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1. A Brief History

Prehistory
Remains of Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age cultures
Nomadic Tribes move south across the Alps: Celts, Veneti
Hunters seeking game and fish Farmers seeking fertile land

Early History
Greeks: Sicily and Southern Italy (800 BC)
Agrigento

Etruscans: Tuscany, the Po River Valley and south to the Tiber River (800 BC)
Etruscan Tomb
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Legend of the founding of Rome: Romulus and Remus

The Roman Empire

Rise and expansion of the Empire Roman world domination begins (172 BC) Greatest extent of the Empire (117 AD)

Map of Ancient Italy

Constantine moves the capital to Constantinople, Turkey in 330 AD

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Decline and Fall of Rome

Invasions Conquest

by the Goths & Vandals (400sAD)

of Italy by the Lombards (568 AD)
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The glory that was Rome

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Barbarian Kingdoms

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The Dark Ages

The Holy Roman Empire

Pepin,

King of the Franks, defeats the Lombards in northern Italy (754 AD) and gives land to the Pope (The Papal States of central Italy)

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Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor (800 AD)

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Breakup of the Holy Roman Empire

In 843 AD, after Charlemagnes death, the Empire was partitioned among his sons.

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Muslims invade Sicily and southern Italy

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The Middle Ages

Rule by Germans or Austrians in north Rule by Normans or Spanish in south Rise of Feudalism

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The Middle Ages: Rise of the Roman Catholic Church Rome converted and absorbed the waves of northern barbarians who came over the Alps

Latin remained the common

language of educated people

in the West and of the Church
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Rise of the Italian City-States

Control by wealthy families:

Florence Ferrara Mantua Milan Rimini Venice:

the Medici the Este the Gonzaga the Sforza and the Visconti the Malatesta wealthy families elected Doges
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Firenze and the Medici

Panorama of Firenze
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The Gonzaga family in Mantua

La Piazza: Mantova

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The Sforza family in Milan

Castello Sforzesco

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Wealthy families of Venice elected the Doge

The Doges Palace

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Europe: 1378

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The Renaissance: 1400-1600

Rebirth of all the arts and culture begins in the City-States of Italy Wealthy bankers and merchants support artists, architects, intellectuals, etc. Italian ideals set enduring standards for art in the Western world, influenced writers & architects, and encouraged intellectual pursuits

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Renaissance Cities

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Rebirth of the Arts

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Michelangelo Buonarroti

La Pieta

Moses
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Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa

The Last Supper

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The end of the Renaissance

Political stress:
France

and Spains rivalry over Italy City-states passed among various European rulers through war, marriage, treaty, death The Papacy held on to the Papal States Spain the chief power in Italy: 1559-1713 House of Savoy rules Piedmont & Sardinia

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Italy: 1494
Rivalry of Spain and France over territories in Italy

By 1544: Spain ruled Sicily, Naples & Milan

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Europe: 1500

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1600-1815

Italy remains split into a dozen separate states while European nations are forming The feudal system lingers on in the south
Europe 1648

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Napoleon conquers Italy in the 1790s

After his defeat in 1815, most Italian states go back to their former rulers:

Lombardy-Venetia to Austria

Naples and Sicily to Spain

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Napoleonic expansion

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1815: Italy after Napoleon

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The Risorgimento
Hatred of foreign rule increases Liberation movement begun by Giuseppe Mazzini in Piedmont with the support of Charles Albert, king of Sardinia-Piedmont (House of Savoy)
Giuseppe Mazzini

Scattered revolts in 1848 were unsuccessful

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Expansion begins

Under King Victor Emanuel I, son of Charles Albert, Count Camillo Cavour, the prime minister, made a treaty with France against Austria.
Count Camillo Cavour

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1859: Austria defeated

Italy gained Lombardy, but Austria kept Venetia

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Expansion continues

1859: Plebiscites held in Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Emilia. They voted to join Sardinia-Piedmont.
Napoleon III consented, but only after Nice and Savoy voted to join France.

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 General

Garibaldi drives out the Bourbons from Sicily and Naples

General Giuseppe Garibaldi

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Unification of Italy

1861: Victor Emanuel II crowned King of Italy 1866: Venetia regained from Austria

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1870: Papal States captured

The French army was assigned to protect the Papal States, but was called to join the fighting in the Prussian War.
The Italian army took the opportunity to capture the Papal States, thus adding central Italy to the union.
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Steps to Unification

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Constitutional Monarchy: 1870 - 1922

Birth of modern Italy

Heavy

taxation to pay war debts Parliamentary government new and strange to many Italians Economic growth supported the changes

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The House of Savoy

King Umberto I, son of Victor Emanuel II, was assassinated

Victor Emanuel III becomes King

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World War I

1915: Italy rejected its standing alliances with Austria, Germany, and Hungary when Austria invaded Serbia. It joined the Allies (England, France, and Russia)
At the end of the war, the last two regions were joined to Italy: Veneto and FriuliVenezia Giulia.
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The 20 Regions of Italy

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Fascism

1922: Mussolini marched on Rome. He came into power as Prime Minister appointed by the King, but the King had virtually no power.

Benito Mussolini

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The Dictatorship

Positive aspects:
economic
roads public

recovery after the war

and railways built education compulsory.

Fascism

seen as a safeguard against communism.

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The Dictatorship

Negative aspects

Eliminated former political parties and opponents through murder, exile, and prison camps Took control of newspapers, police, businesses, and schools

Restricted many civil rights

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Path to World War II

1935: Italy invades Ethiopia 1936: Alliance with Germany versus France and England and in support of Francos Dictatorship in Spain 1939: Italy invades Albania 1940: Italy joins the Axis countries and Mussolini becomes a German puppet.

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World War II
Italy invaded by the Allies Mussolini forced to resign: public unrest Constitutional monarchy restored Italy surrenders, declares war on Germany, and fights on the side of the Allies for the last 18 months of the war

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Italy becomes a Republic

1946: Italians vote to replace the constitutional monarchy with a republic

Parliamentary form of government was created

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1948: New Constitution adopted

Albania granted independence Political parties formed: largest were the Christian Democrats & the Communists

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The Republic of Italy

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2. Physical Features of Italy

A peninsula shaped like a boot Coastline 6,000 miles long 2 large islands: Sicily and Sardinia; many smaller ones: Capri, Elba, Ischia, etc. Mountains: Alps in the north, Apennines down the center

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Monte Rosa in the Italian Alps

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Fertile River Valleys

The Po River valley in a fertile farming area in Piemonte.

The Adige, Tiber, and Arno Rivers are also important.

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Largest lakes in the Alps

Lake Como

Lake Maggiore
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Two largest volcanoes of Italy

Mt. Etna in Sicily

Mt. Vesuvius in Naples

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3. Chief Cities of Italy

Rome

The Coliseum
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Piazza di Spagna

The Vatican: St. Peters Square

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Florence

Duomo di Firenze

Palazzo della Signoria

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Firenze: Ponte Vecchio

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Venice

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Rio: a side street in Venice

Ponte Rialto on the Grand Canal

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Arrivederci !

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Milan

Duomo di Milano

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Pisa

Medieval gate

Leaning tower
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Siena

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Urbino: il palazzo ducale

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Sicily

Ancient Greek Temple

Ancient Greek Ruins

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Sardegna

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Trevi Fountain: Arrivederci Roma!

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Credits
The Regions of Italy, by Roy Domenico Greenwood Press, Westport, CT 2002
Italy, a Cultural Resource Guide Milliken Publishing Co., St. Louis, MO 1995 Maps of Ancient Rome taken from: Latin for Americans, by B. Ullman et al. Glenco, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY 1997

Historical Maps of Italy taken from: A Brief History of Western Civilization, by M. Kishlansky et al.: Addison-Wesley, NY 2002
Pictures taken from Postcards and/or the Internet
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