Camillo Benso Cavour in the government of Piedmont and his able and patient pursual of a policy that succeeded in inserting the small State of Savoy within the schemes and alliances of the great European powers, as well as ensuring the friendship of neighbouring France. Results were not slow in arriving. At the Congress of Paris (1856) concluding the Crimean War, fought by the army of Piedmont in a coalition with France and England against Russia and Turkey (in the Battle of the Cernaia the new corps of the Bersaglieri, founded by General La Marmora, dist inguished itself), Cavour managed to raise the Italian question although without obtaining immediate territorial advantages. THE NATION TODAY
The Colonies
Among the numerous and complex problems of the new State emerged the need to bring uniformity to a territory that was so politically and economically diverse. The indiscriminate application of the administrative, judicial and fiscal structures of the old Piedmont was to create a further divide between Italy's more economically developed Northern and Central regions and the structurally weaker Southern region (the Mezzogiorno). A mass emigration of peasants and the poorest classes to the two Americas occurred (in the decades spanning the 19-20C the number reached several million) and the so-called southern question took root.
The country's social conditions were marked by a strong contrast between rural and urban environments. The south saw frequent protests by the peasants over the burden of taxation (such as the notorious milling tax), while the industrial proletariat gradually organized itself into political associations and trade unions. From the latter there arose in 1892 the foundation of the Partito Socialista, partly drawn from anarchic and equalitarian movements, and then in 1896 the Democrazia Cristiana party was established, inspired by the principles in the `Rerum novarum' of Leo XIII published in 1891. The participation of the outstanding representatives of these movements to parliamentary activities greatly enlivened political debate, which had been limited in the first decades of national unity to the differences between the deputies of the old right monarchists and liberals and the left republicans and reformists.
The direct participation of the masses in national political life occurred in 1913 with the introduction of universal suffrage, although women were still excluded. Consequently, on the eve of the First World War (1914-18) Italy appeared on the international scene as a country that was more socially uniform, freer in its choices (which then swayed, often with passionate dispute, between interventionism and pacifism) and altogether more modern in its organization than immediately after its unification. ITALY BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS
Having obtained a parliamentary majority in the 1924 election and the following year passed a law increasing the powers of the head of government, it was in 1926, with the abolition of all the other political parties, that the Fascist dictatorship formally began. By such means Mussolini, both on the national and international level, was able to expand without any further formal hindrance. In 1929 following the Concordato with the Catholic Church, he also managed to gain the support or at least not the hostility of the Church itself an through this the Catholic masses, which were equivalent to the majority of Italians. Such consensus increased also because of an undoubted improvement in the country's economic condition and a policy of social reform involving the poorest classes.
The continuation of land reclamation, already begun in the previous century even before the unification, increased the amount of land under cultivation with a satisfactory level of basic provisions. Examples of these initiatives can be found in the `grain battle' and the draining of the agro pontino, which produced an entirely new piece of territory. THE REPUBLIC
Coming out of the Second World War completely ruined and crippled by the severe territorial restrictions imposed by the peace treaty (Paris, 1 February 1947), the new Italian Republic had to face the many problems of material and moral reconstruction. It did this with an impressive effort that in the space of a few years produced extraordinary results. Thanks were also due to the massive aid given by the United States through the Marshall Plan and made available to the other European countries, Germany included, that had been so heavily damaged in the conflict.
To the centerist governments led by the Christian Democrats from the advent of the Republic, there followed at the beginning of the 1960s coalitions that were increasingly open to collaboration with the parties of the left. In particular with the Socialist Party after it had gradually loosened its close ties with the Communist Party. After the nationalization of the electrical industry in 1962 the socialists became part of the government. The Dialects of Italian
The dialects of modern Italian all have their roots in the spoken form of Latin (Vulgar Latin), in use throughout the Roman Empire. Vulgar Latin had, no doubt, its own local peculiarities before the fall of the Empire. The political instability that followed Roman rule kept Italy from re-uniting as a nation until the nineteenth century. This long period of fragmentation and the fact that Classical Latin was preferred as the international language of study allowed the various modes of speech to develop on their own until they could almost be called separate languages. Many dialects are, in fact, unintelligible with each other.
Milan
The dialect of Milan, or Milanese, is classified as a Septentrional dialect, specifically in the Gallo-Italic sub-group. As in German and French, the front vowels ö and ü are present: fök (fuoco), kör (cuore), brüt (brutto).
Venetian is, like Milanese, a Septentrional dialect; but falls under a different sub-group: the Venetic. Unlike Milanese, Venetian does not have the "gallic" vowels ö and ü and in this respect bears some resemblances to the Tuscan dialects to the south. The verb xe serves in the third person for the standard è (is), and sono (are). Double consonants are to some extent singularized in Venetian: el galo (il gallo), el leto (il letto); note also the use of the masculine article el (il).
The Tuscan dialects, including Florentine, are the most conservative of the Italian dialects. An example of its conservatism is seen in the retention of the consonant cluster -nd- as in quando; in most dialects, this cluster is leveled to -nn-, e.g. quanno. This feature is also true of modern standard Italian, which is based on the literary Florentine that Dante and Petrarch wrote in. Nevertheless, there are some local peculiarities that differentiate Florentine from Standard Italian. The most striking is the so-called "gorgia Toscana", the throaty aspiration of stops that is thought to have a root in Etruscan phonology. The gorgia has a sound like the Greek chi or German ch, similar to a raspy English h. Thus we hear chasa for casa (house), ficho for fico (fig); a similar aspiration also occurs before medial t: andatho or andaho (andato), datho or daho (dato).
In Romanesco we see a few deviations from standard Italian. Firstly, -nd- is commonly leveled to -nn-: thus, quanno (quando), monno (mondo). The standard gl (similar to the -lli- in English million) is realized as j (pronounced like the English y): vojo (voglio); maja (maglia). We also see r substituted for l in some positions: er core (il cuore); and vorta (volta).
The Neapolitan dialect, Napoletano, is the best known dialect aside from the standard language, due to its heavy use is popular Italian songs. It is a typical Meridional dialect, in that initial chi- takes the place of pi-; thus chiù (più), and chiove (piove). Final, unaccented vowels are often pronounced as a undifferentiated vowel, similar to the English schwa. The articles (excepting ll') in Napoletano are clipped to bare vowels: 'o libbro (il libro), 'a casa (la casa), 'e piatte (i piatti). Sorry, after some years I forgot the URL from I copied this little history of Italy. http://italian.about.com/homework/italian/?once=true&
In particular, while the maritime cities (Venice, Genoa etc.) retained control of the spice trade and other oriental products, industrial and commercial activities (especially the working of wool and the dyeing of textiles) flourished in the cities of the interior, like Florence and Milan, favouring the accumulation of capital and therefore the growth of financial dealings. It is of significance that it was in Tuscany that Francesco Datini of Prato introduced the promissory note that was so useful for banking transactions.
Tuscan, Lombard and even Venetian and Roman bankers financed the military undertakings of European sovereigns and the papacy, thus increasing their own prestige and political influence.
The Origins of the Modern State
In this atmosphere of renewed vitality, culture also prospered with a new enthusiasm for the study of the classical world and a revaluation of interest in nature and man (humanism). The arts (from literature to the expressive and figurative) had one of their finest moments. The appearance of towns was transformed with the introduction of new styles of architecture. During this period Italy indeed became the cultural centre of Europe.
Among the great signorial families emerged the Este at Ferrara, Gonzaga at Mantua, Scaligeri at Verona, Malatesta at Rimini, Montefeltro at Urbino, Carraresi at Padua and Torriani at Milan. At Florence there survived, althought with considerable dif ficulty (as the Ciompi Revolt of the woolworkers in 1378), the free republican institutions, and at Rome the absence of the papacy resulted in the brief, impossible, revolutionary dream of Cola di Rienzo (1347-54).
Among the young Italian signorie in the second half of the 14C, the most ambitious proved to be the Visconti, who had succeeded the Torriani in governing Milan (1350). Their founder, Gian Galeazzo, pursued a policy of expansion (not without the support of well-organized mercenary armies and their condottieri) throughout a large part of the Po Valley and even as far as Genoa, Umbria and Tuscany but came up against the firm resistance of the pope and Florence. On the death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402, the ambitions of the Duchy of Milan were reduced and Venice, having subdued the other Venetian signorie, succeeded in advancing as far as the banks of the Adda. In the meantime also the Florentine republic was drawing to an end. In 1382 the last corporations represented in the city's government were removed and an oligarchic regime installed that would later lead to the signoria of Cosimo de' Medici (1434). While several years later the king of Sicily, Alfonso d'Aragona, seized the throne of Naples (1442) and the Visconti of Milan were replaced by the Sforza (1448), after the brief interlude of the Repubblica Ambrosiana.
A period of calm, in the agitated political panorama of Renaissance Italy, seemed to be heralded by the Peace of Lodi (1454). The great Italian states of Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples agreed to guarantee through the Lega Italica at least forty years of peace and stability.
Also in the Kingdom of Naples there occurred conspiracies among the barons, indicating a lack of capacity on the part of various Italian States, despite their now solid economic foundations, to provide a stable political and administrative structure. However, there were already worrying signs of a financial crisis in the bankruptcy of prestigious banking families, like the Bardi and Peruzzi, who were ruined by the insolvency of the sovereigns and princes to whom they had made loans. The whole system being threatened by seigneurial particularism.
Consequently, the great European powers of the period (France, Spain and the German Empire) did not find it difficult to expand in Italy, often using dynastic claims as justification.
Charles VIII of France descended into Italy to claim the throne of Naples (1494-95); his successor Louis XII was a pretender to the Duchy of Milan (1499); there was yet another Franco-Spanish contest over the division of the Kingdom of Naples, secretly agreed at Grenada (1500); cession of the Ticino to the Swiss Confederation (1503); and, finally, there was the French reconquest of Milan (1515) by the Valois Francis I and his subsequent agreement with the Spanish ruler Charles V, at the Peace of Noyon 1516, whereby Italy was to be divided into two spheres of influence, French in the north and Spanish in the south and the islands.
But the conflict between the king of France and Charles V, who had meanwhile also become emperor of Germany, was to last for some thirty years, until the death of Francis I in 1547. During this period Rome was sacked by the Lansquenet (1527) and Florence, after a brief republican period (1527-30), once more accepted the Medici dynasty. While in order to counteract the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther (1517), vainly excommunicated in 1521, Pope Paul III was forced to summon the Council of Trent (1544-63) in order to organize the Catholic response.
With the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis 1559, between Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain, the predominance of Spain over Italy was confirmed. This was directly represented by the three kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia (1503-1734) governed by a viceroy, by the Stato dei Presidi in Tuscany (1559-1714) and by the Duchy of Milan (1535-1714). The independence of the other States was only an appearance. The Duchy of Savoy, for example, was returned to Emanuele Filiberto, previously commander of the Spanish army against the French at St. Quentin (1557), but he had to accept the presence of Spanish and French garrisons. Only the Papal States and the Republic of Venice maintained full independence.
The consequences of this new alignment, also on the cultural and economic level, were not slow to manifest themselves. Though the culture of the Italian Renaissance was to continue for some considerable time to influence the rest of Europe, nevertheless Italy gradually became marginal to the cultural, scientific and political movements of modern Europe. The latter benefitted particularly, at least in the Germanic countries, from an increased freedom of thought consequent to the Protestant Reformation. States such as Portugal, Spain, England, the Low Countries and France, with the advent of voyages of exploration and above all the discovery of the Americas, saw a notable expansion in their economic influence.
While the Mediterranean, and with it Italy, was slowly but surely cut out of the great international commercial trade routes. For the Italian economy this situation signalled the beginning of an inwardlooking phase; however, it did produce the advantage of greater interest in the utilization of its land, with a consequent development in agriculture and an increase in rural population. There were exceptions though such as Genoa, which achieved a financial position of European importance, and Leghorn, which became an active centre for English trade in the Mediterranean.
The French attempts to gain domination of Italy, so tenaciously pursued by the unfortunate Francis I, were limited at the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) to only the Marquisate of Saluzzo and the traditional influence on the Duchy of Savoy and the Republic of Genoa. Besides, new dynasties were establishing themselves in the peninsula, like the Farnese at Parma and Piacenza and the Gonzagas at Mantua and in Monferrato. However, it is also true that when it was necessary internal differences could be set aside in the common defence of European civilization: as with the historic defeat of the Turks in the waters of Lepanto (1571) by the Holy League, a coalition which included all the Italian States and Spain in defence of the threat to Christianity.
The whole of the 17C saw little change in Italy's political and territorial alignment: the Papal States once more acquired Ferrara (1598) and Urbino (1631); Saluzzo passed to Savoy (1601); and the Grey Leagues in the Grisons kept the Valtellina (obtained in 1512) despite the bitter Catholic rebellion in 1620 against the local Protestants. Nevertheless, there were episodes such as the brief civil war in the Duchy of Savoy (1637-42), provoked by a question of inheritance, and the popular revolts in Naples (Masaniello) and Palermo (1647-49).
The opening of the 18C was marked by important differences among the European powers, which increasingly involved, through rapidly changing alliances, the Italian States. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) was concluded by the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714), resulting in Italian territorial changes: the kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia were given to Austria, together with the duchies of Mantua and Milan and the Stato dei Presidi, while Sicily went to Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy along with the title of king. A couple of years after, in 1718, Sicily was exchanged for Sardinia, thus creating the new title of the state of Savoy.
The other two wars of succession fought in this period, the Polish (1733) and Austrian (1740), also had new political and territorial consequences for Italy. In 1734 Naples and Sicily were conquered by the Bourbon Charles III, who became king of Spain in 1759, and made some useful political reforms.
In Florence, the Medici were replaced by Francis of Lorraine in 1737, husband of the empress Maria Teresa. At the same time the Savoys' Kingdom of Sardinia followed a policy of expansion, Milan being occupied by Carlo Emanuele III for a brief period (1733-38). The Bourbon dynasty in its turn obtained Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla (1748), while Genoa was forced to cede Corsica, which was constantly in revolt, to France in 1768. A certain stability finally seemed to follow the agreement of Aranjuez (1745) by which France, Spain and Naples guaranteed Italian territorial alignments. This was completed with the later Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), ending the Austrian War of Succession, by which the House of Savoy obtained Vigevano and the Pavese Oltrepò.
Following this brief but intense period came first the echo of the French Revolution (1789) and the tragic end of the French monarchy (1792) and then the resounding reality of the Napoleonic armies. The latter's first Italian Campaign (1796) carried with it the hope of an independent Italy before too long. Spanish predominance in Italy, extending over some two centuries, had rather negative consequences for the country, whose economy, especially in the rich northern and central regions underwent a disastrous decline. This brought in its train social and cultural repercussions. The imbalance between the southern regions and the rest of the country increased, above all in the agricultural sector. The south had mainly large feudal agricultural and pastoral estates and exported considerable quantities of traditional Mediterranean crops (cereals, wine and olive oil) and sheep products (wool and cheese) to the great urban areas of Central Italy and the Po Valley. The north, meanwhile, alongside its large-scale irrigation cultivation was developing the production of silk (with its main working and trading centres in Lombardy) and the characteristic landscape of mixed farming (especially in Tuscany, Umbria and Marche).
Besides silk, which was very profitable, other industrial-type activities were prospering (even if in this period the production of the finished goods still had the character of a craft and an organization based on the medieval corporations), such as the weaving of wool and flax. The Alpine and Apennine forests provided the raw material for boat building, a particular speciality of Venice and Genoa. In addition, the pre-Alpine Lombard and Venetian regions had well-developed metallurgy, due to the presence of metal-bearing deposits that had been utilized since ancient times. Other important areas of production were the manufacturing of glass at Venice, paper at Fabriano and the continuing quarrying at Carrara of the splendid marble of the Apuan Alps.
Also in the commercial sector the difference between the north and south of Italy was apparent in the active presence of merchants from Tuscany, Genoa and Venice in the Spanish viceroyalty where they had fondachi or permanent commercial bases. Moreover the Central and Northern regions were in constant contact with the rest of Europe through their own trading offices at Lyons, London.
With Napoleon's entry into Italy there came also the new ideas of liberty diffused from the French Revolution and these had an immediate effect. After the French occupation of the territory of the Papal Legations in 1796, in August of the same year the ducal government of Reggio (Emilia) was overthrown and in the following December the Repubblica Cispadana was proclaimed. This latter included the rest of Emilia and adopted for the first time a flag with the present-day white, red and green colours. On 29 June 1797 the two republics were joined in the new Repubblica Cisalpina and towards the end of the year the Repubblica Ligure was formed. At the beginning of 1798 the rest of the Papal States were occupied and turned into the Repubblica Romana, while the pope had to seek refuge in Tuscany. The next year (in January 1799) it was the turn of Naples, where a group of intellectuals and aristocrats formed the Repubblica Partenopea, while King Ferdinando IV had to flee to Sicily. A republican government was then also established in Tuscany.
But the dream of liberty seemed of brief duration. The absence of Napoleon, on the Egyptian Campaign (1798-99), favoured a coalition of the great European States allied with the Russian czar and the English monarchy. As quickly as it had arrived the French army was forced to withdraw from the peninsula leaving the way open to the restoration that was to be particularly violent at Naples (June 1799).
The Second Italian Campaign began with the resounding victory of Marengo (14 June 1800) and ended with the Peace of Luneville (9 February 1801) whereby France regained control over Italy. The republican ideals having been replaced by Napoleon's dynastic aspirations, the Repubblica Italiana, direct heir of the Cisalpina with the addition of the Venetian domain, was established on 28 December 1805 and then transformed into the Kingdom of Italy on 31 March 1805. The pope's authority over part of his territories was re-established; the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was transformed into the Kingdom of Etruria; the territories of Piombino, Lucca, Massa and Carrara were assigned as a duchy to Napoleon's sister Eloise; the Kingdom of Naples was given (30 March 1806) his brother Joseph; and only Sardinia and Sicily remained for the Savoys and Bourbons.
Successive events further reinforced Napoleon's control of Italy. His brother-in-law Murat ascended the throne of Naples; the Kingdom of Italy was expanded with the Trentino and Alto Adige (the latter fiercely defended by Andreas Hofer); and Tuscany and the Papal States were incorporated in the new French Empire (Peace of Schönbrunn, 14 October 1810).
But after a brief interlude, the failure of Napoleon's Russian Campaign and his defeats at Leipzig (1813) and Waterloo (1815), as well as Murat's tragic end (October 1815), brought back to Italy the restoration of the old political and territorial order under the terms of the Congress of Vienna (June 1815).
Support came from the intellectual and middle-classes in all the Italian States and from numerous patriotic associations, often working in secret (as the `Young Italy', of Giuseppe Mazzini) but profoundly influencing society. The demand for freer and more democratic institutions, the frequency of episodes of insurrection stretching from Piedmont to Sicily but above all the concession of the Spanish constitution forced the Italian rulers (from Carlo Alberto to Leopoldo II and from Ferdinando II to Pius IX) to follow suit also during 1848. A year that was rich in events and innovations not only for Italy but also for the rest of Europe with the revolutions in Paris and Vienna.
Encouraged by the uprisings of Milan and Venice, the king of Sardinia Carlo Alberto intervened in 1848 against Austria with the help of volunteers from various parts of Italy and the regular armies of the pope and Naples. But the sudden defection of the latter two destroyed at birth what had seemed an aspiration already realized. A second attempt by the same Carlo Alberto failed the following year at Novara and he was forced to abdicate in favour of Vittorio Emanuele II. Meanwhile Rome was living with Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi a short republican season, like Tuscany, Sicily and Venice, before the French and Austrian troops intervened to restore the deposed rulers who reacted by revoking the constitutions conceded the previous year.
The Unification of Italy
These were to come three years later in 1859. Following the speech from the throne at the beginning of the year by Vittorio Emanuele II on the support of Piedmont for Italians with nationalistic aspirations, Austria, having failed in her request for the disarmament of Piedmont, declared war on the Kingdom of Sardinia. This was the occasion for which Cavour had long waited. The intervention of France under Napoleon III with the bloody victories of Solferino and San Martino forced Austria to the armistice of Villafranca and the cession of Lombardy. At the same time all Central Italy and Romagna rebelled, overturning the old regimes. Following the plebiscite that voted in favour of annexation to Piedmont (1860), there then began the construction, together with the territory of Southern Italy that had been taken by Garibaldi's expedition of `The Thousand', of the United Kingdom of Italy. This was to be proclaimed at Turin on 17 March 1861, though the acquisition of Rome and Venice were still outstanding. The latter was added five years later (1866) following an unfortunate conflict with Austria, which was resolved in Italy's favour thanks to the intervention of Prussia; Rome was conquered by force, 20 September 1870, on the fall of Napoleon III.
With these events the territorial unity of the Italian nation was almost complete and it was now necessary to construct its own social, economic and cultural image.
At the same time, in order to compete with the other European powers, Italy followed a policy of colonial expansion in Africa. She occupied Eritrea (1885-96), Somalia (1889-1905), Libya and the islands of the Aegean (1911-12). A commercial concession (500 sq miles) centred on Tien-Tsin was obtained from China in 1902.
In the economic and social areas the period from the taking of Rome to Italy entering the First World War (1870-1915) was characterized by general growth in the whole country.
This was undoubtedly favoured by an interlude in international politics that allowed Italy to put her financial affairs in order and re-organize her administrative structure.
There then followed the development of certain essential sectors, such as the rail network and basic industries, often making use of foreign capital. At the same time, attempts were made to strengthen international political relations (by joining in the Triple Alliance with the Germany of Bismark and the Austria of Franz Joseph) and commercial links, even if it was eventually necessary to resort to protectionism in order to protect the still fragile national economy.
While agriculture encountered notable difficulties due to the fall in prices on foreign markets and the backward conditions of a large part of the countryside, as well as the scourge of malaria, industry was a growth area. The textile industry, with its two main sectors of silk and cotton, as well as the metallurgical and mechanical industries were favoured by increasing supplies of electrical energy from the newly built water-powered plants in the upper Alpine and Apennine valleys.
The Problem of Southern Italy
The First World War
The cooling of relations with Austria and the renewal of Irredentist designs on the Trentino and Venezia Giulia lead to a reversal of Italy's traditional European alliances and she fought on the side of the Allies, together with France and England. The outcome of the war, which also saw the presence of the United States of America, despite the grave crisis of Caporetto (November 1917), was in Italy's favour. At the Conference of Versailles (1919) Italy received the Trentino, Alto Adige, Venezia Giulia and the Dodecanese, while being refused Fiume and Dalmatia. A reaction to this followed with the occupation of Fiume (1919-20) by the legionaries of Gabriele D'Annunzio.
In the context of the grave political crisis following the war, from which Italy had emerged victorious but economically ruined due to her efforts, the country underwent a series of political and social agitations that the weak government of the period was unable to control. One remnant of the war was however resolved with the Treaty of Rapallo (1920) by which Dalmatia, with the exception of Zadar, went to the new State of Yugoslavia, formed from the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy's possession of Istria was confirmed. Fiume was also declared a free town but was annexed by Italy only three years later with a specific agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia.
In this period were founded a number of political parties; Partito Popolare (1919), by Luigi Sturzo, as a continuation of the Democrazia Cristiana; Partito Comunista d'Italia (1921, at Leghorn), from a split with the Partito Socialista and led by Antonio Gramsci; and, finally, the Fasci di Combattimento of Benito Mussolini, previously a socialist leader and an ardent interventionist. This latter movement, after having obtained 35 deputies in the 1921 election, transformed itself into the Partito Nazionale Fascista equipped with a revolutionary programme that, after the episode of the March on Rome of 28 October 1922, brought Mussolini to the head of a government.
At the same time, industry was being brought up to date and developed, especially after the world economic crisis of 1929. The Istituto Mobiliare Italiano was created in 1931 to provide credit for industry and the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (1933) began the era of public intervention in large-scale industrial reform.
In its external policy the Fascist regime especially sought prestige by further colonial expansion, as that into Ethiopia (1935-36) or participation in the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco's forces. Gradually, Italy's good relations with France, Britain and the Soviet Union (whose revolutionary government Italy was the first country to recognize) deteriorated, while her links with Hitler's Germany increased (Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936). In 1939 the Pact of Steel with Germany, after an initially non-belligerent phase, inevitably dragged Italy, in 1940, into the tragic events of the Second World War (1939-45).
Italy's increasingly unsuccessful war, fought on many fronts and against better trained and equipped armies, overwhelmed Mussolini in 1943, when he was censured by his own party. He was replaced as head of government by the Marshall Pietro Badoglio, who immediately signed an armistice with the allied powers (3 September 1943). The formation of a new government by Mussolini in Northern Italy, the Repubblica Sociale Italiana based at Salò, with the support of Germany and in opposition to the monarchial government (temporarily based at Brindisi) provoked a civil war. This was only brought to an end by the intervention of the allied armies, the formation of the partisans, the abdication of the king and the end of Mussolini (28 April-2 May 1945).
After an interlude with several national coalition governments and the provisional rule of Umberto II of Savoy, Alcide De Gasperi of the Democrazia Cristiana became President of the Council. On 2 June 1946 the results of the institutional referendum brought to an end the monarchy of the House of Savoy (its last king, Umberto II, going into exile) and heralded the republic which was officially proclaimed on 18 June 1946. Enrico De Nicola was elected as the Republic's first President. Under the government led by De Gasperi, the first parliamentary assembly to be freely elected by the people began work on the new Constitutional Charter that was to come into force on 1 January 1948.
A policy of reconstruction and economic development was followed by the various governments in power after 1948, the year in which the party of the Democrazia Cristiana acquired a large parliamentary majority. Initially this took the form of severe anti-inflation measures and then a lifting of restrictions combined with public intervention through a re-launching of the Institute for the Reconstruction of Industry (the Senigallia Plan for the development of the iron and steel industry).
The establishment of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (funds for the development of Southern Italy) set in motion a complex series of extraordinary interventions to provide the southern regions with the necessary basic structures (roads, drainage, services etc.) to assist in economic and above all agricultural development. Agrarian reform was particularly necessary in combating the centuries-old landede states of the South.
Nevertheless a new and even greater migration occurred, this time not overseas but towards the countries of northwestern Europe (Germany, France, Belgium, England, Switzerland etc.), where the post-war industrial boom required large quantities of manpower. However, the movement of population towards the north of Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria) was even greater, due to the efforts of private initiative in creating an industrialized climate, whose rapid and often disorderly growth created talk of an `economic miracle'. This was borne witness to by the large increase in national income and a profound and radical transformation in the country's social and economic structure.
Even at the beginning of the 1960s, the majority of the working force was employed in the industrial sector, while agriculture continued to diminish and the service industries began their expansion. In the international sphere, with her entry to the United Nations and participation in military alliances and economic agreements with the other western countries (European and North American), Italy began to regain the dignity and prestige due to her geographical position and the richness of her historical and cultural traditions.
Developments and Problems in Recent Years
Meanwhile, the policies of social reform combined with the imposition of taxation on investment returns and ground for building required to finance the provision of public housing, imple mented by the governments presided over by Amintore Fanfani, provoked a loss of confidence. There was a general uncertainty on the national political scene in the face of a fundamental choice in economic policy, leading to a fall in investments and a critical contraction in share dealings. Thus came to an end in 1963-64 the long period of national economic growth that had carried Italy into the group of most industrialized nations.
Following this crisis, there occurred a new phase of economic expansion (1966-69), though at a slower rate. An economic plan was drawn up containing territorial implications requiring the institution of regions with autonomous powers of administration, legislation and management. In particular, special autonomous status, which was already in force, was conferred on the five peripheral regions of Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia and Sicily.
From 1968, in line with protest movements in other European countries such as France and Germany and while, especially among the young, there was a growth in emotional participation condemning violent local conflicts in the under-developed regions of the third world, Italy also began to be involved in student and trade union agitation (1968-69). These increased in frequency and unfortunately produced episodes of collective violence.
They did however obtain considerable standard and economic concessions that all too soon reflected negatively on a national economy that was already weakened by a high level of consumption and a consequent imbalance in international trade. Thus, when in 1973 there was the energy crisis (provoked by yet another Arab-Israel conflict) that threw the world economy into confusion, Italy found herself in a particularly difficult situation. She was forced to absorb the grave consequences of a rate of inflation that even reached 20% per annum, while the numbers of unemployed grew to over two million, due to drastic cut-backs and failure of the weakest firms. The country's situation was aggravated considerably by the phenomenon of political and ideological terrorism, which was often allied with organized crime (the assassination of the Christian Democrat statesman Aldo Moro in 1978 formed the most significant episode).
Finally, during the first half of the 1980s there were national coalition governments (supported by the parties of the `constitutional arc') who weathered the political emergency and applied severe measures of economic austerity to contain consumption. The last of these governments being headed for the first time by members of the `lay' parties such as the republican Spadolini and the socialist Craxi. The national economic situation has registered a net improvement, with inflation falling to acceptable levels, a growth in investments (favoured by a reduction in trade union conflicts) and an improvement in the value of the lire, all within a climate of renewed faith in the capacity of the whole nation to develop.
With the political reunification of the peninsula and the degree of travel and relocation that began to take place, the need for a national language became all the more urgent. This need was met by the literary language, which had evolved as a standardized form of Florentine. Today, thanks to aggressive education programs, the literary language is used throughout the country for law, business, and education. The dialects are finding themselves relegated to home use, or between close neighbors in urban neighborhoods and villages.
There are two major groups of Italian dialects, excepting the Sardinian group which is considered another language entirely. These two groups are separated by the Spezia-Rimini line, named for the two cities near which it passes; the line runs east-west across the peninsula, for the most part following the border between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, then cutting into the Marches. Above the divide lie the Northern (Settentrionale) dialects; below it the Central-Southern (Centro-Meridionale) dialects.
The Septentrional or Northern dialects in turn are divided into two main groups: the largest of these geographically is the Gallo-Italic group, encompassing the regions of Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna, as well as parts of Trentino-Alto Adige. It is named for the Gauls which once inhabited this part of Italy, and who, it seems, left traces of their Celtic speech in the modern dialects. Next largest is the Venetic group, whose borders loosely follow the region of Veneto.
The Central-Meridional dialects are of four distinct groups. The Tuscan group occupies an area roughly approximating that of the region of Tuscany. To the south are the Latin-Umbrian-Marchegian dialects, which occupy the northern half of Latium (including Rome), most of Umbria and some of the Marches. These two are also sometimes grouped together as the Central dialects. Directly below these are the Meridional dialects, of two major types. The Intermediate Meridional dialects occupy the bottom half of the peninsula, including the regions of southern Lazio, Abruzzi, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, and parts of Apulia. The tips of Calabria and Apulia, however, together with Sicily, delineate the Extreme Meridional dialects.
Within the political boundaries of Italy are two other Romance languages. Ladino is spoken in the extreme north-east of Italy; a Friulian type in Friulia, and a Dolomitic type in the Dolomite mountains. Sardinian, spoken on the island of Sardinia, is divided into Logudorese-Campidanese and Sassarese-Gallurese. (Further information on Sardinian is available on the Sardinian Language and Culture Page.)
Dialects of Italian are also spoken outside of the political boundaries of Italy. The Istrian dialects are restricted to the southwestern portion of the peninsula of Istria in modern day Croatia. These, together with the Venetic dialects spoken just to the north, are of the Septentrional type. Corsican, on the French island of Corsica, falls under the Central-Meridional group.
Venice
Florence
Rome
Naples
Perhaps from one of the two sites below?
here you can listen "Italian Survival Phrases - Essential Words and Phrases for Travelers"
http://www.italian-american.com/#webring
this is: Italian American Web Site of New York, is site owned by Joseph Anastasio.