Italy, Italian Italia, republic (116,303 sq mi/301,225 sq km; 1990 population 57,576,429; 2004 estimated population 58,057,477), S Europe, bordering on France in the NW, the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea in the W, the Ionian Sea in the S, the Adriatic Sea in the E, Slovenia in the NE, and Austria and Switzerland in the N; (cap.) Rome; 43°00'N 13°00'E.
Geography
The country includes the large Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia and several small islands, notably Elba, Capri, Ischia, and the Lipari Islands. Vatican City (see under Vatican) and San Marino are two independent enclaves on the Italian mainland. Rome is Italy’s largest city; other important cities include Milan, Naples, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Catania, Venice, Bari, Trieste, Messina, Verona, Padua, Cagliari, Taranto, Brescia, and Livorno. The country is divided into twenty regions, which are subdivided into a total of ninety-four provinces. About 75% of Italy is mountainous or hilly, and roughly 20% of the country is forested. There are narrow strips of low-lying land along the Adriatic coast and parts of the Tyrrhenian coast. N Italy, made up largely of a vast plain that is contained by the Alps in the N and drained by the Po River and its tributaries, comprises the regions of Liguria, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta (see Aosta, Valle d’), Lombardy, Trentino–alto Adige, Venetia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and part of Emilia-Romagna (which extends into central Italy). It is the richest part of the country, with the best farmland, the chief port (Genoa), and the largest industrial centers. N Italy also has a flourishing tourist trade on the Italian Riviera, in the Alps (including the Dolomites), on the shores of its beautiful lakes (Lake Maggiore, Lake Como, and Lake Garda), and in Venice. Gran Paradiso (13,323 ft/4,061 m), the highest peak wholly situated within Italy, rises in Valle d’Aosta.
The Italian peninsula, bootlike in shape and traversed in its entire length by the Apennines (which continue on into Sicily), comprises central Italy ( Marche, Tuscany, Umbria, and Latium regions) and S Italy (Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzi, Molise, Calabria, and Apulia regions). Central Italy contains great historic and cultural centers such as Rome, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, Urbino, Bologna, Ravenna, Rimini, Ferrara, and Parma. The major cities of S Italy, generally the poorest and least developed part of the country, include Naples, Bari, Brindisi, Foggia, and Taranto. Except for the Po and Adige, Italy has only short rivers, among which the Arno and the Tiber are the best known. Most of Italy enjoys a Mediterranean climate; however, that of Sicily is subtropical, and in the Alps there are long and severe winters. The country has great scenic beauty—the majestic Alps in the N, the soft and undulating hills of Umbria and Tuscany, and the romantically rugged landscape of the S Apennines. The Bay of Naples, dominated by Mount Vesuvius, is one of the world’s most famous sights.
Population
The great majority of the population speaks Italian (including several dialects); there are small German-, French-, and Slavic-speaking minorities. Most Italians are Roman Catholic. There are numerous universitiesin Italy, including ones at Bari, Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Turin, Padua, Palermo, and Rome.
Economy
Italy has greatly improved its highway system in the post-war years, especially in the S. Italy began to industrialize late in comparison to other European nations, and until World War II was largely an agricultural country. However, after 1950 industry was developed rapidly so that by the early 1990s manufacturing contributed about 28% of the annual GDP and agriculture only about 2.2%. The principal farm products are wheat, sugar beets, maize, tomatoes, potatoes, citrus fruit, olives, and livestock (especially cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats). In addition, much wine is produced from grapes grown throughout the country. Industry is centered in the N, particularly in the “golden triangle” of Milan-Turin-Genoa. Italy’s economy has been gradually diversifying, shifting from food and textiles and apparel, to engineering, steel, and chemical products. The chief manufacture of the country includes iron, steel and other metal products, refined petroleum, chemicals, electrical and nonelectrical machinery, motor vehicles, textiles and apparel, printed materials, and plastics. Although many of Italy’s important industries are state-owned, the trend in recent years has been toward privatization. There is a small fishing industry. Italy has only limited mineral resources and has consistently increased its mineral imports; the chief minerals produced are petroleum (especially in Sicily), lignite, iron ore, iron pyrites, bauxite, sulfur, and mercury. There are also large deposits of natural gas (methane). Much hydroelectricity is generated, and there are several nuclear power stations in the country. Italy, however, is still greatly dependent on oil to meet its energy requirements.
In order to further the economic development of the S, the Cassa per il mezzogiorno (Southern Italy Development Fund) was founded in 1950; it allocated considerable funds, especially for improving the economic infrastructure of the region, but it is now defunct. A plan was instituted in the 1980s by the government to cut consumption and reduce public spending; nevertheless, by 2003 the national debt was 106.4% of GNP. Italy has a large foreign trade, facilitated by its sizable commercial shipping fleet. The leading exports are machinery, textiles, chemicals, motor vehicles, and metals; the main imports are machinery, transport equip., chemicals, food and food prods., and minerals (especially petroleum). Tourism is a major source of foreign exchange. The chief trade partners are Germany, France, the U.S., Spain, and Great Britain. Italy is a member of the EU, NATO, and the UN.
History to 5th Century
Little is known of Italian history before the 5th century B.C., except for the regions (S Italy and Sicily) where the Greeks had established colonies. The earliest known inhabitants seem to have been of Ligurian stock. The Etruscans, coming probably from Asia Minor, established themselves in central Italy before 800 B.C. They reduced the indigenous population to servile status and established a prosperous empire with a complex culture. In the 4th century B.C., the Celts (called Gauls by Roman historians) invaded Italy and drove the Etruscans from the Po valley. In the S, the Etruscan advance was checked about the same time by the Samnites, who had adapted the civilization of their Greek neighbors and who in the 4th century B.C. drove the Etruscans out of Campania. The Latins, living along the coast of Latium, had not been fully subjected to the Etruscans; they and their neighbors, the Sabines, were the ancestors of the Romans. The history of Italy from the 5th century B.C. to the 5th century A.D. is largely that of the growth of Rome and of the Roman Empire, of which Italy was the core. By the beginning of the Christian era (4th century), all of Italy had been thoroughly latinized, Roman citizenship had been extended to all free Italians, an excellent system of roads had been built, and Italy, made tax exempt, shared fully in the wealth of Rome. Never since has Italy known an equal degree of prosperity or as long a period of peace.
History - 5th Century to 962
Christianity spread rapidly. Like the rest of the Roman Empire, Italy in the early 5th century A.D. began to be invaded by successive waves of barbarian tribes—the Germanic Visigoths, the Huns, and the Germanic Heruli and Ostrogoths. The deposition (476) of Romulus Augustulus, the last Roman emperor of the West, and the assumption by Odoacer of the rule over Italy is commonly regarded as the end of the Roman Empire. The Eastern emperors, residing at Constantinople, never renounced their claim to Italy, and the Byzantine emperor Justinian I retook the land in 535. Except in the exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, and the coast of S Italy, Byzantine rule was soon displaced by that of the Lombards, who under Alboin established (569) a new kingdom. During this time the papacy emerged as the chief bulwark of Latin civilization. The Lombards warded off Byzantine efforts at reconquest and in 751 took Ravenna; their advance on Rome resulted in the appeal of Pope Stephen II to Pepin the Short, ruler of the Franks, who expelled the Lombards from the exarchate of Ravenna and from the Pentapolis, which he donated (754) to the pope. Pepin’s intervention was followed by that of his son Charlemagne, who defeated the Lombard king, Desiderius; was crowned king of the Lombards; confirmed his father’s donation to the papacy, and in 800 was crowned emperor of the West at Rome. These events shaped much of the later history of Italy and of the papacy. Among the direct results were the claim of later emperors to Italy and the temporal power of the popes.
History - 962 to 15th Century
As Carolingian power waned and Italy fell victim to internal strife and foreign raiders, the German king Otto I invaded Italy at the request of the papacy. In 962, he was crowned emperor by the pope. This union of Italy and Germany marked the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. Although the Alps had never prevented invaders from entering Italy, they did prevent the emperors from exercising effective control over it. Again and again the emperors and German kings crossed the Alps to assert their authority; each time their authority virtually vanished when they left Italy. This led to the rise of the Italian city, beginning in the 10th century. The rise was partly political in origin—the burghers were drawing together to protect themselves from the nobles—and partly economic—contact with the Muslim world was making the Italian merchants the middlemen and the Italian cities the entrepôts of Western Europe. To protect their commerce and their industries (particularly the wool industry), cities grouped together in leagues, which often were at war with each other. Rivalry among the cities, however, prevented the formation of any union strong enough to consolidate even a part of Italy. The most powerful princes and the most powerful republics tended to increase their territories at the expense of weaker neighbors. The cities in the Papal States passed under local tyrants during the Babylonian captivity of the popes at Avignon (1309–1378) and during the Great Schism (1378–1417).
History - 15th Century to 1701
By the end of the 15th century Italy had fallen into the following chief component parts: in the S, the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples, torn by the rival claims of the French Angevin dynasty and the Spanish house of Aragón; in central Italy, the Papal States, the republics of Siena, Florence, and Lucca, and the cities of Bologna, Forlì, Rimini, and Faenza (only nominally subject to the pope); in the N, the duchies of Ferrara and Modena, Mantua, Milan, and Savoy. The two great merchant republics, Venice and Genoa, with their far-flung possessions, colonies, and outposts, were distinct in character and outlook from the rest of Italy. Constant warfare among these many states resulted in political turmoil, but did little to diminish their wealth or to hinder their cultural output. In fact, their prosperity facilitated the great cultural flowering of the Italian Renaissance, which permanently changed the civilization of Western Europe. The Renaissance reached its peak in the late 15th century, just as Italy’s political independence was threatened by the growing nations of France, Spain, and Austria. Quarrels among Italian states invited foreign intervention. The invasion (1494) of Italy by Charles VIII of France marked the beginning of the Italian Wars, which ended in 1559 with most of Italy subjected to Spanish rule or influence. By the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559), Spain gained the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples and the duchy of Milan.
History - 1701 to 1796
Foreign domination continued with the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). By 1748, Naples, Sicily, and the duchies of Parma and Piacenza had passed to branches of the Spanish Bourbons, and the duchies of Milan, Mantua, Tuscany, and Modena to Austria. These centuries of political weakness were also a period of economic decline. The center of European trade shifted away from the Mediterranean, and commerce and industry suffered from the mercantilist policies of the European states. Nevertheless, Italy continued to have considerable influence on European culture, especially in architecture and music. Yet to subsequent generations in Italy (especially in the 19th century), preoccupied with the concepts of national independence and political power, the political condition of 18th-century Italy represented national degradation. The French Revolution rekindled Italian national aspirations, and the French Revolutionary Wars swept away the political institutions of 18th-century Italy.
History - 1796 to 1861
General Bonaparte (later Napoleon I), who defeated Sardinian and Austrian armies in his Italian campaign of 1796–1797, was at first acclaimed by most Italians. Napoleon redrew the Italian map several times. Extensive land reforms were carried out, especially in N Italy. But Napoleon’s failure to unite Italy and to give it self-government disappointed Italian patriots, some of whom formed secret revolutionary societies such as the Carbonari, which later played a vital role in Italian unification. The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) generally restored the pre-Napoleonic status quo and the old ruling families. In 1848–1849, there were several short-lived revolutionary outbreaks, notably in Naples, Venice, Tuscany, Rome, and the kingdom of Sardinia (whose new liberal constitution survived). Unification was ultimately achieved under the house of Savoy, and Victor Emmanuel II became king of Italy in 1861. At that time, the kingdom of Italy did not include Venetia, Rome, and part of the Papal States. Relations between the Italian government and the papacy, which refused to concede the loss of its temporal power, remained a major problem until 1929, when the Lateran Treaty made the pope sovereign within Vatican City.
History - 1861 to 1922
From 1861 until the Fascist dictatorship (1922–1943) of Benito Mussolini, Italy was governed under the liberal constitution adopted by Sardinia in 1848. The reigns of Victor Emmanuel II (1861–1878) and Humbert I (1878–1900), and the first half of the reign of Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), were marked by moderate social and political reforms and by some industrial expansion in N Italy (mainly in the 20th century). In the underdeveloped S, rapid population growth led to mass emigration, both to the industrial centers of N Italy and to the Americas. In World War I, Italy at first remained neutral. After the Allies offered substantial territorial rewards, Italy denounced the Triple Alliance and entered (1915) the war on the Allied side. Although the Italians initially suffered serious reverses, they won (1918) a great victory at Vittorio Veneto, which was followed by the surrender of Austria-Hungary. Within Italy, political and social unrest increased, furthering the growth of Fascism.
History - 1922 to 1941
The Fascist leader (Italian Il Duce) Mussolini, promising the restoration of social order and of political greatness, directed (October 27, 1922) a successful march on Rome and was made premier by the king. Granted dictatorial powers, Mussolini quashed opposition to the state (especially that of socialists and Communists), regimented the press and the schools, imposed controls on industry and labor, and created a corporative state controlled by the Fascist party and the militia. Mussolini followed an aggressive foreign policy, and after 1935 he turned increasingly to militarist and imperialist solutions to Italy’s problems. Italy conquered Ethiopia in 1935–1936, easily overcoming the ineffective sanctions imposed by the League of Nations (from which Italy withdrew in 1937). At the same time, Italy drew closer to Nazi Germany and to Japan; in 1936, Italy formed an entente with Germany. Italy intervened on the Insurgent side in the Spanish civil war (1936–1939), and in 1939 it seized Albania. At the outbreak of World War II, Italy assumed a neutral stance friendly to Germany, but in June 1940 it declared war on collapsing France and on Great Britain.
History - 1941 to 1951
In 1941, Italy declared war on the USSR and on the U.S. Soon Italy suffered major reverses, and by July 1943 it had lost its African possessions, its army was shattered, Sicily was falling to U.S. troops, and Italian cities (especially ports) were being bombed by the Allies. In July 1943, discontent among Italians culminated in the rebellion of the Fascist grand council against Mussolini, Mussolini’s dismissal by Victor Emmanuel III, the appointment of Pietro Badoglio as premier, and the dissolution of the Fascist party. In September 1943, Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, while German forces quickly occupied N and central Italy. Aided by the Germans, Mussolini escaped from prison and established a puppet republic in N Italy. In April 1945, partisans captured and summarily executed Mussolini. In May 1945, the Germans surrendered. After the war, Italy’s borders were established by the peace treaty of 1947, which assigned several small Alpine districts to France; the Dodecanese to Greece; and Trieste, Istria, most of Venezia Giulia, and several Adriatic islands to the former Yugoslavia and to the Free Territory of Trieste. In 1954, Trieste and its environs were returned to Italy. As a result of the war, Italy also lost its colonies of Libya, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland. The Christian Democrats, Communists, and Socialists emerged from the war as Italy’s chief political parties; the political scene in post-war Italy, however, has been characterized by ever-crumbling power structures, government scandal, and popular unrest.
History - 1951 to Present
Despite this pervasive political instability, Italy’s economy, particularly the industrial sector, expanded dramatically between 1950 and 1970. Beginning in the late 1960s, there was considerable industrial unrest in the country as workers demanded higher wages (to offset inflation), better social services, and increased opportunities for education. In mid-1974, Italy faced its worst economic crisis in thirty years. In 1978 former premier Aldo Moro, a Christian Democrat, was kidnapped and assassinated by the Red Brigade, a left-wing terrorist group. Center-left coalitions dominated by the Christian Democrats held power until 1983, when the republic’s first socialist-led coalition took power under Premier Bettino Craxi. He led the government for four years, a relatively long time by Italian standards, until he resigned in 1987 and was replaced by Christian Democrat Giovanni Goria. In 1989, Giulio Andreotti became premier for the sixth time at the age of seventy. In 1991 the Italian Communist party changed its name to the Democratic Party of the Left. In the 1992 elections the Christian Democrats barely maintained their coalition with the Socialists, the Liberals, and the Social Democrats. Giuliano Amato was named premier. In international affairs, Italy is firmly tied to the West, joining NATO at its inception in 1949. It was admitted to the UN in 1955. In 1971 a treaty between Austria and Italy, granting increased autonomy to the German-speaking province of Bolzano in Trentino-Alto Adige, was signed and ratified. In late 1966, N and central Italy suffered severe flooding; there was considerable damage to art treasures and libraries, especially in Florence. After much controversy, a bill legalizing divorce was passed in 1970. In 1989 the Italian judicial system was significantly changed, allowing for cross-examination of witnesses and the assumption of innocence on the part of the defendant. The spread of drugs has become a major problem in Italy, which has the highest incidence of drug addiction in Europe.
Government
Under the 1948 constitution, legislative power is vested in a bicameral parliament consisting of the 630-member chamber of deputies, which is popularly elected, and the senate, made up of 315 members elected by region, plus five life members nominated by the president of Italy and all living former presidents. The chamber is the more important body. The council of ministers, led by the premier, is the country’s executive; it must have the confidence of parliament. The head of state is the president, chosen in a joint session by parliament. The country’s twenty regions also have parliaments and governments with limited powers. The current president is Carlo Azeglio (May 1999). Silvio Berlusconi has been prime minister since June 2001.
