Italy History

Talking about the first inhabitants of Italian territory, the historians agree that it was the Ligurian tribe. Moreover, the history of Italy is the history of Rome, because in the 3rd century B.C. the country was conquered by the Romans. Gradually, Italy was divided into several parts. The Normans and the Saracens kept the control over various segments of the Italian peninsula. By the end of the 15th century Italy was ruled by different forces: French and Spanish dynasties controlled the south and the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples; the republics of Siena, Florence, and Lucca, the cities of Bologna, Forli, Rimini, and Faenza became the Papal States. Venice and Genoa with the colonies were the merchant republics.

In 1805 after Napoleon was crowned as a king of Italy, the parts of the country were united. But such situation didn’t last long. In 10 years Italy was fragmentized again with Austria as a dominant power. The foundation for Italian unity was laid by Giuseppe Mazzini in 1830, but complete unification was reached after the war against Austria, when Italy helped France and as a result obtained Lombardy.

Italy entered World War I on the side of the Allies, but after its end the country got less territory then expected. During World War II when the Allies invaded Italy the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini was collapsed. According to the postwar peace treaty, Italy refused some territories in Ethiopia and Greece. The economic, ruined by the war, was successfully rebuilt, the country entered NATO and the European Economic Community (later the EU). In 2009 Italy suffered an awful earthquake but the country managed to restore all its losses and nowadays it remains very attractive for the tourists from all over the world.