Prehistory and antiquity fresco in the
Monterozzi necropolis, 5th century BC
Lower Paleolithic artefacts, dating back 850,000 years, have been recovered from
Monte Poggiolo. Excavations throughout Italy revealed a
Neanderthal presence in the Middle Palaeolithic period 200,000 years ago, while
modern humans appeared about 40,000 years ago at
Riparo Mochi. The
ancient peoples of pre-Roman Italy were
Indo-European, specifically the
Italic peoples. The main historic peoples of possible non-Indo-European or
pre-Indo-European heritage include the
Etruscans, the
Elymians and
Sicani of Sicily, and the prehistoric
Sardinians, who gave birth to the
Nuragic civilisation. Other ancient populations include the
Rhaetian people and
Camunni, known for their
rock drawings in Valcamonica. A natural mummy,
Ötzi, dated 3400–3100 BC, was discovered in the
Similaun glacier in 1991. The first colonisers were the
Phoenicians, who established
emporiums on the coasts of Sicily and Sardinia. Some became small urban centres and developed parallel to
Greek colonies. During the 8th and 7th centuries, Greek colonies were established at
Pithecusae, eventually extending along the south of the Italian Peninsula and the coast of Sicily, an area later known as
Magna Graecia.
Ionians,
Doric colonists,
Syracusans, and the
Achaeans founded various cities.
Greek colonisation placed the
Italic peoples in contact with democratic forms of government and high artistic and cultural expressions.
Ancient Rome Italy's history goes back to numerous
Italic peoples – notably including the
ancient Romans, who conquered the Mediterranean world during the
Roman Republic and ruled it for centuries during the
Roman Empire. Ancient Rome, a settlement on the
River Tiber in central Italy,
founded in 753 BC, was ruled for 244 years by a monarchical system. In 509 BC, the Romans, favouring a government of the Senate and the People (
SPQR),
expelled the monarchy and established an oligarchic republic. The Italian Peninsula, named
Italia, was consolidated into a unified entity during Roman expansion, the conquest of new territories often at the expense of the
other Italic tribes,
Etruscans,
Celts, and
Greeks. A permanent association, with most of the local tribes and cities, was formed, and Rome began the conquest of Western Europe, North Africa, and the
Middle East. In the wake of
Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, Rome grew into a massive empire stretching from
Britain to the borders of
Persia, engulfing the whole Mediterranean basin, in which Greek, Roman, and other cultures merged into a powerful civilisation. The long reign of the first emperor,
Augustus, began an age of peace and prosperity. Roman Italy remained the
metropole of the empire, homeland of the Romans and territory of the capital. The
first two centuries of the empire saw a period of unprecedented stability known as the
Pax Romana (). Rome reached its
greatest territorial extent under
Trajan (), but a period of increasing trouble and decline began under
Commodus (). The
Migration Period, involving
large invasions by Germanic peoples, led to the decline of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was among the largest in history, wielding great economical, cultural, political, and military power. At its greatest extent, it had an area of . The
Roman legacy has deeply influenced Western civilisation shaping the modern world. The widespread use of
Romance languages derived from Latin,
numerical system, modern Western alphabet and calendar, and the emergence of Christianity as a world religion, are among the many legacies of Roman dominance.
Middle Ages After the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy fell under the
Odoacer's kingdom, and was seized by the
Ostrogoths. Invasions resulted in a chaotic succession of kingdoms and the supposed "
Dark Ages". The invasion of another
Germanic tribe in the 6th century, the
Lombards, reduced Byzantine presence and ended the political unity of the peninsula. The north formed the
Lombard kingdom, central-south was also controlled by the Lombards, and other parts remained Byzantine. , 13th-century explorer The Lombard kingdom was absorbed into
Francia by
Charlemagne in the late 8th century and became the Kingdom of Italy. The Franks helped form the
Papal States. Until the 13th century, politics was dominated by relations between the
Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy, with city-states siding with the former (
Ghibellines) or with the latter (
Guelphs) for momentary advantage. The Germanic emperor and Roman pontiff became the
universal powers of medieval Europe. However, conflict over the
Investiture controversy and between Guelphs and Ghibellines ended the imperial-feudal system in the north, where cities gained independence. In 1176, the
Lombard League of city-states defeated Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa, ensuring their independence. City-states, such as Milan, Florence, and Venice, played a crucially innovative role in financial development by devising banking practices, and enabling new forms of social organisation. In coastal and southern areas, maritime republics dominated the Mediterranean and monopolised trade to the Orient. They were independent
thalassocratic city-states, in which merchants had considerable power. Although oligarchical, the relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement. The best-known maritime republics were Venice,
Genoa,
Pisa, and
Amalfi. Each had dominion over overseas lands, islands, lands on the Adriatic, Aegean, and Black seas, and commercial colonies in the Near East and North Africa. Venice and Genoa were Europe's gateways to the East, and producers of fine glass, while Florence was a centre of silk, wool, banking, and jewellery. The wealth generated enabled the commissioning of large public and private artistic projects. The republics participated in the
Crusades, providing support and transport but primarily pursuing political and commercial opportunities. In the south, Sicily had become an
Arab Islamic emirate in the 9th century, thriving until the
Italo-Normans conquered it in the late 11th century, together with most of the Lombard and Byzantine principalities of southern Italy. The region was subsequently divided between the
Kingdom of Sicily and
Kingdom of Naples. The
Black Death of 1348 killed perhaps a third of Italy's population.
Early modern period before the
Italian Wars in 1494 During the 1400s and 1500s, Italy was the birthplace and heart of the
Renaissance. This era marked the transition from the medieval period to the modern age and was fostered by the wealth accumulated by merchant cities and the patronage of dominant families. Italian polities were now regional states effectively ruled by princes, in control of trade and administration, and their courts became centres of the arts and sciences. These princedoms were led by political dynasties and merchant families, such as the
Medici of Florence. After the end of the
Western Schism, newly elected
Pope Martin V returned to the
Papal States and restored Italy as the sole centre of Western Christianity. The
Medici Bank was made the credit institution of the Papacy, and significant ties were established between the Church and new political dynasties. , quintessential
Renaissance man, in a self-portrait ( 1512) In 1453, despite activity by
Pope Nicholas V to support the Byzantines, the city of
Constantinople fell to the
Ottomans. This led to the migration of
Greek scholars and texts to Italy, fuelling the rediscovery of Greek
humanism. Humanist rulers such as
Federico da Montefeltro and
Pope Pius II worked to establish
ideal cities, founding
Urbino and
Pienza.
Pico della Mirandola wrote the
Oration on the Dignity of Man, considered the manifesto of the Renaissance. In the arts, the Italian Renaissance exercised a dominant influence on European art for centuries, with artists such as
Leonardo da Vinci,
Botticelli,
Michelangelo,
Raphael,
Giotto,
Donatello, and
Titian, and architects such as
Filippo Brunelleschi,
Andrea Palladio, and
Donato Bramante. Italian
explorers and navigators from the maritime republics, eager to find an alternative route to the Indies to bypass the Ottomans, offered their services to monarchs of Atlantic countries and played a key role in ushering the
Age of Discovery and colonisation of the Americas. The most notable were:
Christopher Columbus, who opened the Americas for conquest by Europeans;
John Cabot, the first European to explore North America since the
Norse; and
Amerigo Vespucci, for whom the continent of
America is named. A defensive alliance known as the
Italic League was formed between Venice, Naples, Florence, Milan, and the Papacy.
Lorenzo the Magnificent de Medici was the Renaissance's greatest patron, his support allowed the League to
abort invasion by the Turks. The alliance, however, collapsed in the 1490s; the invasion of
Charles VIII of France initiated a series of wars in the peninsula. During the
High Renaissance, popes such as
Julius II (1503–1513) fought for control of Italy against foreign monarchs;
Paul III (1534–1549) preferred to mediate between the European powers to secure peace. In the middle of such conflicts, the Medici popes
Leo X (1513–1521) and
Clement VII (1523–1534) faced the
Protestant Reformation in Germany, England and elsewhere. In 1559, at the end of the
Italian wars between France and the Habsburgs, about half of Italy (the southern Kingdoms of
Naples,
Sicily,
Sardinia, and the
Duchy of Milan) was under Spanish rule, while the other half remained independent (many states continued to be formally part of the Holy Roman Empire). The Papacy launched the
Counter-Reformation, whose key events include: the
Council of Trent (1545–1563); adoption of the
Gregorian calendar; the
Jesuit China mission; the
French Wars of Religion; end of the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648); and the
Great Turkish War. The Italian economy declined in the 1600s and 1700s. , the first
Italian tricolour adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797) During the
War of the Spanish Succession (1700–1714), Austria acquired most of the Spanish domains in Italy, namely Milan, Naples and Sardinia; the latter was given to the House of Savoy in exchange for Sicily in 1720. Later, a branch of the Bourbons ascended to the throne of Sicily and Naples. During the
Napoleonic Wars, north and central Italy were reorganised as
Sister Republics of France and, later, as a
Kingdom of Italy. The south was administered by
Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law. 1814's
Congress of Vienna restored the situation of the late 18th century, but the ideals of the
French Revolution could not be eradicated, and re-surfaced during the
political upheavals that characterised the early 19th century. The first adoption of the
Italian tricolour by an Italian state, the
Cispadane Republic, occurred during
Napoleonic Italy, following the French Revolution, which advocated national
self-determination. This event is celebrated by
Tricolour Day.
Unification The
birth of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of efforts of Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the
House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire
Italian Peninsula. By the mid-19th century, rising
Italian nationalism led to revolution. Following the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, the political and social Italian unification movement, or
Risorgimento, emerged to unite Italy by consolidating the states and liberating them from foreign control. A radical figure was the patriotic journalist
Giuseppe Mazzini, founder of the political movement
Young Italy in the 1830s, who favoured a unitary republic and advocated a broad nationalist movement. 1847 saw the first public performance of "
Il Canto degli Italiani", which became the national anthem in 1946. The most famous member of Young Italy was the revolutionary and general
Giuseppe Garibaldi who led the republican drive for unification in southern Italy. However, the Italian monarchy of the House of Savoy, in the
Kingdom of Sardinia, whose government was led by
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, also had ambitions of establishing a united Italian state. In the context of the
1848 liberal revolutions that swept Europe, an unsuccessful
First Italian War of Independence was declared against
Austria. In 1855, Sardinia became an ally of Britain and France in the
Crimean War. Sardinia fought the Austrian Empire in the
Second Italian War of Independence of 1859, with the aid of France, resulting in liberating
Lombardy. On the basis of the
Plombières Agreement, the Sardinia ceded
Savoy and
Nice to France, an event that caused the
Niçard exodus. In 1860–1861, Garibaldi led the drive for unification in Naples and Sicily.
Teano was the site of a famous meeting between Garibaldi and
Victor Emmanuel II, the last king of Sardinia, during which Garibaldi shook Victor Emanuel's hand and hailed him as
King of Italy. Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's southern Italy in a union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. This allowed the Sardinian government to
declare a united Italian kingdom on 17 March 1861, with Victor Emmanuel II as its first king. In 1865, the kingdom's capital was moved from Turin to Florence. In 1866, Victor Emmanuel II, allied with
Prussia during the
Austro-Prussian War, waged the
Third Italian War of Independence, which resulted in Italy annexing
Venetia. Finally, in 1870, as France abandoned Rome during the
Franco-Prussian War, the Italians
captured the Papal States, unification was completed, and the capital moved to Rome. by subjugating
Eritrea,
Somalia,
Tripolitania, and
Cyrenaica in Africa. In 1913, male universal suffrage was adopted. The pre-
World War I period was dominated by
Giovanni Giolitti, prime minister five times between 1892 and 1921. on 3 November 1918, after the victorious
Battle of Vittorio Veneto Italy entered into the First World War in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity, so it is also considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence, from a historiographical perspective, as the conclusion of the
unification of Italy. Italy, nominally allied with the
German and
Austro-Hungarian empires in the
Triple Alliance, in 1915 joined the
Allies, entering World War I with a
promise of substantial territorial gains that included west
Inner Carniola, the former
Austrian Littoral, and
Dalmatia, as well as parts of the
Ottoman Empire. The country's contribution to the Allied victory earned it a place as one of the "
Big Four" powers. Reorganisation of the army and conscription led to Italian victories. In October 1918, the Italians launched a massive offensive, culminating in victory at the
Battle of Vittorio Veneto. This marked the end of war on the Italian Front, secured dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was instrumental in
ending the war less than two weeks later. During the war, more than 650,000 Italian soldiers and as many civilians died, and the kingdom was on the brink of bankruptcy. The
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and
Treaty of Rapallo (1920) allowed for annexation of
Trentino and
South Tyrol, the
Julian March,
Istria, the
Kvarner Gulf, and the Dalmatian city of
Zara. The subsequent
Treaty of Rome (1924) led to annexation of
Fiume by Italy. Italy did not receive other territories promised by the Treaty of London, so this outcome was denounced as a "
mutilated victory", by
Benito Mussolini, which helped lead to the
rise of Italian fascism. Historians regard "mutilated victory" as a "political myth", used by fascists to fuel
Italian imperialism. Italy gained a permanent seat in the
League of Nations's executive council.
Fascist regime and World War II titled himself
Duce and ruled the country from 1922 until
his overthrow in 1943. The
socialist agitations that followed the devastation of the Great War, inspired by the
Russian Revolution, led to counter-revolution and repression throughout Italy. The liberal establishment, fearing a Soviet-style revolution, started to endorse the small
National Fascist Party, led by Mussolini. In October 1922, the
Blackshirts of the National Fascist Party organised a
mass demonstration and the "
March on Rome" coup. King
Victor Emmanuel III appointed Mussolini as
prime minister, transferring power to the fascists without armed conflict. Mussolini banned political parties and curtailed personal liberties, establishing a dictatorship. These actions attracted international attention and inspired similar dictatorships in
Nazi Germany and
Imperial Japan.
Fascism was based upon Italian nationalism and imperialism, seeking to expand Italian possessions via
irredentist claims based on the legacy of the Roman and
Venetian empires. For this reason the fascists engaged in
interventionist foreign policy. In 1935, Mussolini
invaded Ethiopia and founded
Italian East Africa, resulting in international isolation. Italy withdrew from the
League of Nations. Italy then
allied with Nazi Germany and the
Empire of Japan, and strongly supported
Francisco Franco in the
Spanish Civil War. In April 1939, Italy
invaded Albania. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940. At this date, France practically had lost the
Battle of France. At different times, Italians advanced in
British Somaliland,
Egypt, the
Balkans, and eastern fronts. They were, however,
defeated on the Eastern Front as well as in the
East African and
North African campaigns, losing their territories in Africa and the Balkans.
Italian war crimes included
extrajudicial killings and
ethnic cleansing by deportation of about 25,000 people – mainly Yugoslavs – to
Italian concentration camps and elsewhere.
Yugoslav Partisans perpetrated their own crimes against the ethnic Italian population during and after the war, including the
foibe massacres. An
Allied invasion of Sicily began in July 1943, leading to the
collapse of the Fascist regime on 25 July. Mussolini was deposed and arrested by order of King
Victor Emmanuel III. On 3 September, Italy signed the
Armistice of Cassibile, ending its war with UK and USA. The Germans, with the assistance of Italian fascists, succeeded in taking control of north and central Italy (
Operation Achse). The country remained a battlefield, with the Allies moving up from the south. in Milan during the final insurrection leading to the
liberation of Italy in April 1945 In the north, the Germans set up the
Italian Social Republic (RSI), a Nazi
puppet state and
collaborationist regime with Mussolini installed as leader after he was
rescued by German paratroopers. What remained of the Italian troops was organised into the
Italian Co-belligerent Army, which fought alongside the Allies, while other Italian forces, loyal to Mussolini, opted to fight alongside the Germans in the
National Republican Army. German troops, with RSI collaboration, committed massacres and deported thousands of Jews to death camps. The post-armistice period saw the emergence of the
Italian Resistance, who fought a guerrilla war against the
Nazi German occupiers and collaborators. An aspect of this period was the
Italian civil war due to fighting between partisans and fascist RSI forces. In April 1945, with defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north, but was captured and
summarily executed by partisans. Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945,
when the German forces in Italy surrendered. Nearly half a million Italians died in the war, society was divided, and the economy all but destroyed – per capita income in 1944 was at its lowest point since 1900. In the aftermath of the war there was a revival of Italian republicanism, leading to the
1946 Italian institutional referendum.
Republican era Italy became a republic after the 1946 referendum held on 2 June, a day celebrated since as
Festa della Repubblica. This was the first time women voted nationally. Victor Emmanuel III's son,
Umberto II, was forced to abdicate. The
Republican Constitution was approved in 1948. Under the
Treaty of Paris between Italy and the Allied Powers, areas next to the
Adriatic Sea were annexed by
Yugoslavia, resulting in the
Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which involved the emigration of around 300,000
Istrian and
Dalmatian Italians. Italy lost all colonial possessions, ending the
Italian Empire. ,
first republican
prime minister of Italy and one of the
Founding fathers of the European Union Fears of a Communist takeover proved crucial in
1948, when the
Christian Democrats, under
Alcide De Gasperi, won a landslide victory. Consequently, in 1949 Italy became a member of
NATO. The
Marshall Plan revived the economy, which, until the late 1960s, enjoyed a period called the
Italian economic miracle. In the 1950s, Italy became a founding country of the
European Communities, a forerunner of the European Union. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, the country experienced the
Years of lead, characterised by economic difficulties, especially after the
1973 oil crisis; social conflicts; and terrorist massacres. The economy recovered and Italy became the world's fifth-largest industrial nation after it gained entry into the
G7 in the 1970s. However, national debt skyrocketed past 100% of GDP. Between 1992 and 1993, Italy faced terror attacks perpetrated by the
Sicilian Mafia as a consequence of new anti-mafia measures by the government. Voters – disenchanted with political paralysis, massive public debt, and extensive
corruption uncovered by the
Clean Hands investigation – demanded radical reform. The Christian Democrats, who had ruled for almost 50 years, underwent a crisis and disbanded, splitting into factions. The Communists reorganised as a
social-democratic force. During the 1990s and 2000s,
centre-right (dominated by media magnate
Silvio Berlusconi) and
centre-left coalitions (led by professor
Romano Prodi) alternately governed. In the early 21st century, Italy experienced a prolonged period of political and economic instability, strongly influenced by international crises. The effects of the
Great Recession that began in 2008 had a significant impact on the country's economy and public finances, leading to the adoption of
austerity measures and an increased reliance on
technocratic or broad coalition governments aimed at ensuring stability and international credibility. in the Mediterranean Sea sailing to the Italian port of
Catania, 5 September 2015 During the 2010s, efforts were made by new prime minister
Matteo Renzi to introduce institutional reforms intended to streamline the political system and strengthen the executive branch, though these initiatives were rejected by
a referendum in 2016. At the same time, the
European migrant crisis placed Italy in a central role as a major point of entry into the European Union via the Mediterranean, resulting in a large inflow of migrants and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa. This development had notable social and political consequences, contributing to growing public debate over immigration and leading to a surge in support for
populist parties. The
COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, severely affected the country's public health and economic performance, exacerbating pre-existing structural weaknesses. In response,
extraordinary measures were adopted to support the economy, many of them coordinated at the European level. In 2022,
Giorgia Meloni was sworn in as Italy's first female prime minister. == Geography ==