Notes

Learn About Italy

View of St. Peter's Basilica

Italy is a nation in southern Europe. It consists mainly of a long, narrow, peninsula, shaped roughly like a boot that extends from the high mountains of the Alps in the north to the Mediterranean Sea in the south. Italy's territory also includes numerous islands. The two largest are Sardinia, lying west of the peninsula; and Sicily, situated just off the southern "toe" of the boot.

Italy occupies all of the peninsula, except for two tiny independent states — San Marino and Vatican City. San Marino, located in the Apennine mountains, is one of the world's oldest and smallest republics. Vatican City, the spiritual heart and seat of government of the Roman Catholic Church, lies within the city of Rome, Italy's capital.

Modern History

Italy: 1870–1919. The building of an Italian nation was to be a difficult task. Many Italians were illiterate (unable to read or write), and there were many points of friction between northerners and southerners. After 1900, however, the situation improved. The beginnings of industry took hold in the northwest, and the emigration of millions of poor peasants to the United States relieved much of the overcrowding in the backward south.

This progress was upset when, in 1915, the government took Italy into World War I. Italy's leaders hoped they could quickly capture the Italian-speaking cities of Trent and Trieste from Austria-Hungary. Instead, the country was drawn into a long, costly, and unpopular war. Although Italy did obtain Trent and Trieste, many Italians were angry that they did not also receive the Croatian city of Fiume at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.

Fascist Era: 1922–45. Such frustrations plus a new electoral system changed the nature of Italian politics. The old liberal leaders could no longer control Parliament. Moreover, many Italians feared that the strong new Socialist Party might seize power during the economic unrest of the postwar years. All of these developments helped to undermine Italy's fragile democracy.

In 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III gave control of the government to Benito Mussolini, the leader of the new Fascist Party. In 1926, Mussolini imposed a dictatorship on Italy. Some of his policies were popular, such as his outlawing of strikes by workers; his negotiation of the Lateran pacts with the Vatican in 1929, which ended years of confrontation between church and state; and his conquest of Ethiopia in 1935–36. But his later alliance with Nazi Germany was not. Italy's participation in World War II, from 1940 to 1945, left the country devastated.

Recent History. Italy's defeat in the war brought an end not only to fascism but to the monarchy as well. In an election in 1946, in which women voted for the first time, Italians approved a republic. Italy recovered economically with financial aid from the United States. The moderately conservative Christian Democratic Party (now called the Italian Popular Party) emerged as the strongest political party after the war. For some 45 years it dominated every government, usually in alliance with small parties of the political center.

In the early 1990's, financial scandals led to the collapse of the old ruling parties, and voters demanded major political reforms. In 1994 a right-wing alliance, under the leadership of media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, came to power. But the coalition soon fell apart, and an interim government took office. Elections in 1996 were marked by a victory for the left, but budget quarrels in 1998 again brought down the government. In 2001, after two additional but brief changes in power, Berlusconi was returned as premier as head of a new coalition, the House of Liberties.

Italy's Cultural Heritage

The Arts.Italy's contributions to architecture, painting, and sculpture are second to none. Whenever someone speaks of art from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, they're usually referring to artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Music. Italy has been called the birthplace of music. Some of the greatest music for the church was written here during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance also. The first operas were composed in Italy, during the 1600's. Today, every large city has its own opera house and it's not unusual to hear Italians sing at work. Almost everybody knows their favorite opera melodies by heart.

Science. Italy also has contributed much to the advancement of science. The most famous Italian scientist is Galileo Galilei. He studied various things such as the motion of a pendulum, the velocity of falling objects, and he was the first to make effective use of the telescope. He also discovered the rings of the planet Saturn and the moons of Jupiter. He was among the first scientists to understand that the planets in our solar system revolved around the sun, not the earth.

Charles F. Delzell
Author, Italy in the Twentieth Century