Culturally and linguistically, the origins of Italian history can be traced back to the 9th century BC, when earliest accounts date the presence of Italic tribes in modern central Italy. Linguistically they are divided into Oscans, Umbrians and Latins. Later the Latin culture became dominant, as Rome emerged as dominant city around 350 BC. Other pre-Roman civilizations include Magna Graecia in Southern Italy and the earlier Etruscan civilization, which flourished between 900 and 100 BC in the Center North.

After the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries came an Italy whose people would make immeasurable contributions to the development of European philosophy, science, and art during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Dominated by city-states for much of the medieval and Renaissance period, the Italian peninsula also experienced several foreign dominations. Parts of Italy were annexed to the Spanish, the Austrian and Napoleon's empire, while the Vatican maintained control over the central part of it, before the Italian Peninsula was eventually liberated and unified amidst much struggle in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The history of Italy in the Early Modern period was characterized by foreign domination: Following the Italian Wars (1494 to 1559), Italy saw a long period of relative peace, first under Habsburg Spain (1559 to 1713) and then under Habsburg Austria (1713 to 1796). During the Napoleonic era, Italy was a client state of the French Republic (1796 to 1814). The Congress of Vienna (1814) restored the situation of the late 18th century, which was however quickly overturned by the incipient movement of Italian unification.

The Black Death repeatedly returned to haunt Italy throughout the 14th to 17th centuries. The plague of 1575–77 claimed some 50,000 victims in Venice.[3] In the first half of the 17th century a plague claimed some 1,730,000 victims, or about 14% of Italy’s population.[4] The Great Plague of Milan occurred from 1629 through 1631 in northern Italy, with the cities of Lombardy and Venice experiencing particularly high death rates. In 1656 the plague killed about half of Naples' 300,000 inhabitants.[5]

Unification (1814 to 1861)
Main article: Italian unification

Italian unification process.The Risorgimento was the political and social process that unified different states of the Italian peninsula into the single nation of Italy.

It is difficult to pin down exact dates for the beginning and end of Italian reunification, but most scholars agree that it began with the end of Napoleonic rule and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and approximately ended with the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, though the last "città irredente" did not join the Kingdom of Italy until the Italian victory in World War I.

[edit] Monarchy, Fascism and World Wars (1861-1945)
Main article: History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars
Italy became a nation-state belatedly — on March 17, 1861, when most of the states of the peninsula were united under king Victor Emmanuel II of the Savoy dynasty, which ruled over Piedmont. The architects of Italian unification were Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the Chief Minister of Victor Emmanuel, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and national hero. Rome itself remained for a decade under the Papacy, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy only on September 20, 1870, the final date of Italian unification. The Vatican is now an independent enclave surrounded by Italy, as is San Marino.

(here)

They began by resisting the French occupiers, notably Joachim Murat, the Bonapartist King of Naples. However, once the wars ended, they became a nationalist organisation with a marked anti-Austrian tendency and were instrumental in organising revolution in Italy in 1820–1821 and 1831. The 1820 revolution began in Naples against King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, who was forced to make concessions and promise a constitutional monarchy. This success inspired Carbonari in the north of Italy to revolt too. In 1821, the Kingdom of Sardinia obtained a constitutional monarchy as a result of Carbonari actions, as well as other reforms of liberalism. However, the Holy Alliance would not tolerate this state of affairs and in February, 1821, sent an army to crush the revolution in Naples. The King of Sardinia also called for Austrian intervention. Faced with an enemy overwhelmingly superior in number, the Carbonari revolts collapsed and their leaders fled into exile. In 1830, Carbonari took part in the July Revolution in France. This gave them hope that a successful revolution might be staged in Italy. A bid in Modena was an outright failure, but in February 1831, several cities in the Papal States rose up and flew the Carbonari tricolour. A volunteer force marched on Rome but was destroyed by Austrian troops who had intervened at the request of Pope Gregory XVI. After the failed uprisings of 1831, the governments of the various Italian states cracked down on the Carbonari, who now virtually ceased to exist. The more astute members realised they could never take on the Austrian army in open battle and joined a new movement, Giovane Italia ("Young Italy") led by the nationalist and Freemason Giuseppe Mazzini.(here)

He has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in both South America and Europe.[1] He is considered an Italian national hero.

With his volunteers, he won victories over the Austrians at Varese, Como, and other places.

Garibaldi was however very displeased as his home city of Nice (Nizza in Italian) was surrendered to the French, in return for crucial military assistance. In April 1860, as deputy for Nice in the Piedmontese parliament at Turin, he vehemently attacked Cavour for ceding Nice and the County of Nice (Nizzardo) to Louis Napoleon, Emperor of the French. In the following years Garibaldi (with other passionate Nizzardo Italians) promoted the Irredentism of his Nizza, even with riots (in 1872).

Campaign of 1860
See also: Expedition of the Thousand
On January 24, 1860, Garibaldi married an 18-year-old Lombard noblewoman, Giuseppina Raimondi. Immediately after the wedding ceremony, however, she informed him that she was pregnant with another man's child. As a result, Garibaldi left her the same day.[citation needed]

At the beginning of April 1860, uprisings in Messina and Palermo in the independent and peaceful Kingdom of the Two Sicilies provided Garibaldi with an opportunity. He gathered about a thousand volunteers (practically all northern Italians, and called i Mille (the Thousand), or, as popularly known, the Redshirts) in two ships, and landed at Marsala, on the westernmost point of Sicily, on May 11.

Swelling the ranks of his army with scattered bands of local rebels, Garibaldi led 800 of his volunteers to victory over a 1500-strong enemy force on the hill of Calatafimi on May 15. He used the counter-intuitive tactic of an uphill bayonet charge; he had seen that the hill on which the enemy had taken position was terraced, and the terraces gave shelter to his advancing men. Although small by comparison with the coming clashes at Palermo, Milazzo and Volturno, this battle was decisive in terms of establishing Garibaldi's power in the island; an apocryphal but realistic story had him say to his lieutenant Nino Bixio, Qui si fa l'Italia o si muore, that is, Here we either make Italy, or we die. In reality, the Neapolitan forces were ill guided, and most of its higher officers had been bought out. The next day, he declared himself dictator of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. He advanced then to Palermo, the capital of the island, and launched a siege on May 27. He had the support of many of the inhabitants, who rose up against the garrison, but before the city could be taken, reinforcements arrived and bombarded the city nearly to ruins. At this time, a British admiral intervened and facilitated an armistice, by which the Neapolitan royal troops and warships surrendered the city and departed.

Garibaldi had won a signal victory. He gained worldwide renown and the adulation of Italians. Faith in his prowess was so strong that doubt, confusion, and dismay seized, even the Neapolitan court. Six weeks later, he marched against Messina in the east of the island. There was a ferocious and difficult battle at Milazzo, but Garibaldi won through. By the end of July, only the citadel resisted.

Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi.Having finished the conquest of Sicily, he crossed the Strait of Messina, with the help of the British Navy, and marched northward. Garibaldi's progress was met with more celebration than resistance, and on September 7 he entered the capital city of Naples, by train. Despite taking Naples, however, he had not to this point defeated the Neapolitan army. Garibaldi's volunteer army of 24,000 was not able to defeat conclusively the reorganized Neapolitan army (about 25,000 men) on September 30 at the Battle of Volturno. This was the largest battle he ever fought, but its outcome was effectively decided by the arrival of the Piedmontese Army. Following this, Garibaldi's plans to march on to Rome were jeopardized by the Piedmontese, technically his ally but unwilling to risk war with France, whose army protected the Pope. (The Piedmontese themselves had conquered most of the Pope's territories in their march south to meet Garibaldi, but they had deliberately avoided Rome, his capital.) Garibaldi chose to hand over all his territorial gains in the south to the Piedmontese and withdrew to Caprera and temporary retirement. Some modern historians consider the handover of his gains to the Piedmontese as a political defeat, but he seemed willing to see Italian unity brought about under the Piedmontese crown. The meeting at Teano between Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II is the most important event in modern Italian history, but is so shrouded in controversy that even the exact site where it took place is in doubt.

Maximilien Fran?ois Marie Isidore de Robespierre (IPA: [maksimilj?? f?ɑ?swa ma?i izid?? d? ??b?spj??]) (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his arrest and execution in 1794.

Christopher Jones was the captain of the Mayflower when it took the Pilgrims to New England in 1620. They came to the tip of Cape Cod (Massachusetts) on November 11, 1620.

Mayflower was a very common ship name, and other ships called the Mayflower made trips to New England; but none of them were the same ship that brought the Pilgrims to America.

The Mayflower stayed in America that winter, and it suffered the effects of the first winter just as the Pilgrims did, with almost half dying. The Mayflower set sail for home on April 5, 1621, arriving back May sixth. The ship made a few more trading runs, to Spain, Ireland, and lastly to France. However, Captain Christopher Jones died shortly thereafter, and was buried in England.

The exact size of the Mayflower is unknown. No pictures, paintings, or detailed description of the Mayflower exist today. However it is estimated the size of the Mayflower was about 113 feet long from the back rail to the front. A duplicate of the Mayflower, called the Mayflower II, is in Plymouth, Mass. Today it is a tourist attraction, and available for touring.

The voyage from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Harbor is about 2,750 miles, and took the Mayflower 66 days. The Mayflower left England with 102 passengers, including three pregnant women, and a crew of unknown number. One child was born at sea. After the Mayflower had arrived and was anchored in Provincetown Harbor off the tip of Cape Cod, Susanna White gave birth to a son. The Mayflower then sailed across the bay to Plymouth Harbor. There, Mary Allerton gave birth to a stillborn son. One passenger died while the Mayflower was at sea--a young man named William Butten, a servant-apprentice to Dr. Samuel Fuller. The death occurred just three days before land was sighted. One Mayflower crew member also died at sea, but his name is not known. The men of the Mayflower wrote "The Mayflower Compact", a set of laws for the new colony. This was the first time that immigrants to the new country had set down rule of the majority. It is still used today. The place they stayed was called the Plymouth Colony.

The Mayflower's Voyage :

DEPARTURE: The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620

ARRIVAL: The Mayflower crew sighted land off Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, and first landfall was made November 11, 1620.

DISTANCE AND TIME: The voyage from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Harbor is about 2,750 miles, and took the Mayflower 66 days.

NUMBER OF PASSENGERS: The Mayflower left England with 102 passengers, including three pregnant women, and a crew of unknown number. While the Mayflower was at sea, Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a son which she named Oceanus. After the Mayflower had arrived and was anchored in Provincetown Harbor off the tip of Cape Cod, Susanna White gave birth to a son, which she named Peregrine (which means "one who has made a journey"). The Mayflower then sailed across the bay and anchored in Plymouth Harbor. There, Mary Allerton gave birth to a stillborn son. One passenger died while the Mayflower was at sea--a youth named William Butten, a servant-apprentice to Dr. Samuel Fuller. The death occurred just three days before land was sighted. One Mayflower crew member also died at sea, but his name is not known.

FACT: The first feast wasn't repeated, so it wasn't the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast--dancing, singing secular songs, playing games--wouldn't have been allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds.

MYTH: The original Thanksgiving feast took place on the fourth Thursday of November.

FACT: The original feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern holiday, it was three days long. The event was based on English harvest festivals, which traditionally occurred around the 29th of September. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941). Abraham Lincoln had previously designated it as the last Thursday in November, which may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod.

MYTH: The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing. They had buckles on their hats, garments, and shoes.

FACT: Buckles did not come into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions. Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black, earthy green, and brown.

MYTH: The pilgrims brought furniture with them on the Mayflower.

FACT: The only furniture that the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed wooden furniture once they settled in Plymouth.

MYTH: The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but due to a navigational mistake it ended up in Cape Cod Massachusetts.

FACT: The Pilgrims were in fact planning to settle in Virginia, but not the modern-day state of Virginia. They were part of the Virginia Company, which had the rights to most of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The pilgrims had intended to go to the Hudson River region in New York State, which would have been considered "Northern Virginia," but they landed in Cape Cod instead. Treacherous seas prevented them from venturing further south (here)

Oberto, November 17, 1839
Un giorno di regno, September 5, 1840
Nabucco, March 9, 1842
I Lombardi alla prima crociata, February 11, 1843
Ernani, March 9, 1844
I due Foscari, November 3, 1844
Giovanna d'Arco, February 15, 1845
Alzira, August 12, 1845
Attila, March 17, 1846
Macbeth, March 14, 1847
I masnadieri, July 22, 1847
Jérusalem (a revision and translation of I Lombardi alla prima crociata) November 26, 1847
Il corsaro, 25 October 1848
La battaglia di Legnano, January 27, 1849
Luisa Miller, December 8, 1849
Stiffelio, November 16, 1850
Rigoletto, March 11, 1851
Il trovatore, January 19, 1853
La traviata, March 6, 1853
Les vêpres siciliennes, June 13, 1855
Simon Boccanegra, March 12, 1857
Aroldo (A major revision of Stiffelio), August 16, 1857
Un ballo in maschera, February 17, 1859
La forza del destino, November 10, 1862
Don Carlos, March 11, 1867
Aida, December 24, 1871
Otello, February 5, 1887
Falstaff, February 9, 1893