History of Italy

The history of Italy is a sequence spanning more than 2,500 years, bound up with turning points that shaped Western civilisation. From the pre-Roman cultures of the peninsula, Italy gave rise to the Roman Empire, the medieval Maritime Republics, the Renaissance and finally the modern Italian Republic founded after the Second World War.

This article presents the history of Italy in chronological order, from the Etruscan communities of the 9th century BC to the present day under the Meloni government in 2026.

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Prehistoric Italy and ancient civilisations

The Italian peninsula has traces of human habitation dating back to the Palaeolithic, more than 200,000 years ago. By the Bronze and Iron Ages, many stable settled communities had formed along the peninsula, most notably the Etruscans in present-day Tuscany and Lazio.

Etruscan civilisation flourished from the 9th to the 1st century BC. The Etruscans left a deep mark on architecture, urban drainage, metallurgy and religious organisation. Their rock-cut necropolises at Cerveteri and Tarquinia are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites, vivid evidence of their art and funerary rituals.

Alongside the Etruscans, ancient Greek colonies were founded in southern Italy and Sicily from the 8th century BC, forming the region known as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece). Cities such as Syracuse, Tarentum, Naples and Agrigento became important commercial and cultural centres, bringing Greek philosophy, architecture, drama and aesthetics to the peninsula.

The Latins settled in Lazio around the Tiber River and by the 8th century BC had formed the city of Rome. According to legend, Rome was founded by Romulus in 753 BC. The blending of Latin, Etruscan and Greek cultures laid the foundations for later Roman civilisation.

The Roman Empire: from Republic to Empire

The Roman Republic was established in 509 BC after the Romans overthrew the Etruscan monarchy. Over the next five centuries, Rome extended its power over the whole Italian peninsula and then the entire Mediterranean. The Punic Wars against Carthage (264–146 BC) made Rome the sole power in the Mediterranean.

In 27 BC, Augustus became the first emperor, marking the transition from Republic to Roman Empire. The empire reached its height under the “good emperors” such as Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century AD, with territory stretching from Britain to Mesopotamia and from North Africa to the Rhine and the Danube.

The Roman legacy shaped the entire modern West. Roman law became the foundation of the civil law systems of continental Europe. Latin gave rise to the Romance languages such as Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. Roman roads, waterworks, arched architecture and concrete laid the foundations of Western building techniques.

In 313, Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan recognising Christianity. In 380, Theodosius I declared Christianity the state religion of the Empire. However, the empire gradually weakened and was divided into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire in 395. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476, when the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the general Odoacer.

The period from 27 BC to 180 AD is known as the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) — nearly two centuries of unprecedented stability and prosperity in the Mediterranean. During this period, the empire’s population reached about 70 million, a quarter of the world’s population at the time. A transport network of more than 80,000 km of paved roads connected the provinces, supporting trade and military operations on an unprecedented scale.

The Code of Justinian (Corpus Juris Civilis) was compiled in the 6th century under Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I, systematising the whole of Roman law. The code was rediscovered in Bologna in the 11th century and became the foundation of continental European civil law. To this day, legal concepts such as property, contract, inheritance and ownership in the legal systems of Italy, France, Germany and many Latin American countries are still based on this legacy.

Medieval Italy and the city-states

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Italian peninsula entered a period of fragmentation lasting more than a millennium. Germanic peoples such as the Ostrogoths and Lombards successively ruled different parts of the peninsula. In 568, the Lombards invaded and established a kingdom that lasted until 774, when Charlemagne of the Frankish kingdom defeated them and annexed northern Italy to the Carolingian Empire.

From the 11th century, city-states (comuni) began to emerge as self-governing political entities. The Maritime Republics of Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi built trading empires across the Mediterranean, connecting Europe with the Middle East and East Asia. Venice became Europe’s largest trading centre in the 13th century, with Marco Polo (1254–1324) a symbol of the age of exploration.

The temporal power of the Pope was established through the Papal States from 754 and lasted until 1870. The territory covered most of central Italy, with Rome as its religious and political centre. The struggle for influence between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor lasted for centuries, creating two opposing factions: the Guelphs (supporting the Pope) and the Ghibellines (supporting the Emperor).

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which grew out of the kingdom founded in 1130 under the Normans, controlled all of southern Italy and Sicily. It passed through Norman, Hohenstaufen, Angevin and Aragonese dynasties, leaving an Arab–Norman architectural heritage in Palermo that is now a UNESCO site. This political diversity meant Italy did not form a unified nation like France or England in the Middle Ages.

The Renaissance and its global cultural influence

The Renaissance (Rinascimento) began in Florence in the 14th century and spread across Italy and then Europe. It was a movement reviving the humanist, artistic and scientific values of Greco-Roman antiquity, marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. The term Renaissance was popularised by the historian Jacob Burckhardt in the 19th century.

Florence, under the patronage of the Medici family, especially Lorenzo “the Magnificent” (1449–1492), became the centre of the Renaissance. Artists Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), Raphael (1483–1520) and Donatello (1386–1466) created masterpieces such as “The Last Supper”, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the “Mona Lisa” and “David”. Literature also flourished with Dante Alighieri (the Divine Comedy), Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio.

Science and thought also made breakthrough advances. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) laid the foundations of modern science with experimental methods and astronomical observation. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) wrote “The Prince” — a classic of political theory. Andreas Vesalius revolutionised anatomy. In the Vatican, the Renaissance popes funded the construction of St Peter’s Basilica and St Peter’s Square.

The Italian Renaissance had a far-reaching influence on the whole of Europe, paving the way for the Age of Discovery, the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. However, from the 16th century, the Italian Wars (1494–1559) left the peninsula in the hands of foreign powers such as France, Spain and later Austria. Italy entered a period of political decline lasting more than 250 years.

The unification of Italy in the 19th century (Risorgimento)

The movement for Italian unification, known as the Risorgimento (meaning “Resurgence”), began after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when the Italian peninsula was divided into eight small states under the influence of the Austrian Empire. According to theCentral Museum of the Risorgimento (Museo Centrale del Risorgimento)under the Italian Ministry of Culture, the movement grew out of the national spirit inspired by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, with the aim of liberating and unifying the peninsula as a single nation.

The four key figures who led the Risorgimento were: King Victor Emmanuel II of the Kingdom of Sardinia–Piedmont, Prime Minister Camillo Benso di Cavour (the political architect), the revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini (founder of the “Young Italy” movement in 1831) and General Giuseppe Garibaldi (the military leader famous for the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860).

Key milestones include: the failed revolutions of 1848, the Wars of Independence of 1859 and 1866 in alliance with France and Prussia, and the Expedition of the Thousand that conquered the south in 1860. On 17/03/1861, the first Italian Parliament met in Turin and proclaimed Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy, marking the founding of the unified Kingdom of Italy. Cavour died just three months later.

Unification was completed after Italy regained Veneto from Austria in 1866 and took Rome from the Pope on 20/09/1870, after France withdrew its troops because of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1871, Rome officially became the capital of Italy. However, some areas remained outside the kingdom, known as the “terre irredente” (unredeemed lands), including Trentino and Trieste — annexed only after the First World War in 1918.

Italy in the two World Wars

Italy was initially a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria–Hungary from 1882, but sided with the Allies in the First World War after the Treaty of London in 1915. The war cost Italy dearly, with about 650,000 soldiers killed. Despite victory, Italy did not receive all the territory it had been promised, leading to the sentiment of a “mutilated victory” (vittoria mutilata) in society.

Resentment and the post-war economic crisis paved the way for the rise of fascism. Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) founded the National Fascist Party (PNF) in 1921 and came to power after the “March on Rome” on 28/10/1922. King Victor Emmanuel III appointed Mussolini Prime Minister. By 1925, Mussolini had established a totalitarian dictatorship with the title “Il Duce” (the Leader).

Under Mussolini, Italy pursued imperial expansion, invading Ethiopia in 1935 and Albania in 1939. Italy signed the Pact of Steel with Nazi Germany in 1939 and entered the Second World War on the Axis side on 10/06/1940. However, the Italian army suffered defeats on many fronts in North Africa, Greece and the Soviet Union.

In 1943, after the Allies landed in Sicily, the Grand Council of Fascism ousted Mussolini on 25/07. Italy signed an armistice with the Allies on 08/09/1943, but Nazi Germany occupied the north and set up the “Italian Social Republic” with Mussolini as a puppet leader. The Italian Resistance (Resistenza) fought to liberate the north, culminating on 25/04/1945 — now Liberation Day. Mussolini was executed by partisans on 28/04/1945.

The Italian Republic and the “economic miracle” after 1946

After the Second World War, Italians took part in a historic referendum on 02/06/1946 to choose between keeping the monarchy and founding a republic. 54% of voters supported the republic, leading to the abolition of the House of Savoy’s monarchy. King Umberto II — who had reigned for just 34 days — was forced into exile. 02/06 is now Italy’s national day (Festa della Repubblica).

The Constitution of the Italian Republic was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 22/12/1947 and came into force on 01/01/1948. It established a parliamentary republic with a bicameral system, guaranteed fundamental freedoms and set out the principle of a secular state. Italy became a founding member of NATO in 1949 and of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957 through the Treaty of Rome.

The period 1958–1963 is known as the “Italian economic miracle” (Miracolo economico italiano), when GDP grew by an average of 6% a year. Italy rapidly transformed from an agricultural into an industrial economy, with large-scale internal migration from the South to the “industrial triangle” of Milan – Turin – Genoa. About 9 million people moved between regions in 1955–1971, creating large modern cities.

However, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Italy went through the “Years of Lead” (Anni di piombo), with rising left-wing terrorism by the Red Brigades and right-wing terrorism by neo-fascist groups. The tragic high point was the kidnapping and murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978. Combined with the oil crisis, this period caused political instability and slowed development.

Contemporary Italy: from the debt crisis to the Meloni era

The 1990s marked a turning point with the “Mani Pulite” (Clean Hands) anti-corruption campaign, which led to the collapse of traditional parties such as Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party. This period is known as the “Second Republic” (Seconda Repubblica), in which businessman Silvio Berlusconi rose to serve as Prime Minister for several terms between 1994 and 2011.

Italy was one of the first countries to join the eurozone in 1999 and switched fully to the euro in 2002. However, the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010–2013 put Italy in a dangerous position, forcing Prime Minister Mario Monti (2011–2013) to implement strict austerity measures. Subsequent coalition governments under Enrico Letta, Matteo Renzi, Paolo Gentiloni and Giuseppe Conte continued to tackle economic and migration challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 hit Italy hard — one of the most severely affected countries in Europe. In response, the EU set up the Next Generation EU Recovery Fund, of which Italy was the largest beneficiary with a 194 billion euro package. Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was appointed Prime Minister in 2021 to lead the recovery.

The general election of 25/09/2022 brought victory to the centre-right coalition of Giorgia Meloni, leader of Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy). She took office as Prime Minister on 22/10/2022, becoming the first female Prime Minister in Italy’s history. In 2026, the Meloni government faces double pressure: public debt of 137.1% of GDP, a budget deficit of 3.1% and the decision to raise defence spending in line with NATO commitments. The next election is expected in 2027.

For Vietnamese readers: studying and researching Italian history

Italian history is a rich resource for Vietnamese people interested in Western culture and civilisation. Museums and monuments such as the Colosseum, Pompeii, the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Doge’s Palace in Venice are top destinations for exploring history first-hand. Italy has 61 UNESCO sites — the most in the world.

For Vietnamese international students and researchers, universities such as the University of Bologna (the oldest in the Western world, founded in 1088), Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Padua offer world-leading programmes in ancient history, art history and archaeology. Many master’s and doctoral programmes are taught in English and open to international applicants, with tuition fees that are affordable by Western European standards.

For Vietnamese people settling or working long-term in Italy, knowledge of the country’s history is important for cultural integration. The Italian citizenship requirements include knowledge of the nation’s history, constitution and culture. Historical knowledge also helps in careers related to tourism, services, the arts and trade — fields with high demand for multicultural workers in Italy.