Centuries of rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states, and the invasions of other European powers during the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left parts of Italy politically fragmented. Nevertheless, Italy's commercial and political power significantly waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars, artists, and polymaths. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art. These mostly independent states served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East, often enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe however, at the same time, part of central Italy was under the control of the theocratic Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal until the 19th century, partially as a result of a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Angevin, Aragonese, and other foreign conquests of the region. ĭuring the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Barbarian Invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous city-states and maritime republics, mostly in the North, such as Florence, Milan, Venice and Genoa, became prosperous through trade, commerce, and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became a leading cultural, political and religious centre, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's law, technology, economy, art, and literature developed. The Roman Republic initially conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the Italian peninsula, eventually expanding and conquering parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. The Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which eventually became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout what is now modern-day Italy, the most predominant being the Italic peoples (such as the Latins and Samnites) who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era, the Etruscans inhabited most of central Italy, the Celts and the Ligures inhabited much of Northern Italy, the Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia in coastal Southern Italy, while the Phoenicians and Carthaginians founded colonies mostly in Sardinia and Sicily. With over 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the third-most populous member state of the European Union.ĭue to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione. A unitary parliamentary republic with Rome as its capital and largest city, the country covers a total area of 301,230 km 2 (116,310 sq mi) and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, in Southern Europe it is also considered part of Western Europe. Italy ( Italian: Italia ( listen)), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica Italiana ), is a country that consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and several islands surrounding it its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. Please consider condensing it or adding subheadings. Its current readable prose size is 151 kilobytes. This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably.
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