Timeline of Italian history

Luigi Speranza

313. The Emperor Constantine makes Christianity the official religion of the Empire. The western part of the empire is in economic decline and Constantine builds a new capital, Constantinople, in the East.

381. The bishop of Rome claims pre-eminence over other Christian bishops and assumes the title "Papa", father.

395. The Empire is split in two. Constantinople remains the capital of the Eastern Empire; Ravenna becomes the capital of the Western Empire.

395. Waves of invaders from northern and central Europe weaken the Western Empire. I

475. The barbarian chief Odoacer deposes the Western Roman Emperor and rules Italy in his stead.

529. Saint Benedict, a native of Umbria, formulates the rules which will govern monastic life in Western Europe.

535. Justinian, Emperor of the East, invades Italy and topples the barbarians from power. Italy becomes an outlying province of the Eastern Empire.

568. The Lombards, a Germanic people, enter Italy. In the next few years they conquer much of it. The Eastern Empire retains Sicily, the far south of the peninsula, and a band across Italy from Ravenna to Rome.

732. The Lombards encroach on Ravenna and Rome. Pope Stephen II invites Pepin, the King of France, to attack the Lombards. Pepin forces the Lombards out of their newly conquered territories: instead of returning these lands to the Eastern Empire, he gives them to the Pope. This marks the beginning of the Papal States.

774. Pepin's son Charlemagne defeats the Lombards and rules over their lands in Italy. He confirms the Pope's right to govern the band of territory between Ravenna and Rome.

800. Charlemagne, now ruler of much of Western Europe, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.

827. Arabs conquer Sicily and the southern mainland. Under their rule, the area prospers and intellectual life flourishes.

1030. Normans conquer Sicily and southern Italy, and establish an efficient rule.

1100. Scores of northern cities, theoretically under the rule of the Holy Roman Emperor or the Eastern Emperor, become virtually self-governing.

DUECENTO

1204. Venice acquires a great overseas empire, which includes Crete, Cyprus and the Dalmatian coast.

1209. Saint Francis of Assisi founds an order of mendicant friars.

1220. Inheriting the Holy Roman Empire from his father, and Sicily with southern Italy from his Norman mother, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen reigns gloriously in the south but fails to impose his authority on the northern communes.

1266. A French prince, Charles of Anjou, takes over southern Italy and Sicily at the invitation of the Pope.

1271. Marco Polo embarks from Venice on a 24-year long journey through the Far East.

1282. In an uprising known as the "Sicilian Vespers", the Sicilians revolt against the French and bestow the crown of Sicily on the Spaniard Peter of Aragon.

TRECENTO

1305. A French Pope, Clement V, transfers the seat of the Papacy to Avignon, where it will remain for 72 years.

1348. The bubonic plague kills one third of the population of Italy.

1350. During a century of warfare, the communes of Florence, Venice and Milan swallow up other city-states. By 1454, when the Peace of Lodi is agreed, Italy consists of five major states and a few minor ones.

1360. The Tuscan-born writers Dante ("La divina commedia"), Boccaccio ("Decamerone"), and Petrarca ("Canzoniere") publish their works. These prefigure the Renaissance, and their writings will have a strong influence on European poetry for centuries.

QUATTROCENTO

1434. Cosimo de' Medici gains power in Florence. He and his successors patronize the artists and philosophers of the Renaissance.

1442. The French line rule in southern Italy dies out, and the Spanish king of Sicily wins control of the southern mainland.

1494. Charles VIII of France pretender to the crown of southern Italy, invades the peninsula. Piero de' Medici, ruler of Florence, co-operates with the enemy and is driven out of the city. The friar Savonarola sets up a short-lived republic in Florence. The French take southern Italy but by 1496 the Spaniards have driven them out.

QUINQUECENTO

1503. Julius II becomes Pope and makes Rome the centre of High Renaissance art and learning.

1525. Spain gains control of most of northern Italy.

1545. The Council of Trent, the key event in the Counter-Reformation, clarifies Catholic doctrine and decrees reforms in the clergy.

SEICENTO.

1600. First opera staged in Florence, at Bardi's house ("Camerata fiorentina"). Text by Rinuccini. Music by Peri.

1613. Galileo, the first scientist to use a telescope, produces evidence that the earth revolves round the sun.

SETTECENTO

1713. Spain is weakened by war. and most of her Italian possessions -notably Milan and the south- are acquired by Austria. Sicily is handed the Duke of Savoy, ruler of French Savoy and Italian Piedmont.

1720. The Duke of Savoy exchanges Sicily for the Kingdom of Sardinia.

1734. Spain re-takes southern Italy and Sicily.

1796. The French Revolutionary army, led by Napoleon, conquers Italy and sets up a number of republics modelled on the French one. An Austrian offensive and Nationalist risings force the French to withdraw from Italy by 1799.

OTTOCENTO.

1800. Napoleon reconquers Italy. In 1805, he bestows on himself the crown of Italy; by 1809 the whole peninsula is ruled directly or indirectly from France. The French introduce a modern legal system and improve the administration.

1815. At the Congress of Vienna, held after Napoleon's downfall, Italy is repartitioned among its former rulers. A branch of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty is reinstated in the south, the Pope retains the centre, Austria most of the north, and the King of Sardinia Piedmont.

1832. The exiled revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini founds Young Italy, a movement for national unity.

1848. A popular uprising in Palermo spreads to other areas; in response, liberal constitutions are granted in several states, including Piedmont. While Austria has internal rebellions, Venice and Milan free themselves.

1849. Following unrest in Rome and the flight of the Pope, a republic is founded. The republican army, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, is defeated by French forces, and the Pope returns. Rebellions in other states are crushed by Austria, and the new constitutions repealed everywhere except in Piedmont.

1859. Camillo Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont, makes a treaty with France to rid Italy of the Austrians.

1859. France defeats the Austrians at Magenta and Solferino. Austria loses Lombardy to the French, who cede it to Piedmont. The rulers of Parma, Modena and Tuscany -all Austrian satellite princes- flee Italy.

1860. In plebiscites held in Parma, Modena and Tuscany, the populations vote for unity with Piedmont. Revolutionaries in Sicily request Garibaldi's help. He embarks from Genoa with 1,100 volunteers. Garibaldi quickly takes Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel, the King of Sardinia and ruler of Piedmont, then crosses to the mainland. As he approaches, Naples, the capital of the southern realm, its ruler flees. Meanwhile the regular Piedmontese army annexes the Papal States. Italy is now almost united but the Pope, supported by the French, retains Rome and its environs, and Austria keeps the north-east.

1861 Victor Emmanuel becomes king of Italy. The constitution of Piedmont is used for the new nation, and Turin becomes the capital.

1866 After a war with Austria, Italy acquires the state of Venice.

1870 France, occupied with the Franco-Prussian War, withdraws troops from Rome. The Italian army marches on Rome and the Pope surrenders. He is granted sovereignty over the Vatican City but refuses to recognize the new order. Rome becomes the seat of national government.

1870-1914 More than 10 million Italians emigrate -mainly to other European countries, Brazil, Argentina and the United States.

1887-1896 Italy attempts to conquer Ethiopia, but is driven out.

1896-1900 Socialist agitators promote disorder among Italians because of harvest failures and unemployment. Military rule is imposed in some areas.

1899 Giovanni Agnelli founds the car manufacturing company Fiat.

NOVECENTO.

1909 Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the wireless, receives a Nobel prize.

1912 Italy takes Libya from Turkey.


1914-1918 World War I breaks out. After Britain and France agree to back Italy's claim to the Trentino, the Alto Adige, Trieste and northen Dalmatia, Italy declares war on Austria in 1915 and on Germany in 1916. Italy suffers several defeats but in the final months of war makes a notable contribution to the Allied victory.

1919-1921 The peace treaty of World War I grants Italy the Trentino, the Alto Adige and Trieste. However, Dalmatia becomes part of Yugoslavia and Fiume, an Italian-speaking city on the Croatian coast, becomes a Free Port. The poet Gabriele d'Annunzio at the head of a band of fanatics seizes control of Fiume and rules the city for more than a year.

1919-1921 Amid social and economic turbulence and discontent over the outcome of the war, Benito Mussolini forms bands of thugs known as fasci di combattenti. A weak coalition government stands back while the Fascists destroy headquarters of the Socialist and Communist parties and break strikes.

1921 Mussolini and 34 other Fascists are elected to Parliament.

1922 After breaking a general strike, the Fascists seize key communication points, threatening to isolate Rome from the rest of the country. Victor Emmanuel III invites Mussolini to form a government.

1923 Mussolini devises a new electoral system which will ensure a huge Fascist majority, and parliament accepts it.

1925-1926 Mussolini begins to rule openly as dictator.

1929 Mussolini concludes the Lateran Treaty with the Papacy. The Pope at last recognizes the Kingdom of Italy; Catholicism is confirmed as the state religion.

1935 Italy attacks Ethiopia and in 1936 proclaims it an Italian empire.

1936-1939 Ital and Germany support General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.

1939 Mussolini and Hitler sign a military treaty, the Pact of Steel. World War II breaks out.

1940 Italy declares war on France and Britain.

1943 British and American armies land in Sicily. The Fascist regime collapses and Mussolini is arrested. In the south, where the Allies quickly gain control, a new Italian government declares war on Germany. Mussolini, freed by German commandos, establishes a rival government in the north.

1945 Mussolini is captured and shot by partisans. World War II ends.

1946 A popular referendum abolishes the monarchy.

1945-1953 Alcide de Gasperi, the leader of the Christian Democrat Party, heads seven successive administrations.

1947 A new republican constitution is approved.

1950-1970 Italy industrializes rapidly, to become one of the seven largest economies in the world.

1999. End of "Novecento".