Motto | |||||
| Anthem | Marcia Reale d'Ordinanza"
"Royal March of Ordinance | ||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Rome | ||||
| Language • Official |
Italian | ||||
| • Others | Arbëresh | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism Judaism | ||||
| Ethnic Groups • Primary |
Italian | ||||
| • Others | German/Austrian | ||||
| Demonym | Italian | ||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy under a military dictatorship | ||||
| • Upper House | Senate | ||||
| • Lower House | Chamber of Deputies | ||||
| King | Victor Emmanuel III | ||||
| Prime Minister | Pietro Badoglio | ||||
| Area | 310,190 km² | ||||
| Population | 41,580,000 | ||||
| Established | 1861 | ||||
| Currency | Lira (₤) | ||||
Italy, officially the Kingdom of Italy (Italian: Regno d'Italia) is a European country consisting of the Apennine peninsula up to the Italian Alps and surrounded by several islands. The country covers about 310,190 km2 (192,743 sq mi) and shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, and the Kingdom of Illyria. In addition, Italy controls various colonies.
History[]
The nation was established in 1861 when King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy. The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state.
Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866 and received the region of Veneto following their victory. Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, thereby ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882 later known as the Central Powers, following strong disagreements with France about the respective colonial expansions. However, even if relations with Berlin became very friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal as the Italians were keen to acquire Trentino and Trieste, corners of Austria-Hungary populated by Italians. So in 1915, Italy accepted the British invitation to join the Allied Powers, as the western powers promised territorial compensation (at the expense of Austria-Hungary) for participation that was more generous than Vienna's offer in exchange for Italian neutrality.
By the end of the Great War, Italy had acquired the regions of Trieste and Trentino which it had long sought to obtain. Territorial disputes and conflicting interests in Montenegro led to a war with the Kingdom of Serbia known as the Adriatic War. Victorious in that conflict, Italy annexed territories along the Adriatic Coast beyond the scope of the 1915 Treaty of London and established the Kingdom of Illyria, encompassing the unannexed areas of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, as a nominally independent state under an Italian monarch.
The post-Great War period saw Italy enter a state of economic downturn. This situation, combined with the revolutionary fervor created by the socialist revolutions in Germany and Russia, resulted in extensive labour unrest. The tumultuous period that followed was known as the Decennio Rosso. After a failed fascist coup and the assassination of the Prime Minister in 1928, a military government under Pietro Badoglio seized power and declared martial law. The repressive period that followed brought an end to the Decennio Rosso but sparked a militant resistance movement.