How Did Italy Contribute To The Rise Of Italy?

In the 1st century BC Italy was under the control of a single power, the Roman Empire, which remained in control until the 5th century AD. After the Empire fell, a Germanic tribe – the Lombards – invaded Italy and a network of smaller political entities arose throughout the country (Marino, 2016). For the next thousand years, Italy became a combination of many city-states, in which Rome – home to the Catholic Church – was the most powerful. This period is known as the Dark Ages. During the Fourteenth Century, many city-states in Italy – such as Genoa, Milan, Pisa, and Florence – began to prosper as they had become the centers of trade in Europe, transforming Italy into Europe’s premier center of culture. In the Sixteenth Century, trade routes shifted away from the Mediterranean and the Catholic Church lost its influence over much of Northern Europe. As a result, city-states in Europe became vulnerable to conquest by their enemies. Encouraged by
Promising to restore Italy as a great power, Mussolini became the supreme ruler of Italy. Mussolini spent the next two decades consolidating power and building up the economy, with the goal of leading a new Roman Empire. At the end of the 1930s, when WWII broke out, Italy remained neutral – as they had done in the beginning of WWI. However, when France fell and it appeared that Germany would win the war, Italy joined the Axis powers. Mussolini concentrated his efforts on Greece, the Balkans, and North Africa. Italy was eventually defeated by the Allies and Mussolini was executed by Italian partisans. When the Second World War was over, Italy abolished the monarchy and declared itself a republic. Italy was able to rebuild its economy and is now one of the most prosperous and democratic nations in