Rental Cars Italy
History of Italy
Commanding an important strategic focus in the Mediterranean, Italy has gone from mighty empire to backwater and back in 2000 years, today boasting the world’s fifth largest economy and a bewildering political backdrop.
The Etruscans ruled the peninsula until the Roman Empire superceded them in about 500 BC. By the time of Christ it had become one of the largest the world has ever seen – encompassing much of the Mediterranean shore and beyond, long after Julius Caesar had come and gone. Despite bringing infrastructure and civilization to many parts of Europe (even as far away as Britain), it soon amounted to a military dictatorship based on slavery.
The empire grew so large it was eventually divided into eastern and western sectors. Christianity was embraced by Constantine in 313, who had set up the capital in Constantinople (Istanbul), the western empire however was blighted by plague and famine and soon fell to tribal incursions from the north. Only in 1453 did Constantinople eventually fall to the marauding Turks.
Successive waves of Lombards, Franks, Saracens, Germans, Normans and Muslim Arabs made life miserable throughout the ‘Dark Ages’, but powerful and competitive independent states arose in the north, encouraged by the papacy, culminated in the Renaissance period (15th century). Painters, architects, poets, philosophers and sculptors produced unsurpassed works of genius, despite the disruptive forces of Spain, Austria and France all trying to lay claim to the peninsula.
Led by Garibaldi, Cavour and Mazzini, the locals took their fate into their own hands and overcame foreign occupation and aristocracy, declaring the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, with powerful Venice and Rome (under control of the Papacy) remaining independent for a further decade. There remained however a huge wealth and cultural gap between the industrial north and poverty stricken rural south, which is still evident today.
Economic crisis and fickle politics dogged the new nation in the ensuing decades. WWI was costly for Italy, and in the industrial unrest that followed the reins of the government was handed to Benito Mussolini and his fascist government. He soon outlawed the opposition, silenced the press and trade unions and cut franchise by two-thirds. His ‘Axis’ with Hitler soured after a series of military disasters and an Allied invasion, leading to his downfall in April 1945.
During the latter half of the century, Italy has experienced economic boom and near bust, a new government almost every year and endless bribery and corruption scandals, yet the general public has ignored the lot, with a sigh, and got on with prospering.
Multi-millionaire media magnate Silvio Berlusconi currently runs the country (2002), clinging on with a precarious alliance with minority parties.
