Italy

The Italian Republic, or just Italy is a modern state in Europe which mostly controls the Italian peninsula.

Italy shares border with Slovenia at east; Austria and Switzerland at north and France at west.

Italy is a member and founder of the European Union.

Pre Roman
Farming arrived in Italy around 2500 BCE, and cultures

developed. The Etruscians grew powerful and annexed the northern part. Other civilizations colonized Italy. The Greek city-states annexed Sicily and Naples, while Carthage took Sardinia and Corsica.

Early Roman
The Latin culture took some area on the west coast of Italy, and founded some city-states. One of them was Rome. Rome conquered its neighboring city-states and invaded Eturia. Rome then annexed them and defeated the Greek states in southern Italy. It then went to war with Carthage three times in the Punic Wars, annexing most of Iberia and North Africa, Carthaginian troops was consisted of men riding in elephants, and spearmen and many more during the Punic Wars, all led by Hannibal.

Middle Roman
Rome then invaded Gaul (modern-day France) and Macedonia for supporting Carthage in the Punic Wars. Rome then invaded Pegamon, Albion (modern-day Britain), Egypt, and the Selecuids. Rome also invaded Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Germania, but was beaten back. The Roman Empire was split about 200 years later.

Byzantines and Franks
When Rome split, the western empire fell in 476 when the Ostrogoths captured Rome. The eastern empire, the Byzantine Empire, attacked and conquered the Ostrogoths. However, the Lombardi, a Germanic tribe, conquered the northern part. The Byzantines never expanded past Naples again. Around 600 CE, the Franks had expanded into present-day France and Germany. They invaded the Lombards and the pope crowned their king, Charlemagne, as emperor. After his death though, the empire broke into three kingdoms, two of which united to form the Holy Roman Empire.

HRE and city-states
The HRE governed the Italians poorly, and they rebelled twice as the Lombard League. In the south, the Papal States and become independent, and the Normans landed in Naples to form the kingdom of Sicily. Sicily, however was invaded by Aragon. In the north, various parts of Switzerland, Italy, and Austria became city-states. Soon, one city state, Venice, had conquered Illyria and Venetia. Soon, Austria had taken Venice and Tuscany, and the French Revolution began.

French Revolution and Unification
Napoleon invaded Italy through Savoy and Genoa. He than attacked Tuscany, Naples, the Papal States, and Venetia. Italy remained occupied by France until 1813. After, the kingdom of Sardinia and Sicily began to annex the city states. The Kingdom of Italy was founded in 1860, and Rome was captured in 1871.

1871 to Today
Italy gained African colonies at the Congress of Berlin. Italy joined the allies in WWI in 1915, and gained part of Tyrol in 1918. In 1922, a fascist, Benito Mussolini, became leader of Italy. He invaded Ethiopia in 1936 and Albania in 1939. In 1940, Italy joined the Axis Powers and invaded Egypt and Greece. It conquered Greece in 1941 but was pushed out of Libya and western Egypt by 1942. Sicily was invaded by the Brits and Americans. Italy surrendered in September and joined the allies. Italy was liberated in 1945. Italy joined NATO in 1949 against the Communists. Italy is now a super power and is currently in the UN, NATO, and the EU.

Mappers who live in Italy

 * The Italian Mapper Andrew
 * Italian Mapper
 * Noobsticks
 * Luminès Mapping

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Flag_of_Lombardy.svg/30px-Flag_of_Lombardy.svg.png Lombardy

 * ShiningOrange Mapping

Campania

 * Anonymous Mapper (Lukar164)
 * Imperivm Mapping
 * MapperWarrior

99batran
Italy would be one of the most dominant countries in the European Union.

Zephyrus
1. Italy passes her economic crisis, starts improving their economy and become a strong power again (likely)

2. Italy becomes Facsist again (not likely)

3. Italy conquers nearby countries and becomes and empire again (not likely)

Multi
Italy conquers the world with Germany and Japan.

Mapper Freaker
Italy will fall into eighteen small countries, such as Veneto, Piedmont, Tuscany and Sicily.

Ethan
A possible chance that Italy will fall into an economical crisis like Greece, Spain, Portugal gets. But is unlikely.

Another one is Italy will fall apart, now that the stability of Italy is stable. So it's also unlikely.

Loanian Empire
Italy will dominate austria, liechtenstein and switzerland.

Miki
Make Italy conquer the world!

Alex9918 (actual real Italian)
Italy already had its glorious days, the only possibility for success is the Unification of the EU

Eridan
Italy attacks Slovenia but it makes a huge war and Italy loses.

Thunder
Italy invades Slovenia and Austria, Croatia and Bosnia Joins Italy. Parts of Romania and Ukraine Join Italy and Italy Invades France and Albania

Ceplio
Italy gets taken over by the New HRE