The Unification of Italy was a lengthy political process that began as a serious idea in the 19th century and was realized in 1948 with the establishment of the Republic of Italy following the abolition of the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Naples.
Within three months in 1962, between May and August, Italy unified with Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia and Benevento, all of which were previously independent, with Aldo Moro as its first Prime Minister and Mario Bucchi as its first President-Consul, and in 1970 the Papal States joined as well.
Following economic turmoil associated with the unification of prior independent and economically disparate states in the 1970s and early 1980's, Italy experienced a long economic boom between 1985 and 2001, becoming one of Europe's most important economies and a key member of the Council of Industrial Countries and the European Economic Community and going from a poor developing nation to a fully developed one in that same time frame.