Italian: Repubblica Italiana),[7][8][9][10] Is a Unitary Parliamentary Republic Insouthern Europe

Italy ( i/ˈɪtəli/; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana),[7][8][9][10] is a unitary parliamentary republic inSouthern Europe. Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 (116,347 sq mi) and has a largely temperate climate; due to its shape, it is often referred to in Italy as lo Stivale (the Boot).[11][12] With 61 million inhabitants, it is the 5th most populous country in Europe. Italy is a very highly developed country[13]and has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and the eighth-largest in the world.[14] Since ancient times, Etruscan, Magna Graecia and other cultures have flourished in the territory of present-day Italy, being eventually absorbed byRome, that has for centuries remained the leading political and religious centre of Western civilisation, capital of the Roman Empire and Christianity. During the Dark Ages, the Italian Peninsula faced calamitous invasions by barbarian tribes, but beginning around the 11th century, numerous Italian city-states rose to great prosperity through shipping, commerce and banking (indeed, modern capitalism has its roots in Medieval Italy).[15] Especially duringThe Renaissance, Italian culture thrived, producing scholars, artists, and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. Italian explorers such as Polo, Columbus, Vespucci, and Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, Italy would remain fragmented into many warring states for the rest of the Middle Ages, subsequently falling prey to larger European powers such as France, Spain, and later Austria. Italy would thus enter a long period of decline that lasted until the mid 19th century. After various unsuccessful attempts, the second and the third wars of Italian Independence resulted in the unification of most of present-day Italy between 1859-66.[16] From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the new Kingdom of Italy rapidly industrialised and acquired a colonial empirebecoming a Great Power.[17][18] However, Southern and rural Italy remained largely excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influentialdiaspora. Despite victory in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, which favoured the establishment of a Fascistdictatorship in 1922. The subsequent participation in World War II at the side the Axis ended in military defeat, economic destruction and civil war. In the years that followed, Italy abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, and enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, thus becoming one of the most developed nations [5][19][20] [21] and the 5th largest economy in the world by 1990.[22] Italy plays a prominent role in global military, cultural and diplomatic affairs[23] and thus is considered a major regional power.[24][25][26] Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union. Italy is a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, theOSCE, the DAC, the WTO, the G4, G6, G7, G8, G10, G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Latin Union, the Council of Europe, the Central European Initiative, the ASEM and the Uniting for Consensus. Contents [hide] • 1 Etymology • 2 History o 2.1 Prehistory and antiquity o 2.2 Middle Ages o 2.3 Early Modern o 2.4 Italian unification, Liberal Italy and the Great War o 2.5 Fascist Regime o 2.6 Republican Italy • 3 Geography o 3.1 Environment o 3.2 Climate • 4 Politics o 4.1 Government o 4.2 Law and criminal justice o 4.3 Foreign relations o 4.4 Military o 4.5 Administrative divisions • 5 Economy o 5.1 Infrastructure • 6 Demographics o 6.1 Ethnic groups o 6.2 Languages o 6.3 Religion o 6.4 Education o 6.5 Healthcare • 7 Culture o 7.1 Architecture o 7.2 Visual art o 7.3 Literature and theatre o 7.4 Music o 7.5 Cinema o 7.6 Science and Technology o 7.7 Sport o 7.8 Fashion and design o 7.9 Cuisine • 8 See also • 9 Notes • 10 References • 11 Bibliography • 12 External links Etymology Main article: Name of Italy The assumptions on the etymology of the name "Italia" are very numerous and the corpus of the solutions proposed by historians and linguists is very wide.[27] According to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin: Italia,[28] was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning "land of young cattle" (cf. Lat vitulus "calf", Umb vitlo "calf").[29] The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus,[30] mentioned also by Aristotle[31] and Thucydides.[32] The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, the southern portion of the Bruttium peninsula (modern Calabria: province of Reggio, and part of the provinces of Catanzaro and Vibo Valentia). But by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name "Italia" to a larger region, but it was during the reign of Emperor Augustus (end of the 1st century BC) that the term was expanded to cover the entire peninsula until the Alps.[33] History Main article: History of Italy Prehistory and antiquity Main articles: Prehistoric Italy, Magna Graecia, Etruscan civilization, Roman Italy, Ancient Rome, Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic and Roman Empire The Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architectureand engineering. Excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Paleolithic period, some 200,000 years ago,[34] modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. The Ancient peoples of pre-Roman Italy – such as the Umbrians, the Latins (from which the Romans emerged), Volsci, Samnites, the Celts and the Ligures which inhabited northern Italy, and many others – were Indo-European peoples; the main historic peoples of non-Indo-European heritage include theEtruscans, the Elymians and Sicani in Sicily and the prehistoric Sardinians. Between the 17th and the 11th centuries BC Mycenaean Greeks established contacts with Italy[35][36][37][38] and in the 8th and 7th centuries BC Greek colonieswere established all along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian Peninsula became known as Magna Graecia. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily. Rome, a settlement around a ford on the river Tiber conventionally founded in 753 BC, grew over the course of centuries into a massive empire, stretching fromBritain to the borders of Persia, and engulfing the whole Mediterranean basin, in which Greek and Roman (and many other) cultures merged into a uniquecivilisation. The Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world.[39] In a slow decline since the third century AD, the Empire split in two in 395 AD. The Western Empire, under the pressure of the barbarian invasions, eventually dissolved in 476 AD, when its last Emperor was deposed by the Germanic chief Odoacer, while the Eastern half of the Empire survived for another thousand years. Middle Ages Main article: Italy in the Middle Ages The Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the Kings of Italy. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy was seized by the Ostrogoths,[40] followed in the 6th century by a brief reconquest under Byzantine Emperor Justinian. The invasion of another Germanic tribe, the Lombards, late in the same century, reduced the Byzantine presence to a rump realm (the Exarchate of Ravenna) and started the end of political unity of the peninsula for the next 1,300 years. The Lombard kingdom was subsequently absorbed into the Frankish Empire byCharlemagne in the late 8th century. The Franks also helped the formation of the Papal States in central Italy. Until the 13th century, Italian politics was dominated by the relations between the Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy, with most of the Italian city-states siding for the former (Ghibellines) or for the latter (Guelphs) from momentary convenience.[41] Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor Frederick II. It was during this chaotic era that Italy saw the rise of a peculiar institution, the medieval commune. Given the power vacuum caused by extreme territorial fragmentation and the struggle between the Empire and the Holy See, local communities sought autonomous ways to restore law and order.[42] In 1176 a league of city-states, the Lombard League, defeated the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Battle of Legnano, thus ensuring effective independence for most of northern and central Italian cities. In coastal and southern areas, the maritime republics, the most notable being Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi, heavily involved in the Crusades, grew to eventually dominate the Mediterranean and monopolise trade routes to the Orient.[43] In the south, Sicily had become an 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.[44] Through a complex series of events, southern Italy developed as a unified kingdom, first under theHouse of Hohenstaufen, then under the Capetian House of Anjou and, from the 15th century, the House of Aragon. In Sardinia, the former Byzantine provinces became independent states known as Giudicati, although some parts of the island were under Genoese or Pisan control until the Aragonese conquered it in the 15th century.

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