Under the Hohenstaufen dynasty Italy enjoyed an interregnum from foreign rule of about 60 years, which, however, was wasted in suicidal conflicts between the two factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. The most terrible incident of this period was the massacre of the Sicilian vespers (q.v.). Notwithstanding the inveterate internecine .fends of Italy, it was a period of great splendor and prosperity. The free cities or republics of Italy rivaled kingdoms in the extent and importance of their commerce and manufactures, the advancement of art and science, the magnificence of their public edifices and monuments, and the prodigious individual and national wealth to which they attained. Unhappily, a spirit of rivalry and intolerance grew up during this period of mediwval splendor, and in the arbitrary attempt of these states to secure supremacy over each other, they gradually worked their own destruction.
From the Sicilian Vespers (1282) to the reign of Henry VII. (1308), the chief histor ical incidents are the war between Genoa andPisn, ending in the abasement and ulti mate decline of the latter (1284); the quarrels of the Guelphic factions, the Bianchi and the Neri. in Tuscany; the papal efforts for their reconciliation (1301); the residence of the popes at Avignon (1304-1377); and the rise into importance of the oligarchic repub lic of Venice (1311). During the first half of the 14th c. the German emperors made several fruitless attempts to regain political supremacy iu Italy; but in 1355 the emperor Charles IV. gave up the struggle. Z4 A-41 The tyrannical rule of several petty tyrants, of which the foremost were the Visconti or lords of Milan, replaced that of the emperors. From the middle of the 14th c. to the end of the 15th, the collective history of Italy ceases, each city being ruled by sonic powerful local family—as, for example, Verona by the Della Scala, Padua by the Car rara, Ferrara by the Este families, and 'Mantua by the illustrious princes of Gonzaga ; Milan by the Della Torre, Visconti, and Sforza families. See also GENOA, PISA, FLOR ENCE, VENICE., NAPLES, etc.
From 1495 to 1595 Italy was the theater of the sanguinary struggles between France, the native rulers, and the Hapsburgs, but the battle of Pavia (15:25) thoroughly estab lished the ascendency of the German emperor, who appointed over the various states rulers of his own selection. During the 17th c. no events of note mark the history of Italy; the country being at peace, the various states pursued commercial traffic and industry, as far as their decreased limits permitted. In the following century some terri torial changes were effected during the war of the Spanish succession. In 1193 Italy partially entered the European coalition formed against France, whose arms, however, proved irresistible. By the treaty of Campo Forinio, Oct. 17, 1757, the entire state of Venice was transferred to Austria, while the rest of the country, under various nations, became for the most part a dependency of France. -"In this anomalous condi tion it remained during the rule of Napoleon. After the battle of Waterloo the final reconstitution of Italy was decreed as follows by the congress of Vienna: the kingdom of Sardinia reverted to the house of Savoy, to which were added all the provinces of the Genoese republic; the Lombmodo-Venetian kingdom fell to Austria; the principali ties of Modena, Reggio, and l'ilirandola, to which was soon annexed Massa and Carrara, were restored to the family of Este; Lucca was created a duchy for the rightful duke of Parma, whose hereditary state was conferred on Maria Louisa, ex-empress of the French; the duchy of Tuscany was restored to the Austro-Lorraine dynasty; the papal states to the pope; the kingdom of Naples to the Bourbons; while the petty state of San 3farino was allowed to retain its republican form; and Monaco remained an ludo pendent princ:patty under (lie prince of Valentino's.
By the congress of Vienna Italy was again cast at the feet of the papacy and of Aus tria, and this at a period when progressive aspirations were strongly reawakened in the Italian people. The system resolute oppression adopted by the reinstated rulers speedily produced au irreconcilable hostility between themselves and their subjects, and a net-work of secret societies for the organization of national resistance spread through out the entire land. The first-fruits of their organization were the risings of 1820 and 1821 in Piedmont and Naples, to demand constitutional rights. Austrian intervention quelled both these movements; and in 1831, when a similar rising occurred in _Modena and the Roman states, it was subdued with sanguinary ferocity by an Austrian army. In these movements no distinct tendency towards national unity is perceptible; and only on the accession of Charles Albert to the throne of Piedmont (1831) was this grand idea of modern Italy propound:11 by Joseph Mmizzini in an address to the king, urging him to assume the role of liberator and leader of Italy. The king of Piedmont, by yielding in sonic degree to the spirit of his lime, prepared for Piedmont pre eminence through out the country. The accession of Pius IX. in 1840 seemed the inauguration of a new era for Italy: a general amnesty was followed by wise, liberal measures, which were also adopted by Tuscany and Piedmont. in emulation of Rome. Naples and the other states resolutely refused every measure of reform, and by a simultaneous outbreak in Sicily and Milan in Jan., the great revolution of 1848 was inaugurated in Italy. The revolution Of France in Feb. imparted a strong to that of Italy, and speedily Nap1K Piedmont, and Rome conceded constitutional rights to the popular demands. The Milanese unanimously revolted against Austrian rule on Mar. 17, and after five days of heroic fighting, the Austrians were expelled from the city, and Radetsky, with 70,000 troops, compelled to retreat front its walls. On the 29th Charles Albert entered Lombardy, the avowed champion of Italian independence. and the leader of the national struggle. All "me sovereigns of Italy contributed their best troops for the war, and on the Roman volunteers setting out for Lombardy, the pope himself in public pronounced a solemn benediction on their banners.