1701-1748 Wars of Spanish and Austrian Succession: foreign powers fought over Italian territory.

1713 Spanish ascendancy in Italy brought to an end with the War of the Spanish Succession. Austria became the dominating power, particularly after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) confimed her proprietorship of Lombardy and the Veneto.

1753 "The Mistress of the Inn", by Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793) Venetian playwright who made written texts of the commedia dell'arte. Known as the Italian Moliere.

1782 "Saul" by Vittorio Alfieri.

1763-1765 "The Day" by Giuseppe Parini.

1764 "On Crimes and Punishments" by Cesare Beccaria.

1789 FRENCH REVOLUTION began. The sentiment of the Italian people favored France, their Italian rulers drew closer to European kings who opposed France.

1796 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Italy. He used a French army, to drive Austrian rulers out of northern Italy. This caused another war between the Habsburgs and the French. Boneparte seized Italy for France. Napoleon brought with him the ideals of the French Revolution. Italian republics with constitutions and legal reforms, were set up wherever the French conquered.

1797 Venice ended a millenium of independence when ceded to Austria.

ROMANTICISM (1800's)

1804 -1820's Napoleon Boneparte became emperor of France and part of northern Italy became the Kingdom of Italy under his rule. The rest of Italy was added to France's empire. Sicily and Sardinia remained free of French control. French rule lasted twenty years. Much of the Italian peninsula became unified (new laws, single monetary system, united army, and representative assemblies) after it's conquest by Napoleon Boneparte.

1800's In the Po River delta area (of lagoons, ponds and lands of marshes), much land was drained and turned into farmland.

1806 Austria lost its possessions in Italy but regained them in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna.

1809 Formal "Italian" civil record keeping system began, by order of Napoleon.

1814 Napoleon abdicated after defeat by the major powers of Europe.

1815 Congress of Vienna restored most of Italy's former rulers. Royal house of Savoy returned to rule The Kingdom of Sardinia (northwestern Piedmont region and the island of Sardinia, sometimes just called the Piedmont. Center of government was Turin). The Bourbon family ruled Naples and Sicily = The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Papal States to the Pope. In the north, Lombardy and Venetia were placed under Austrian rule.

1815 RISORGIMENTO (resurgence/resurrection, national rebirth), the patriotic movement that brought Italy political unity and freedom from foreign domination began to gather strength. (1815-1861)

1820 "The Count of Carmagnola" by Alessandro Manzoni.

1822 "Adelchi" by Alessandro Manzoni.

1824 (France) Charles X (brother of Louis IVIII) succeeded to the throne.

1827 (1840-1842) "The Betrothed" by Alessandro Manzoni. Historical novel.

1820's-1830's Unsuccessful revolts against local rulers as Italians began to put their desire for reform into action. Piedmont and its kings were in the center of this movement.

1831 Giuseppe Mazzini (Italian patriot) began the Young Italy movement, insurrections abound. Other patriotic societies flourished in a movement to oust Austria from Italy. Mazzini worked for national unity and an independent Italian republic.

1834 Spanish Inquisition ended.

1836 "Songs" by Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) poet.

1847 Count Camillo Cavour (prime minister of Piedmont) founded a paper called IL Risorgimento in the north, which gave a name to the entire movement.

1848 Revolutions in Austria, France (produced the French Republic), in many German states, and in all of the major Italian cities "Italian Risings". Kingdoms of Sardinia and of Naples granted constitutions to their people. Milan drove out the Austrian army. Venice, Rome and Tuscany declared as republics.

1848 The House of Savoy (Kingdom of Piedmont/Sardinia) led the nationalist movement to chase Austria out of Italy.

1848-9 Insurrections in Lombardy and the Veneto were put down.

1848-49 Roman Revolution - Italian patriot, Giuseppe Garibaldi.

1849 March 23 Battle of Navara - the outcome went against the Italians.

1849 All over Europe the "old system" was struggling to survive against the popular revolutions. Austria put down the revolutions. Kingdom of Sardiniawas defeated. It's king, Charles Albert abdicated to his son Victor Emmanuel II (house of Savoy) but the kingdom kept it's constitution and it's tri-color flag. Count Di Cavour Prime minister of Sardinia. Naples loses it's new constitution and it's king returns to power- harsh reprisals. Tuscany's grand duke returned and the Pope regained control of the Papal States with the help of France.

1850 Venetian Republic was the last of the declared republics to fall. The revolutions ended and Austria retained overall control of Italy.

1852 Count Cavour made prime minister of Piedmont.

1853 (Europe) The Crimean War Began with a dispute between the French and the Turks who controlled Palestine, over Christian shrines in the Holy Land. Dispute widened as the Russians indicated their support for Greek Orthodox claims to certain shrines and the French continued to press Roman Catholic claims. Piedmontese troops (of Count di Cavour/Kingdom of Sardinia) fought in the Crimean campaign as allies to Britain and France.

1856 (Europe) Pan-European Congress (Congress of Paris) held in Paris to conclude the Crimean Crisis. European Turkey breaking up. Count Di Cavour maneuvered to take part in the Congress of Paris.

1858 Sardinia's Count Cavour arranged a defense agreement with Napoleon III of France.

1859 War of Liberation. Austria declared war on the Kingdom of Sardinia. Austria lost it's grip on Italy. French and Italian soldiers pushed the Austrians eastward. Dukes loyal to Austria were routed by local revolts. Italian unification began.

1859 (summer) Napoleon III (without consulting his ally Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont), concluded an armistice with the Austrians by which Milan and Lombardy would go to Piedmont (Kingdom of Sardinia) but Austria retained Venice and Venetia. Count Cavour resigned in indignation.

1859-1860 Tuscany in Romagna, small states of Parma and Modena -voted union with Piedmont (Kingdom of Sardinia). Count Di Cavour returned to office. Northern Italy (except Venetia) down to the Papal States were joined to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily with a thousand volunteers (Red Shirts) and fought for Sicily's freedom from it's Bourbon rulers. Garibaldi's troops were successful (for the Kingdom of Sardinia) against the professional army of Sicily's kingdom and then turned to the Italian mainland capturing southern Italy and Naples. Cavour sent Piedmontese troops through the Papal States to join Garibaldi and to prevent him from attacking Rome (held by the Pope). Count Cavour (pro monarchy) wanted to undermine any further revolutionary activites and thoughts (by Garibaldi) against the monarchy or in favor of creating a republic.

1861 In Turin the first national parliment formed under leadership of Count Cavour. Victor Emmanuel II (King of Piedmont and Sardinia) declared the formation of the Kingdom of Italy and became it's king (March 17). The constitutional monarchy headed by King Victor Emmanuel II unified most of Italy for the first time, as an independent country. Included all of the peninsula except Venetia, the small country of San Marino and the city of Rome. Three months later Count Di Cavour died.

1863-1938 Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian poet, prose writer.

1866 June War of 1866. War broke out between Prussia and Austria. Victor Emmanuel II supported Prussia in the war against Austria (owners of Venetia) and were badly beaten.

1866 July Battle of Sadonia ended the Seven Days War. Austria was defeated. Nationalists captured Venetia. Venetia annexed to Italy in return for Italy's support of Prussia.

1870 War between France and Prussia. France withdrew it's troops from Rome (they were protecting Rome for the Pope). Italian troops moved into Rome and Rome was annexed to Italy. The pope's territory was reduced to the Vatican and lateran palaces and the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo. Italy's territory included the whole peninsula.

1870 Unification of Italy completed. Social unrest and political turmoil. Regional disputes. Pope lost civil powers. Angry about his loss of Rome, the Pope (Pius IX) long time rival of Italian kings, forbade Roman Catholics to take part in national elections. Pope Pius IX refused to cooperate with the royal administration. Parliment did not represent all of the people -only the wealthy were allowed to vote. Social and labor party movements began to form all over the country.

1870 The Italian flag was adopted. It was first used in 1796 by Italians who supported Napoleon Boneparte of France during the war against Austria. Napoleon designed the flag to look like that of France but substituted green for the blue of the French flag.

1870 (after) Italian became a common national language.

1871 (July) Rome became the capital of Italy.

1881 "The House by the Medlar Tree" by Giovanni Verga.

1882 Italy became part of the Triple Alliance, along with Austria-Hungary and Germany.

1870-1915 Consolidation of the Italian kingdom. Economic and social improvement: people became better educated, goods production, and some working conditions improved.

1887-1896 Italy made unsuccessful attempts to conquer and colonize Ethiopia.

1895 The radiotelegraph invented. Guglielmo Marconi, Marchese (1874-1937), Italian physicist.

1898 Italian social welfare legislation begun.

late 1800's-early 1900's Gabriele D'Annunzio (1861-1938) poet, dramatist, and author.

1900's (early) Premier Giovanni Giolitti tried to improve Italy's status among the Western powers by introducing political reforms. Basic problems of poverty and illiteracy caused the failure of those reforms.

1901 the first transatlantic wireless signals. Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist.

1909 Nobel Prize: physics. Guglielmo Marconi shared with Karl Braun for development of wireless telegraphy (radio).

1909 "The Manifesto of Futurism" by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

1911 Italy declared war on the Turkish Ottoman Empire in North Africa (concerning the rights of Italians living in Libya) and succeeded in defeating the Empire.

1912 The Turks signed a treaty giving Libya and the Dodecanese islands to Italy.

• ITALY, The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.10, 1993 edition. [World book's additional resources :
  • DICTIONARY OF MODERN ITALIAN HISTORY, Ed. by Frank J. Coppa. Greenwood,1985.

  • A HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ITALY: SOCIETY AND POLITICS, 1943-1988 by Paul Ginsborg. Penguin, 1991.

  • THE ITALIANS: HISTORY, ART, AND THE GENIUS OF A PEOPLE. Ed. by John J. Norwich. Portland Hse., 1989. First published in 1983.

  • ITALY by Ian James. 1988, Watts. For young readers.

  • MICHELIN GREEN GUIDE TO ITALY. 2nd ed., 1989.]

• WORLDMARK ENCYCLOPEDIA of the NATIONS, EUROPE Vol.5 (Italy), Seventh Edition 1988, Worldmark Press, LTD., Publisher John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Exclusive World Distributor, G63.W67 1988 903'.21 88-5530 ISBN 0-471 62406-3(WILEY)

• ITALY the land and it's people by Michael Leech, Silver Burdett Company - Morristown, N.J. 1981 Printing. ISBN 0 382 06107 1 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.75-44863 1974 Macdonald Educational Limited, Holywell house, London, E.C. 2

• ENCHANTMENT of the WORLD, by R. Conrad Stein, Childrens Press, 1984 Chicago.