What Is The Political History Of Italy

The political history of Italy is quite extensive. The Greeks were the first to settle in Italy and established colonies in the southern part of the country and in Sicily. There was not a sense of political reality as much as there was a civilization (Windows on Italy- History). While the Greeks controlled the south the Gauls, or Celtic people, ruled the north and the Po Valley. But the most important group to settle in Italy was the Etruscans. Because of their advanced civilization, the Etruscans were the only ones to establish political and cultural ideas before the Roman Empire (Windows on Italy- History). At the end of the Etruscans rule, Rome began a unification of Italy and established Latin to be the general language (Defusco).

Italy’s problems started with the fact that it didn’t have one main ruler, but two people and a concept, resulting in a different approach to the unification. Gulseppe Mazzini had a radical program focusing on a centralized democratic republic based on universal suffrage and the will of the people. Vincenzo Gioberti, who was a catholic priest called for a federation of existing states

Whoever ignores this love of the individual regions of Italy will always build on sand.” (DOC 2) People believed the diverse social classes and power would not make for a unified country. Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, a politician from Piedmont-Sardinia, said, “Active power resides almost exclusively in the middle class and part of the upper class, both of which have ultraconservative interests to defend.” (DOC 4) Daniele Manin, a politician from Venice, wrote, “Peoples who have different origins and customs should not be forced together, because otherwise civil war will follow the war of independence.” (DOC 6) People against unification felt that bringing the diverse states together would cause more problems and do more harm than good. There were obvious pros and cons to the unification if Italy, but some civilians were on the fence.

The Italian people considered establishing a republic

The Italian Unification was a political and social movement where the different states of the Italian peninsula were to combine into a single Italy. The Italian Unification occurred close in time to the German Unification, which occurred only one year later. The Unification of Italy was a widely controversial topic discussed by many italian citizens and leaders during the 19th century. Many people destined for Italy to be unified as one country, a country that they considered to be stronger overall when compared to the individual countries, and would also create a new national identity and rid Italy of civil problems, like wars and revolutions that were occurring at the time. Others despised the ideas of Italian Unification, jumping ahead

Italy, for the most part of its contemporary history, has been leveraged by external and internal influences. The vastness of these influences predominated Italy in the early 19th century, which at the time was already a disconnected region in Europe. Foreign influence was among the influences in Italy that pushed it apart, such in the way of France and Austria, but what fragmented Italy further were its principalities and religious catholic base with Rome at the center. Rome was in the middle of much of these opposing sides; it had many foreign occupants during its time and was the last city to be unified into the Italian state. Therefore, this makes Rome a great example when looking into this time period when trying to understand these fragmentations.

Italy is an European country. Italian is its official language, and 93% of the population is native Italian speakers. Its ethnic background includes small clusters of German-Italians, French-Italians, Slovene-Italians, Albanian-Italians, and Greek-Italians. With various clusters of people come various beliefs in religion. Religion has influenced the culture, artists, and national treasures of Italy in various ways.

There were three obstacles in the way of Italian unification: Austria, France, and the Roman Catholic Church. Austria ruled all of Northern Italy and thus did not want to give it up. This mindset was similar to the mindset of the French who also ruled land and were also very involved in Italian politics. Because Italian unification would greatly limit their ability to govern in Italy the French also opposed Italian Unification. The last and final obstacle was the Roman Catholic Church which opposed Italian unification because the Pope would have to give up his land, the Papal States. Eventually people started to take action and start nationalistic movements against the Austrians, French, and the Roman Catholic Church. In 1832 Joseph Mazzini, also known as the Father of Nationalism, created a group called “Young Italy” through which he spread his nationalistic views to the Italian Youth. In the end Camillo Benso di Cavour, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, another revolutionary made a pan and slowly united Italy to form one country. The same nationalistic movement also occurred in Germany which left Germany united as well. In response to all of the violent nationalistic movements the idea of integration was born.

World War I began in August of 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo, in what is now Yugoslavia. Following this period Italy was in a state of civil war, with the parliament incapable of providing effective leadership. There was a rise in social tension, as well as economic problems. This resulted in a new, more aggressive breed of Italian politicians. They followed a violent anarchic political credo, also known as fascism. Although Italy’s economy was weak, following World War I, it was effected more by political factors, such as the rise of fascism, and social factors as seen through the newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia.

Italy, positioned in southeastern Europe, is a beautiful country that is faced with high unemployment, corruption and massive debt. Although it appears to be one of the most developed countries in Europe, Italy is somewhat of a laggard in globalization. Ranking twenty-third in world population, Italy stands at 56,126,212 people as of July 2009. The north and south seem to be split in economic terms with the north being well developed industrially and the south facing high unemployment and poverty. Italy is a democratic republic that replaced a monarchy back in 1946. Although it ranks seventh in world GDP and public debt and attracts millions of tourists every year, its current debt to GDP ratio continues to skyrocket. World economists

The Fascists’ social and economic policies up to 1939 significantly aided their control over Italy yet may not be cited as the sole cause. The Fascist party’s social and economic policies along with other factors attributed to the overall control of Italy. Through such policies it was a certainty that the Fascist party would hold complete power over the population of Italy in each aspect of an individual’s life whether it was their leisure time through the Dopolavoro or at work under the corporate state system which was formally introduced in 1934. This complete domination of the Italian peoples’ lives could be argued to have been the instrumental factor behind the Fascists’ control over Italy up to 1939. Other factors which assisted the

Italy is a Christian country, 83% of the population belonging to the Roman Catholic church. The relationship between Italians and religion is special. There have been many spiritual people before the Romans came along. Italy is, essentially, a nation embracing, all creeds, and religions, where the relationship between state and the church is regulated and sanctioned by constitutional laws. The question is why is there quite a variety of the number of atheists and agnostic rising? Along with religious minorities, Islam is the largest, followed by Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Judaism. Along with that many do not practice religion around 12% of the population in Italy follows no religion.

The Italian Unification is a time period during which Italy becomes unified as one country. While trying to unify the country there were obstacles faced and conquered by Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi as they continued to unify Italy. They pushed Nationalism on the people. The problems that were faced during the time of the unification were the Austrian occupation of Lombardy and Venice. Also, the land still belonged to the Pope and not the government which meant that it did not really belong to everyone and didn’t symbolize unification. The last problem is there is an existence of many independent states which means there were states ruling themselves.

instability, as the nation tried to re-create the social bonds broken by the war and

government felt it had no choice in the matter; it had to go to war.