The Land before Time
With its advantageous Mediterranean
location, the Italian peninsula had
always been an ideal land for
colonization. Tribes of Celts,
Teutonics, and groups from the
eastern Mediterranean had inhabited
the Italian peninsula since the
Bronze Age before the Etruscans
arrived sometime between the 12th
and 8th century B.C. and established
a stronghold here. Later, the Greeks
made a voyage to settle along the
southern coast of the peninsula
before the Romans started pouring in
and extended their shadow over the
former settlers. However, it can be
assumed that part of the glory that
belonged to the Romans were derived
from the civilizations fostered by
the Etruscans and the Greeks before
them.
The Odyssey of the Roman Empire
One of the world's greatest and
largest empire, the first Roman
Republic was founded in 509 B.C. Its
accomplishments covered many aspects
including the groundwork for
democracy as well as the lore of
Latin which have been carried down
unto the modern days. Nevertheless,
the virtuous concept of people's
power eventually gave way to the
rise of a slave-driven lifestyle and
combative military dictatorship as
the empire grew. Indeed, the empire
had expanded so much that it was
finally split into eastern and
western sectors, and regicide and
turbulence became part of the
empire's legacy. Constantinople
(present-day Istanbul) became the
empire's new capital after
Constantine embraced Christianity on
his deathbed in 313 A.D. The western
sector was abandoned and suffered a
series of plague and famine before
being seized by Odovacar of the
German tribe in 476. Meanwhile, the
eastern sector continued to prosper
unabated until the Turks overran it
in 1453.
Emergence from the Shadow
Italy entered the infamous phase of
"Dark Ages" where
successive waves of Goths invaded
and ruled the peninsula while the
south became subject to the Muslim
rule for a short time before falling
to the Normans. From the 12th
century, there were many powerful
city states emerging in the north,
and the merchant class began to
attain a status and prestige like
never before. Many of these new
bourgeoisie as well as many of the
aristocratic members were generous
art supporters, and they were part
of the forces that contributed to
the Renaissance breakthrough in the
15th century. During this famous
period in history, umerous works of
genius were produced by brilliant
master painters, sculptors,
architects, philosophers and poets
whose names endure to this
day.
The Birth of a Nation
The peninsula went through a period
of subjugation by Spain, Austria and
briefly by Napoleon's imperial
expansion in the subsequent
centuries that by the 19th century
there had been a fervent drive for
unification. Under the leadership of
Garibaldi, Cavour and Mazzini, Italy
declared itself a kingdom in 1861
although the papal power continued
to hinder the integration of Rome
into the young nation's fabric until
1870. However, by then the cultural
and social disparity between the
prosperous, industrialized north and
the agriculture-based,
poverty-stricken south had become
too pronounced for both sides to
ignore these differences. Italy
since the 20th Century
Economic and political instability
continued to plague the country well
into WW II when Mussolini and his
Fascist Party led the nation down as
the Allied triumphed. Extremism in
economic policies and political
development as well as the
collective attempt at social and
cultural redefinition came to
characterize Italy's postwar years.
From 1996-2001, Italy's political
landscape was dominated by a series
of center-left coalitions. Italy's
current president, Carlo Azeglio
Ciampi, was selected by the
parliament in 1999, and the current
prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi,
won the election of 2001 and has
since become the leader of the
five-party center-right
"Freedom House" coalition.
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History of Italy 
