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Search - The Rough Guide History of Italy

The Rough Guide History of Italy
Author: Rough Guides

INTRODUCTION Italy has always been an object of desire. Its history, from the outset, was influenced by its geographical position, that of a fertile peninsula in the central Mediterranean, with an abundance of good natural harbours along its coastline and an imposing northern frontier formed by the Alps. Deeply rooted ideas of it as a place of ... more »wealth and prosperity are embodied in the name Italia, in use by 500 BC, which derives from a native tribal word meaning ‘calf’ or ‘cattle’ (the modern Italian word vitello, meaning ‘calf’ or ‘veal’, is related) indicating the land’s rich pastoral agriculture. Unified control of the Italian landmass was established by the Romans, who overcame existing Etruscan, Greek and Celtic civilizations in the north and south by the end of the 3rd century BC, and who built up a Mediterranean empire after defeating their principal trade rival Carthage. Republican government in Rome was replaced, after bitter power struggles, by the rule of emperors, increasingly dependent on the support of the army. Invaded by the Goths and other barbarian peoples, the western Roman empire collapsed during the 5th century AD. Italy was claimed by the eastern emperors ruling from Byzantium, but their power in the region was contested by the Longobards, Germanic invaders whose settlement, particularly in the north, had a lasting impact on Italian life at every level. Sicily soon fell to Muslim raiders from North Africa, and a vibrant Islamic culture in the island lasted well beyond its seizure in the 11th century by Norman mercenaries, founders of a Christian kingdom embracing the southern mainland as well. This realm eventually formed the kingdom of Naples, known in the 19th century as the Two Sicilies. The centre of Catholic Christendom was Rome, where the popes sought to assert their authority over Italian rulers by taking a political role which did more harm than good to their spiritual leadership. Their rivals for control of Italy were the Holy Roman Emperors, heirs of Charlemagne. While papal-imperial struggles threatened to tear medieval Italy apart, its people sought safety in small-scale social units such as the extended family and the independent city state. In such communities prosperity encouraged the patronage of artists by merchants and guilds. During the 15th century, Florence, with its settled government and cultivated bourgeoisie, saw the first flowering of the Renaissance, the name given by historians to a period of unparalleled creativity in the arts throughout Italy, significantly inspired by a rediscovery of the classical world of Greece and Rome. With its cultural sophistication, technical skills and abundant wealth, Renaissance Italy was studied enviously by European rulers from beyond the Alps. During the early 16th century the north in particular became a continuous battleground between the invading armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The power of the popes was weakened by Emperor Charles V’s sack of Rome in 1527, which established a Habsburg hegemony that would last in one form or another for three hundred years. During the late 16th century economies of once flourishing Italian states such as Venice entered a slow decline, but Italy began a fresh incarnation as ‘the paradise of travellers’, a place whose art treasures attracted a peaceful tourist invasion which has never slackened since. The appeal of their past to others made Italians yearn for a revival of the impetus which produced the achievements of ancient Rome and the Renaissance. After Napoleon’s invasion of Italy in 1797 showed how easily rulers of its patchwork of sovereign states could be overturned, agitation began for national unity, eventually delivered via war and revolution in the movement known as the Risorgimento. Many of its hopes and promises were betrayed after 1870, when Italy became a constitutional monarchy under the royal house of Savoy. Discontent with the rewards reaped by Italian involvement in the Great War encouraged the triumph of Fascism, initiating another and more disastrous sequence of expectation and betrayal. Catastrophic involvement in World War II was followed by Nazi invasion of Italy to stem the Allied advance, and a prolonged and bloody campaign culminated in Mussolini’s capture and execution. Since 1945 Italy has become one of Europe’s wealthiest nations, but its age-old problems endure. The south remains a jigsaw of corrupt fiefdoms, the country as a whole is cynical as to the effectiveness of big government, the idea of a unified Italy is challenged by the Northern League, and crowd-pleasing politicians with simple answers gather more votes than those seriously trying to persuade Italians of the virtues of democracy and the rule of law. In a country so in love with the modern and the new, whether in fashion or in football, history involves not just a complacent backward glance at Leonardo, Dante, Michelangelo and Galileo, but a ‘damned inheritance’ whose burden many Italians are unable, or else reluctant, to shake off.

ISBN-13: 9781858288369
ISBN-10: 1858288363
Publication Date: 6/23/2003
Pages: 366
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Publisher: Rough Guides
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

History >> Europe >> Italy >> General
Travel >> Europe >> Italy >> General

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