Italians
Italians (Italian: Italiani) are a nation and ethnic group native to Italy who share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue.[10][11][12] Legally, Italians are citizens of the Italian Republic, regardless of ancestry or country of residence (though the principle of jus sanguinis is used extensively and arguably more favorably in the Italian nationality law), and are distinguished from people of Italian descent and from ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to the Italian Peninsula.[13][14]
In 2010, in addition to about 56 million Italians in Italy,[15] Italian-speaking autonomous groups are found in neighboring countries: about half a million in Switzerland, a large population in France,[16] and smaller groups in Slovenia and Croatia, primarily in Istria and Dalmatia. Because of wide-ranging diaspora, about 5 million Italian citizens[17] and nearly 80 million people of full or part Italian ancestry[18] live outside of Italy, most notably in South America, North America, Australia and parts of Europe.
Italians have greatly influenced and contributed to science, arts, technology, cuisine, sports and banking[19] abroad and worldwide.[20] Italian people are generally known for their localism, both regionalist and municipalist,[21] attention to clothing and family values.[22]
Contents
History[edit]
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This section may stray from the topic of the article. (June 2014) |
Roman era[edit]
The Etruscan civilization reached its peak about the 7th century, but by 509 BC, when the Romans overthrew their Etruscan monarchs, its control in Italy was on the wane. By 350 BC, after a series of wars with both Greeks and Etruscans, the Latins, with Rome as their capital, gained the ascendancy by 272 BC, and they managed to unite the entire Italian peninsula.
This period of unification was followed by one of conquest in the Mediterranean, beginning with the First Punic War against Carthage. In the course of the century-long struggle against Carthage, the Romans conquered Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. Finally, in 146 BC, at the conclusion of the Third Punic War, with Carthage completely destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved, Rome became the dominant power in the Mediterranean. From its inception, Rome was a republican city-state, but four famous civil conflicts destroyed the republic: Lucius Cornelius Sulla against Gaius Marius and his son (88–82 BC), Julius Caesar against Pompey (49–45 BC), Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus against Mark Antony and Octavian (43 BC), and Mark Antony against Octavian.
Octavian, the final victor (31 BC), was accorded the title of Augustus by the Senate and thereby became the first Roman emperor. Augustus created for the first time an administrative region called Italia with inhabitants called "Italicus populus", stretching from the Alps to Sicily: for this reason historians like Emilio Gentile called him Father of Italians.[citation needed]
Under imperial rule, Rome undertook many conquests that brought Roman law, Roman administration, and Pax Romana to an area extending from the Atlantic to the Rhine, to the British Isles, to the Iberian Peninsula and large parts of North Africa, and to the Middle East as far as the Euphrates.
After two centuries of successful rule, in the 3rd century AD, Rome was threatened by internal discord and menaced by Germanic and Asian invaders, commonly called barbarians (from the Latin word barbari, "foreigners"). Emperor Diocletian's administrative division of the empire into two parts in 285 provided only temporary relief; it became permanent in 395. In 313, Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity, and churches thereafter rose throughout the empire. However, he also moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople, greatly reducing the importance of the former. The last Western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476 by a Germanic foederati general in Italy, Odoacer. His defeat marked the end of the western part of the Roman Empire. During most of the period from the fall of Rome until the Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861, the peninsula was divided into several smaller states.
The Middle Ages[edit]
Odoacer ruled well for 13 years after gaining control of Italy in 476. Then he was attacked and defeated by Theodoric, the king of another Germanic tribe, the Ostrogoths. Theodoric and Odoacer ruled jointly until 493, when Theodoric murdered Odoacer. Theodoric continued to rule Italy with an army of Ostrogoths and a government that was mostly Italian. After the death of Theodoric in 526, the kingdom began to grow weak. By 553, emperor Justinian I expelled the Ostrogoths. The old Roman Empire was mostly united again, even if at the price of the total destruction of the Italian peninsula (Rome –under Augustus the first "one million inhabitants" city in the world– was reduced to a small village of just one thousand inhabitants). But Byzantine rule in Italy collapsed again by 572 as a result of invasions by another Germanic tribe, the Lombards.
During the 5th and 6th centuries, the popes increased their influence in both religious and political matters in Italy. It was usually the popes who led attempts to protect Italy from invasion or to soften foreign rule. For about 200 years the popes opposed attempts by the Lombards, who had captured most of Italy, to take over Rome as well. The popes finally defeated the Lombards with the aid of two Frankish kings, Pepin the Short and Charlemagne. Using land won for them by Pepin in 756, the popes established political rule in what were called the Papal States in central Italy.
The Lombards remained a threat to papal power, however, until they were crushed by Charlemagne in 774. Charlemagne added the Kingdom of the Lombards to his vast realm. In recognition of Charlemagne's power, and to cement the church's alliance with him, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in 800.[23] After Charlemagne's death in 814, his son Louis the Pious succeeded him. Louis divided the empire among his sons, who fought each other for territory. Such battles continued until Otto the Great, the king of Germany, was crowned emperor in 962. This marked the beginning of what later was called the Holy Roman Empire.
Rise of the city-states[edit]
From the 11th century on, Italian cities began to grow rapidly in independence and importance. They became centers of political life, banking, and foreign trade. Some became wealthy, and many, including Florence, Genoa, Milan, Pisa, Siena and Venice, grew into nearly independent city-states. Each had its own foreign policy and political life. They all resisted the efforts of noblemen and emperors to control them.
During the 14th and 15th centuries, some Italian city-states ranked among the most important powers of Europe. Venice, in particular, had become a major maritime power, and the city-states as a group acted as a conduit for goods from the Byzantine and Islamic empires. In this capacity, they provided great impetus to the developing Renaissance, began in Florence in the 14th century,[24] and led to an unparalleled flourishing of the arts, literature, music, and science.
However, the city-states were often troubled by violent disagreements among their citizens. The most famous division was between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Guelphs supported supreme rule by the pope, and the Ghibellines favored the emperor. City-states often took sides and waged war against each other. During the Renaissance, Italy became an even more attractive prize to foreign conquerors. After some city-states asked for outside help in settling disputes with their neighbors, King Charles VIII of France marched into Italy in 1494. Charles soon withdrew, but he had shown that the Italian peninsula could be conquered because they were not united[citation needed]. After the Italian Wars, Spain emerged as the dominant force in the region. Venice, Milan, and other city-states retained at least some of their former greatness during this period, as did Savoy-Piedmont, protected by the Alps and well defended by its vigorous rulers.
The French Revolution and Napoleon[edit]
The French Revolution and Napoleon influenced Italy more deeply than they affected any other country of Europe, except France. The French Revolution began in 1789 and immediately found supporters among the Italian people. The local Italian rulers, sensing danger in their own country, drew closer to the European kings who opposed France. After the French king was overthrown and France became a republic, secret clubs favoring an Italian republic were formed throughout Italy. The armies of the French Republic began to move across Europe. In 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte led a French army into northern Italy and drove out the Austrian rulers. Once again, Italy was the scene of battle between the Habsburgs and the French. Wherever France conquered, Italian republics were set up, with constitutions and legal reforms. Napoleon made himself emperor in 1804, and part of northern and central Italy was unified under the name of the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as king. The rest of northern and central Italy was annexed to France. Only Sicily and the island of Sardinia, which had been under Piedmontese rule since 1720, remained free of French control.
French domination lasted less than 20 years, and it differed from previous foreign control of the Italian peninsula. In spite of heavy taxation and frequent harshness, the French introduced representative assemblies and new laws that were the same for all parts of the country. For the first time since the days of ancient Rome, Italians of different regions used the same money and served in the same army. Many Italians began to see the possibility of a united Italy free of foreign control.
The Kingdom of Italy[edit]
After the battle of Waterloo, the reaction set in with the Congress of Vienna allowed the restoration of many of the old rulers and systems under Austrian domination. The concept of nationalism continued strong, however, and sporadic outbreaks led by such inveterate reformers as Giuseppe Mazzini occurred in several parts of the peninsula down to 1848–49. This Risorgimento movement was brought to a successful conclusion under the able guidance of Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, prime minister of Piedmont.
Cavour managed to unite most of Italy under the headship of Victor Emmanuel II of the house of Savoy, and on 17 March 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel II as king. Giuseppe Garibaldi, the popular republican hero of Italy, contributed much to this achievement and to the subsequent incorporation of the Papal States under the Italian monarch. Italian troops occupied Rome in 1870, and in July 1871, this formally became the capital of the kingdom. Pope Pius IX, a longtime rival of Italian kings, considered himself a "prisoner" of the Vatican and refused to cooperate with the royal administration. Only in 1929 the Roman Pope accepted the unified Italy with Rome as capital.
In the decades following unification, Italy started to create colonies in Africa, and under Benito Mussolini's fascism conquered Ethiopia founding in 1936 the Italian Empire. World War I completed the process of Italian unification, with the annexation of Trieste, Istria, Trentino-Alto Adige and Zara. The Italians grew to 45 millions in 1940 and the land, whose economy had been until that time based upon agriculture, started its industrial development, mainly in northern Italy. But World War II soon destroyed Italy and its colonial power.
The Italian Republic[edit]
Between 1945 and 1948, the outlines of a new Italy began to appear. Victor Emmanuel III gave up the throne on 9 May 1946, and his son, Umberto II, became king. On June 2, Italy held its first free election after 20 years of Fascist rule (the so-called Ventennio). Italians chose a republic to replace the monarchy, which had been closely associated with Fascism. They elected a Constituent Assembly to prepare a new democratic constitution. The Assembly approved the constitution in 1947, which came into force since 1 January 1948.
Ethnogenesis[edit]
The Iron Age Italic people were divided between Latino-Faliscans, Osco-Umbrians, Veneti, and Ligures. Successively they were united and amalgamated by Rome, together with the Etruscans in central Italy, Gaulish tribes in the Po river plains, and Greeks in the so-called Magna Grecia. Most Italians originate from the people mentioned above, and all share common Latin heritage, but some Italians have a variety of other ancestries[citation needed].
There are some Italians across Italy who have Germanic heritage from the occupation of Italy by several Germanic tribes[citation needed]. The Germanic tribe of the Ostrogoths conquered Italy and presented themselves as upholders of Latin culture, mixing Roman culture together with Gothic culture, in order to legitimize their rule amongst Roman subjects who had a long-held belief in the superiority of Roman culture over foreign "barbarian" Germanic culture.[25] The total number of the population of Ostrogoths who settled in Italy was small, estimated at 40,000 people, while the total population of both the Ostrogoths and their allies who occupied Italy is estimated at 100,000 people.[26] Also, the Germanic tribe of the Langobards invaded Italy, which in the meantime had been reconquered by the East Roman Empire, and conquered most of it. However, only a small number of Langobards settled in Italy, in comparison with the overwhelming majority of the indigenous Latin population.[27]
Southern Italy has an ancestral Greek heritage alongside the Italic and Latin ones.[28] Certain areas of Southern Italy were influenced both by the ancient Greeks of Magna Graecia who brought Hellenic culture to Italy, and by the arrival of medieval Greeks in the 7th century during the rule of the Byzantine Empire – most notably, Salento in Puglia, Bovesia and Reggio in Calabria,[29] and Sicily[30]
Following Roman rule, Sicily was conquered by the Ostrogoths, and then by the Byzantines. At one point, the island was ruled by Arab peoples, a period which was followed by the Norman conquest of southern Italy. During the subsequent Swabian rule under the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who spent most of his life as king of Sicily in his court in Palermo, the Islamic element was progressively eradicated until the massive deportation of the last Muslims of Sicily.[31] As a result of Arab expulsion, many towns across Sicily were left depopulated. By the 12th century, Swabian kings granted immigrants from northern Italy (particularly Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria), Latium in central Italy, and the south of France[32] settlement into Sicily, re-establishing the Latin element into the island, a legacy which can be seen in the many Gallo-Italic dialects and towns found in the interior and western parts of Sicily, brought by these settlers.[33]
Linguistic minorities have always been negligible in comparison with those of most other European nations;[34] in 1861, they amounted to a scarce 1% of the total population, and in 1921, when Italy's territory reached its greatest extent, only 2% of the population spoke a language different from Italian or related dialects.[34] However, these linguistic minorities and language islands have historically been quite diverse, speaking Catalan, Sardinian, Albanian, German, Greek, Slovene and Franco-Provençal.[34] Moreover, it should be mentioned that, in 1999, the Republic granted special protection to the languages listed above in the territories where they are spoken.[35]
Culture[edit]
From antiquity until the 17th century, the inhabitants of Italy were at the centre of the Western culture, being the fulcrum and origin of Ancient Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, the Humanism and the Renaissance.
Italy became also a seat of great formal learning in 1088 with the establishment of the University of Bologna, the first university in Europe.[36] Many other Italian universities soon followed. For example, the Schola Medica Salernitana, in southern Italy, was the first medical school of Europe.[37] These great centers of learning presaged the Rinascimento: the European Renaissance began in Italy and was fueled throughout Europe by Italian painters, sculptors, architects, scientists, literature masters and music composers. Italy continued its leading cultural role through the Baroque period and into the Romantic period, when its dominance in painting and sculpture diminished but the Italians reestablished a strong presence in music.
Fundamental contributions to science and technology were given by Italian scientists. Galileo Galilei has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy",[38] because of his discovery of telescope and heliocentrism, and even "the Father of Modern Science".[39][40] Among the technological innovations on which today's information and communication technologies are grounded, the following can be mentioned: electric batteries (Alessandro Volta), radio (Guglielmo Marconi), telephone (Antonio Meucci), nuclear reactor (Enrico Fermi), and the microprocessor (Federico Faggin).
Italian explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries left a perennial mark on human history with the modern "discovery of America", due to Christopher Columbus; furthermore, the name of the American continents derives from Amerigo Vespucci's first name.
Due to comparatively late national unification, and the historical autonomy of the regions that comprise the Italian peninsula, many traditions and customs of the Italians can be identified by their regions of origin. Despite the political and social isolation of these regions, Italy's contributions to the cultural and historical heritage of the Western world remain immense. Famous elements of Italian culture are its opera and music, its iconic gastronomy and food, which are commonly regarded as amongst the most popular in the world,[41] its cinema (with filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Mario Monicelli, Sergio Leone, etc.), its collections of priceless works of art and its fashion (Milan and Florence are regarded as some of the few fashion capitals of the world).
Furthermore, Italy is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (50) to date, and one estimate says that the country is home to half the world's great art treasures.[42]
Italian diaspora[edit]
Strictly defined, the Italian diaspora took place between the unification of the country in 1861 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. However, large-scale migrations phenomena did not recede until the late 1920s, well into the Fascist regime, and one last wave can be observed after the end of World War II.
Over 80 million people of full or partial Italian descent live outside of Europe, with nearly 40 million living in South America (primarily Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay), about 18 million living in North America (United States and Canada) and 850,000 in Australia. Millions of others live in other parts of Europe (primarily France, Germany and Switzerland). Most Italian citizens living abroad live in other nations of the European Union.
Autochthonous Italian communities outside Italy[edit]
In both the Slovenian and Croatian portions of Istria, in Dalmatia as well as in the city of Rijeka, Italian refers to autochthonous speakers of Italian and various Italo-Dalmatian languages, natives in the region since before the inception of the Venetian Republic. In the aftermath of the Istrian exodus following the Second World War, most Italian-speakers are today located in the south and west of Istria, and number about 30,000.[43] The number of inhabitants with Italian ancestry is likely much greater but undeterminable. In the first Austrian census carried out in 1870 the number of Italians Dalmatians varied between 40,000 and 50,000 amongst the about 250,000 inhabitants of Dalmatia, or 20% of the total Dalmatian population.[44]
In the French County of Nice, autochthonous speakers of regional languages of Italy (Ligurian and Piedmontese), are natives in the region since before annexation to France in 1860. The number of inhabitants with Italian ancestry is generally indeterminable, and the use of French language is now ubiquitous. In addition, Corsica was a part of the Republic of Genoa until 1768 and most of the islanders still have a certain level of proficiency of Corsican, a language of the Italo-Dalmatian family. The Italian language ceased to have official status in Corsica in 1871, with the establishment of the French Third Republic.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ "15° Censimento generale della popolazione e delle abitazioni" (in Italian). ISTAT. 27 April 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Italiani nel Mondo: diaspora italiana in cifre" (in Italian). Migranti Torino. 30 April 2004. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ "Total ancestry categories tallied for people with one or more ancestry categories reported 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
- ^ Cohen, Robin (1995). The Cambridge Survey of World Migration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780521444057.
- ^ http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/tema-dia/embajador-italia-caracas-asegura-que-sistema-electoral-venezolano-es-confiable/ "...el diplomático calcula que 5% o 6% de la población venezolana actual tiene origen italiano."
- ^ "Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories – 20% sample data". Statistics Canada. 6 October 2010. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ "ABS Ancestry". 2012.
- ^ Italianos étnicos en el mundo
- ^ "Italians looking for work in Albania - 19,000, says minister". ANSAmed. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ Miti e simboli della rivoluzione nazionale. Treccani.it
- ^ Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country, James D. Fearon. Department of Political Science, Stanford University
- ^ Italy/Italians: Development of a Nation, how Italy became Italy, and how the Italians became Italians. worldology.com
- ^ "Criteria underlying legislation concerning citizenship". Italian Ministry of Interior. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ Ruggiero Romano, Corrado Vivanti , (1972). 'I caratteri originali'. In: Giulio Einaudi Editore (ed), Storia d'Italia Einaudi. 1st ed. Torino: Einaudi. pp.958–959.
- ^ http://www.istat.it/it/popolazione
- ^ Cohen, Robin (1995). The Cambridge survey of world migration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 142–144. ISBN 0-521-44405-5.
- ^ http://infoaire.interno.it/stat_note.htm
- ^ http://www.progettoculturale.it/cci_new/documenti_cei/2011-03/08-23/4%20-%20Rapp%20Italiani.pdf
- ^ Macesich, George (2000). Issues in Money and Banking. United States: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 42. ISBN 0-275-96777-8.
- ^ Michael Barone (2 September 2010). "The essence of Italian culture and the challenge of the global age". Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ Keating, Michael (2004). Regions and regionalism in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 378. ISBN 1-84376-127-0.
- ^ "Italian family and culture". Syracuse University in Florence. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ McKitterick, Rosamond (1995). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0-521-36292-X.
- ^ Burke, Peter (1998). The European Renaissance: Centers and Peripheries. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
- ^ Ward-Perkins, Bryan (2006). The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 31.
- ^ Jones, Michael E. (1998). The End of Roman Britain. United States: Cornell University Press. p. 267. ISBN 0-8014-8530-4.
- ^ Emerick, Judson J. (1998). The Tempietto del Clitunno near Spoleto. Pennsylvania: Penn State Press. p. 371.
- ^ Ceserani, Giovanna (2012). Italy's Lost Greece: Magna Graecia and the Making of Modern Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 0199744270.
- ^ Where the Griko language is still spoken by local minorities.
- ^ "The genetic contribution of Greek chromosomes to the Sicilian gene pool is estimated to be about 37%.", Differential Greek and northern African migrations to Sicily are supported by genetic evidence from the Y chromosome European Journal of Human Genetics (2009) 17, 91–99; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2008.120; published online 6 August 2008
- ^ Abulafia, David (2000). Mediterranean encounters, economic, religious, political, 1100–1550. Ashgate Publishing. p. 236. ISBN 0860788415.
- ^ All collectively known as Lombards.
- ^ "History and etymology of Aidone and Morgantina". Italy This Way. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (1991). Storia linguistica dell'Italia unita (in Italian). Bari: Laterza. pp. 9–10, 285–290. ISBN 8842037427.
- ^ "Legge 15 Dicembre 1999, n. 482" (in Italian). Italian Parliament. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
- ^ Spielvogel, Jackson J. (2010). Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume I. Boston: Cengage Learning. p. 186. ISBN 0-495-57148-2.
- ^ Laura, Lynn Windsor (2002). Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 202. ISBN 1-57607-392-0.
- ^ Singer, Charles (1941). A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century. Clarendon Press. p. 217. ISBN 0486298876.
- ^ Hilliam, Rachel (2004). Galileo Galilei: Father of Modern Science. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 1-4042-0314-1.
- ^ Finocchiaro, Maurice A. (1989). The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-06662-6.
- ^ Mariani, John F. (2011). How Italian Food Conquered the World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-230-10439-6.
- ^ Abbot, Charles (2006). Italy: A quick guide to customs & etiquette. Milan: Morellini Editore. p. 101. ISBN 88-89550-13-9.
- ^ "Languages of Croatia". Ethnologue. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
- ^ Monzali, Luciano (2009). The Italians of Dalmatia: From Italian Unification to World War I. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-8020-9931-0.
Bibliography[edit]
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- Lyman, Theodore (1820). The political state of Italy. Boston: Wells and Lilly.
- (Italian) Leopardi, Giacomo (1824). Discorso sopra lo stato presente dei costumi degl'italiani. Venice: Marsilio Editore.
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- (Italian) Montanelli, Indro (1965). Storia d'Italia. Milan: Corriere della Sera.
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