Italy
Italy (Italian: Italia) or the Italian Republic is an Europan nation, divided by the rest of the continent by its natural border, the Alps. Its territory comprises the Valley of Pò, the Italian Peninsula, three large islands of the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica) and other smaller islands. Italy was never fully unified, having some of its territory under occupation of France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City. Malta belongs to the Geographical Italy as been part of Sicilian shelf but not part of Italian nation as having different culture and language, Lampedusa on the other way is part of the African shelf but is part of Italy as its inhabitants are etnically Italians. South Tyrol (de) is also inside the Geographical Italy as the river Adige flows towards the south but the great majority of its population speaks German and do not consider themselves as a part of the Italian nation.
History
After the deposition of Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus and the (third) Germanic conquest of the Roman Empire in 476, "king of the Goths" (Odoacer rex Gothorum) Odoacer, other sources state he was the chieftain of the East Germanic Scirii, Heruli (de), and Rugii tribes, was appointed dux Italiae (Duke of Italy) by the reigning Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno. Later, he titled himself rex Italiae, though he always presented himself as an officer of the eastern government. In 483, Ostrogothic leader Theodoric the Great defeated Odoacer, and set up a new dynasty of kings of Italy. Ostrogothic rule ended with the death of Teias (552), when Italy was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire.
This state of affairs did not last long. In 568, the Germanic Lombards entered the peninsula under Alboin, who ventured to recreate a barbarian kingdom in opposition to the Byzantines. For the next two centuries, the Lombards and Greeks fought for dominance in the peninsula, with the Lombards establishing their authority over the whole of the region (especially Lombardy) except the duchies of Venetia, Rome, and Naples and the tips of the “heel” and “toe”.
In 774, the Kingdom of the Lombards was conquered by the Germanic Franks under Charlemagne and their king, Desiderius, deposed. Charlemagne took up the Lombard title, rex Langobardorum, meaning “king of the Lombards,” which was used interchangeably with rex Italiae. On 19 September 855, the Treaty of Prüm was the second of the partition treaties of the Carolingian Empire. As Lothair I, Holy Roman Emperor (817–855, co-ruling with his father until 840), governor of Bavaria (815–817), King of Italy (818–855) and Middle Francia (840–855), was approaching death, he divided his realm of Francia among his three sons.
The old Kingdom of Italy survived within the Frankish Empire as a separate entity until 25 December 961, when the Roman-German Emperor Otto I himself took the title. All subsequent emperors used the title and most were crowned at some time in the ancient Lombard capital of Pavia before their imperial coronation in Rome. When Otto had arrived at Pavia 10 years before on 23 September 951, the city willingly opened its gate to the German king. Otto declared himself king and assumed the titles of Rex Italicorum and Rex Langobardorum in his acts from the 10 October onwards. Like Charlemagne before him, Otto was now concurrent King of Germany and King of Italy. Otto sent a message to his brother Henry in Bavaria to escort his bride Adelaide of Burgundy (German: Adelheid; 931 – 16 December 999 AD) from Canossa to Pavia, where the two married.
Central Italy was governed by the Pope as a temporal kingdom known as the Papal States. Italy, including the Papal States, became the site of proxy wars between the major powers after the Renaissance and the rise of modern nation-states in the early modern period, notably the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (including the Archduchy of Austria), Spain, and France.
Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II tried to confirm his dominion against Archbishop Aribert of Milan and other Italian aristocrats (seniores). While besieging Milan in 1037, he issued the Constitutio de feudis in order to secure the support of the vasvassores petty gentry, whose fiefs he declared hereditary. Indeed, Conrad could stable his rule, however, the Imperial supremacy in Italy remained contested. The cities first demonstrated their increasing power during the reign of the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1152–1190), whose attempts to restore imperial authority in the peninsula led to a series of wars with the Lombard League, a league of northern Italian cities.
In 1310, the Luxembourg King Henry VII of Germany with 5,000 men again crossed the Alps, moved into Milan and had himself crowned king of Italy. High Medieval Northern Italy was further divided by the long running battle for supremacy between the forces of the papacy and of the Holy Roman Empire. Each city aligned itself with one faction or the other, yet was divided internally between the two warring parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines.
Italian princes were not allowed as representatives to the Imperial Diet (Reichstag), but their forces also joined the Imperial Army (Reichsarmee), as in the case of the Hungarian campaign of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor against Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire in 1566. In the night from 11 to 12 September 1683, Italian volunteers under Imperial commander Carlo di San Martino, Marchese di Parella defeated the weak Ottomans at the Leopoldsberg and Kahlenberg during the Battle of Vienna.
19th century
In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte endeavoured to attach the Lombard heritage to France (in tradition of the Western Frankish Empire) again and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Pavia. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last Roman-German Emperor, Francis II, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz.
From the deposition of Napoleon (1814) until the establishment of the new Kingdom of Italy (1861), there was no Italian monarch claiming the overarching title. The Risorgimento successfully established a dynasty, the House of Savoy, over the whole peninsula, uniting the kingdoms of Sardinia and the Two Sicilies.
In 1866, Italy declared war on the weakend Empire of Austria in alliance with the Kingdom of Prussia (Austro-Prussian War) and received the region of Veneto following their victory. Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1882, following strong disagreements with France about their respective colonial expansions.
20th century
During the era of Fascism, Italy was almost all unified, but after the the events of 25 July 1943, the overthrow of Benito Mussolini (Fall Achse) which was supported by King Victor Emmanuel III, leading to the Salò Republic, as well as the Allied invasion in Sicily (de), Anzio (de), Monte Cassino and Rome (de) during WWII, Italy was divided in two, the occupied Kingdom of Italy on the south and the free Italian Social Republic on central and north of Italy that keep fighting the enemies.
After the Second World War and the defeat of Europe, the monarchy was superseded in 1946 and on its place created the ZOG Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica Italiana), a puppet state controlled by International Jewry and Freemasonry.
See also
- Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
- Italian Social Republic
- Fascism
- Propaganda Due
- Aerial bombings in Italy during WWII
External links
References
- ↑ The Arno was just as important for the supply of the people through trade, but also caused destruction and suffering through flooding. The river turns to the west near Arezzo passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea at Marina di Pisa. In 14th-century Florence and other cities in central and northern Italy, some merchants ventured into increasingly complex transactions, dealing with bills of exchange and money orders, founding banks, and using a simple form of double-entry bookkeeping. All with the aim of generating the highest possible profits. These traders are the harbingers of a new era: they are the first capitalists.
