Roman monochrome floor mosaic, 3rd century. The government of the Western Empire, which was permanently based at Ravenna after 402, became progressively weaker but remained substantially intact. While the Germanic king Odoacer ruled Italy after 476, the peninsula was not conquered by a Germanic tribe until the Ostrogothic invasion in 489–493. His career was typical of those in the military tradition of Roman politics, and, had his life not been cut short, he might well have become emperor. 0 1. eaton . Most of the larger industrial businesses were founded with considerable investment from Germany, Britain, France and others. The Roman Empire was an international political system in which Italy was only a part, though an important part. Present-day Italy became a sovereign state on March 17, 1861, during the Resurgence, a political movement that unified countries of the Italian Peninsula into a single nation of Italy. It was considerable in the North Africa of the Vandals, for example, as Africa was a rich and stable province and was conquered relatively quickly (429–442); it was more limited in northern Gaul, a less Romanized area to begin with, which experienced 80 years of war and confusion (406–486) before it finally came under the control of the Franks. He was culturally highly Romanized and, as such, was himself part of a tradition of Romano-Germanic military leadership that went back to the 370s, but he could not, as a “barbarian,” be emperor, and he made and unmade several emperors in a search for a stable ruler who would not undermine his own power. The army managed to conquer various cities and bring them under the rule of King Emmanuel II. When Was Italy Founded? Italy’s golden era did not last long, as France invaded the independent states in northern Italy, leading to their collapse. Premium Membership is now 50% off! Italy sought their support against France shortly after losing North African ambitions to the French. And of course, there's nothing to say that they didn't find people here when they arrived like our Pilgrims found the Indians. Two south-going coastal lines were also completed. Nonetheless, he, like Ricimer, was an effective defender of Italy against invaders for a long time. In 533–534 Belisarius, general for the Eastern emperor Justinian I (527–565), conquered Vandal Africa; Amalasuntha’s death was the necessary excuse to invade Italy. During the reign of the Roman Empire, the Italian Peninsula was among the imperial provinces under the rule of the Romans. The Napoleonic era ended following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 and the division of the kingdom into eight regions under foreign rule. Odoacer was militarily supreme from 476 to 493. Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed in May 1882 and renewed periodically until World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been closely allied since 1879. So you wonder if the fleeing Trojans found their way to Italy where they established enough of a peaceful civilization for Aeneas to have the opportunity to compose his story. The military emperors of the late 3rd century, most notably Diocletian (284–305), reformed the political structures of the Roman Empire. History tells us that Mediolanum (Milan), the Latinized form of Medhelanon, meaning "sanctuary", was founded by the Insubri Celts in 590 B.C. When Was Italy Discovered. On the other hand, the administration and the army that the tax system paid for reestablished a measure of stability for the empire in the 4th century. There is evidence for a settlement in 600 C.E., and this grew, having its own bishopric by the end of the 7th century. Venice developed a creation myth that it was founded by people fleeing Troy, but it was probably formed in the sixth century C.E., when Italian refugees fleeing Lombard invaders camped on the islands in the Venice lagoon. In the 550s and the early 560s, however, the Eastern (thenceforth, Byzantine) Empire succeeded in reestablishing its political order in Italy, and in 554 Justinian issued the Pragmatic Sanction setting forth its terms: Italy was made a province of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital still at Ravenna (Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, however, were to remain administratively separate), and the Ostrogothic political … Theodoric himself had fallen out with an important, traditionalist senatorial faction and had executed several senators, including the philosopher-politician Boethius in 524; the Roman elites looked increasingly to Constantinople as a result. Italy was later fragmented by the transitory supremacy of Feudal European conquerors from the East, Muslims from the south, and Germans and Normans from the north. Bank of America was founded by Amadeo Giannini in San Francisco, California. Lv 4. However, after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, all states of the Italian Peninsula became subject to the larger European-power wrangles. The Ostrogothic king Witigis (536–540) surrendered to him. Today, Italy is the seventh largest global economy, which is supported by the world’s largest metallurgical and engineering industries. The careers of three of these leaders serve as examples of 5th-century political trends. How each of these developed—in parallel with the others, out of the ruins of the Roman world—is one principal theme of this section. He was only sixty seven when he died.