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The Italian peninsula was the home for one of the greatest empires in history, the Roman Empire, and one of the worlds largest religions, Catholicism. The dynamic city states that arose after the fall of the Roman Empire gave birth to the Renaissance. Italian ports and trade declined with the discovery of America .The rise of the more powerful nations states to the north, France, Spain and Austria controlled Italian affairs till the Risorgimento and the unification of most of Italy by 1870. Italy fought the fought against Austria and Germany in WWI , losing 600,000 and leading to the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few. In the economic hard times that followed, Mussolini formed the Fascist party in 1919 and allied with German and Japan in WW2, leading to the invasion of Italy in 1943 and surrendered to the Allies on April 28, 1945. Italy became a republic in 1946 and joined NATO in the 1950s.By the 1950s, the economy began to recover and Italy joined the EEC in 1958.A major factor in the recovery was the growth of the Italian automobile industry.The late 70s and early 80s are known at the Years of Lead ( anni di piombo ) because of student protests and terrorism by communist and neo-fascist groups.

The Mani pulite(clean hands) investigation into political corruption led to the demise of the first republic in 1992.

The Italian peninsula extends from the foot of the Alps into the Mediterranean sea, about seven hundred and fifty miles. Its breadth is very unequal. In the extreme north, where it is bounded by the circular sweep of the Alps, which separate the plains of Lombardy from Switzerland and the Tyrol, the country presents a breadth of one hundred and fifty miles. In the center it is but about eighty miles from the bay of Naples to the Adriatic, while in Calabria the width dwindles to but eighteen miles from sea to sea. The islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, with several others of minor importance, have also been usually considered as a part of Italy.Italia original applied to the southern extremity of the peninsula;during the Roman republic it was extended to the central provinces, the territory north of the Apennines being called Cisalpine Gaul. The use of the word Italia for the whole peninsula came during the Roman empire (27 BC-395AD)

Remains of Homo erctus have been found in Italy from 200,000 BC. Cro-Magnons appeared by 10,000 BC. By around 4,000 BC Neolithic humans were entering Italy. Agriculture appeared by 3500 BC. In 1991, hikers in the Italian Alps found the body of a 5,000 year old man.The man was in his twenties or thirties, wore animal skins and a grass cape and leather shoes stuffed with grass. Of special interest was his copper ax

In the 8th and 7th centuries, driven by unsettled conditions at home, Greek colonies were established in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. From the Greeks comes the word Italy, from the word Fitalia, meaning ' land of cattle.' During the Early Middle Ages, following the Gothic War that was disastrous for the region, new waves of Byzantine Christian Greeks came to Magna Graecia from Greece and Asia Minor, as southern Italy remained loosely governed by the Eastern Roman Empire until the advent first of the Lombards, then of the Normans. Moreover, the Byzantines found in southern Italy people of common cultural root, the Greek-speaking eredi ellenofoni of Magna Graecia.

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci. The Etruscan culture reached its height from thr 7th to 6th century BC.It was based on city states based mostly on the Arno and tiber rivers .It was the Latins who called them Etrusci or Tusci , whence Tuscany . Their own name for themselves was Rasenna , and the Greek word was Tyrrhenoi , which survives in the Tyrrhenian Sea, while the Adriatic is so called from the port they established at Adria.

The homeland and language of the Etruscans in a mystery.Based on DNA evidence, they arrived in Italy from Asia Minor in a period from 1000-850 BC.This could be the kernel of historical fact foe the the legend of Aeneas. they were not numerous, but their superior weapons and military tactics allowed them to subjugate the native Italian population .The Attic Greek word for them was Τυρρήνιοι (Tyrrhēnioi) from which Latin also drew the names Tyrrhēni (Etruscans), Tyrrhēnia (Etruria) and Tyrrhēnum mare (Tyrrhenian Sea).The Etruscans themselves used the term Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna.

Like the Greeks, they were thrustful merchant venturers, not averse to piracy. They had outposts in Spain, the Balear- ics, even perhaps in the Canaries. Their exports went as far as Britain and Sweden. Their prosperity was based on mining and metalwork. They were the first to exploit Italy s rich resources of iron and copper, zinc and tin. Unlike the Greeks, however, they built their cities not only along the seaboard at Cerveteri and Piombino, but high in the moun tains inland at Orvieto and Chiusi (Lars Porsena s Clusium) and later at Volterra, Perugia and Arezzo. These cities stood usually on a hill, with another hill close by for burials. The Etruscans were skilful architects, engineers and surveyors: the Romans were to learn much from them. They used arches and barrel-vaulting.

As distinguished by its own language, the civilization endured from an unknown prehistoric time prior to the founding of Rome until its complete assimilation to Italic Rome in the Roman Republic. Although th Etruscans wrote with an alphabet adopted from the Greek colonists of Cumae, since their language was non Indo-European and not related to any other language that can be read, translations are few .

At its maximum extent during the foundation period of Rome and the Roman kingdom, it flourished in three confederacies of cities: of Etruria, of the Po valley with the eastern Alps, and of Latium and Campania. Rome was sited in Etruscan territory. There is considerable evidence that early Rome was dominated by Etruscans until the Romans sacked Veii in 396 BC. Much evidence of Etruscan life has been learned from tombs, which were often made like houses with objects found from their daily life .Contests of gladiators or wild beasts originated as part of the lavish funeral celebrations for the Etruscan nobility. When they were over, the corpse was conducted to its new habitation in the city of tombs on the next hill one of those rock-hewn family sepulchres that were, in layout, decor and furnishing, almost a facsimile of the home he had occupied in life.

The leaders of the 12 major Etruscans often met together for joint actions but the cities maintained a high degree of independence . The richest of the etruscan cities was Veii.The classes of society were strictly segregrated and religion was a major factor in their life .The Etruscans were the first to use the bound collection of rods (fasces) as a symbol of power, which was adopted by the Romans and Mussolini .Etruscan had a great degre of freedom for ancient times. They could own property and keep their own names .The Etruscans had coinage, based on the greek model.

By the early 6th century BC, the Etruscans had occupied Rome and three Etruscan kings ruled Rome from 616 to 510 BC.The last Etruscan kings was portrayed as a tyrant whose son raped the wife of a leader who he was visiting, known in literature as the 'rape of Lucretia.' The rule of the Etruscans was often harsh.

three centuries later. In 524 the Etruscans felt strong enough to mop up the encircled Greeks of Cumae. They mobilized an unusually large force against the city, only to be soundly defeated under its very walls by its dynamic commander, Aristodemus. This was the high-water limit of Etruscan expansion. The tide now ebbed, gleefully assisted by the Greeks, who encouraged the recently subjugated Latin towns to liberate themselves. The expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome about 510 was due less to the rape of Lucrece (though we need not neces sarily disbelieve the immortal story) than to a general up heaval in Central Italy. Similarly the replacement of kings by a republic of consuls and senators, far from being a novel concept of the Roman genius, reflected a tendency widespread at the time to substitute oligarchy for monarchy. The Greeks blocked the Etruscans from expanding near modern day Naples and an Etruscan fleet was lost of Cumae in 524, ending their advance to the south .In the north they were limited to the Po valley by Celtic tribes . After Romans expelled their Roman overloeds they expanded north, taking the last Etruscan city in 265 BC.

A wall painting of a soldier of Samnium in Paestrum from around the 4th century BC . Samnium reached its peak in the 4th century, defeating Rome in a major battle in the Samnite wars (343-290 BC). In 290 BC, the Romans finally broke the Samnites' power. The Samnites were the last group holding out against Rome in the Social War (91–88 BC). In 82 BC, the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla slaughtered many of them and forced the rest to disperse

According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus and Remus, and was then governed by seven Kings of Rome. In the following centuries, Rome started expanding its territory, defeating its neighbours (Veium, the other Latins, the Sannites) one after the other.

The Roman Empire represented as Luna on the Altar of Peace (9BC) built to celebrate the peace of Augustus after bitter preceding civil wars

Italia, under the Roman Republic and later Empire, was the Italian peninsula from Rubicon to Calabria. During the Republic, Italia was not a province, but rather the territory of the city of Rome, thus having a special status: for example, military commanders were not allowed to bring their armies within Italia, and Julius Caesar passing the Rubicon with his legions marked the start of the civil war.

The Italian "province" was privileged by Augustus and his heirs, with the construction, among other public structures, of a dense mesh of roads. The Italian economy flourished: agriculture, handicraft and industry had a sensible growth, allowing the export of goods to the other provinces. The Italian population grew as well: Three census were ordered by Augustus, to record the presence of male citizens in Italia. They were 4,063,000 in 28 BC, 4,233,000 in 8 BC, and 4,937,000 in AD 14. Including the women and the children, the total population of Italia at the beginning of the 1st century was around 10 million.

The emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-80AD) receiving the surrender of barbarians. Although a lover of philosophy, he spent most of his reign at war.

After the death of emperor Theodosius I (395), Italia became part of the Western Roman Empire. Then came the years of the barbarian invasions, and the capital was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna. In 476, with the death of Romulus Augustulus and the return of the imperial ensigns to Constantinople, the Western Roman Empire ends; for a few years Italia stayed united under the rule of Odovacer, but later it was divided between several kingdoms, and did not reunite under a single ruler until thirteen centuries later.

During the later years of the Roman empire the church grew in size and importance. By the time of Theodosius paganism became a crime against the state .

In 476, the last Roman Emperor was overthrown by the Germanic general Odoacer who ruled Italy until 493, largely maintaining Roman customs and culture. Odoacer's rule came to an end when the Ostrogoths under the leadership of Theodoric conquered Italy. This led to the Gothic War during which the armies of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian won a pyrrhic victory over the Goths in Italy.

Italy re-united to the Empire, 539-563. — Justinian seized the opportunity of regaining the oldest and noblest province of the Empire, which had become detached in all things save in name. The chief strength of the Ostrogoths lay in North Italy, for they were not sufficiently numerous to colonize the whole land. The descendants of the Greek colonists in Sicily and South Italy gladly welconjed Belisarius the general of the Emperor. The Greek city Naples was forced by the barbarians to resist: at its fall Apulia and Calabria were restored to the Empire. After a long struggle the Imperial armies, first under Belisarius, and afterwards under Narses, destroyed the name and nation of the East- Goths. Italy was thus again made in reality a subject of the Emperor

The Giovanni degli Eremiti in Palermo founded by Roger II, the first Norman King of Sicily shows a fusion of Moorish and Byzantine architecture.

The Gothic War destroyed the infrastructure of Italy and allowed the more barbarous Germanic tribe, the Lombards to take control of Italy. The Lombards established a kingdom in northern Italy and three principalities in the South. After the Lombard invasion, the popes (for example, St. Gregory) were nominally subject to the eastern emperor, but often received little help from Constantinople, and had to fill the lack of stately power, providing essential services (such as food for the needy) and protecting Rome from Lombard incursions; in this way, the popes started building an independent state. In 751 the Lombards seized Ravenna and the Exarchate of Ravenna was abolished. This ended the Byzantine presence in central Italy, although some coastal cities and some areas in south Italy remained under Byzantine control until the eleventh century. Facing a new Lombard offensive, the papacy appealed to the Franks for aid. In 756 Frankish forces defeated the Lombards and gave the Papacy legal authority over much of central Italy, thus creating the Papal States.

The age of Charlemagne was therefore one of stability for Italy, though it was generally dominated by non-Italian interests. The 11th century signed the end of the darkest period in the Middle Ages. Trade slowly increased, especially on the seas where the four Italian cities of Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice became major powers. The papacy regained its authority, and started a long struggle with the empire, about both ecclesiastical and secular matter. The first episode was the Investiture controversy. In the twelfth century those Italian cities which lay in the Holy Roman Empire launched a successful effort to win autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire; this made north Italy a land of quasi-independent or independent city-states until the 19th century.

In 1155 the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos attempted to invade southern Italy. The Emperor sent his generals Michael Palaiologos and John Doukas with Byzantine troops and large quantities of gold to invade Apulia (1155). However, the invasion soon stalled. By 1158 the Byzantine army had left Italy, with only a few permanent gains.

By the late Middle Ages, central and southern Italy, once the heartland of the Roman Empire, was far poorer than the north. Rome was a city largely in ruins, and the Papal States were a loosely administered region with little law and order. Partly because of this, the Papacy had relocated to Avignon in France. Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia had for some time been under foreign domination. The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and beyond were major conduits of culture and knowledge. The city-states of Italy expanded greatly during this period and grew in power to become de facto fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Italian Renaissance began in Tuscany, centered in the city of Florence and Siena. It then spread south, having an especially significant impact on Rome, which was largely rebuilt by the Renaissance popes. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the late 15th century as foreign invasions plunged the region into turmoil. From the late fourteenth century, Florence's leading family had been the Albizzi. The Renaissance ideals first spread from Florence to the neighbouring states of Tuscany such as Siena and Lucca. The Tuscan culture soon became the model for all the states of Northern Italy, and the Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the region, especially in literature. In 1447 Francesco Persaliano came to power in Milan and rapidly transformed that still medieval city into a major centre of art and learning. Venice, one of the wealthiest cities due to its control of the Mediterranean Sea, also became a centre for Renaissance culture, especially architecture. In 1478 the Papacy returned to Rome, but that once imperial city remained poor and largely in ruins through the first years of the Renaissance. As a cultural movement, the Italian Renaissance affected only a small part of the population. Northern Italy was the most urbanized region of Europe, but three quarters of the people were still rural peasants.

A series of foreign invasions of Italy known as the Italian Wars that would continue for several decades. These began with the 1494 invasion by France that wreaked widespread devastation on Northern Italy and ended the independence of many of the city-states. Most damaging was the May 6, 1527, Spanish and German troops sacking Rome that all but ended the role of the Papacy as the largest patron of Renaissance art and architecture

The War of the League of Cambrai was a major conflict in the Italian Wars. The principal participants of the war were France, the Papal States, and the Republic of Venice; they were joined, at various times, by nearly every significant power in Western Europe, including Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland, the Duchy of Milan, Florence, the Duchy of Ferrara, and the Swiss.

The history of Italy in the Early Modern period was characterized by foreign domination: Following the Italian Wars (1494 to 1559), Italy saw a long period of relative peace, first under Habsburg Spain (1559 to 1713) and then under Habsburg Austria (1713 to 1796). During the Napoleonic era, Italy was a client state of the French Republic (1796 to 1814). The Congress of Vienna (1814) restored the situation of the late 18th century, which was however quickly overturned by the incipient movement of Italian unification.

Napoleon reviewing his Italian troops. The Republic of Italy he formed in 1801 was changed to a kingdom.

The French Revolution and the brief Kingdom of Italy awakened hopes in Italy for an independent nation . The Congress of Viennaafter Napoleon's downfall restored foreign rulers to Italy . From 1815 onward, many Italians began to work toward undoing the Congress of Vienna and national independence .

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1907-82), hero of the Risorgimento. Born in Nice, France, became a sea captain and sentenced to death for an abortive revolt against the Kingdom of the Piedmont in north Italy in 1834. He fled to South America and learned the art of guerrilla warfare fighting for the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul against the Brazilian Empire . In South America he adopted the red shirt of the gauchos symbol of Garibaldi and his followers and met the woman who would become his wife, Anita. He took command of an Uruguayan fleet in 1842 and raised an Italian legion in the Uruguayan civil war (1839-51He returned to Italy in 1848 with 60 members of his legion. After the roman republic was declared, he became the leader of an untrained defense force against a French expedition and the Neopolitan (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) allies .He established a force of a thousand red shirts and took Sicily from the Neopolitian forces in 1860.and crossed to the mainland and forced the Neopolitan to flee from his capital. the last of the king's forces were defeated at gaeta, freeing the southern part of Italy.He tried to take Rome, but was unsuccessful against the French expedition there at the Battle of Mentana in 1867.In 1870, he volunteered to fight for the French against the Prussians after Neoploeon III was overthrown.He returned to Italy after the war and was elected a deputy of Rome .

After unification, many Italians were forced to emigrate as the population rose faster than the number of jobs in the new country.

The Risorgimento was the political and social process that unified different states of the Italian peninsula into the single nation of Italy. During the revolutions of 1848 , nationalist writer Ceare Balbo and Count Camilio Benso di Cavour of Turin pressed for a constitution in their newspaper Il Risorgimento . Cavour was the prime minister of Savoy who was to become the brains of the movement. revolutionary hero Giuseppe Garibaldi returned from South America and in 1860 seized Sicily and Naples from the Bourbons and handed them over to Savoy King Vittorio Emanuele II, who became th king of Italy in 1861.

Battle of the Volturno 1860, where Garibaldi won a victory against the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

The Franco-Austrian War of 1859-61 led to the freeing up of Lombardy in northern Italy. A new Italian Kingdom was proclaimed. Tuscuny joined in 1861 and Venice was seized in 1866. Napoleon III had to pull his troops out of Rome in 1870 at the start of the Franco Prussian War, and Rome was taken in 1870. Italian unity was complete and the Italian parliament was moved from Florence to Rome. the new state saw violent swings between the conservatives and the socialists .The Vatican is now an independent enclave surrounded by Italy, as is San Marino.

At the outbreak of war between Italy and Austria Hungry, the stronger Italian navy keep most of the Austro-Hungarian fleet bottled up in the Adriatic

At the Trentino, the Austrians massed 4 veteran divisions from the Russian front and attacked in May 1916. In a month the Italians were pushed back 10 miles, then the Austrian advance stalled .Austrian had to withdraw troops to fight the Russians and the Italians regained their position . The Italians lost 145,000, the Austrians 80,000.

The other main front of the war was 55 mile long front at the Isonzo, where Italy wanted to seize Trieste. there would be 12 Battles of the Isonzo. The war bogged down into trench warfare with huge losses, many from splinters of rock of artillery shells in the mountains . The the 12th Battle of the Isonzo or Caporetto on Oct 24, 1917, Germany sent forces to bolster the weakening Austrians . The Germans and Austrians led an attack after a 4 hour bombardment with gas shells used . The plan was to outflank the Italians and strike for the Italian heartland. The Italians retreated 70 miles, many surrendered, with 275,000 giving themselves up in one day. The Italian gas masks were of little protection against mustard gas .The Austrians and Germans advanced as far as the Piava River, north of Venice, where they were halted .The French and British sent divisions to Italy to keep it in the war. The next spring the Italians, with British, French and Americans reinforcements were able to beat off Austrians last offensive. Many of the German troops had by this time been withdrawn to the Western Front. In Oct, the Italians launched an offensive, by Nov an estimated 300,000 Austrians soldiers had surrendered. By the time the Austro-Hungarian empire was falling apart. The Italians continued to advance, taking Trieste and Trento.

The Austro-Hungarian battleship Szent Istvan, sunk by an Italian torpedo boat June 10, 1918

On Nov 3, the Austro-Hungarian commander sent a flag of truce and peace took effect on Nov 4. Italy lost an estimated 650,000 men fighting in the war. After the war, there was economic distress in Italy and anger at the Allies who many Italians thought failed to deliver on their promises of territorial gains for Italy . the Italians did gain Trentino and Trieste, but failed to get any spoils from Germany's colonial empire or from the breakup of Turkey. Italians were also refused Dalmatia . In the post war period the People's Party (Popolari) and Socialists gained power. In the depression following the war there were strikes . The spread of riots led some landowners to form protective societies that were supported by the Fascio di Combattimento or Union of Combat, an ultra nationalist group. This group had been founded by Mussolini in 1919.

Mussolini and his black shirts march on Rome in 1922 and seize power through a coup d'état

Post war Italy was chaotic . There was conflict between Communists ,Socialists , Populists and Fascists. The Socialists won many votes for having been against the war from the beginning. In 1919, the Socialists won 34% of the seats. In 1919 the Socialists withdrew from parliament and declared a general strike and disorder became widespread in 1919 and 1920.Prime Minister Nitti resigned and was succeeded by Giovanni Giolitti. . Fear of a communist takeover and Italy becoming a Communist State like Russia led the political establishment to tolerate the rise of the fascists. Giolitti enjoyed the support of the Fascists and did not try to stop their forceful takeovers of city and regional government or their violence against their political opponents. Giolitti resigned and was replaced by Ivanoe Bonomi (PM 1921-2) coalition government. Early in 1922, his government collapsed, and he was replaced as Prime Minister by Luigi Facta ( PM Feb-Oct 1922). The disorder of the earlier period was beginning wane, but Mussolini needed disorder to rise to power. In October he said ' ..either the Government will be given to us or we shall seize it by marching on Rome.' The Fascists then organized a much publicized 'march on Rome'. Prime Minister Facta wanted to suppress Mussolini and asked the king to declare martial law, which he refused to do.Facta resigned and Mussolini was appointed to head the government at the age of 39 and was recognized as Duce or Leader.

Italians were weary of the strikes and disorder and felt the Fascists could bring peace. Industrialists and landlords also supported the Fascists. After he appointed Prime Minister, Mussolini proceeded to consolidate his power was given dictatorial powers for a year and began a 'facistization' of government .A law was passed to dismiss civil servants on political grounds. The Acerbo Law was passed, which provided the party obtaining the largest vote in a parliamentary election would receive 2/3 of all seats. In the 1924 election, the fascists won 65% of the seats, many charged this was achieved through violence and intimidation .During 1925-6 popular control of local government was gradually abolished and representatives were appointed. Mussolini was given permanent control over the country's armed forces.Newspapers were censored and suppressed.. A secret police force, OVRA was established to deal with anti-Fascists. In 1924, the Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti was abducted and murdered and many groups withdrew from Parliament in protest and formed an opposition group, the Aventine Opposition and tried to mobilize public opinion against the Fascists. They failed to gain much support and in 1926 were excluded from parliament and the Fascists gained more power . Fascists trade unions were organized to counter the Socialist trade unions and by 1925 Fascist unions were recognized as the sole representatives of their employees by the Italian Industrial Employer's Federation .In 1928 the Fascist Party was placed in the Italian Constitution with the Fascist Grand Council being part of the government and a political party. With the Electoral Reform Act of 1928 the confederation of national syndics, under Fascist control was given sole power to nominate deputies . Mussolini was bringing about what fascist theorists called 'the corporate state' in which all businesses and industry were under government control. In 1933, when Hitler was made Chancellor, he modeled the German state on Fascist Italy. The youth programs, putting industry under state control and even the Fascist salute were adopted by Hitler.Hitler and Mussolini meet on June 14, 1934. Mussolini looked down somewhat on the new upstart and was the two argued over the fate of Austria, which Italy wanted as a buffer between Italy and Germany and Germany wanted to expand its Reich into.

Mussolini inherited a state on the brink of bankruptcy. The Fascists initiated economic reforms and taxes were increased to become one of the highest in the world. The economy recovered and the Lira, which was 31 to the dollar in 1927 was 19 to the dollar by 1928 and stabilized on a gold basis in 1928. Mussolini also launched massive public works projects such as the draining of the Pontine Marshes. The Depression had a disastrous effect on Italy. The Depression combined with the expensive Ethiopian War wrecked the economy .

Mussolini, hoping to make Italy a new Roman Empire,began a series of foreign ventures .In 1923. Italy obtained legal recognition of the Dodecannese and bombed and occupied Corfu in a dispute with Greece.In 1927, Italy obtained a virtual protectorate over Albania. In 1928, Italy was given a larger share in the administration of Tangier and Morocco. In 1934, Mussolini declared Italy had a duty to civilize backward nations.In 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia and sanctions were declared against Italy by the League of Nations .On June 1, 1935 Ethiopia,Eritrea and Italian Somaliland were reorganized into a single territorial unit known as Italian East Africa.

What today is Libya was Italian colony from 1912, after taking the territory from the Ottomans in the Italio-Turkish War of 1911-12 in which the Ottoman empire the lost provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, Cyrenaica. (Libya), Rhodes and the Dodecanese archipelago near Anatolia. This war saw one of the first uses of the airplane in warfare and held till the Allies took control in 1943.Omar Mukhtar (1861-1931) started and revolt against the Italians in 1911 and fought the Italians for 20 years with Guerrilla warfare tactics . Mussolini sent General Rodolfo Graziani to Libya in 1929 who moved the population in the area of guerrilla control to concentration camps.to crush the rebellion. Omar was captured in 1931 and executed by hanging in 1931.

In 1889 the Benadir coast was granted to Italy by the sultan of Zanzibar and between 1893 to 1905 was leased to a private company and in 1906 the Italian government took control. Over the following decades Italian settlement was encouragedThe Italians were attacked by the Mad Mullah, Mohammed ibn-Abdullah until the his final defeat in 1920.

The First Italo–Ethiopian War was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from 1895 to 1896. At the Battle of Adowa in 1896 the Italians were defeated and lost an estimated 9,000-12,000 men. The defeat caused a collapse of the Italian government and Italy was forced to o recognize the independence of Ethiopia. In the Second Italo-Ethiopian War Italy conquered Ethiopia and united it with Italian Somaliland into Italian East Africa. At the outbreak of WWII, Initially, the Italians attacked British and Commonwealth forces in the Sudan, Kenya, and British Somaliland. In August, the Italians even overran all of British Somaliland and forced the British and Commonwealth forces there to flee. But, by the end of 1941, during the East African Campaign, Ethiopia was liberated from Italian control by a combination of British, Commonwealth, Free French, Free Belgian, and Ethiopian forces.

Six weeks later he was resued by German paratroopers. However, the 'unconditional surrender' agreement stood in the way of bringing Italy into the Allied camp and while the Allies hesitated, the Wehrmacht sped 13 divisions inti Italy under Field Marshal Kesselring, who was able to use Italy's mountainous terran to his advantage . Marshal Pietro Badoglio was appointed to succeed Musolini.He decreed the dissolution of the Facist Party and announced that Italy would stay in the war. The Allies, who had suspended air attacks on Italy hoping for a government favoracle to the Allies, resumed bombardments and bombings.On Sept 3, the Badoglio government agreed to an armistice. On Sept 8, British and American troops landed at Salerno, south of Naples .Rome was occupied by German troops. On Oct 13, 1943, Badoglio government declared war on Germany. On Jan 21, the Allies landed at Anzio to take Rome, but was nearly thrown back into the sea by Kesselring.On June 4,1944 Allied troops entered RomeOn April 28, German resistance in Italy collapsed, Mussolini was captured near Como and executed .

Italian pilots in front of their MC200 Thunderbolts The Machi MC202 Lightning, considered superior to the P-40 and the Hurricane.

After the war, on June 2, 1946, a referendum on the monarchy resulted in the establishment of the Italian Republic, which led to the adoption of a new constitution

Italy is a charter member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. It joined the growing political and economic unification of Western Europe, including the introduction of the Euro in 1999.

A new constitution was written for the new republic, taking effect on January 1, 1948, while the desperate fascist Salo Republic attempt was crushed by the Allies in April 1945. The referendum at the origin of the Italian republic was, however, the object of deep discussion, mainly because of some contested results. Under the 1947 peace treaty, minor adjustments were made to Italy's frontier with France, the eastern border area was transferred to Yugoslavia, and the area around the city of Trieste was designated a free territory. In the 1950s, Italy became a member of the NATO alliance and an ally of the United States, which helped to revive the Italian economy through the Marshall Plan.

The following period came to be known as the anni di piombo ("lead years") because of a wave of bombings, attributed to far-right, far-left and secret services' actions. Piazza Fontana bombing in the centre of Milan, on December 12, 1969, marked the beginning of this violent period. The police arrested 4 000 people in left-wing circles, among whom Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist who was initially blamed for the bombing. In December 1970, a coup dubbed the Golpe Borghese failed. Christian Democrat (DC) politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades, a paramilitary group, on March 16, 1978, the day the historic compromise with the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which had embraced eurocommunism with Enrico Berlinguer, was supposed to be enacted, insuring the PCI's return to government for the first time since May 1947. Aldo Moro's corpse was then discovered on May 9, in via Caetani in Rome, in a site equidistant between the DC and the PCI headquarters.

In the 1980s, for the first time, two governments were led by a republican and a socialist (Bettino Craxi) rather than by a member of DC (which nonetheless remained the main force behind the government). From 1992 to 1997, Italy faced significant challenges as voters (disenchanted with past political paralysis, massive government debt, extensive corruption, and organized crime's considerable influence collectively called Tangentopoli after being uncovered by Mani pulite - "Clean hands") demanded political, economic, and ethical reforms. The 1994 elections also swept media magnate Silvio Berlusconi (leader of "Pole of Freedoms" coalition, which included Forza Italia, the regionalist far-right ‘‘Lega Nord’’ party and the far-right Alleanza Nazionale) into office as Prime Minister. However, his government collapsed after only a few months because the Northern League split out.

A technocratic cabinet led by Lamberto Dini, supported by the left-wing parties and the Northern League, lasted until Romano Prodi's new center-left coalition won the 1996 general election. In 2001 the center-right took the government and Berlusconi was able to remain in power for the complete five year mandate but having to pass through a crisis and a government's reshuffle. The elections in 2006 returned Prodi in the government with a slim majority, but Berlusconi won the 2008 elections and now the center-right coalition is back in power.