Prehistoric Italy
Recent discoveries throughout Italy have revealed evidence of settlers during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. Circa 5000 BC or the beginning of the Neolithic period the small communities of hunters of former times had been replaced by agricultural settlements, with their breeding of animals and prevalent use of stone and pottery. On the island of Lipari, more specifically at Castellaro Vecchio, excavations have revealed hand painted vessels that appear to have been influenced by contemporary styles of Greece.

At the start of the Bronze Age around 2000 BC, new eastern immigrants had settled Italy and introduced metalworking into southern Italy and Sicily; The Italian Polada culture of the north has provided strong evidence of links with cultures beyond the northern Alps. Much of central and southern Italy had a unified culture known as the Apennine, characterized by their large agricultural and pastoral settlements. On the southeastern coast and in Sicily it is evidenced that there were trading contacts with the Mycenaeans. In Po River Valley to the north circa 1000 BC the terramara culture rose to prominence with their techniques in bronze, wooden villages, and cremation rites. By the time iron was introduced into Italy around 1000 BC, disparate communities were well established.

The Etruscans
The diverse cultural patterns of the early Iron Age were further complicated in the late 8th century BC by the arrival of Greek colonizers in the south and by the appearance of the Etruscans in central Italy and the Po Valley. It is not known when or where and to what degree the Etruscan culture settled on Italian peninsula. Historians generally agree that they migrated from the Aegeo-Asian or eastern area around the end of the 12th century BC. What is well known about the Etruscans is that they managed to create a flourishing civilization. The earliest evidence of the Etruscan people in Italy was in the Villanovan culture around 9th century BC which was centered on present-day Bologna.

Further evidence of the Etruscans comes from archaeological excavations of tombs and religious sanctuaries. Their belief in the afterlife compelled them to perform burials of the dead with everything that they might need in the life after, such as food and drink, clothing, ornaments, and weapons. Their painted tombs depicted scenes of everyday life, notably those discovered near Rome at Tarquinia, provide important knowledge of how the Etruscans lived. During the 7th and 6th century Etruscans expanded their rule and were at the height of their power. The nation was founded on many large city-states, collectively known as the Etruscan League. The strength of the Etruscans came form their ability to navigate and trade, competing for markets in the Mediterranean against the Phoenicians and Greeks. But as the Greeks became more powerful in the 5th century BC, they began to lose control of their trade routes, and by the 4th century BC they had lost their northern territories to Gallic invaders and their settlements in Campania to the Samnites, confining Etruria to its original territories in central Italy. While the Etruscans continued to flourish during this time, its development was now determined by its relationship with the growing power of Rome.

Roman Italy
Three of the seven kings who ruled Rome from 616 BC were Etruscans. But after the expulsion of the last of these kings, Lucas Tarquinius Superbus in 510 BC, and the foundation of the Roman republic in 509 BC, the power of the Roman Empire began to unify and Etruscans declined as the monarchy of Rome Italy. The Republic’s defeat of Carthage (near present-day Tunis) and Hellenic Macedonia during the three Punic Wars cleared the way for ultimate expansion into Spain, Britain, North Africa and present-day Iraq. Meanwhile, relative peace at home enabled the infrastructure of civilization to spread - roads, aqueducts, cites. A slave-driven lifestyle and economy triumphed over the concept of people power, and the reins of the Republic were increasingly taken in hand by the military and, ultimately, the dictatorship.

The empire grew so large; it was eventually divided into eastern and western sectors. Already, however, the bloodthirsty theatrics of regicide and intrigue were planting the seeds of its eventual destruction. Constantine embraced Christianity in 313, and the empire's capital was moved from Rome to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). The western arm of the empire was undone by plague, famine and tribal incursions from the north, and was officially declared null and void in 476 when Odovacar, a German warrior, dubbed himself ruler. The Eastern Roman Empire clung on, even prospered in fits and starts, until overrun by the Turks in 1453.

The Dark Ages
Italy entered a period peopled by Goths and forever ostracized as the 'Dark Ages.' Successive waves of Lombards, Franks, Saracens, Germans and Normans invaded the peninsula and claimed in various degrees the lost title of empire and emperor, culminating in Frankish Charlemagne's crowning as emperor in 800. The south was dominated by Muslim Arabs until usurped by Normans. This ethnic cocktail began to settle in the 12th century, just when the next big chapter in textbook history was taking shape. Powerfully combative and competitive city-states arose in the north, supporting either the pope (power within the peninsula vested in the papal states) or the emperor (usually a foreign power). The rise of cities and a merchant class culminated in the Renaissance of the 15th century. Painters, architects, poets, philosophers and sculptors produced unsurpassed works of genius, despite the turmoil of intercity warfare and invasion by countries to the north. First Spain and then Austria controlled the peninsula during the ensuing centuries, followed briefly by Napoleon's imperial flourish.

The Italian Nation
The post-Napoleon shake-up led directly to the drive for unification of the 19th century, led by Garibaldi, Cavour and Mazzini. The Kingdom of Italy was declared in 1861, although Venice was not prized away from Austria until 1866 and papal claims remained an issue until 1870, when Rome officially joined the young nation. No label of unity, however, could hide the huge cultural and social differences that split the industrialized north from the poverty-stricken south. Economic crisis and fickle politics dogged the new nation in the ensuing decades, as Italy muddled through WW I and became riddled with industrial unrest in the early 1920s. In a memorably unwise employment decision, the king asked one Benito Mussolini to take the reins of government under the auspices of his Fascist Party. Il Fusto soon became head of state, outlawed the opposition, controlled the press and trade unions and cut franchise by two-thirds. His relationship with Hitler soured after a series of military disasters and an Allied invasion, eventually culminating in a fatal dose of rough justice at the hands of partisans in April 1945.

Post War Politics
The postwar years have been colored by extremism: the extreme violence of terrorists such as the Brigatte Rosse, extreme center-right politics, extreme economic boom and economic crisis, extreme corruption and bribery in extremely high places - and an extremely cynical and fatigued public. Italy's parliament has a reputation for scandal and resignation, and at times it has left Italy virtually ungoverned and utterly chaotic.