ITALY 



3082 



ITALY 



HOW NAPOLEON ORGANIZED ITALY 



(1) France 



(2) Switzerland 



(3) Piedmont 



( 4 ) Ligurian Republic 



(5) Cisalpine 



Republic 



( 6 ) Duchy of Parma 



( 7 ) Grand Duchy of 



Tuscany 



(8) Roman Republic 

 ( 9 ) Parthenopean 



Republic 



(10) Kingdom of Sicily 



(11) Corsica 



(12) Sardinia 



as the Florentine Medicis at their head were 

 really the only important part of Italy, lasted 

 from the middle of the fourteenth to the end 

 of the fifteenth century. Then, just as the 

 modern age was really beginning for the world, 

 just at the time when the Western hemisphere 

 was being discovered and explored, a change 

 came for Italy. It became the prey, not of 

 ambitious princes within, but of ambitious 

 countries without. The German emperors, re- 

 newing their efforts to gain the old ascendancy, 

 were opposed by the kings of France, of whom 

 the first actually to invade Italy was Charles 

 VIII. He entered the peninsula in 1494, made 

 himself master of Naples, and was crowned 

 king there. On his withdrawal his influence 

 practically ceased, but he had turned the at- 

 tention not only of France but of other nations 

 to Italy, which seemed a prey too feeble to 

 resist invasion. French kings and Spanish 

 kings seized what territories they would, the 

 petty states of the peninsula being too selfish 

 to unite in the common defense. 



But a stronger ruler than any mere French 

 king was coming to the fore in European af- 

 fairs; this was the Emperor Charles V, who, 

 in 1525, by his victory at Pavia, forced Francis 



WHEN NAPOLEON WAS KING OF ITALY 



AND JOSEPH BONAPARTE WAS 



KING OF NAPLES 



( 1 ) France ( 6 ) Kingdom of 



(2) Switzerland Naples 



(3) Kingdom of Italy (7) Kingdom of Sicily 



(4) Kingdom of Etruria (8) Kingdom of 



( 5 ) Papal States Sardinia 



I to give up his ambitious schemes. Then 

 German and Spanish troops ravaged the penin- 

 sula, took Rome by assault, and wrought havoc 

 among its many treasures. Under the domina- 

 tion of Charles V Italy enjoyed a period of 

 comparative peace, though its liberties were 

 curtailed until all its states were practically 

 dependencies of the Holy Roman Empire 

 (which see). The largest measure of freedom 

 was accorded the Papal States, which were at 

 this time the most important part of Italy. 

 And now for more than two centuries Italy had 

 really no history. Its territories were prizes, 

 fought for by the monarchs of Europe, quar- 

 reled over by the petty Italian princes. Some- 

 times armies invaded it and fought on its soil, 

 but there was no Italian army to oppose them; 

 there was no Italian life in the strict sense of 

 the word. Most of the old ducal families 

 which had held sway with such magnificence 

 in the days of the city states were dying out 

 ingloriously, and it seemed as if nowhere in 

 Italy was there any state, any family, which 

 later might serve as a nucleus for a united 

 nation. 



Almost unnoticed, however, there did exist 

 such a family, the House of Savoy, the very 



