Short History Of Italy and Culture

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Short History Of Italy and Culture
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History of Italy and Italian Heritage: Italy derives its name from the Italic tribes, which began to drive the original Neolithic stock from the peninsula as early as 1200 B.C. These tribes, which included the Veneti, Picenes, Sabines, Umbrians, and Latins, are considered to have been a branch of the Indo-European peoples that over a period of twenty centuries had made their way westward from Central Asia. After the tenth century B.C. the Etruscans, who in the sixth century B. C. made their country, Etruria, the core of the first Italian empire, inhabited the coastal plain between the Arno and the Tiber. The Etruscans however did not succeed in conquering the southern part of the peninsula or the island of Sicily, which had been controlled by Greek colonists since the eighth century B.C.

Around 500 B.C., when the first invasion of Celtic migrants from Transalpine Gaul was beginning, the Latins revolted against the Etruscans and laid the foundation of the mighty Roman state. A century later Rome, the chief city of Latium, began its program of vast expansion, conquering the neighboring tribal states and the Greek settlements in the south. The Roman Empire reached its peak early in the second century A.D. By the end of the fifth century it had declined to such an extent that the Goths, whose home had originally been north of the Danube River, were able to depose the emperor and set up a kingdom uniting the whole peninsula. Italy, however, was restored to the imperial fold under the Byzantine emperor, Justinian, and thereafter, until the Saracen invasions in the ninth century and the Norman invasions in the eleventh, much of southern and central Italy formed a dependency of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The area we today know as Italy first achieved wide recognition through the inexorable growth of the Roman Empire from the first century BC. By 400 AD, however, the empire’s decline had become terminal, and the country entered a long period of relative inactivity known as The Dark Ages. Prosperity returned in force by the fourteenth century, when the nation’s important trade role saw it blossom into a centre for sharing ideas and cultures. Art, science, exploration and literature all flourished, and the Catholic Church became hugely influential.

As power shifted in the sixteenth century, it then again became a rather rudderless region, until for political reasons full national unification was reached in 1861. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini led the country to defeat in World War II, after which Italy became a republic. In recent history, former Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his government resigned in January 2008 after losing a confidence vote in the Senate. Elections in April 2008 were won by still-controversial media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, securing a third term as premier after two years in opposition.