ITALY 



3081 



ITALY 



rice, barley and oats are of increasing impor- 

 tance. Beets are grown in large quantities for 

 sugar, and vegetables of various kinds suffi- 

 cient, to supply the home demand. A very 

 special importance attaches to the growing of 

 the mulberry tree, on which feed the myriads 

 of silk worms which are the basis of one of 

 Italy's chief industries. 



With fertile soil and a favoring climate, it 

 would seem that the farmers of Italy were a 

 highly favored class, but most of them are 



painfully poor, despite their industry, for the 

 land is held chiefly by wealthy landlords, and 

 the terms on which it is let are far from ad- 

 vantageous to the tenants, who receive only a 

 small portion of the output. 



Only in northern Italy, which is in general 

 far more advanced and progressive than the 

 southern portion, is stock raising carried on 

 scientifically. From this dairy region come 

 those famous varieties of cheese, the Parmesan 

 and Gorgonzola. 



History of Italy 



The Middle Ages. Not always has the pen- 

 insula of Italy been a united nation, nor can 

 its entire history be treated under the title 

 Italy. Until 476, when Rome fell before the 

 barbarians, the history of Rome was the his- 

 tory of Italy (see ROME, subhead History), but 

 Odoacer, who set up his government on the 

 ruins of the empire, called himself not em- 

 peror of Rome, but king of Italy. In 493 

 Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, 

 overthrew Odoacer, and until 526 ruled wisely 

 and well, giving to Italy such a period of pros- 

 perity as it did not see again for centuries. 



For a time after the downfall of the last 

 Gothic king in 552, Italy was a dependency of 

 the Byzantine Empire (which see), but the 

 boundaries of the Byzantine territory in the 

 peninsula continually contracted before an ad- 

 vancing Germanic tribe, the Lombards. Fi- 

 nally, these invaders threatened Rome itself, 

 and the Pope called to his aid Pippin, leader 

 of the Franks, who checked the Lombard 

 advance. Charlemagne, Pippin's son, com- 

 pleted the conquest of the Lombards and had 

 himself crowned with the famous Iron Crown 

 (see CROWN, subhead Iron Crown of Lom- 

 bardy). He also confirmed the gift of certain 

 lands which his father had given to the Pope; 

 this was an event of great moment, since it 

 marks the beginning of that temporal power of 

 the Popes which brought about such lasting 

 controversy. Charlemagne's assumption in 800 

 of the title of emperor resulted in those claims 

 of the German emperors on Italy which 

 wrought such great hardship for both countries 

 in the centuries that followed. See CHARLE- 

 MAGNE. 



Division and Anarchy. The Treaty of Ver- 

 dun in 843 gave Italy to Lothair, but no settled 

 government followed, Greeks, Saracens, great 

 nobles, almost any ambitious party that arose 

 working its will upon the country. Otto the 



Great, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, 

 put an end to this period of anarchy, and 

 throughout the Middle Ages the emperors were 

 the nominal rulers of Italy. Resenting this 

 rule by the Germans, however, the Italians 

 stirred up constant revolts, and many of the 

 emperors had to fight hard to maintain their 

 authority. But the strongest opponents the 

 emperors had in Italy were the Popes, who 

 resisted firmly any imperial attempts to lessen 

 the Papal power. 



Period of City States. Meanwhile a new 

 force was arising in Italy the city states 

 which for a time made in large measure the 

 history of the peninsula. Milan, Genoa, Flor- 

 ence, Pisa, Venice and other cities made them- 

 selves practically independent, and about them 

 as centers a brilliant life grew up (see CITY 

 STATES). Resisting not only the nobles who 

 sought control over them, but the emperor 

 himself, they flourished and grew strong, and 

 this might have been a period of glory and 

 prosperity for Italy had it not been for the 

 feuds and rivalry of those two famous factions 

 known as the Guelphs and the Ghibellines (see 

 GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES). In every city the 

 struggle raged, and only as some powerful fam- 

 ily of nobles made itself supreme in each city 

 and established a despotic government was 

 even a measure of peace secured. 



The power of the emperors had greatly de- 

 creased and in the south had been replaced by 

 a new authority, that of France; for in the 

 latter half of the thirteenth century Charles 

 of Anjou, the brother of the French king, had 

 set up for himself a realm known as the Two 

 Sicilies (see SICILIES, KINGDOM OF THE Two). 

 French rule proved too despotic, however, and 

 later in the century Sicily and Naples sub- 

 mitted themselves to Aragon, in Spain. 



Age of Invasions. This age of the despots, 

 as it is called, when the cities with such men 



