Italy
/ˈɪtəli/ (help·info) (Italian: Italia , ), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana ), is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within the Italian Peninsula, and Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland.
The land known as Italy today has been the cradle of European cultures and peoples, such as the Etruscans and the Romans. Italy's capital, Rome, was for centuries the center of Western civilization. Later it became the birthplace of the Renaissance and also played a major role in the development of modern science and astronomy, particularly heliocentrism, as well as the University, and opera. Throughout the Middle Ages, Italy was divided into numerous kingdoms and city-states (such as the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the duchy of Milan), but was unified in 1861, a period in history known as the " Risorgimento ". In the late 19th century to World War II, Italy possessed a colonial empire, which extended its rule to Libya, Eritrea, Italian Somalialand, Ethiopia, Albania, Rhodes, Dodecaneses and the Tientsin part of China. Today, the cultural significance of Italy is reflected in the fact that it has the largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (44) in the world, and that it is rich in art, culture and literature from many periods. The country has boasted many people of excellence in all the arts and sciences, polymaths, artists and geniuses, such as Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Enrico Fermi.
Italy has a global influence in politics, culture, science, education, fashion, art, archaeology, religion, cuisine, business, healthcare, sport, architecture, design, cinema, finance and music. Many regard Milan, Italy's centre of finance and industry, as the world's fashion capital, according to the 2009 Global Language Monitor. Italy also receives the fifth highest number of tourists every year, and Rome is the EU's third most visited city, and is commonly regarded as one of the most beautiful ancient cities in the world. Venice is also considered the most beautiful city in the world, according to the New York Times, which describe the city as " undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man ". The country also has 2009's sixth best international reputation.
Modern Italy is a democratic republic and a developed country with the eighth-highest quality of life index rating in the world. Italy enjoys a high standard of living, and is the world's 18th most developed country. It is a founding member of what is now the European Union, having signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, and it is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It is a member of the G8 and G20, having the world's seventh-largest nominal GDP, and is also a member state of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Central European Initiative. Italy is a Schengen state. It has the world's eight-largest defence budget and shares NATO's nuclear weapons. Italy, especially Rome, has a major global impact in politics and culture, with worldwide organizations such as FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Glocal Forum, World Food Programme (WFT), and the NATO Defence College being headquartered in the country and the city. The country's European political, social and military infleunce make it a major regional power, alongside the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia. The country has a high public education level, high labour force, high charitability, and is a globalised nation. Italy also has the world's 19th highest life expectancy, after New Zealand and Bermuda.
Etymology
The origin of the term Italia , from Latin: Italia , is uncertain. According to one of the more common explanations, the term was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú , meaning "land of young cattle" ( cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf"). The bull was a symbol of the southern Italian tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Samnite Wars.
The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy—according to Antiochus of Syracuse, the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (modern Calabria). But by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region, but it was not until the time of the Roman conquests that the term was expanded to cover the entire peninsula.
History
Main article: History of ItalyPrehistory to Magna Graecia
Excavations throughout Italy reveal a modern human presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonies were established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula. Subsequently, Romans referred to this area as Magna Graecia , as it was so densely inhabited by Greeks.
Ancient Rome
Main articles: Ancient Rome, History of Italy during Roman times, and Italia (Roman Empire)Ancient Rome was at first a small agricultural community founded circa the 8th century BC that grew over the course of the centuries into a colossal empire encompassing the whole Mediterranean Sea, in which Ancient Greek and Roman cultures merged into one civilization. This civilization was so influential that parts of it survive in modern law, administration, philosophy and arts, forming the ground that Western civilization is based upon. In its twelve-century existence, it transformed itself from monarchy to republic and finally to autocracy. In steady decline since the 2nd century AD, the empire finally broke into two parts in 285 AD: the Western Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire in the East. The western part under the pressure of Goths finally dissolved, leaving the Italian peninsula divided into small independent kingdoms and feuding city states for the next 14 centuries, and leaving the eastern part sole heir to the Roman legacy.
Early Middle Ages
Main articles: Regnum Italicum and Kingdom of the LombardsFollowing a short recapture of the Italian peninsula by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th century AD from the Ostrogoths, a new wave of Germanic tribes, the Lombards, soon arrived in Italy from the north. For several centuries the armies of the Byzantines were strong enough to prevent Arabs, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Papacy from establishing a unified Italian Kingdom, but were at the same time too weak to fully unify the former Roman lands themselves. Nevertheless, during early Middle Ages Imperial dynasties such as the Carolingians, the Ottonians and the Hohenstaufens managed to impose their overlordship in Italy.
In the sixth century AD the Byzantine Emperor Justinian reconquered Italy from the Ostrogoths. The invasion of a new wave of Germanic tribes, the Lombards, doomed his attempt to resurrect the Western Roman Empire but the repercussions of Justinian's failure resounded further still. For the next thirteen centuries, whilst new nation-states arose in the lands north of the Alps, the Italian political landscape was a patchwork of feuding city states, petty tyrannies, and foreign invaders.
For several centuries the armies and Exarchs, Justinian's successors, were a tenacious force in Italian affairs - strong enough to prevent other powers such as the Arabs, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Papacy from establishing a unified Italian Kingdom, but too weak to drive out these "interlopers" and recreate Roman Italy. Later Imperial orders such as the Carolingians, the Ottonians and Hohenstaufens also managed to impose their overlordship in Italy; But their successes were as transitory as Justinian's and a unified Italian state remained a dream until the nineteenth century.
Late Middle Ages, Signorie and Comuni
Main articles: Italy in the Middle Ages, Medieval commune, Republic of Florence, Republic of Venice, and Republic of GenoaItaly's regions were eventually subsumed by their neighbouring empires with their conflicting interests and would remain divided up to the 19th century. It was during this vacuum of authority that the region saw the rise of the Signoria and the Comune
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