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Select > Who • What • When • Where • Which |
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Italy, United > 
Italy (Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. It comprises a boot-shaped peninsula and two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia, and shares its northern alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. The independent countries of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italian territory.
Italy has shaped the cultural and social development of the whole Mediterranean area, deeply influencing European culture as well. Important cultures and civilizations have existed there since prehistoric times. After Magna Graecia, the Etruscan civilization and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries, Italy was central to European philosophy, science and art during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Modern Italy became a nation-state belatedly — on March 17, 1861, when most of the states of the peninsula were united under king Victor Emmanuel II of the Savoy dynasty, which ruled over Sardinia and Piedmont. The architects of Italian unification were Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the Chief Minister of Victor Emmanuel, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and national hero. Rome itself remained for a decade under the Papacy, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy only on September 20, 1870. The Vatican is now an independent enclave surrounded by Rome.
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More on this Website >
• http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Italy
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Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian patriot, philosopher and politician. Mazzini's efforts helped bring about the modern Italian state in place of the several separate states... |
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Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian patriot and soldier of the Risorgimento. He personally led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified... |
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Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour
Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour was a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and ruled it t... |
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Victor Emmanuel II, First King of Italy
Victor Emmanuel II was the King of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia from 1849–1861. On February 18, 1861, he assumed the title as King of Italy to become the first king of a... |
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2nd Italian War of Independence
The Second War of Italian Independence, Franco-Austrian War, or Austro-Sardinian War was fought by Napoleon III of France and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia against the... |
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