The
ancient inhabitants of the peninsula were Celtics, Iberians,
Pelasgians and Etruscans. We do not have to forget the
Greeks, with its colonies that extended from the gulf
of Naples to those of Tarento and Palermo. The city of
Alba Longa, founded by Ascanio, son of Aeneas, in the
tenth Century BC, was metropolis of Lacio until the year
666 BC, when it fell won and destroyed by Rome.
This, whose foundation the tradition attributes to Rómulo
and Remo in the year 753 BC, was from the first moment
enemy of Alba. Tarquino the Magnificent (534-509 BC) ended
the first Roman monarchy. During the republic, Rome, although
mined by internal fights, overcame numerous enemies. It
resisted the Gallic invasions (364 AC); it conquered the
rest of Italy (495-270 AC); it fought with Carthage until
overcoming and destroying it (269-146 AC) and established
his superiority on Minor Asia and Egypt.
Although torn soon by new civil wars (first by the rivalry
between Mario and Sila, later the one of Caesar and Pompeyo,
and finally the one of Octavio and Marco Antonio), the
Roman Republic extend its dominions more and more, until
getting to be the most powerful country in the world.
The splendor of the Augusts century it was followed by
the decay initiated by the excessive concentration of
personal power laid upon the emperors, the weakening of
the Senate, and the increasing intervention of armed groups
that finished imposing inept and cruel emperors in most
of the cases.
Nevertheless, the Roman Empire was so consistent and morally
hard and the efficiency of its generals so high, that
the final collapse only came when millions of Barbarian
soldiers simultaneously attacked the totality of their
borders in Europe, Asia and Africa. Even so, when the
irresistible advance of the hordes of the Huns of Atila
took place, the Germans already requested aid to the dying
Imperial Rome, and was Roman general Aecio, with their
legions, the one that managed to defeat the hordes of
Mongols in the battle of the Cataláunicos Fields,
forcing Atila to fall back towards Panonia (actual Hungary).
With the death of Teodosio (395) the Empire was divided
in two, of the East and the West, and finally fell before
the push of the Barbarians in the fifth century.
From 493 to 843, Italy was dominated successively by the
Ostrogods, the Lombards and the Francs. Released of these
last by the Verdún agreement and prey of anarchy,
it was invaded by the Saracens, Germans, Hungarian and
Normands. After the War of the Investitures, and the long
fight between the Guelfs and Ghibelline untied by the
ambition of the Pope opposed to the Germanic empire, the
country was again victim of the local rivalries.
By the end of the Middle Ages, there were in the peninsula
six main States: the Ducat of Saboya, the one of Milan,
the republics of Florence and Venice, the Pontifical States
and the kingdom of Naples, that have been divided between
the French and the prince of Aragón but belonged
at that time to the king of Spain. In centuries XV and
XVI the Spaniards, French and Germans disputed the Italian
territory; but finally the Spaniards won that were left
owners of the field during two centuries.
Through the treaty of Utrecht (1713), the kingdom of Naples,
the Milanesado and the Sardinia became Austrian territory,
and the Duke of Saboya acquired Sicily, that changed by
the Sardinia seven years later. By the treaty of Vienna
(1738) the Toscana passed from the extinguished family
of the Medicis, to the house of Lorena Hapsburg. The same
treaty and the one of Aquisgrán (1748) assured
the kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the ducats of Parma
and Plasencia to two parts of the Borbones family from
Spain.
During the French Revolution wars, Bonaparte expelled
Austria fron high Italy (1796), founded the Cisalpina
Republic and gave to Austria the Véneto (1797).
In 1800, after the battle of Marengo, the Piamonte was
incorporated to France and the Cisalpina Republic changed
its name by the one of Italica Republic, that later, in
1806, became Kingdom of Italy, under the sceptre of Napoleon
I. After the fall of Napoleon, the revolutionary spirit
began to awake in Italy and followed an era of agitations
and attempts of national insurrection fomented by the
kings of Sardinia, Victor Manuel I and Carlos Huberto.
With the expulsion of Austria, the formation of the new
Kingdom of Italy began, whose unification, prepared by
Cavour and almost made with the conquest of the kingdom
of Naples (1860) by Garibaldi and with the delivery of
the Véneto done by Prussia in 1866, was finished
definitively in 1870 by Victor Manuel II, whose armies
seized Rome which since then returned to be the capital
of Italy. From the accomplishment of the Italian unit,
this country has not stopped to develop its economic and
military resources to reaching the category of its great
power.
Its expansion began in Eritrea (1880), followed in Somalia
(1891) and stopped in Abyssinia with the defeat of Adua
(1896). In the XX century, after fighting with Turkey
(1911-1912), it appropriated Tripolitania and Cirenaica
(Libya) and the islands of the Aegean Sea. In 1914 the
first World War explodes. Italy enters the fight in May
of 1915, against Austria and Germany. Towards the end
of the war, Italy, that had seen its territory invaded,
not only recovered it, but widened its frontiers.
It was followed by a period truly critical that facilitated
the ascent to the power in 1922 of a ex-Socialist, founder
of the fascist party: Benito Mussolini, who became a dictator
and knew how to revive the national spirit. One of his
greatest successes was the Treaty of Letrán of
1929, by which it ended the tenseness of relations between
the Catholic Church and the Italian State.
In 1936, conquered Abyssinia, the Society of Nations decreed
a series of sanctions against Italy which became an ally
of the nazi regime in Germany (Axis Rome-Berlin). When
in the course of World War II, France was defeated by
Germany, Italy has joined France in the fight. As a result
of it, Italy lost its African Empire and saw its own territory
invaded by the enemy troops. The gravity of the circumstances
forced Mussolini to resign. King Víctor Manuel
had to abdicate in his son Humberto II (1946), but when
the elections were celebrated a month later the town inclined
by the republic, with which aim to the end of the monarchic
regime.
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