History.—The ancient history of Italy will be found under ROME (q. v.) The modern history begins with A. D. 476, when Odoacer, chief of the Herulians, a German tribe who had invaded the coun try, was proclaimed King of Italy. In 568 the Lombards (Longobardi), a Ger man people originally from the Elbe, led by their king, Alboin, conquered the Po basin and founded a kingdom which had its capital at Pavia. The kingdom of the Lombards included Upper Italy, Tuscany, and Umbria, with some outly ing districts. But on the N. E. coast the inhabitants of the lagoons still retained theit independence, and in 697 electkl their first doge and founded the republic of Venice. The power of the Pope, though at first recognized only as a kind was henceforth known as the Holy Roman Empire.
The history of mediwval Italy is much taken up with the party quarrels of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the quar rels and rivalries of the free republics of Middle and Upper Italy. In Tuscany the party of the Guelphs formed them selves into a league for the maintenance of the national freedom under the leader ship of Florence; only Pisa and Arezzo remained attached to the Ghibelline cause. In Lombardy it was different, Milan, Novara, Lodi, Vercelli, Asti, and Cremona formed a Guelph confederacy, while the Ghibelline league comprised Verona, Mantua, Treviso, Parma, Pia cenza, Reggio, Modena, and Brescia. Commercial rivalry impelled the mari time republics to mutual wars. At Meloria the Genoese annihilated (1284) the navy of the Pisans, and completed their dominion of the sea by a victory over the Venetians at Curzola (1298).
Up till the time of the Napoleonic wars Italy remained subject to foreign domination, or split up into separate republics and principalities. During the career of Napoleon numerous changes took place in the map of Italy, and according to an act of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the country was pt“. celled out among the following states: ence had long existed in the hearts of the Italian people, and the governments at Naples, Rome, Lombardy, and other centers of tyranny were in continual conflict with secret political societies. The leading spirit in these agitations in the second quarter of the 19th century was Giuseppe Mazzini, who in the end contributed much to the liberation of his country. The French Revolution of 1848 brought a crisis. The population of (1) The Kingdom of Sardinia, consisting of the island of Sardinia, Savoy, and Piedmont, to which the Genoese territory was now added. (2) Austria, which re ceived the provinces of Lombardy and Venetia, these having already been ac quired by her either before or during the time of Napoleon. (3) The Duchy of Modena. (4) The Duchy of Parma. (5) The Grand-duchy of Tuscany. (6) The Duchy of Lucca. (7) The States of the Church. (8) The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. (9) The Republic of San Marino. (10) The Principality of Mon aco. The desire for union and iNdepend Lombardy, Venetia, Parma, and Modena took up arms and drove the Austrian troops in retreat to Verona. Charles
Albert, King of Sardinia, then declared war against Austria, and was at first successful, but his forces were severely defeated at Novara (March, 1849), when Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel. Meanwhile the Pope had been driven from Rome, and a Roman republic had been established under Mazzini and Garibaldi, the leader of the volunteer bands of Italian pa triots. Rome was, however, capturea by the French, who came to the aid of the Pope (Jnly, 1849), who resumed his power in April, 1850, under the protec tion of the French, and the old absolu tism was restored. Similar attempts at revolution in Sicily and Naples were also crushed, but the secret societies of the patriots continued their operations. In 1859, after the war of the French and Sardinians against Austria, the latter power was compelled to cede Lombardy to Sardinia, and in the same year Romagna, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza were annexed to that kingdom, which was, however, obliged to cede the prov inces of Savoy and Nice to France. In the S. the Sicilians revolted, and sup ported by 1,000 volunteers, with whom Garibaldi sailed from Genoa to their aid, overthrew the Bourbon government in Sicily. Garibaldi was proclaimed dicta tor in the name of Victor Emmanuel. In August, Garibaldi crossed to Naples, defeated the royal army there, drove Francis II. to Gaeta, and entered the capital on Sept. 7. Sardinia intervened am! completed the revolution, when Gari baldi, handing over his conquests to the royal troops, retired to Caprera. A plebiscite confirmed the union with Pied mont, and Victor Emmanuel was pro claimed King of Italy, thus suddenly united almost, in Mazzini's phrase, "from the Alps to the sea." Only the province of Venice and the Roman territory still remained outside. The former was won by Italy's alliance with Prussia in 1866 against Austria. The temporal power of the Pope was still secured by the French troops at Rome till the French garrison was withdrawn at the outbreak of the Franco-German War in 1870, when Italian troops took possession of the city in the name of King Victor Emmanuel. On June 30, 1871, the seat of government was formally removed from Florence to Rome. In 1878 Victor Emmanuel died, and was succeeded by his son Humbert I., who was assassinated in 1900, whereupon his son succeeded to the throne as Victor Emmanuel III. The period between the acceseion of Vic tor Emmanuel III. to the outbreak of the World War was in general one of pros perity in Italy. It was marked, how ever, by a long and extensive war with Turkey for the possession of Tripoli. This ended ih the annexation of that province in December, 1912. In the same year the Triple Alliance with Ger many and Austria was renewed, to re main in force until July, 1920. The existence of this alliance roused in Italy unusually difficult problems in 1914. By its terms Italy was bound to assist Ger many or Austria-Hungary if either or both II-lege countries should be attacked.