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* = site is in Italian |
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| Best viewed with MSIE | |
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| More History Resources |
 The Fall of Jerusalem (Penguin Epics) Flavius Josephus |
 The Madness of Nero (Penguin Epics) Tacitus |
 Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945 R. J. B. Bosworth |
 The Sack of Rome: Media + Money + Celebrity = Power = Silvio Berlusconi Alexander Stille |
 The Fall of Mussolini: Italians and the War, 1940-1945 Philip Morgan |
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About the Country |
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Background: Italy became a nation-state belatedly - in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula and Sicily were united under King Victor EMMANUEL. The Fascist dictatorship of Benito MUSSOLINI that took over after World War I led to a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany and Italian defeat in World War II. Revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC) and joined the growing political and economic unification of Western Europe, including the introduction of the euro in 1999. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, the ravages of organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the more prosperous north.
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Map courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission. |
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Location: Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia Geographic coordinates: 42 50 N, 12 50 E Area: Area - comparative: slightly larger than Arizona Land boundaries: Climate: predominantly Mediterranean; Alpine in far north; hot, dry in south Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous; some plains, coastal lowlands
Population: 58,057,477 (July 2004 est.) Population growth rate: 0.09% (2004 est.) Ethnic groups: Italian (includes small clusters of German-, French-, and Slovene-Italians in the north and Albanian-Italians and Greek-Italians in the south) Religions: predominately Roman Catholic with mature Protestant and Jewish communities and a growing Muslim immigrant community Languages: Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)
Government type: republic Capital: Rome Independence: 17 March 1861 (Kingdom of Italy proclaimed; Italy was not finally unified until 1870) National holiday: Anniversary of the Republic, 2 June (1946) Constitution: 1 January 1948
Labor force: 23.6 million (2001 est.) Unemployment rate: 9.2% (2003 est.) Exports - commodities: engineering products, textiles and clothing, production machinery, motor vehicles, transport equipment, chemicals; food, beverages and tobacco; minerals and nonferrous metals Imports - commodities: engineering products, chemicals, transport equipment, energy products, minerals and nonferrous metals, textiles and clothing; food, beverages and tobacco Currency: euro (EUR)
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Carabinieri Military expenditures - dollar figure: $28,182.8 million (2003) |
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Source of background and statistical data: The World Factbook
For more on Italy, click here |
