italy

Period 1

Western Europe - boot

  • Italy is non-unified city-states until 1860

Indian Ocean trading network

  • Many Italian merchants traveled both the Indian Ocean trading network and the silk road which allowed many Italian city-states to gain wealth  

Period 2

Renaissance

starts in Italy (1450) because many Italian merchants and bankers patronize the arts

Humanism begins - the idea of thinking for yourself

In Machiavelli's writes “The Prince” in which he gives ideas such as rulers should do whatever is necessarily good or bad to stay in power and “The end justifies the means.”

Renaissance brings a rebirth in learning which eventually leads to the scientific revolution (new scientific ideas that go against the church such as Copernicus and heliocentric theory, the world is round not flat, and the ideas of Galileo)

Protestant Reformation - remains catholic because the pope is located in Rome   

Period 3

Italian Unification

  • Many Italian city-states decide it would be better to unify because of their common culture, ethnic background, religion, and history (nationalism) 

  • Unification leads Italy to become more powerful economically and military 

  • Led by the prime minister of Piedmont and Sardinia, Camilo Camar, and the ideas of Mazzini and the military leadership of Garibaldi

  • Unified in 1860

Industrial Revolution - Italy was late to industrialize due to unification issues

Imperialism - a member of the berlin conference and claim African territory including Ethiopia, when Italy goes to claim Ethiopia they are defeated at the 1896 battle of Adowa 

Period 4

World War I - Member of allies and considered one of the big four winners of world war I and are at the Paris peace conference and the signing of the Treaty of Versi 

Interwar years

  • economically declining due to the great depression

  • leads to political instability because of the depression and because of Italian people being angry at the government due to Italy not receiving nearly as much economic money or colony territories as Britain and France received at the Treaty of Versi

  • This leads to the rise of Benito Mussolini and fascism 

  • Fascism - all people of a country work together to make that country stronger politically, economically, and military

  • The 1920s to 1930s European countries that utilize these ideas Mussolini Italy, Hitler Germany, and Franco's Spain

  • Musilini leads the black shirts to march on Rome in the early 1920s and take over the government 

  • Mussolini then decided to create the second roman empire by invading and conquering African territories in Libya and Ethiopia

  • Allies with Hitler before world war II 

World war II

  • Member of Axis powers and eventually rises and falls with Hitlers Germany

  • By mid-1945 Italians rebelled and killed Mosslini and switch teams to join the Allies at the end of WWII