| |||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Rome | ||||||
| Language | Italian | ||||||
| Demonym | Italian | ||||||
| Government | Parliamentary Republic | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Matteo Renzi | ||||||
| Population | 69,708,611 | ||||||
| Established | 1861 | ||||||
| Currency | Euro | ||||||
Italy, officially the Italian Democratic Republic, is a federative parliamentary republic in Europe. It shares open land borders with France, Austria and Croatia, as well as secured borders with Egypt and Algeria.
During classical antiquity, the south of Italy had been the location of extensive Greek and Carthaginian settlement. Etruscans and Celts inhabited the north of the peninsula, while various different Italic tribes and peoples inhabited the center and south. The region was soon afterwards dominated by the Roman Empire, before being subject to a series of barbarian invasions resulting in its collapse. By the 11th century A.D, it was controlled by dozens of independent City States, which collectively served as the economic center of Europe until the 18th century.
The Renaissance brought new cultural and artistic advancements to Italy. An interest in trade and the spreading of Christianity led Italy to produce several notable explorers, such as Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. Despite the seeming similarity between states, Italy remained culturally and politically divided for over one thousand years, being dominated by larger nations such as France, Austria and Spain.
Italy unified in 1861 under the name of The Kingdom of Italy. During the Great War, Italy sided with the entente and emerged victorious. The rise in nationalism following the war had a direct effect on Italy by 1927, when Fascist Benito Mussolini took power. Mussolini led Italy into an alliance with Spain and a war with the world's leading democratic powers, ultimately resulting in defeat and occupation by 1950.
In the modern day, Italy is a member of the G20 and G8 groups, and possesses the world's tenth largest economy.