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Italy

The modern state of Italy did not emerge until very late in the 19th century. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Italy became essentially a contested territory with different invaders vying for supremacy. From the last quarter of the 5th century, the country was repeatedly invaded by Germanic tribes from the north. Odoacer, a Gothic chief and a leader of German troops in the Roman army, led a revolt of his troops that deposed and exiled the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in 475 AD. Odoacer was king of Italy for 18 years before Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, invaded in 488. Theodoric killed Odoacer in 493; became the new king of Italy and ruled for 33 years.

In 535 Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire sent his general, Belisarius, to expel the Ostrogoths from Italy. Byzantine control of Italy lasted from 553 to 572 when another group of Germans, the Lombards, invaded and ultimately drove the Byzantines out. The Lombards ruled Italy for the next 202 years.

At the invitation of Pope Stephen II in 745, the Franks fought a long campaign against the Lombards, finally defeating them in 774. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III. A succession of "Holy Roman Emperors" would lay claim to the kingdom of Italy for much of the Middle Ages.

In 827 Muslim Saracens captured Sicily and threatened Rome. Pope Leo IV called on, Charlemagne’s great-grandson, Louis II, king of Italy from 844 till his death in 875, to fend off the Muslims. After Louis II's death, the Saracens over-ran southern Italy and forced the Pope to pay tribute. At the same time, Italy fell into chaos with the rise and fall of numerous kings. This situation lasted for 87 years before Otto I, king of Germany, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962.

The Normans - under Robert Guiscard, who in 1059 was named duke of Apulia, Calabria and Sicily by Pope Nicholas II - expelled the Byzantine Empire and the Lombards from Italy, and drove the Saracens out of Sicily in 1091. They united their Sicilian and Italian territories in 1127. But this was a period of waning power for the kings and emperors and the rising influence of the city states and the pope in Italy.

The Lombard League, a political alliance of the great trading cities of Italy, was formed in 1167. It challenged the power of Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I and defeated him in the Battle of Lagnano in 1176. Subsequently the Italian cities were able to gain their autonomy.

With autonomy, cities like Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and Florence grew rich and powerful. The cities would ultimately develop a ruling oligarchy with despots their own. This system proved favorable to flourishing of trade, culture and the arts and made Italy the center of European high culture during the Middle Ages.

Toward the end of the 15th century, the Italian cities and duchies were drawn into wars being waged by France, Spain and Austria. By the 16th century the Italian states were increasingly under attack by their northern neighbors. By the 18th century Italy was still variously divided and under foreign control.

The 19th century was a period of revolution in Italy. Nationalists campaigned hard to throw off foreign domination and unite Italy. Their movement came to be knwon as the Risorgimento. The leaders of the Risorgimento included Guiseppe Mazzini, a champion of republicanism and Italian nationalism. He was the founder, in 1831, of Giovane Italia (Young Italy), an organization designed to spread the ideals of nationalism and republicanism in Italy; and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini played a key role in the revolution of the 1820, which was successfuly suppressed by Austria.

As a member of Mazzini's Young Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi had been sentenced to death in 1834, but escaped to South America. He returned in 1848 to continue the fight for Italian unity and was exiled again the same year to the United States. Returning finally in 1854 Garibaldi became the most influential nationalist in Italy. He abandoned republicanism and aligned with King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia and his prime minister, Conte Camillo Benso di Cavour.

Sardinia became a rallying point for Italian unity. In 1860 Romagna, Parma and Modena voted to unite with Sardinia. In May 1860 Garibaldi invaded and took control of Sicily. On September 7, he also took over Naples. Sardinian forces took over the Papal States leaving only the city of Rome to the Church. Sicily, Naples and in the Italian regions of Marche and Umbria voted to join Sardinia.

On March 17, 1861, the united kingdom of Italy was proclaimed. Victor Emmanuel II became king of Italy, and Cavour became his prime minister. In 1866 Italy acquired Venice for siding with Prussia against Austria in the Seven Weeks’ War. In October 1870 Rome voted to unite with Italy and in July 1871 it became the capital of the kingdom.

A united Italy belatedly joined the European scramble for Africa. At the beginning of 1885, the Italians occupied Eritrea and later that year established a protectorate over parts of Somalia. Their attempt to take over Ethiopia resulted in Ethiopian defeat of Italian forces in 1896 at Aduwa. The Italians were more successful in taking over Libya in 1911.

Italy joined World War I (August 1914 to November 1918) on the part of the Allied powers against Austria and the Ottoman empire. But at the end of that war, Italy was gripped by social, political and economic problems. Landowners feared a peasant uprising that might deprive them; the middle class and capitalists feared a communist take-over of government; the Church worried about the rise of a secular state. In the midst of all this in 1922, Fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, with the support of conservatives, threatened forceful seizure of power. Before the Fascists made good on their threat to march on Rome, Prime Minister Luigi Facta resigned and on October 28 Victor Emmanuel called on Mussolini to form a new government.

Mussolini's government soon became a dictatorship. In 1924 he suspended constitutional government and made himself responsible to the king alone. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935. The Ethiopeans fought the invasion but lost. On May 9, 1936 Italy annexed Ethiopia into the Italian East African Colony.

Italy entered the Second World War (1939 to 1945) in June 1940 on the side of Germany, 9 months after Britain and France declared war on Germany. Mussolini's forces met a series of defeats early in the war; national morale fell and never recovered. In July 1943, as the Allies invaded Sicily and intensified bombing of the mainland, invasion was imminent. The Italian Fascist Grand Council passed a vote of no-confidence on Mussolini. On July 25, King Victor Emmanuel asked for Mussolini’s resignation and had him detained.

Marshal Pietro Badoglio became the new prime minister and abrogated all Fascist institutions.

Italy surrendered to the Allies on September 3, 1943, the same day the mainland was invaded and offered to join the war against Germany. The Germans quickly occupied Rome, rescued Mussolini from prison and announced a counter Fascist National government in his name. On October 13, 1943 Prime Minister Badoglio declared war on Germany. Under pressure to abdicate, the king retired in April 1944 and appointed his son, Humbert, lieutenant general of Italy. Rome was liberated on June 4, 1944.

Mussolini was captured and executed by Italian partisans on April 28, 1945. King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated on May 9, 1946 and his son ascended the throne as Humbert II.

In the eneral elections held on June 2 and 3, 1946, 25 million people voted and 54.3 percent of them chose a republic. On June 13 King Humbert abdicated.