ITALY

Only about one-third of the total land surface of Italy is made of plains, of which the greatest single tract is the Plain of Lombardy. The coast of Italy along the northern Adriatic Sea is low and sandy, bordered by shallow waters and, except at Venice, not readily accessible to oceangoing vessels. From a point near Rimini southward, the eastern coast of the peninsula is fringed by spurs of the Apennines. Along the middle of the western coast, however, are three stretches of low and marshy land, the Campagna di Roma, the Pontine Marshes, and the Maremma. The western coast of Italy is broken up by bays, gulfs, and other indentations, which provide a number of natural anchorages. In the northwest is the Gulf of Genoa, the harbor of the important commercial city of Genoa. Naples, another leading western coast port, is situated on the beautiful Bay of Naples, dominated by the volcano Mount Vesuvius. A little farther south is the Gulf of Salerno, at the head of which stands the port of Salerno. The southeastern end of the peninsula is deeply indented by the Gulf of Taranto, which divides the so-called heel of Italy (ancient Calabria) from the toe (modern Calabria). The Apennine range continues beneath the narrow Strait of Messina and traverses the island of Sicily, where the volcano Mount Etna, 3323 m (10,902 ft) high, is located. Another active volcano rises on Stromboli, one of the Lipari Islands, northwest of the Strait of Messina. In addition to volcanic activity, Italy is also plagued by frequent minor earthquakes, especially in the southern regions. Rivers and Lakes  Italy has many rivers, of which the Po and the Adige are the most important. The Po, about 650 km (about 405 mi) long, is navigable for about 480 km (about 300 mi) and with its tributaries affords about 965 km (about 600 mi) of inland waterways. The Adige, about 410 km (about 255 mi) long, enters Italy from the Austrian province of Tirol (Tyrol), flows east, and, like the Po, empties into the Adriatic. The beds of these rivers are slowly being elevated by alluvial deposits from the mountains.

The rivers of the Italian Peninsula are shallow, often dry during the summer season, and consequently of little importance for navigation or industry. The chief peninsular rivers are the Arno and the Tiber. From its sources in the Apennines, the Arno flows west for about 240 km (about 150 mi), through a well-cultivated valley and the cities of Florence and Pisa. The Tiber rises not far from the sources of the Arno and runs through the city of Rome. Both the northern and peninsular regions of Italy have numerous lakes. The principal lakes of northern Italy are Garda, Maggiore, Como, and Lugano; the peninsular lakes, which are considerably smaller, include Trasimeno, Bolsena, and Bracciano. Climate  The climate of Italy is highly diversified, with extremes ranging from frigid, in the higher elevations of the Alps and Apennines, to semitropical along the coast of the Ligurian Sea and the western coast of the lower peninsula. The average annual temperature, however, ranges from about 11° to 19° C (about 52° to 66° F); it is about 13° C (about 55° F) in the Po Valley, about 18° C (about 64° F) in Sicily, and about 14.5° C (about 58° F) in the coastal lowlands. Climatic conditions on the peninsula are characterized by regional variations, resulting chiefly from the configurations of the Apennines, and are influenced by tempering winds from the adjacent seas. In the lowlands regions and lower slopes of the Apennines bordering the western coast from northern Tuscany to the vicinity of Rome, winters are mild and sunny, and extreme temperatures are modified by cooling Mediterranean breezes. Temperatures in the same latitudes on the east of the peninsula are much lower, chiefly because of the prevailing northeastern winds. Along the upper eastern slopes of the Apennines, climatic conditions are particularly bleak. The climate of the peninsular lowlands below the latitude of Rome closely resembles that of southern Spain. In contrast to the semitropical conditions prevalent in southern Italy and along the Gulf of Genoa, the climate of the Plain of Lombardy is continental. Warm summers and severe winters, with temperatures as low as -15° C (5° F), prevail in this region, which is shielded from sea breezes by the Apennines. Heaviest precipitation occurs in Italy during the fall and winter months, when westerly winds prevail. The lowest mean annual rainfall, about 460 mm (about 18 in), occurs in the Apulian province of Foggia in the south and in southern Sicily; the highest, about 1520 mm (about 60 in), occurs in the province of Udine in the northeast. Natural Resources  Italy is poor in natural resources, much of the land being unsuitable for agriculture due to mountainous terrain or unfavorable climate. Italy, moreover, is seriously deficient in such basic natural resources as coal. The most important mineral resources are natural gas, petroleum, lignite, sulfur, and pyrites. Other mineral deposits include lead, manganese, zinc, mercury, and bauxite. Many of these deposits are on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. However, they had been heavily depleted by the early 1990s. Italy is rich in various types of building stone, notably marble. The coastal waters of Italy teem with fishes, of which sardine, tuna, and anchovy have the greatest commercial importance. Freshwater fishes include eels and trout. Plants and Animals  The flora of the central and southern lowlands of Italy is typically Mediterranean. Among the characteristic vegetation of these regions are such trees as the olive, orange, lemon, palm, and citron. Other common types, especially in the extreme south, are fig, date, pomegranate, and almond trees, and sugarcane and cotton. The vegetation of the Apennines closely resembles that of central Europe. Dense growths of chestnut, cypress, and oak trees occupy the lower slopes, and at higher elevations, there are extensive stands of pine and fir. Italy has fewer varieties of animals than are found generally in comparable areas of Europe. Small numbers of marmot, chamois, and ibex live in the Alps. The bear, numerous in ancient times, is now virtually extinct, but the wolf and wild boar still flourish in the mountain regions. Another fairly common quadruped is the fox. Among the predatory species of bird are the eagle hawk, vulture, buzzard, falcon, and kite, confined for the most part to the mountains. The quail, woodcock, partridge, and various migratory species abound in many parts of Italy. Reptiles include several species of lizards and snakes and three species of the poisonous viper family. Scorpions are also found. Population  The Italian population consists almost entirely of native-born people, many of whom identify themselves closely with a particular region of Italy. The country can be generally divided into the more urban north (the area from the northern border and the port of Ancona to the southern part of Rome) and the mostly rural south (everything below this line, which is called the "Ancona Wall" by Italians). The more prosperous north contains most of Italy's larger cities and about two-thirds of the country's population; the primarily agricultural south has a smaller population base and a more limited economy. In recent decades the population has generally migrated from rural to urban areas; the population was about 71 percent urban in the mid-1990s. The overwhelming majority of the people speak Italian (see Italian Language), one of the Romance group of languages of the Indo-European family of languages (see Italic Languages). German is spoken around Bolzano, in the north near the Austrian border. Other minority languages include French (spoken in the Valle d' Aosta region), Ladin, Albanian, Slovene, Catalan, Friulian, Sardinian, Croatian, and Greek. Population Characteristics According to the 1991 census, Italy had a population of 56,778,031. The 1996 estimated population is about 57,460,274; the average population density is about 191 persons per sq km (about 494 per sq mi). Political Divisions  Administratively, Italy is divided into 20 regions, each of which is subdivided into provinces and communes. Principal Cities  The capital and largest city of Italy is Rome (population, 1991, 2,775,250), which is a famous cultural and tourist center. Other cities with populations of more than 300,000 in the 1991 census include Milan (1,369,231), an important manufacturing, financial, and commercial city; Naples (1,067,365), one of the busiest ports in Italy; Turin (962,507), a transportation junction and major industrial city; Palermo (698,556), the capital and chief seaport of Sicily; Genoa (678,771), the leading port in Italy and a major trade and commercial center; Bologna (404,378), a major transportation center and agricultural market; Florence (403,294), a cultural, commercial, transportation, and industrial center; Bari (342,309), a major commercial center; Catania (333,075), a manufacturing and commercial city of Sicily; and Venice (309,422), a leading seaport and a cultural and manufacturing center. Religion  The dominant religion of Italy is Roman Catholicism, the faith of about 84 percent of the people. However, the Catholic church's role in Italy is declining; only about 25 percent of Italians attend mass regularly, and a law ratified in 1985 abolished Roman Catholicism as the official state religion and ended mandatory religious instruction in public schools. The constitution guarantees freedom of worship to the religious minorities, which are primarily Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish.

Education
The Italian impact on European education dates back to the ancient Roman educators and scholars, outstanding among whom were Cicero, Quintilian, and Seneca. Later, during the Middle Ages, Italian universities became the model for those of other countries. During the Renaissance, Italy was the teacher of the liberal arts to virtually all Europe, especially for Greek language and literature. The educational influence of Italy continued through the 17th century, when its universities and academies were Continental centers of teaching and research in the sciences. After a decline during the 18th and 19th centuries, Italian education regained international notice in the 20th century, partly as a result of the method for teaching young children developed by Maria Montessori.
The modern educational system of Italy dates from 1859, when a law was enacted providing for a complete school system that extended from the elementary through the university levels. Improvements were introduced later in the 19th century. In 1923 the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, minister of public instruction under Benito Mussolini, promoted complete governmental control of education, and the control was reinforced by the School Charter of 1939. With the collapse of fascism in 1944, however, Italy undertook to organize the school system along democratic lines. The constitution of 1947 and later laws raised the general educational level and encouraged experimentation, such as televised adult education (telescuola).
Traditionally, the goal of the Italian educational system has been to establish a well-trained minority rather than a widely educated majority. Children aged 3 to 5 may attend kindergarten. Education is free and compulsory for all children aged 6 to 14. The compulsory term includes five years of elementary and three years of secondary education. The required part of secondary education is taken in a lower secondary school. This period may be followed by study in a higher secondary school to gain specialized training or to prepare for university entrance. Higher secondary studies leading to university entrance may be taken in classical, scientific, teacher-training, technical, or business schools. A student may also enter an art institute or conservatory of music. Areas of specialized training include industry and agriculture.
Elementary and Secondary Schools
In the early 1990s about 24,300 primary schools with some 250,500 teachers were giving instruction to about 3.1 million pupils. Some 2.3 million students were annually enrolled in about 10,000 lower secondary schools, and about 2.9 million students attended some 7900 higher secondary schools.
Universities and Colleges
Much attention is given to higher education in Italy. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the gain in Italian university graduates was about seven times the corresponding rate of increase of the Italian population. More than 1.3 million students were enrolled each year in higher education in Italy in the early 1990s. Examinations held three times a year are mainly oral. Six Italian universities were founded in the 13th century and five in the 14th. The oldest is the University of Bologna, dating from the 11th century, and the largest is the University of Rome, with about 217,000 students. Other notable institutions are those of Bari, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Padua, Perugia, Pisa, Siena, and Trieste.
Culture
From antiquity to modern times, Italy has played a central role in world culture. Italians have contributed some of the world's most admired sculpture, architecture, painting, literature, and music, particularly opera. Although the nation was politically unified less than 150 years ago, the Italians do not consider themselves to be a "new" people, but see themselves instead as the descendants of the ancient Romans. Moreover, regional differences persist because of natural geographical boundaries and the disparate cultural heritage that has come down from the Greeks, Etruscans, Arabs, Normans, and Lombards. Regional particularism is evident in persistent local dialects, holidays, festivals, songs, and regional cuisine. Central to all Italian life is the tradition of the family as a guiding force and focus of loyalty.
Many of the great Italian painters, such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, and Amedeo Modigliani, are covered in separate articles in the encyclopedia, as are such famous Italian composers as Antonio Vivaldi, Gaetano Donizetti, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Rossini, and Giuseppe Verdi. See Also Architecture; Italian Literature; Motion Pictures, History of; Music, Western; Opera; Painting; Sculpture.
Libraries and Museums
Italy is rich in important library collections. Among the largest and most valuable libraries are the national libraries in Florence, Naples, and Rome. Several universities also have large libraries. Smaller collections, rich in local manuscripts and incunabula (books printed before 1501), are found in most Italian cities.
World-famous art collections are housed in numerous Italian cities. Among the most important art museums are the Uffizi Gallery and Medici Chapel in Florence, the National Museum in Naples, and, in Rome, the Villa Giulia Museum, the Galleria Borghese, and the National Gallery of Modern Art. Vatican City has important art collections in its museums and chapels, the most famous of which is the Sistine Chapel. An international biennial exhibition of visual arts in Venice is world renowned.
Economy
A largely agricultural country before World War II (1939-1945), Italy has developed a diversified industrial base in the north, which contributes significantly to the economy. In the early 1990s the gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at $991.3 billion, or about $17,420 per capita; industry contributed about 28 percent to the value of domestic output, business and finance 31 percent, agriculture 4 percent, and services about 37 percent. Italy has essentially a private-enterprise economy, although the government had a controlling interest in a number of large commercial and manufacturing enterprises, such as the oil industry through the Italian state petroleum company and the principal transportation and telecommunication systems. In the mid-1990s Italy was transferring government interest in many enterprises to private ownership. An ongoing problem of the Italian economy has been the slow growth of industrialization in the south, which lags behind the north in most aspects of economic development. Government efforts to foster industrialization in the south have met with mixed results, as problems with the workforce and the overriding influence of the criminal groups known as the Mafia have discouraged many large corporations from opening operations there. Many southerners have migrated to northern Italy in search of employment. Unemployment remains a problem throughout the country, however; the unemployment rate remains at about 11 percent of the working-age population. The large national debt has also plagued Italy's economy: The annual national budget of Italy in the early 1990s included revenue of about $302 billion and expenditure of some $391 billion. In keeping with provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, which created the European Union, Italy is attempting to reduce its budget deficit. Progress was evident by the mid-1990s, with the debt reduced to 9 percent of GDP, although still far from the goal of 3 percent.
Agriculture
Nearly 60 percent of the land area of Italy is devoted to crops and pasture; agriculture, with fishing and forestry, engages about 8 percent of the labor force. Variations of climate, soil, and altitude allow the cultivation of many types of crops. Italy is one of the leading nations in the production of grapes, and ranks among the world's foremost wine producers. Italian wine production totaled about 6.4 million cu m (1.7 billion gallons) in the early 1990s. Italy also is one of the world's leading producers of olives and olive oil. The output of olives was about 2.4 million metric tons annually in the early 1990s, and production of olive oil was about 435,000 metric tons. Chief field crops, ranked by approximate value and annual production in metric tons, included wheat (8.9 million), tomatoes (5.5 million), maize (7.2 million), sugar beets (14.3 million), apples (2.4 million), peaches (1.9 million), potatoes (2.5 million), soybeans (1.4 million), and rice (1.2 million). Other field crops are barley, rye, artichokes, chili peppers, and watermelons. Other orchard crops, prominent in the Italian economy, include pears, oranges, figs, dates, and nuts. Dairy farming is a major industry. About 50 kinds of cheese are produced, including Gorgonzola, pecorino, and Parmesan. The livestock population in the early 1990s numbered about 8 million cattle and buffalo, 10.4 million sheep, 8.5 million hogs, 1.3 million goats, 384,000 horses, mules, and donkeys, and 162 million poultry.
Forestry and Fishing
The forestry industry is limited in Italy, and much wood must be imported. Most of the old-growth forests were harvested, first by the Romans in antiquity and then in the 19th century. The resulting soil erosion has also hampered industry. However, some advances have been made in recent years, and the annual timber harvest in the early 1990s was about 8.4 million cu m (296 million cu ft). The annual catch of the country's substantial fishing industry in the early 1990s was about 548,200 metric tons. Among the species harvested are mussels, shrimp, prawns, sardines, trout, striped venus, hake, anchovies, and octopus.
Mining
Mining contributes only a small portion of the annual national product, but production of some minerals is sizable. In the early 1990s annual production of economic significance included, in metric tons, zinc concentrates (62,600), lead concentrates (27,500), and barites (80,700). Production of fossil fuels included 30.6 million barrels of crude petroleum and 18.1 billion cu m (639 billion cu ft) of natural gas. Other mineral resources include lignite, pyrites, fluorspar, sulfur, and mercury.
Manufacturing
Since World War II, Italian industry has expanded rapidly, and Italian products have gained worldwide popularity. In the early 1990s the annual production of the textile industry, one of the largest and most important, included 245,100 metric tons of cotton yarn. Annual production of the chemical industry, which is also important to the national economy, included sulfuric acid (2.8 million metric tons), ammonia (1.4 million), and caustic soda (964,800). Among other major industries are the manufacture of motor vehicles, iron and steel, rubber, heavy machinery, electrical ware (particularly household electronic products), and foodstuffs, particularly pasta. Annual production of passenger cars totaled 1.5 million in the early 1990s. Shipbuilding, the processing of hemp and tobacco, and sugar refining are also important. Leading manufacturing centers include Genoa, Milan, Rome, and Turin.
Energy
Italy is a net energy importer and relies on other countries for much of its gas, coal, and oil. About four-fifths of Italy's yearly output of electricity is generated in thermal plants burning petroleum products, natural gas, coal, or lignite, and most of the remainder is produced in hydroelectric facilities. In the early 1990s Italy had an installed electricity-generating capacity of about 58 million kilowatts, and annual output was some 235 billion kilowatt-hours.
Currency and Banking
The unit of currency in Italy is the lira, consisting of 100 centesimi (1561 lire equal U.S.$1; 1996). The Bank of Italy is the bank of issue and exercises control over credit. A public institution, the Bank of Italy has branches in each provincial capital. In addition, Italy has many private banks. The 1990 Banking Act introduced a number of changes in the country's banking system, reducing public ownership of banks and loosening regulations on external and foreign capital, as part of the move by the European Community (now the European Union) toward free capital movement within Europe and currency union. Milan and Rome are major financial centers.
Foreign Trade
Increased trade between Italy and the other member countries of the European Union characterized the 1970s and 1980s. The dependence of Italy on imported coal, petroleum, and other essential raw materials usually yields an unfavorable balance of trade. This imbalance is partly offset by the tourism industry, remittances from Italian nationals in foreign lands, and shipping revenues. In the early 1990s Italian exports earned about $178.2 billion per year and imports cost about $188.5 billion. Exports include machinery, motor vehicles, clothing, textile yarn and fabrics, footwear, iron and steel, fruit and vegetables, and wine. Imports include machinery and transportation equipment, petroleum, metals, chemicals, textile yarn and fabrics, and meat.
Exports increased in the early 1990s when the lira was devalued against other European currencies, making Italian manufactures less expensive to foreign buyers. Rising exports helped pull Italy from a recession, which in the early 1990s produced the sharpest economic fall in the postwar era. Nearly three-fifths of Italian trade is with members of the European Union. Principal markets for Italy's products are Germany, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, Belgium and Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Chief sources for imports are Germany, France, the United States, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
Transportation
With more than 1600 vessels, Italy has one of the world's largest merchant fleets; its total displacement in the early 1990s was about 7.7 million gross registered tons. The country's chief seaports include Genoa, Trieste, Taranto, and Venice. Italy is served by about 20,011 km (about 12,435 mi) of operated railroad track, more than half of which is electrified. The government operates most of the rail lines. The country has about 298,000 km (about 185,200 mi) of roads, including some 7000 km (some 4300 mi) of limited-access highways (autostrada). One of the longest automobile tunnels in the world, the Mont Blanc Tunnel linking Italy and France, was opened in 1965. The two countries also are linked via the Mount Frejus vehicular tunnel, opened in 1980. Alitalia, the state airline, provides both domestic and international service. The country's busiest airport is near Rome; the largest international airport is Malpensa Airport near Milan.
Communications
Since the abolition in 1976 of the Italian government's monopoly on broadcasting, the number of stations in the country has increased to more than 160 radio and 80 television broadcasters. While the number of daily newspapers remains small relative to Italy's population, total circulation has been growing by more than 3 percent a year. Readership in the north and central portion of the country account for four-fifths of the sales. Local and regional publications, including those produced by political parties and by the Roman Catholic church, are an important part of Italy's communications network. Influential dailies include Corriere della Sera and Il Giorno, in Milan; La Repubblica, in Rome; and La Stampa, in Turin. In the early 1990s approximately 45.7 million radios and 24.3 million television sets were in use in the country.
Labor
Of the total labor force of approximately 24.3 million in the early 1990s, approximately 9.9 million belonged to three major trade union federations: the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, or CGIL (some 4.6 million members), associated with the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party of the Left; the centrist Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, or CISL (about 3.8 million); and the Unione Italiana del Lavoro, or UIL (1.5 million). Labor union contracts set wages and salaries in every major field.
The Mafia
A loosely affiliated network of criminal groups that first developed in Sicily during the late Middle Ages, the Mafia has historically been one of the most powerful economic and social forces in Italy. By the late 19th century, the Mafia, known for its familial structure, ruthless violence, and strong code of silence (Omerta), controlled the Sicilian countryside, infiltrating or manipulating local authorities, extorting money, and terrorizing citizens. During the 20th century, except for a period of repression by Benito Mussolini from the 1920s until the end of World War II in 1945, the Mafia continued to expand its influence over both legal and illegal operations in Italy, especially in the south. The Mafia's influence was exported to other countries by emigrants, and by the 1970s the Mafia controlled a large part of the world's heroin trade. Renewed government prosecution of Mafia figures and activities beginning in the mid-1980s, and a series of political scandals linking many Italian politicians with the Mafia, gave rise to hopes that Mafia influence in Italy would eventually decline.
Government
Italy has been a democratic republic since June 2, 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum. By the terms of the constitution that became effective on January 1, 1948, the reestablishment of the Fascist Party is prohibited; direct male heirs of the house of Savoy (see Savoy, House of) are ineligible to vote or hold any public office and are, in fact, banished from Italian soil; and recognition is no longer accorded to titles of nobility, although titles in existence prior to October 28, 1922, may be used as part of the bearer's name. Although Italy's tumultuous politics have produced more than 50 different governments since the advent of the democratic system, order is maintained through a well-established bureaucracy that supports the elected offices.
Executive
The president of Italy is elected for a seven-year term by a joint session of parliament augmented by three delegates from each of the 20 regional councils except that of Valle d'Aosta, which sends only one. The president, who must be at least 50 years old, is ordinarily elected by a two-thirds majority. The president has the right to dissolve the Senate and Chamber of Deputies at any time except during the last six months of his tenure. The president usually has little to do with the actual running of the government. This is in the hands of the prime minister-who is chosen by the president and must have the confidence of parliament-and the cabinet of ministers. The prime minister (sometimes called the premier) generally is the leader of the party that has the largest representation in the Chamber of Deputies.
Legislature
The Italian parliament consists of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies elected by popular suffrage for five-year terms of office. For many years, Italian citizens voted for political parties, and individual representatives were named by party leaders in a proportional manner. But as a result of corruption scandals in the early 1990s, a number of public referendums were passed in April 1993 that mandated a more direct electoral system. Beginning with the elections of March 1994, three-fourths of the 630 seats in the lower-house Chamber of Deputies and an identical proportion of the 315 elected seats in the upper-house Senate are now filled by direct candidate ballot, as in the United States. The other 25 percent of Senate seats are filled by a system of proportional representation. There are also life members in the Senate, a group made up of past presidents and their honorary nominees (each president is entitled to make up to five such appointments). Citizens must be 25 years of age or older to vote for senators; in all other elections, all citizens over age 18 are eligible to vote.
Judiciary
Italy has a Supreme Court of Cassation (Corte Supreme di Cassazione), which is the highest court of appeal in all cases except those concerning the constitution. There is also a constitutional court, which is analogous in function to the Supreme Court of the United States, and is composed of 15 judges. Five of the judges are appointed by the president of the republic, five by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies jointly, and five by the supreme law courts. The criminal justice system includes district courts, tribunals, and courts of appeal.
Local Government
Italy is divided into 20 regions, which are subdivided into a total of 94 provinces. Each region is governed by an executive responsible to a popularly elected council. The regional governments have considerable authority. The chief executive of each of the provinces, the prefect, is appointed by, and answerable to, the central government and in fact has little power. An elected council and a provincial executive committee administer each province. Every part of Italy forms a portion of a commune, the basic unit of local government, which may range in size from a small village to a large city such as Naples; there were more than 8000 communes in the early 1990s. Each commune is governed by a communal council elected for a four-year term by universal suffrage. A mayor is elected by each council.
Political Parties
During the first half of the 1990s, in the face of widespread political scandal, Italy moved from a coalition system of politics that had long been dominated by a single party to a more splintered system of powerful new parties and alliances. The centrist Christian Democratic Party, which had been part of 52 consecutive coalitions that had ruled Italy since 1948, dissolved in January 1994. Its members formed two separate parties, the Popular Party and the Christian Democratic Center Party. A new right-wing party, Forza Italia ("Go, Italy"), then emerged as a leading political group. It joined with the neofascist National Alliance and the Northern League, a regional party from northern Italy, to form the right-wing Freedom Alliance, which won elections in March 1994. However, the Northern League broke from the alliance that same year, bringing down the government formed by Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi. In 1995 the Northern League changed its name to Northern League-Federal Italy.
The major left-wing party became the Democratic Party of the Left, the new name adopted in 1991 by the Italian Communists, one of the largest Communist parties in Western Europe. The party renounced its Communist past and adopted more moderate policies, but a smaller splinter group, the Communist Refoundation, continued to espouse Marxist principles. The Northern League, begun in the 1980s as a protest party, has advocated increased regional autonomy, at times calling for Italy to be split into several federated republics. The country's minor parties include the Green Party, the Liberal Party of Italy, several Socialist parties, the Republican Party of Italy, the Radical Party, and the anti-Mafia Network Party.
Health and Welfare
A government-run national health service was established in 1980 with the goal of providing free medical care for all citizens. In the early 1990s Italy had about 296,400 physicians and 306,700 hospital beds. Social-welfare insurance, funded largely by employers, is extended to the infirm and the aged, as well as to people pensioned by the state, farmers, unemployed agricultural workers, and apprentices. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 80 years for women and 74 years for men in the mid-1990s; the infant mortality rate was 8 per 1000 live births.
Defense
The armed forces of Italy have been greatly expanded since the country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. In the early 1990s the Italian permanent armed forces totaled 344,600 people, with an army of 223,300, a navy of 43,600, and an air force of 77,700. Compulsory military service for men extends for one year.
History
For the history of Italy to the 5th century  AD, see Rome, History of. For additional data on the development of modern Italy, see Etruscan Civilization; Florence; Genoa; Lombardy; Milan; Naples; Papal States; Savoy, House of; Sicily; Tuscany; Venice.
The Middle Ages
In AD 476 the last independent Roman emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, was dethroned by the invading Germanic chieftain Odoacer, who thereupon succeeded to the throne. In 488 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, invaded Italy and, after defeating and slaying Odoacer, became the sole ruler in Italy. Theodoric ruled until his death in 526. In 535 Justinian I, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire (see Byzantine Empire), dispatched the great general Belisarius to expel the Germanic invaders from Italy. A fierce war ensued, ending in 553 with the death of Teias, the last of the Gothic kings. The Byzantine rule was of short duration, however, for in 572 Italy was invaded by the Lombards, another Germanic tribe. Alboin, their king, made Pavia the capital of his realm, and from that city he launched a series of campaigns that eventually deprived the Byzantine power in Italy of everything except the southern portion of the province and the exarchate of Ravenna in the north. The country's most important religious leaders of the time were the archbishops of Ravenna.
Religious Conflict
After the death of Alboin in 572, the Lombards for a time had no king. Separate bands thereupon united under regional leaders known as duces. The Lombards, like the Goths before them, espoused the heretical creed called Arianism, with the result that they were in perpetual religious conflict with the native Italians, who overwhelmingly supported orthodox Christianity. This conflict was intensified as the temporal power of the popes increased. At length, Agiluf, a new Lombard king who reigned from 590 to 615, was converted to orthodox Christianity, and for some time comparative harmony prevailed. To consolidate their political power, however, the Lombards began to encroach on papal territory, even threatening Rome, the center of church authority. In 754 Pope Stephen II summoned help from the Franks, who had accepted the spiritual authority of the church a century earlier. Under the vigorous leadership of Pepin the Short and his son, Charlemagne, the Franks conquered the Lombards, deposing the last Lombard king in 774. On Christmas Day, 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the West by Pope Leo III.
When the Saracens subdued Sicily and threatened Rome in the 9th century, Pope Leo IV called on King Louis II, Charlemagne's great-grandson, who checked the progress of the invaders. The Muslims overran southern Italy after Louis died and compelled the popes to pay tribute. For many years thereafter, the history of Italy is the record of the rise and fall of successive petty kings. Chief among them were Guido of Spoleto; Berengar I of Friuli, Holy Roman emperor; and Hugh of Provence. The period of anarchy ended in 962, when the Germanic leader Otto I, after obtaining possession of northern Italy and the Lombard crown, was crowned emperor by Pope John XII. This event is considered by some to mark the establishment of both the Holy Roman Empire and the German nation.
The Papacy Versus the Holy Roman Empire
Until the close of the Middle Ages the Holy Roman emperors claimed and, in varying degrees, exercised sovereignty over Italy, but for practical purposes imperial authority became completely nominal by the beginning of the 14th century. Meanwhile, the south of Italy had remained under Byzantine and Lombard sway. In the 11th century, however, the Normans broke the Byzantine power and expelled the Lombards. The Normans united their territorial conquests in Italy in 1127 with Sicily, which they had wrested from the Saracens. These developments coincided with a resurgence of papal power, long secondary to that of the emperors. Imperial and papal friction reached a peak in the Investiture Controversy. By the Concordat of Worms, negotiated in 1122, the emperor surrendered to the college of cardinals the right to elect the pope. Simultaneous with the increasing influence of the papacy, strong opposition to the continued rule of the Holy Roman emperors appeared in the form of the rising Italian city-states. In Italy the feudal system had never attained the high degree of development characteristic of France and Germany (see Feudalism). The relative weakness of Italian feudalism was due in great part to the survival of Roman traditions and to the large number of cities in Italy, for feudalism was a rural rather than an urban phenomenon. The northern cities in particular defied the power of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, who fought fierce but inconclusive wars with them. At length the Lombard League, an alliance of Italian cities, was formed in 1167; Frederick was vanquished at Legnano in 1176, and in 1183, with the signing of the Peace of Constance, the cities of northern Italy secured virtual autonomy. A final and unsuccessful attempt to crush both the papacy and its allies was made by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, the last great ruler of the royal house of Hohenstaufen. Italy itself was divided by the struggles between imperial partisans (the Guelphs) and their opponents (the Ghibellines). These names continued to be the designations of fiercely contending parties long after the Holy Roman emperors had lost their hold on the country. See Guelphs and Ghibellines.
Meanwhile, in 1266, southern Italy and Sicily came under the domination of the French house of Anjou. In 1282, however, Sicily threw off the French yoke and placed itself under the power of Aragón. See Sicilian Vespers.
The Rise of The City-States
Through commerce, some of the northern Italian cities had meanwhile grown wealthy and had established oligarchical governments that were tending to become democratic. The prosperous merchants of these cities, having secured their independence from the authority of the Holy Roman emperors, soon began to contest the authority of their powerful nobles. Gradually, these nobles were divested of their power and compelled to abandon their extensive landholdings. Venice, by its participation in the Fourth Crusade, had secured extensive possessions in the Byzantine East and had developed a far-reaching trade empire. Pisa, Genoa, Milan, and Florence had likewise become powerful. A bitter struggle for ascendancy soon developed between Genoa and Venice. The conflict ended with a Venetian victory toward the close of the 14th century.
In every city of northern and central Italy the population had long been divided into Guelphs and Ghibellines. The former party was substantially progressive in character, the latter conservative. Civil strife was almost incessant, and the triumph of one party frequently resulted in the banishment of members of the other. On occasion, the banished party sought to regain power with the aid of other cities, so that city often warred against city, producing a shifting succession of alliances, conquests, and temporary truces. This turbulence was highly disadvantageous to commerce and industry, the chief interests of the northern cities. In consequence, the office of podesta, or chief magistrate, was established to mediate the differences of the contending parties. It proved ineffective, however, and the podesta came in time to be primarily a judicial officer. His place as head of the city was taken by a "captain of the people," representing the dominant party. This position was usually held by a noble. The people, longing for peace, acquiesced in the establishment of centralized authority. Thus, almost every city came to have its despot, or absolute ruler; the office in many cases became hereditary in some noble families, such as the Scala at Verona, the Este at Ferrara, the Malatesta at Rimini, and the Visconti and later the Sforza at Milan. Under the rule of the despots, wealth increased, life became more luxurious, and literature and the arts flourished. Gradually, the smaller cities passed under the influence of the larger ones.
Period of Prosperity
By the middle of the 15th century Italy had achieved great prosperity and comparative tranquility. The country stood in the forefront of European nations culturally, having pioneered the great revival of learning and the arts (see Renaissance). Preeminent in this revival was Tuscany, which had produced the great poet Dante Alighieri and the painter Giotto. Near the end of the 15th century Italy became the object of a succession of aggressive wars, waged by France, Spain, and Austria, which culminated in the ascendancy of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. In 1494 King Charles VIII of France undertook to conquer the kingdom of Naples, then under the rule of the house of Aragón. Charles was induced to conduct this campaign by the Milanese regent Ludovico Sforza and by the citizens of Florence, who were restive under the Medici family. He invaded Italy, occupied Naples, and concluded a treaty with Florence, by the terms of which the Medici were expelled and the pope was brought to submission. In consequence, however, of a league formed against him by Spain, the pope, the Holy Roman emperor, and the Italian cities of Venice and Milan, Charles was forced to retire from Naples and fight his way out of Italy. This French invasion, although it produced no great political results, was highly important as a means by which Italian culture was disseminated throughout Europe.
The Early Modern Age
During the 16th century the various states on the Italian Peninsula fell prey to armies from the more centralized countries of the north. In 1499 King Louis XII of France, successor to Charles VIII, subjugated Milan, which changed hands several times between the French and the Habsburgs. In 1501 Ferdinand V of Castile, who had also been king of Sicily since 1468, reunited Naples and Sicily under one crown. The rivalry between Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, and King Francis I of France led to another French invasion of Italy in 1524. With the Florentines, Genoese, and Venetians as allies, the French were successful at first, but they were ultimately defeated. In the Peace of Cambrai (1529) Francis renounced all his claims to territory in Italy. Although he renewed the conflict in the 1540s, Charles's domination over Italy could not be broken. On the extinction of Milan's Sforza dynasty in 1535, Charles also took control of that duchy, which became part of his Spanish Habsburg realm. Milan remained a Spanish possession for almost 200 years. Of the various free cities of Italy a few survived, and of these only Genoa and Venice remained influential. Venice, in its last notable achievement as an independent city, conquered the Pelopónnisos (Peloponnesus) in 1684, but lost it in 1715.
During the 18th century Italy remained divided and controlled by foreigners. Until 1748 it was the site of a succession of European wars, while the balance of power shifted. Venice turned eastward, the papacy became increasingly insular, and Florence no longer had a central role in the area. The duchy of Savoy, located between France and the Habsburg possessions in Italy, became a major force in the area. Duke Victor Amadeus II emerged from the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) with power and prestige. The Peace of Utrecht (1713) awarded him a royal title and Sicily, which he ceded to Austria in exchange for Sardinia in 1720. The Utrecht treaties also transferred Spain's holdings in Italy to the Austrians, who exercised dominion in the peninsula throughout most of the second half of the 18th century.
The Napoleonic Period
In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte, later emperor Napoleon I of France, invaded Italy. His victories led to the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797), establishing the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics with the former's capital at Milan and the latter's at Genoa. Venice and its territory were given to Austria. Napoleon was crowned king of Italy at Milan in 1805. The next year he took possession of the kingdom of Naples. The island of Sicily, however, was preserved for the Neapolitan Bourbons by the British fleet. Naples was granted first to Napoleon's brother Joseph and later to his brother-in-law Joachim Murat. By 1810 even Rome was incorporated into the French empire.
Napoleon's hold on Italy was weakened by his defeat at Leipzig in 1813 as the Austrians invaded northern Italy and a British fleet occupied Genoa. The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) led to a restoration of Austrian domination of the peninsula, but Sardinia recovered Piedmont, Nice, and Savoy and acquired Genoa.
The Risorgimento
The Italian resistance to Austrian domination, characterized by a growing movement for national unity and independence, has been termed the Risorgimento. Despite suppressive measures by the petty despots who relied on Austrian statesman Prince Klemens von Metternich's diplomacy and threat of military intervention to preserve their rule, a network of secret societies challenged the traditional order. These societies, especially the Carbonari of southern Italy, played a key role in the revolutions of 1820, which were suppressed by Austria.
Nationalist Movements
The July Revolution of 1830, which drove the Bourbons from the throne of France, had repercussions in Italy. In 1831 insurrections erupted in the Papal States. A congress of representatives from its constituent areas (except Rome and a few cities in the march of Ancona) met in Bologna and adopted a constitution establishing a republican form of government. Responding to the request of Pope Gregory XVI, Austria intervened to suppress the revolutionary movement in the papal domain, and placed Bologna under military surveillance.
After the 1831 death of King Charles Felix of Sardinia, the crown passed to Charles Albert, prince of Savoy and Piedmont, who, as regent, had proposed granting his people a constitution in 1821. Believing that Charles Albert still held liberal views, the Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini exhorted the new king to serve as liberator of Italy. The king answered this appeal by ordering Mazzini's arrest; nevertheless, patriotic Italians continued to look to the Sardinian monarchy for leadership.
From exile in Marseille, France, Mazzini in 1831 established an organization called Giovane Italia ("Young Italy") to spread the ideals of nationalism and republicanism to the Italian people. Its goals were education and insurrection, and it inspired several revolutions. As these uprisings were suppressed, some Italians questioned the use of radical tactics, suggesting that the national movement required a more responsible leadership.
The neo-Guelph movement sought to establish an order in which the pope would exercise political as well as spiritual leadership in Italy. In 1846 the nationalist and neo-Guelph movements were quickened by the election of Pope Pius IX, who was perceived as being a liberal and a nationalist. The pope immediately began an extensive program of reforms in the Papal States. An amnesty was proclaimed for political offenders, political exiles were permitted to return, freedom of the press was introduced, the highest government offices were opened to laymen, and a consultative chamber was created to suggest new reforms. The pope's example was followed by the rulers of Lucca, Tuscany, and Piedmont. Instead of allaying the revolutionary movement, however, the reforms of 1846 and 1847 only intensified it. In January 1848 the people of Palermo drove out the forces of Ferdinand II, king of the Two Sicilies, who responded to the revolutionary outburst on the mainland by granting his Italian subjects a constitution. At the same time Leopold II, grand duke of Tuscany, issued a constitution for his duchy. In Turin Charles Albert, encouraged by Conte Camillo Benso di Cavour, also promised to issue a constitution. Pope Pius IX reluctantly consented to a constitution for the Papal States, although he began to regard the course of events with some apprehension.
The Uprisings of 1848
The outbreak of revolution in Vienna in 1848, which drove Metternich from power, served as the signal for an uprising in Milan on March 18. The populace drove the Austrian troops out of the city on March 22. The Austrians were also expelled from Venice, and a Venetian republic was proclaimed. The autocratic rulers of Parma and Modena were forced to abandon their thrones. In Piedmont the nationalists called for a war of liberation to drive the Austrians from Italian soil. After some hesitation, Charles Albert mobilized his army and marched to the assistance of Lombardy, which he entered on March 26, acclaimed as the liberator of Italy.
Italian hopes were dashed when at the end of April the pope refused to join in the war, in mid-May the revolution in Naples collapsed, and on July 24 the Piedmontese were defeated in battle by the Austrians. By the subsequent armistice the Piedmontese gave up Lombardy. Charles Albert later denounced this armistice, only to be badly defeated in battle at Novara in March 1849. He then abdicated the Sardinian throne in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.
The Revolution in Rome
Meanwhile, Pius IX was denounced by radicals in the Papal States for failing to join the war of national liberation. A popular insurrection in Rome led the pope and his closest adviser, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, to flee the capital in November 1848. In his absence the temporal power of the pontiff was abolished and a republic was proclaimed. Early in 1849 Cardinal Antonelli appealed to the Roman Catholic powers of France, Austria, Spain, and Naples to overturn the Roman Republic. Despite the efforts of Mazzini, at the head of the government, and the military leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Austrians moved into the north, the Spanish and Neapolitans invaded from the south, and a French force occupied Rome in July 1849. The papal regime was restored.
Garibaldi and Cavour
Victor Emmanuel remained faithful to the liberal constitution promulgated by his father and retained the tricolor flag, a symbol of free Italy, thus encouraging political refugees from the restored conservative states of the peninsula to find asylum in Sardinia. In 1852 Cavour became the Sardinian prime minister and in 1855 led his country into the Crimean War on the side of Great Britain and France. At the peace conference in Paris in 1856, Cavour, with the connivance of French Emperor Napoleon III, aired the Italian question as an international problem. In 1858 he met secretly with Napoleon to plot a Franco-Sardinian war against Austria for the liberation of Italy; war erupted in 1859. The Franco-Italian coalition won the battles of Magenta and Solferino, which proved costly. Fearing the consequences of a long war, Napoleon deserted the Italians and unilaterally concluded a preliminary agreement in July 1859 with the Austrians. The Sardinians then accepted the terms formalized in the Treaty of Zürich: Austria ceded most of Lombardy to France, which in turn transferred the Lombard cities of Peschiera and Mantua to Sardinia. Elsewhere, the drive for a united Italy accelerated. In a series of plebiscites in 1860 the people of Romagna and the duchies of Parma and Modena voted for union with Sardinia. France, in return for its collaboration, obtained the regions of Nice and Savoy. In April 1860 Palermo rose against Francis II, king of the Two Sicilies. In May, Garibaldi, with Cavour's secret support, led an expedition from Genoa to aid the Sicilian revolt. Garibaldi soon took control of Sicily, and in August he attacked the Neapolitan mainland, entering Naples on September 7. Francis fled to the fortress of Gaeta. The Sardinian government, while sympathetic to Garibaldi's conquest, had officially maintained a policy of neutrality. When Garibaldi threatened to march on Rome, which was protected by French forces, Cavour became alarmed. With Napoleon's consent, he moved his forces into the Papal States to block Garibaldi. In the process, Sardinia absorbed the bulk of the Papal States, leaving the pope with Rome and its immediate environs. Meanwhile plebiscites in Naples and Sicily and in the marches and Umbria all favored union with Sardinia.
The Kingdom of Italy
On March 17, 1861, the kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as king and Cavour as prime minister. Italy, however, was not complete; Rome and Venice remained outside the kingdom. Cavour, who planned for their peaceful inclusion, died in June. The next year Garibaldi went to Sicily and organized a march on Rome. Fearing French intervention, the Italian government denounced Garibaldi. He and his followers, who had landed in Calabria, were blocked by the troops of Victor Emmanuel and compelled to surrender in August 1862. In 1866 Italy became the ally of Prussia in the Seven Weeks' War against Austria, and at its end acquired Venice. Rome remained elusive, however, as a combined Franco-Papal force defeated a renewed effort by Garibaldi and his followers at Mentana in 1867. In 1870 French reverses in the Franco-Prussian War induced Napoleon III to withdraw his troops from Rome, and the Italians were finally able to enter the city. An October plebiscite favored union with the Italian kingdom, and in July 1871, Rome became the capital of a united Italy.
Colonial Ventures
When Victor Emmanuel died in January 1878, his son, Humbert I, succeeded to the Italian throne. During his reign, Italy concluded the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, marking the division of Europe into two hostile camps. Humbert was assassinated by an anarchist on July 29, 1900, and his son, Victor Emmanuel III, ascended the throne. Meanwhile, prompted by the examples of France and Britain and by the desire to distract attention from economic and social problems at home, the government had launched a colonial program. In early 1885 an Italian expedition occupied a portion of East Africa. These territories were consolidated in 1890 into the colony of Eritrea. In that year Italy established a protectorate over the Somali coast south of British Somaliland. Prime Minister Francesco Crispi then decided to move from the coastal territories and take over the heartland of Ethiopia. The Italians, however, suffered a serious defeat at Adwa (Aduwa) in 1896 and had to recognize Ethiopia's independence. Elsewhere, Italian troops moved into Libya in 1911 and, at the end of the ensuing Italo-Turkish war, Italy's possession of the Libyan coast was confirmed.
Prewar Italy
From 1901 to 1914 Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti dominated Italy, which experienced political, social, and economic modernization. Giolitti has been criticized for interfering in the electoral process, tolerating protectionism, and creating a virtual parliamentary dictatorship, but he has also been hailed as the maker of modern Italy. During his tenure a number of reforms were introduced: the right of workers to strike for higher wages was recognized; changes in electoral law greatly increased male suffrage; Roman Catholics were drawn into Italy's political life; and the first major legislation on behalf of the economically depressed south was passed. In foreign affairs, relations were improved with France, while Italy remained in the Triple Alliance. During the Giolitti era Italy's rate of industrial growth was 87 percent, and workers' wages grew by more than 25 percent despite a shortened workday and the introduction of a guaranteed day of rest. In many ways Italy was a democracy in the making; this progress was halted by participation in World War I.
World War I
When World War I began in August 1914, the Italian government brushed aside the Triple Alliance and declared its neutrality. Subsequently, after having signed the secret Treaty of London with the Allied powers, Italy declared war on Austria and Turkey, and then declared war against Germany about a year later. Italy sent a large force into the Trentino region, in the southern Tirol. In 1916 the Austrians launched a series of attacks northeast of Trent and along the eastern bank of the Adige River, capturing the towns of Asiago and Asiero. Most of the lost territory was later regained by Italian forces, which then mounted an offensive along the Isonzo River in Venezia Giulia, capturing Gorizia on August 9. The Italian armies made little progress thereafter. In October 1917 a combined Austro-German force attacked the Italian defenses, winning a dramatic victory at Caporetto in Venezia Giulia. The Italians fell back, abandoning both Gorizia and the Karst Plateau. The enemy threatened the Italian line from the Julian Alps to the Adriatic Sea. The Italians retreated to the Piave River; reinforced by small numbers of French and British troops, they consolidated their defenses and were able to fight off an Austrian force that attacked in June 1918. The Italians and their allies assumed the offensive, culminating in their smashing victory in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (October 24-November 4). The Italian army then occupied Udine and Trent, while the navy landed troops at Trieste. Meanwhile, on November 3, the Austro-Hungarian government and the Allies had signed an armistice. Italian casualties during the war totaled more than half a million. In the treaties that followed, Italy acquired the Trentino, Trieste, and the South Tyrol, but did not get all the territory promised in the Treaty of London-notably Dalmatia and Fiume. In November 1920 Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia) signed the Treaty of Rapallo; Fiume was established as a free state, and Italy renounced its claims to Dalmatia.
The Postwar Years
From 1919 to 1922 Italy was torn by social and political strife, inflation, and economic problems, aggravated by the belief that Italy had won the war but lost the peace. Armed bands with a strong nationalist bias, known as the Fascisti (see Fascism), fought Socialist and Communist groups in Rome, Bologna, Trieste, Genoa, Parma, and elsewhere. During Giolitti's final ministry from 1920 to 1921, some semblance of normality returned. He formed a National Bloc of Liberals, Nationalists, and others, including Fascists, but he failed to gather a stable parliamentary majority because the two largest political parties, the Socialists and the newly formed Catholic Popular Party, refused their support. Giolitti then resigned. His departure precipitated a period of uncertainty. Many landowners feared that their estates would be seized by the peasants; the middle class and the industrialists feared that Italy would become a Soviet-style republic; and conservative Roman Catholics worried that socialism, communism, and atheism threatened the religious order. On October 24, 1922, the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, emboldened by the support of conservatives and former soldiers, demanded that the government be entrusted to his party. He threatened to seize power by force if his conditions were refused. As the Fascisti mobilized for a march on Rome, Prime Minister Luigi Facta resigned. On October 28 Victor Emmanuel called on Mussolini to form a new government.
The Fascist Dictatorship
Although he was given extraordinary powers to restore order, Mussolini initially governed constitutionally. He headed a coalition government in 1923 that included Liberals, Nationalists, and Catholics, as well as Fascists. After the violence of the 1924 elections and the murder of the Socialist Party deputy Giacomo Matteotti in 1924, Mussolini moved to suspend constitutional government. He proceeded in stages to establish a dictatorship by forbidding the parliament to initiate legislation; by making himself responsible to the king alone; by ordering parliament to authorize him to issue decrees having the force of law; by establishing absolute censorship of the press; and, in 1926, by suppressing all opposition parties.
Economic Measures
In 1928 further measures were taken to transform the nation into a Fascist state. Supreme power was theoretically lodged in the Fascist Grand Council, comprising the top leadership of the party, with the prime minister as chairman. The Grand Council was to select the list of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and to be consulted on all important business of the government, especially the choice of an heir to the throne and successor to Mussolini. Mussolini scored one of his greatest diplomatic triumphs in 1929, when he concluded the Lateran Treaty between the Italian state and the Holy See. This settled the 60-year-old controversy concerning the temporal power of the pope by the creation, at Rome, of Vatican City. In 1934 another step was taken in the reorganization of the economic life of Italy with the formation of 22 corporations, or guilds, representing workers and employers in all phases of the economy. Each corporation included Fascist Party members on its governing council and had Mussolini as its president. These councils were organized into a National Council of Corporations.
During the world economic depression that began in 1929, the Fascist government increasingly intervened to prevent the collapse of a number of industries. The construction of new factories or the expansion of old ones without governmental consent was prohibited. The government reorganized the iron and steel industries, expanded hydroelectric plants, and embarked on other public works projects. The military was also expanded and strengthened. Near the end of 1933, Mussolini announced that the Italian Chamber of Deputies would be called upon to legislate itself out of existence and to transfer its functions to the National Council of Corporations. This step was finally taken in 1939. The Chamber of Deputies was replaced by a Chamber of Fasci and Corporations, composed of some 800 appointive members of the National Council of Corporations. In their respective industries the corporations were entrusted with regulating prices and wages, planning economic policies, and discharging other economic functions.
Relations with Germany
The appointment in 1933 of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany was greeted cautiously by the controlled Italian press. Hitler in turn expressed friendship for Italian fascism. A German-Italian axis was not immediately formed, however, and a temporary improvement in Franco-Italian relations resulted from German attempts to force the incorporation of Austria into the Third Reich of Germany in 1934. Mussolini rushed 75,000 Italian troops to the Italo-Austrian frontier, announcing that he would intervene if Germany took overt action. Italy drew even closer to its allies of World War I in 1935, when, along with France and Great Britain, it formed the Stresa Front, organized in protest against Germany's repeated violations of the Treaty of Versailles.
The Ethiopian Campaign
The event that upset European alignments and brought the Fascist and Nazi dictatorships into close accord was Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Generally regarded as within the Italian sphere of influence, Ethiopia was bound to the Fascist state by many commercial and diplomatic pacts, but Italy sought every opportunity to integrate it into the Italian colonial empire. The Ethiopian war was preceded in 1935 by a Franco-Italian accord, by which Italy agreed to support French opposition to German rearmament in exchange for French concessions in Africa. Great Britain, regarding aggressive Italian expansion as a menace to British interests, vigorously opposed Mussolini's plan.
The Italian invasion of Ethiopia began on October 3. Four days later the Council of the League of Nations declared Italy guilty of violating its obligations under the League Covenant and imposed economic sanctions against the aggressor. The league's failure to enforce these sanctions, however, contributed largely to the Italian victory. On May 9, 1936, Mussolini formally annexed Ethiopia and proclaimed King Victor Emmanuel III emperor. Within a month, the country was incorporated, along with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, into a single colony, Italian East Africa. In October 1936, after Germany had recognized the Italian conquest, Hitler and Mussolini concluded an agreement providing for joint action in support of their common goals.
The Spanish Civil War
New stresses on the Italian economy were caused by Mussolini's active espousal of General Francisco Franco's cause in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Italian troops played an important role at the battles of Málaga and Santander, the Italian air force participated in many engagements, and Italian submarines allegedly sank many neutral ships bound for Loyalist ports with oil, food, and other supplies for the Republican armies. On the Guadalajara front, Italian forces were routed by the Spanish Loyalists in March 1937. An official report put Italian casualties at some 4000 killed and 15,000 wounded.
The Berlin-Rome Axis
By 1937, cooperation between Italy and Germany had begun to produce results. Following Mussolini's visit to Germany in September, Italy announced its adherence to the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan, and soon thereafter withdrew from the League of Nations. The first major consequence of Italian policy toward Germany was Mussolini's refusal to aid Austria when that republic was absorbed by Germany in March 1938. Meanwhile, the increasing influence of Nazi racist doctrines on Fascist Italy found expression in a series of measures designed to curb the activities of Italian Jews, including a law that excluded all Jews from civil and military administrations. During the negotiations for the Munich Pact in 1938 and the subsequent dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, Mussolini gave firm support to Hitler's demands. The two dictators signed a military assistance pact in May 1939. This move followed the German seizure of Bohemia and Moravia and the Italian annexation of Albania.
World War II (1939-1945)
When World War II began in September 1939, Mussolini took the position that he was under no obligation to aid Germany militarily because he had made it clear to the Nazis that Italy would not be prepared for war until 1942.
Entry Into the War
German successes during the first year of the war, however, led Mussolini to reverse his policy. In June 1940, when France lay prostrate in defeat and Great Britain alone faced the powerful German armies, Italy entered the war and granted France an armistice. In August 1940, Italian forces in East Africa occupied British Somaliland, and the following month Fascist armies in Libya and Italian East Africa began a gigantic pincers movement designed to overwhelm British defenses in Egypt. On October 28, 1940, Fascist forces in Albania invaded Greece, apparently to divert British forces from Egypt and to secure bases on the Greek peninsula. The invasion failed, however, as the Greeks drove the Italians from Greece and Albania. This debacle, followed by British victories in the Mediterranean and in Egypt, rocked the Fascist regime to its foundations. Mussolini had to ask Hitler for aid, and thereafter Italian policy in all fields fell increasingly under German control. Sweeping changes in the Fascist military hierarchy were instituted, but these and other reforms failed to restore the morale of the Italian people.
Occupation of the Balkans
In 1941 Italy suffered successive military and naval disasters and growing economic privation caused by an Allied blockade. Anti-Fascist sentiment spread throughout the population. The successful end of the Balkan campaign, as a result of German intervention, somewhat offset the Fascist reverses, however, as Italy acquired several new territories. By arrangement with Germany, almost all Greece was occupied by Italian troops. Many Italians soon realized that their territorial gains in the Balkans were largely illusory, because the Germans actually controlled these areas. Also, Italy was forced to pay an increasingly high price for Hitler's military assistance. Italian foodstuffs and other commodities ran low as large shipments were sent to the Third Reich in return for German coal and oil. Italy declared war on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on June 22, 1941, on the day of the German invasion, and five weeks later the first Italian division was sent to the Soviet front. As difficulties developed in the German offensive, Hitler became more pressing in his demands on Mussolini.
The United States Enters the War
At the same time, relations between the United States and Italy were approaching a showdown. In March the U.S. government had seized 28 Italian merchant ships in U.S. ports and arrested crew members who sabotaged the vessels on orders from the Italian naval attaché in Washington, D.C. The immediate recall of the attaché was demanded, whereupon Italy forced the recall of the U.S. military attaché in Rome. When Italian assets in the United States were impounded in June, similar measures were taken against U.S. assets in Italy. The alienation reached a climax in December, after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, when Mussolini declared war on the United States.
The outlook for Fascist Italy in 1942 was gloomy. In North Africa, temporary Italo-German gains were liquidated by a vigorous British offensive. Axis forces, including the Italian, suffered serious reverses in the Soviet Union. Italian occupation troops in Albania, Yugoslavia, and Greece suffered heavy losses from guerrilla bands.
German Control
At home the Italian people endured a bitter winter with short rations of food and fuel. Increasing German control of all phases of Italian life, corruption and inefficiency among Fascist officials, and evasion of the rationing laws by the wealthy and influential contributed to their demoralization. In October the British launched a series of bombing raids against the industrial cities of northern Italy. As advancing British and American forces in North Africa established air bases in Algeria and Cyrenaica, southern Italy was also bombed. The political prestige of the Fascist regime continued to decline. In February 1943, hoping to turn the tide, Mussolini assumed full responsibility for both political affairs and military operations. When the Axis forces in Tunisia collapsed in May, he established a council of defense to prepare for an Allied invasion of the Italian mainland. All efforts to bolster defenses and raise morale, however, were nullified by the Allied air raids.
Invasion of Italy
On July 10, 1943, following the capitulation of the strategic Italian island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean, Allied forces invaded Sicily. Six days later, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill addressed a joint radio message to the people of Italy urging their surrender to avoid greater devastation. The next day Allied planes dropped leaflets over Rome advising of a possible raid on military installations in its vicinity, but assuring that the utmost care would be taken to avoid destruction of residential buildings and cultural monuments. About 500 Allied bombers then attacked railroad yards, war factories, and airfields near the city.
The bombing precipitated a large-scale exodus of the Roman population and brought the political crisis to a climax. During the raid Mussolini was at Verona, conferring with Hitler on measures to meet the next phase of the Allied invasion. On his return to Rome he was confronted with a demand for a meeting of the Fascist Grand Council to consider the Italian military crisis. After a stormy debate, the session concluded with a no-confidence vote against Mussolini. King Victor Emmanuel on July 25 asked for Mussolini's resignation and placed him in military custody. He summoned Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new ministry. The Badoglio cabinet soon decreed the liquidation of all Fascist organizations.
Surrender and Armistice
The fall of Mussolini precipitated clamorous peace demonstrations throughout Italy. Meanwhile, the Allies continued their advance in Sicily. Churchill offered Italy the choice of breaking off its alliance with Germany or suffering destruction; General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied commander in chief, promised the Italian people an honorable peace and a beneficent occupation if they ended their aid to the German war effort. In mid-August, a representative of Prime Minister Badoglio arrived in Lisbon with an offer to join the Allies against Germany when the Allied invasion of the Italian mainland began. American and British staff officers were dispatched to negotiate with the Italian emissary on the basis of Italy's unconditional surrender. The armistice was signed on September 3, the day the invasion of southern Italy began.
The Battle for Italy
The announcement of the armistice set off a furious race between the Allies and the Germans for possession of the territories, bases, arms and supplies, communications, and other war facilities formerly under Italian control. A large Anglo-American amphibious force landed on the beaches of Salerno just south of Naples, hoping to drive inland and trap the German units facing the British Eighth Army farther south. The Germans, however, held off the invasion force until German units in southern Italy could retire. They also seized the cities and strategic centers of northern and central Italy, disarmed Italian troops, and rounded up thousands of suspected enemies. On September 10 they occupied Rome, from which King Victor Emmanuel III and Badoglio had fled two days earlier. The Allies were more successful in the race for control of the Italian fleet. In response to a message from the Allied naval commander in the Mediterranean, virtually all seaworthy Italian warships left their bases at La Spezia and other Italian-held ports to surrender to the Allies in accordance with the armistice terms.
The Germans retained the support of pro-Fascist Italians by announcing in September that a Fascist National Government had been established in opposition to the Badoglio government and was functioning in the name of Mussolini. The former dictator had been rescued from prison by German parachute troops, thus balking Badoglio's promise to deliver him to the Allies.
War Declared on Germany
In line with pledges made to the Allies and to the Italian people, Prime Minister Badoglio declared war on Germany on October 13 and reorganized his government on a broader, more democratic basis. Seeking to induce leaders of various anti-German political groups to enter his cabinet, he conferred with leaders of six political parties, disbanded by Mussolini, which had united to form a National Liberation Front. These liberal elements, however, would consent to form a representative government only if Victor Emmanuel abdicated. The king refused, and Badoglio declined any part in a move to oust him. As a temporary solution, he organized a so-called technical government of nonparty experts to carry on administrative functions. In November the Committee of National Liberation voted no-confidence in the Badoglio government and called on the king to abdicate.
The King Retires
In April 1944 the king announced his decision to withdraw from public affairs and to appoint his son Humbert, later King Humbert II, as lieutenant general of Italy, the appointment to become effective on the entry of Allied troops into Rome. This cleared the way for a government representing the National Committee of Liberation. The Allied armies liberated Rome on June 4, and Victor Emmanuel transferred all royal authority to Humbert. The party leaders of the Committee of National Liberation, however, unanimously refused to serve in the Badoglio government, and the position of prime minister was given to Ivanoe Bonomi, who formed a coalition government.
Because the new government was under Allied jurisdiction and control, its plans for domestic reforms were largely nullified. American and British officials, fearful of anything that might impede the Allied war effort, vetoed all proposals for social and economic change. Allied authorities also frowned on Italian anti-Fascist volunteers and resistance fighters, most of whom were radicals. The new cabinet largely agreed on basic political issues. Middle-class liberals and proletarian radicals were united in the belief that the armistice terms should be modified and that Italy should be allowed to reshape itself into a self-governing democracy. Communists and Socialists, elsewhere bitter adversaries, advocated economic reform. Even Communists and Roman Catholics found areas of agreement.
A Hard Winter
The winter of 1944 and 1945 was a period of intense suffering, particularly in the ravaged areas left by the retreating Germans. Throughout the central provinces were burned villages, idle or flooded fields, and ruined factories, railroads, power plants, and bridges. Some 800,000 hectares (some 2 million acres) of arable land were uncultivated, and prices of necessities rose prohibitively. As a result of the widespread misery, the Action and Socialist parties sharply criticized Bonomi's leadership. Industrial stagnation, mass unemployment, and skyrocketing inflation, however, continued to frustrate the government in its efforts to rehabilitate the national economy.
Death of Mussolini
The final Allied offensive in Italy began in April 1945, and by the end of the month the German armies had been completely smashed. Mussolini, his mistress, and several of his high-ranking colleagues were captured by Italian partisans at a small town near Lake Como. The entire group was summarily tried and, on April 28, executed. Northern Italians inflicted brutal vengeance on Mussolini's followers after the German surrender on May 2. More than 1000 Fascists were shot in Milan alone.
Rise of De Gasperi
In accordance with a previous pledge Bonomi resigned after the liberation of northern Italy. A coalition government, representing the entire Committee of National Liberation, was then formed. The new government, headed by Ferruccio Parri, leader of the Action Party, was little more than a stopgap regime, however; it was unable to grapple effectively with the problems confronting Italy. In October, monarchists and leaders of the Liberal Party accused Prime Minister Parri of violating the truce on the question of the monarchy, and he subsequently resigned. The ensuing crisis was accompanied by riotous demonstrations in southern Italy against the high cost of living. The Committee of National Liberation finally offered the premiership to Alcide De Gasperi, a Christian Democrat. He took office on December 9.
The year 1946 was one of unparalleled hardship for most of the Italian people. Although the privations provoked occasional civil unrest, the general mood of the populace was apathetic during the campaign preceding the national referendum and elections for a Constituent Assembly in June. The prevalence of opposition to the monarchy was indicated in April, when the convention of the Christian Democratic Party voted by a ratio of 3 to 1 in favor of a republic. King Victor Emmanuel III abdicated on May 9, and his son ascended the throne as Humbert II.
The Republic
Nearly 25 million voters, about 89 percent of the eligible electorate, which for the first time included women, voted in the general elections of June 2 and 3, 1946. Of the voters, 54.3 percent chose a republic. On June 10, when the popular mandate was officially proclaimed, Italy became a de facto republic. Three days later King Humbert abdicated and left the country.
Principal Parties
In the vote for the Constituent Assembly the Christian Democrats won a plurality of 207 seats and emerged as the first party in Italy. The Socialist Party won 115 seats, the Communists gained 104 seats, and four minor parties shared the remaining 117 seats. On June 28 Enrico de Nicola, a member of the Liberal Party, was elected provisional president of the republic. De Gasperi remained as prime minister.
In the deliberations preceding approval of the new republican government by the Constituent Assembly, irreconcilable disagreements between the Communists and Christian Democrats became evident. This friction was intensified by persistent semifamine and the generally chaotic Italian economy. As the prestige of the De Gasperi government declined, the Socialist and Communist parties drew together. Municipal elections in November 1946 indicated a decline in Christian Democratic support and gains for the Communist, Socialist, and rightist parties.
Paris Peace Conference
The despairing mood of the Italians was meanwhile aggravated by preliminary decisions of the Big Four (France, Great Britain, the United States, and the USSR), as revealed at the Paris Peace Conference in July 1946. These decisions contemplated the internationalization of Trieste, the cession of several territories, and the award of $100 million in reparations to the USSR. The proposed treaty provided also for additional reparations to other nations victimized by fascism, for severe restrictions on the Italian armed forces, and for British administration of Italian East Africa, pending a Big Four agreement on final disposition of the colonies. Despite popular protests, the treaty was signed at Paris on February 10, 1947, and was subsequently ratified by the Italian Constituent Assembly, with Communist and Socialist delegates abstaining; it came into effect on September 15. Allied occupation forces withdrew from Italy shortly thereafter. Although the Italian people generally opposed the peace treaty, many were mollified by the attitude of the U.S. government, which had helped to frustrate Soviet demands for harsher terms and had also concretely demonstrated its friendly intentions toward Italy.
Political Violence
Early in 1947 the Italian Socialist Party, reflecting a trend in Europe, split into two groups on the issue of collaboration with the Communists. Pietro Nenni, foreign minister in De Gasperi's cabinet and a leader of the pro-Communist faction, resigned on January 15. The entire cabinet then withdrew, and De Gasperi formed another coalition ministry, including both Communists and Socialists. Relations between the leftists and moderates deteriorated steadily thereafter. In the mounting Cold War between the Western democracies and the Soviet bloc, Italians chose sides according to their ideology. During this period the extreme right, composed mainly of former adherents of Mussolini and monarchists, became increasingly bold. On May 1 an armed band attacked a Communist-led parade at Greci, Sicily, killing eight people. The incident precipitated a cabinet crisis from May 13 to 31, when De Gasperi formed a ministry of Christian Democrats and nonparty specialists, excluding both Communists and Socialists. The new regime immediately began a purge of leftists from important public positions.
Bitter political strife followed. By means of mass demonstrations, general strikes, and other tactics the leftists tried to dislodge the De Gasperi government. Reflecting hostility to the Italian government, the USSR in the United Nations Security Council vetoed Italy's application for United Nations (UN) membership. At the same time the Italian Communist Party became a founding member of Cominform. See International.
Parliamentary Elections
Meanwhile, the Constituent Assembly had drafted a constitution for Italy. Approved on December 22, 1947, by a vote of 453 to 62, the document became effective on January 1, 1948. The ensuing national election campaign was one of the most bitter and dramatic in Italian history. Coinciding with an intensification of the Cold War, the contest brought Italy to the verge of civil war. Displays of force became a central feature in the strategy of many parties. The Communist-led coalition, operating through the General Confederation of Labor, frequently used strikes as a political weapon. In reprisals against the Left, the government confiscated arms and ammunition and conducted intimidatory military demonstrations in various urban areas. Pope Pius XII sanctioned anti-Communist activity by the Italian clergy.
In the elections on April 18 and 19 the Christian Democratic Party won overwhelmingly. It received nearly 49 percent of the vote, giving it 307 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 151 in the Senate. The Popular Front, the coalition of Communists and Left wing Socialists, won 182 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 31 in the Senate. The Right wing Socialists elected 33 deputies; the remaining 52 seats went to minor parties.
Communist Opposition
The decisive mandate to the Christian Democrats markedly reduced political tension in Italy. Because of the relative strength displayed by the Communists, however, reconciliation of the differences that had divided the nation appeared unlikely. On May 11, Luigi Einaudi, the candidate of the Christian Democrats and Right wing Socialists, was elected president of the Italian republic. De Gasperi was reappointed prime minister.
Supplies and credits made available under the Marshall Plan (see European Recovery Program) had meanwhile begun to flow into Italy, creating favorable conditions for reconstruction of the national economy. Adhering to their policy of irreconcilable struggle against the plan, Communists promoted a widespread strike for higher wages. The movement culminated on July 2 in a general 12-hour walkout. Within two weeks Italy was plunged into another grave crisis as the result of the attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, head of the Italian Communist Party. The General Confederation of Labor, charging the government with political responsibility, immediately called a nationwide general strike to force its resignation. During the next two days riotous demonstrations occurred in practically every city of Italy. Peace was restored only by the mobilization of more than 300,000 troops and police.
Foreign Problems and Treaties
In 1949 the Popular Front confined its struggle against the Christian Democratic regime chiefly to the chambers of parliament. The principal object of Communist attacks during this period was the proposed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). With the unanimous approval of his cabinet and a large majority of the Chamber of Deputies, however, De Gasperi signed the treaty at Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1949.
The Big Four meanwhile had failed to agree on the disposition of Italian prewar colonies in Africa, and the matter had been referred to the United Nations (UN). On November 21, 1949, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the issue. Its salient features included provisions for granting independence to Italian Somaliland after 10 years as a UN trust territory under Italian administration; for granting independence to Libya by January 1, 1952; and for disposition of Eritrea on the basis of a report to be prepared by a UN special commission.
Italy continued to collaborate with the Western democracies after its ratification of the North Atlantic Treaty. The government announced in July 1950 that the Italian army would be built up to 250,000, the limit imposed by the World War II peace treaty. Further expansion of the military establishment was announced the following December. The Western countries subsequently waived the clauses of the peace treaty concerning restrictions on Italy's rearmament.
In June 1952 the Italian parliament ratified the Schuman Plan creating the European Coal and Steel Community, which would become the European Community (now the European Union).
Fall of De Gasperi
In an attempt to improve the effectiveness of the executive branch of the government, the Christian Democrats and their allies secured passage, in March 1953, of an electoral reform bill ensuring the party in power of a working majority in parliament. The bill provided that a party or coalition polling 50 percent or more of the popular vote would receive 65 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Parliamentary elections were held on June 7 and 8. The Christian Democrats emerged again as the strongest party, this time with 40 percent of the votes. The Communists were second (22.6 percent), and the parties of the Right, which registered the biggest gains (12.7 percent as compared with 4.2 percent in 1948), were third. De Gasperi was succeeded as prime minister by Giuseppe Pella, former minister of the treasury, who won the neutrality of the Socialists and the support of the monarchists. Intraparty differences, however, brought about the collapse of several governments in the following two years.
Late in 1953 the question of the future status of the Free Territory of Trieste brought Italy and Yugoslavia to the verge of war, but tensions abated after the United States, Great Britain, and France agreed to work out a formula acceptable to both sides. The subsequent settlement in 1954 allocated a zone including the city of Trieste to Italy; Yugoslavia received the rest of the Trieste region. Italy became a member of the United Nations in 1955.
Christian Democratic Governments
The repudiation of Joseph Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in February 1956 plunged the powerful Italian Communist Party into confusion, and it disillusioned the Left wing Socialists and weakened their alliance with the Communists. After the Hungarian uprising in October of that year, the number of Communist sympathizers dwindled. The decline of the party strengthened democratic forces.
In the elections held on May 25 and 26, 1958, the center coalition obtained majorities in both houses of parliament. A new coalition government composed of Christian Democrats and Right wing Socialists and led by Amintore Fanfani was sworn in on July 2. He was succeeded in January 1959 by Antonio Segni, whose cabinet consisted entirely of Christian Democrats. Widespread criticism of the visit by President Giovanni Gronchi to the Soviet Union in February 1960 led to the fall of the government later that month. In July, Fanfani returned to office and, with the voting support of three centrist parties, obtained approval of a cabinet composed entirely of Christian Democratic ministers. Two years later, former Prime Minister Segni, who was foreign minister in Fanfani's government, was elected to the presidency.
Local elections in 1962 demonstrated strong popular support for the progovernment parties, and the Communists lost strength for the first time in many years. Subsequently, dissension arose among the parties supporting the government. It had its base in Communist criticism of Fanfani's policies, including charges that the prime minister had failed to stimulate domestic economic reforms and to secure the removal of NATO missile bases from Italy. Although the parties agreed in January 1963 to continue their support of his government, it was weakened by the results of parliamentary elections on April 28 and 29. The popular vote for the Christian Democrats declined to 38.3 percent, while the Communist vote increased to 25.3 percent. Fanfani resigned on May 16 but remained head of a caretaker government until Giovanni Leone, president of the Chamber of Deputies, formed a temporary Christian Democratic minority government.
Opening to the Left
In October the moderate elements of the Left wing Italian Socialist Party, led by Nenni, agreed to enter a center-Left government for the first time since 1947. A four-party coalition cabinet was then organized by the Christian Democrat Aldo Moro, who assumed the position of prime minister in December.
During 1964 the conservative and Left wing elements in the government persistently and fundamentally disagreed. The situation was rendered more serious by signs that the six-year economic boom would be ending because the factions were unable to agree on a policy to counter the threatened downturn. On March 4, 1965, however, the four parties in the coalition government agreed to set aside their political differences in order to take unified action against the economic slump. Throughout 1965 and 1966 the government headed by Moro maintained the confidence of the coalition parties.
Social Upheavals
Since the late 1960s Italy has experienced dramatic social, economic, political, and religious developments. In 1968 students demanding educational reforms clashed with police on university campuses in Rome and other cities, and workers called general strikes to urge an overhaul of the social security system. Feminist issues became more important as a divorce law was adopted in 1973 and abortion was legalized in 1978. Problems of inflation, unemployment, and currency outflows increased with the 1974 recession and Italy's huge oil import bills. Government deficits rose rapidly; massive international loans were needed to avert bankruptcy.
Throughout this period, Italy's political system struggled to cope with the pace of change. The late 1960s and early 1970s were characterized by a series of short-lived, mainly coalition governments, led by the Christian Democrats. For a short period in 1974 the country was without a government altogether. As Italy's economic problems worsened and a wave of extortive kidnappings and political violence swept the country, public confidence in the government declined, and support for the Communist Party, led by Enrico Berlinguer, increased.
In the June 1975 regional elections the Communists won 33 percent of the vote and pressed the government to support a long-term alliance between Communism and Roman Catholicism. In parliamentary elections in June 1976 the Communists made more gains, winning 35 percent of the vote; the Christian Democrats won 39 percent. The Christian Democrat leader Giulio Andreotti formed a new government with Communist support; by July 1977 the Communists were permitted a voice in policymaking. The Andreotti government fell in January 1978 when the Communists insisted that the country's economic crisis required emergency rule, with Communists holding cabinet positions. Finally, in March, Andreotti formed a new Christian Democrat government with formal support from the Communists. The eventual loss of Communist support led to Andreotti's resignation in January 1979.
Urban Terrorism
Violence and lawlessness, which had plagued Italian society throughout the 1970s, took more virulent forms toward the end of the decade. Outraged by the Communists' decision to ally themselves with the government, extreme Left wing terrorists preyed on politicians, police, journalists, and businessmen. In March 1978 former Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped by a fanatical Left wing group, the Red Brigades, which made Moro's release contingent on the freeing of other terrorists from Italian jails. The government refused to deal with Moro's captors, and he was subsequently found murdered.
Shifting Alignments
From June 1979 to June 1981 the Christian Democrats led the government, as they had for more than three decades. In 1981, however, Giovanni Spadolini, a leader of the small Republican Party, became the first post-World War II prime minister who was not a Christian Democrat. Another series of cabinet crises in August 1983 led to the formation of a government under Bettino Craxi, Italy's first Socialist prime minister since the war. He served until March 1987, the longest tenure of any postwar leader. During his term, in 1984, Roman Catholicism lost its status as Italy's state religion, as the government signed a new concordat with the Vatican to replace the Lateran Treaty of 1929.
Craxi's term was followed by several short-lived governments in the late 1980s. In July 1987 Christian Democrat Giovanni Goria became prime minister; his five-party coalition broke up in March 1988, and Ciriaco De Mita, leader of the Christian Democrats' left wing, came to power. A year later De Mita was ousted as party secretary, and in May 1989 he resigned as prime minister. Then in July Andreotti returned for his sixth time as prime minister. Divisions among Christian Democrats and the five-party coalition led to his resignation in March 1991, but when no one else was able to form a government, Andreotti did so again in April, remaining in office for another year.
The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe precipitated changes in Italy as well. In 1991 the Italian Communists renamed themselves the Democratic Party of the Left, downplaying their former atheism and emphasis on class conflict in favor of such issues as the environment, feminism, and the economic disparity between the country's industrial north and the poverty-ridden south. The Socialist Party, still led by Craxi, tried to unify the left and renamed itself the Party of Socialist Unity. Meanwhile, the separatist Northern League gained popularity by criticizing central government waste and advocating a federal system that would grant more regional autonomy.
Voters showed their lack of confidence in all established parties in elections held in April 1992. The once-dominant Christian Democrats received 29.7 percent of the vote, an all-time low. The renamed Communists, in second place, drew 16.1 percent, down from 26.6 percent in 1987; the Socialists were third, with 13.6 percent.
The voter backlash resulted from a combination of factors, including a poor economy, high unemployment, and the public revelation of widespread political corruption and Mafia influence at high levels of the government. In the years that followed, thousands of individuals, including hundreds of politicians as well as judicial and business leaders, were investigated or arrested on charges that included taking bribes and granting political and economic favors. As a result of the scandal, Craxi was forced to resign his position as head of the Socialist Party in early 1993. In July 1994 he was sentenced to eight and one-half years in prison for accepting bribes.
In April 1993 Italian voters approved eight governmental reform referendums, which revised the country's electoral system and ended state funding of political parties. Soon after the elections Prime Minister Giuliano Amato resigned and was replaced by the head of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
In March 1994 a newly formed right-wing coalition called the Freedom Alliance was voted into power, winning 58 percent of the vote; the left-wing coalition received 34 percent of the vote, and the once-dominant centrist parties drew only 7 percent. The Freedom Alliance was composed of the new Forza Italia Party, a creation of media magnate Silvio Berlusconi; the neo-Fascist National Alliance; and the Northern League. With 25 percent of the vote, Forza Italia was the election leader, and Berlusconi was named prime minister, with the Freedom Alliance holding a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and forming the strongest force in the Senate. But Berlusconi's coalition collapsed in December 1994 when the Northern League withdrew from the alliance. Berlusconi, who was also facing investigation on bribery charges, resigned as prime minister.
In January 1995 Lamberto Dini, Berlusconi's treasury minister, was appointed prime minister by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to lead a politically neutral, transitional government. Dini's government passed an austerity budget to deal with Italy's worsening economy, which included a crippling national deficit and a devalued lira. It also oversaw efforts to reform the regional electoral system and state pension system and to enact rules governing political access to television. Dini resigned in January 1996, but continued in office until elections were held in April.
The April 1996 elections brought a historic change as a coalition known as the Olive Tree won the chance to form postwar Italy's first leftist government. The alliance's largest member was the Democratic Party of the Left; it also included former Christian Democrats and Dini's newly formed Italian Renewal Party. Olive Tree gained control of the Senate and a plurality, 284 seats, in the Chamber of Deputies. However, the Olive Tree coalition lacked an absolute majority in the chamber unless it could gain support from the hard-line Marxists of the Communist Refoundation Party, which won 35 seats, or the Northern League, which won 59 seats.
Romano Prodi, an economics professor, was sworn in as prime minister, pledging to cut spending and reduce unemployment. His cabinet included Antonio Di Pietro, a former prosecutor who became a hero when he led nationwide investigations into corruption in the early 1990s. Di Pietro, who was himself accused of corruption but cleared, became public works minister. He resigned from that position in 1996.
The corruption scandals continued, engulfing prominent politicians as well as business leaders and others. Former Prime Minister Andreotti was charged with selling favors to the Sicilian Mafia in exchange for votes and political support. His trial, expected to last several years, began in September 1995; two months later he was also charged, along with four other people, with murder in the 1979 killing of a journalist who had been investigating the Mafia's political ties. In January 1996 Berlusconi went on trial on charges of bribing tax police to gain favorable treatment for one of his media companies. In January 1997 the year-long trial was declared null and void when the presiding judge resigned after being accused of bias against the defendant. In February a new trial began for Berlusconi, who continued to lead the opposition Forza Italia party.
In September 1996 Umberto Bosso, leader of the Northern League, declared the "federal republic of Padania"independent from the rest of Italy. The so-called republic consists of a region stretching from the Po River to Italy's northern border and includes the cities of Turin, Milan, Bologna, and Venice. The declaration was not to take effect for up to 12 months to enable a Northern League provisional government, formed earlier in the year, to negotiate a treaty of separation with the Italian government. Northern Italy is mostly urban and considerably wealthier than southern Italy, with its businesses accounting for two-thirds of Italy's GNP. While the Northern League was founded on a federalist platform, Bossni had redefined the party's goals and had begun calling for the region's secession. Although opinion polls showed little support for secession, analysts said that the movement tapped into a growing discontent among northerners, who have accused the national government of economic mismanagement and squandering northern tax revenues to finance projects in poorer regions. In response to such concerns, the Italian parliament had been working to pass constitutional reforms aimed at giving local leaders a stronger voice in national government and changing the country's tax structure.
In August 1996 an Italian military court freed Erich Priebke, an 83-year old former German Nazi captain who had been on trial for charges in connection with the 1944 slaying of 335 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine caves, near Rome. The military court found Priebke guilty of homicide but also found that the charges against him had expired under the military penal code's statute of limitations. Priebke's acquittal produced a massive public outcry among Italians across the political spectrum. Priebke was rearrested and held for extradition to Germany, where he was wanted on murder charges in the same case. In November Italy's highest court nullified the military court's verdict and ordered a new trial. Priebke returned to court for the beginning of his second trial in April 1997.
Also in November 1996 Italy moved to rejoin Europe's currency system by admitting the lira into the European exchange rate mechanism (ERM); the lira had been withdrawn from the ERM in 1992. After heated debate, Prodi won parliamentary approval the following month for his 1997 budget. The budget contained a series of austerity measures aimed at reducing the budget deficit to 3 percent by the end of 1997 in accordance with EU requirements for participating in a common European currency. In early 1997 the parliament voted to establish a bicameral commission to modernize the country's 1948 constitution.
In April 1997 Prodi won parliamentary approval to send an Italian-led multinational force to Albania to deliver aid and help calm the situation there. Albania had been in chaos since the previous month, when the collapse of financial pyramid schemes caused many Albanians to lose their life savings. A flood of Albanian refugees fleeing the disaster had arrived by boat on Italy's Adriatic coast. Prodi called for the deployment of 2500 Italian soldiers to Albania for a period of up to six months. Debate over the proposal brought out tensions within his ruling coalition and prompted concern that Prodi lacked the commanding majority needed to pass his ambitious economic reform program. The deployment of troops to Albania took place later that month, marking Italy's first significant role in an overseas mission since World War II.