Overview Of Italy: Analytical Essay
Overview of Italy
Italy is a masterpiece of mother nature’s creation offering the extraordinary diversity in its geography with its beautiful landscapes. It is a country with the abundance of rich cultural and historical significance. Likewise, it is also considered as the epicenter of the human civilization. Italy is a peninsula in southern Europe. It has approximately 61 million population, among which 96% of them are Italians and the remaining 4% of the residents are North Africans, Italo-Albanians, Albanians, Germans, Austrians and other European groups. Italy has a very unique and beautiful culture commonly associated with art, music and food. It is the homeland of the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church and the main center of the Renaissance, which flourished through Europe for centuries. Italian is the official language of Italy and according to the BBC 93% of the population speak Italian, which is also considered one of the Romance languages. About 90% of Italians are Roman Catholic and the remaining 10% are Protestant, Jewish and Muslims.
History of Italy is also considered as the history of modern world and historical keystone of the Europe. Italy is one of the first civilized nation also known as, an ancient civilization and its inhabitants are largely responsible for shaping the world as we know it. The history of Italy is characterized by two periods of unity knows as the Roman Empire (27 BCE-476CE) and the modern democratic republic formed after the World War II. Likewise, in between these two periods the world’s greatest flowering era of art known as the Renaissance was flourished in Italy.
During the 500BC people from different ethnicity and origin shared Italy. The Etruscans (originally from Western Turkey) settled in central Italy and established number of city-states which is now known as the Modern-day Bologna. Etruscans thrived for a time and created a civilization that passed down the fondness for the bold architecture to its successor Rome. According to the Roman history Rome was founded on 753BC by the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus and became the capital of the emerging Roman Empire. It is said that later on Romulus killed his brother and declared himself as the first king of Rome During their Rule Romans conquered the Mediterranean area and half of Europe establishing the foundation of the modern civilization. Rome was ruled by the seven kings until 509 BC After that Roman Republic was formed overthrowing the last king. Later on, Rome was ruled by two elected officials, a senate consisting of wealthy aristocrats (patricians) and lower assembly represented by the common people (Plebeians) having limited powers. Eventually. The system of the government came under severe strain when Rome expanded over territory not just in Italy. Likewise, by the first century Rome was in crisis and later on in 29 BC after a long power struggle Octavius seized the power and declared himself Emperor Augustus in this way the Roman Empire was born which thrived for the next two hundred years. Rome thrived ruling over a vast territory from Britain and the Atlantic coast of Europe in the north and west to North Africa and the Middle East in the south and east.
Furthermore, the middle age was the new chapter in the Italian history. In 380 AD, after the three hundred years of persecution Christianity became the only religion. The Roman Empire collapsed at the end of the 5th century and for the next thousand years Italy became the patchwork of city-states, with Rome as the home to the Catholic church being the most powerful. Until 14th century Italy did not encounter any prosperity however, when city-states such as, Florence, Milan, Pisa, Genoa, and Venice became the trade centers Italy transformed into Europe’s Premier center of culture.
Similarly, Renaissance was the next phase of the history in Italy which is considered as the major shifting period of art and philosophy. However, after 16th century Rome lost its influence over Northern Europe Italian city-states became vulnerable. After the 19th century French leader Napoleon supported the unification of Italy and the Italian nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi led a popular movement to complete the unification of the country. Eventually, after World War II Italy abolished the monarchy and declared itself a republic on June 2, 1946, with the strong support of the United States.
Italy is a Mediterranean country located in the Southern Europe (Bakerjian, 2019). It is Bordered by the Adriatic Sea on the east coast, the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, and the Ionian Sea to the south. Italy is bordered by the countries of France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia in the north. The Italian mainland is a long peninsula that resembles like a tall boot. Moreover, it has a Mediterranean climate on the coast and generally cooler and wetter inland that are usually hotter during the summer. Likewise, the total area of Italy is 116,305 square miles. Furthermore, Italy is divided into 20 different regions, including Sicily and Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea which are separate regions. Rome is the capital and largest city with a population of 3 million people.
The politics of Italy is quite complex and has had several dozens of governments has been since the end of the second world war. Moreover, Italy had 68 different government in the past 73 years. Italy has been a democratic republic from June 2, 1946. Monarchy was abolished and constitution assembly was elected to draft the constitution that was drafted and promulgated on January 1, 1948.
There is three-way division of the power among the executive, legislative and Judiciary. The executive power is in the hands of the council of the minister and is presided by the Prime minister as the president of the council. Likewise, the president is the head of the state and is a ceremonial role and is elected by the parliament and the regional representatives. The ministers are responsible for executing the laws and other political decisions which is done by presenting bills in the parliament. The legislative power belongs to the parliament that makes the law and is also responsible for reviewing and guiding the work of the government. On the other hand, judiciary power lies on the hands of the judges that are responsible for implementing the laws that are passed by parliament. Italy’s parliament is bicameral and is made up of two houses knows as the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). Italy has lots of political parties that are active in their respective regions. The politics of Italy is largely dominated by the centrist Party of Christian Democracy and the left-wing Italian communist party.
