Human settlements dating back to 700,000 BC have been found around the Italian Peninsula. Several distinct people groups emerged over time, including the Latins. One of the cities the Latins formed was Rome, named after the legendary founder of the city, Romulus, a descendant of the goddess Venus, and founded in 753 BC.
Another people group was called the Etruscans, whose main settlement area is the portion of Italy called Tuscany today. By the 7th century BC, the Etruscans had emerged as the dominant people group, controlling most of the mid and upper Italian peninsula region. The Etruscans were great warriors and seamen, and they absorbed much of their culture and art from the Greeks in neighboring Magna Graecia (now the southern Italian Peninsula and Sicily). The Etruscans tried to conquer Magna Graecia, and their defeat hastened their demise.
Rome had been ruled by Etruscan kings until 509 BC, when the king was kicked out and a republic set up. The Latins began slowly conquering the various cities on the Italian Peninsula, picking up momentum as time went on. In 396 BC they made major progress in completely conquering the Etruscans. In 264 BC they went to war with the Carthagians over Sicily. By 133 BC, Rome controlled all of Italy, Spain, Greece, Sardinia & Corsica (islands between Italy and Spain, below France), Sicily, Malta, most of North Africa, and some of Asia Minor. The Roman Republic was the western Mediterranean’s prime naval power.
The key to their success in conquering was allowing the various provinces to retain relative autonomy. The military protection Rome offered actually enticed some states to willingly incorporate themselves as part of the Roman Republic, with no battles necessary. The Romans were slow to incorporate things like writing and minted coins into their society. They adopted much of the culture of their conquered people, most notably the Greeks, especially in terms of religion, art, architecture and philosophy. Rome flourished into the most important city in the Mediterranean and had a population of 300,000.
Julius Caesar was one of the greatest generals of his day, spending several years in Spain putting down rebellions. The men who served under him were devoted to him. He had political ambitions, and in 59 BC took over a military command in Southern France (a separate people group from those in Northern France). During his time there, he managed to conquer all of what is France and Britain today. He was generous to those he defeated and the conquered people became his staunch supporters. Jealous of Caesar’s power, the Roman Senate outlawed Caesar in 49 BC. Caesar responded by starting a civil war that lasted three years. Caesar won, and took on dictatorial powers, naming himself dictator for life. Two years later, the senate wanted its power back. In an effort to restore the republic, the senators brutally murdered Caesar in the senate house during a meeting.
The heir Caesar chose to take over his throne was, shockingly, his great-nephew Octavian, a smart young man with little real world experience. The natural successor would have been Mark Anthony, Caesar’s second in command. Mark Antony and Octavian teamed up to start another civil war against Caesar’s assassins. They won, then split the empire in half, with Octavian ruling the west from Rome and Anthony ruling the east from Egypt (with Cleopatra at his side). This co-sharing of power didn’t last long and in 31 BC Octavian and Anthony went to war over total control of the empire. Octavian won.
Octavian kept up the appearance of a republic, but in reality he was Rome’s first true emperor and this is when the Roman Republic officially became the Roman Empire. Octavian was called Augustus, which means “your eminence”. The empire prospered under Augustus Octavian. He encouraged the arts, constructed and restored many buildings, and brought in infrastructure. He instituted the first ever police and fire squads and made the military a volunteer only organization (for the most part). Augustus Octavian died in 14 AD at age 75. Rome was now the biggest city in the world.
We’re not sure of the exact dates of these, but the Romans also revolutionized road service, invented the postal service and way side inns, invented a precursor to the odometer, brought aqueducts into regular use, laid down plumbing, invented flushing toilets (including in people’s homes), and understood the need for hygiene, thus installing both public and private bath houses.
100 years after Octavian’s death, Rome reached its zenith in terms of size, from Spain and Morocco in the west to the Caspian Sea and Mesopotamia to the east, which encompassed a big chunk of North Africa, most of Europe, and most of Asia Minor. They had one million people under their rule. These borders lasted until the 3rd century. At this point attacks from outsiders and rebellions from within were commonplace. Emperor Diocletian was persecuting the Christians, a rapidly growing religion within the empire. In 313 AD, Diocletian’s successor, Constantine, reversed the persecution policy and declared Christianity to be Rome’s preferred religion. The Christian church was centered in Rome and it gained a great deal of political, as well as religious, importance. The Bishop of Rome became known as the Pope. In 330, Constantine split the Roman Empire in half and opened a second capital in Byzantium, which they renamed Constantinople (today Istanbul, Turkey).
The eastern half of the empire was stable, but the western half was plagued with problems, most notably the invaders and rebellions just mentioned. The western half sort of imploded, continually losing territory until 476 AD, when it was officially dead. The emperor of Rome’s eastern half (called the Byzantine Empire by historians), Justinian, tried to reclaim the lands of the Roman Empire. He succeeded in picking up some of the territories, including Tunisia, Sicily and Malta, but after years of fighting and on and off control, was never able to recover Rome for good. Rome’s population fell to about 20,000.
The former Roman territories were split amongst various people groups, especially Germanic and Austrians, with boundaries constantly changing as groups battled one another for more land. While western Rome fell into complete and total chaos, the papacy established itself in Rome as a spiritual and secular force. They forged a document from Emperor Constantine that gave them ownership rights of Rome and the land around it, which they named the Papal States. They promised the Franks control over the rest of Italy if the Franks would be their muscle. The Franks succeeded in ousting the other groups and took control of much of Italy, recognizing the Papal States as a separate country under Frankish protection. The Frankish king was awarded the title “Holy Roman Emperor” in 756. The Catholics medaled in the affairs of all its constituents, trying to ensure that church and state were one. The church oppressed knowledge, trying to keep the people ignorant. The church sent knights to fight crusades against the Muslims, battles that were supposed to be about religious superiority, but were really more about land, wealth, and control of trade and shipping. The church set up inquisitions, persecuting anyone who wasn’t a Roman Catholic within its sphere of control.
At some point in time, the church in Rome split from the church in Byzantium, creating two separate sects out of what was one unified church. The split was due to a power struggle regarding the supremacy of the Pope. The Greek Orthodox church remained the dominant power in the Byzantine held areas, and Roman Catholicism became the dominant power in western Rome. Knowledge was never repressed in the east, and we are pretty sure there were no inquisitions in the east, either.
The power struggles continued in Italy for many more years, and the Holy Roman Empire never really had full control over its holdings in Italy. In 962, the first of a long line of Germanic leaders was granted the title of Holy Roman Emperor. In the early 12th century, there was no male heir to the throne in the Kingdom of Sicily. The heiress, Constance, married the son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry, and Sicily was now part of the Holy Roman Empire and Italian politics. Henry and Constance’s child, Frederick II, became a great leader (see History of Sicily for more details). One of the things he did was separate church and state, which made the Church very mad. The church got revenge by taking Sicily away from him and giving it to the French. Frederick tried to unify the Holy Roman Empire into one solid kingdom, including conquering Rome and the Papal States. He managed to unify a lot of the south, but was never able to conquer Rome or the north.
In the north, cities were becoming more independent minded, trying to break away from the Roman Catholic Church’s grasp. Eventually, Florence, Milan and Venice emerged as regional powers, absorbing their neighbors and becoming financial powerhouses. The most successful was Venice, who had taken all of northeast Italy, as well as battled against Constantinople and won a portion of Greece and the Baltics in that battle. When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, there was a huge wave of immigration to Italy from the Byzantine Empire, bringing with them the classical teachings of the Greeks that had been long forgotten in Medieval Europe. This sparked off the renaissance. The launch pad of the renaissance was in Florence, where the ruling family financially encouraged this rebirth of education and arts. The frenzy followed in the rest of Italy. The city of Rome, not wanting to be outdone, joined in the frenzy, making sure they had the biggest and most impressive churches, bridges and public spaces.
Over time, Italy’s mini-states had lost power and prestige in Europe. By the late 18th century, the Italian peninsula was considered a backwater. Napoleon marched into Italy, took the northern half in 1804 (including the Papal States), and called it the Kingdom of Italy. Of course, this new kingdom was under Napoleonic rule, not an independent nation, but the concept of a Kingdom of Italy it was a seed that grew.
After Napoleon’s demise, the old Italian ruling class (comprised mostly of foreigners) was put back in place. A series of unsuccessful revolts followed. Count Camillo Benso di Cavor headed up the unity movement. In 1858, he struck a deal with France if France would help the Italians defeat the Austrians that controlled the north, allowing a Kingdom Italy to form in the north, then di Cavor would give parts of Savoy and Nice to the French. The Franco-Roman War (also called the war for Italian independence) lasted from 1859- 1861 and ended with the Austrians retreating. Meanwhile, revolutionary Garibaldi waged a military campaign that took Southern Italy and Sicily in 1860, then di Cavor and Garibaldi took central Italy, proclaiming a single Italian state under the Savoy King Victor Emmanuel II. The last hold outs, Rome, Tuscany and Veneto were all incorporated Italy within 9 years. Interestingly, the French were protecting Rome from the Italians. But when the Prussians invaded France in 1870, the French needed to move their troops to fight the Prussians. The Italians swooped in and quickly took Rome. The capital of Italy was moved from Florence to Rome.
See the History of Sicily for the summary of the years between Italy becoming independent through World War II. Also worth noting is that in 1929, Mussolini signed a treaty with the pope. The Vatican is recognized as an independent nation and Roman Catholicism is instituted as Italy’s sole religion.
Rome was badly damaged by both the Allies and the Nazis during World War II. Rome grew momentously after the war, and was one of the driving forces behind the Italian post war economic boom. Italy went from being a poorer country to a wealthy country in a short span. They have had several different elected governments in place since becoming a republic. During the 70’s, they had some issue with social unrest and affiliated social terrorism. In 1992 in Milan, thousands of corrupt officials were implicated in a corruption scandal. In the 90’s, the country stagnated economically, and they have not ben able to pull themselves out of the slump as of yet.