The 'Italians' are a
Southern European
ethnic group found primarily in
Italy and in a wide-ranging
diaspora throughout
Western Europe, the
Americas and
Australia. Their native language is
Italian, and historically
Italian dialects and
languages. Their religion is predominantly
Roman Catholic.
The Italian people have varied origins, due to Italy's long history. Northern Italy had a strong
Celtic presence until the Romans conquered and colonised the area in the 2nd century BC, which lead to thousands of Romans and Italians migrating to the North. The Central portion of the
Italian peninsula was settled by the
Etruscans and
Latin peoples. The South was mostly
Greek and other
Italic peoples such as the
Bruttii and
Samnites. Sicily was predominately Greek in the East and coastal areas and a had a strong
Phoenician presence known as the
Carthaginians in the West of Sicily. The appellation ''Italian'' is possibly derived from the Greeks who used the term to describe the
Ancient Italic peoples, who pre-date the coming of
Indo-European languages.
There are almost 56 million Italians in
Italy, about 750,000 Italian speaking people in
Switzerland,
and about 28,000 in
San Marino. There is also a large but undefined, autochthonous population in
France (
Nice,
Corsica,
Savoie). Smaller groups can also be found in
Slovenia and
Croatia. There is a notable population of Italian descent in
Brazil (
Italian Brazilians),
Argentina, the
United States (
Italian Americans),
Venezuela,
Uruguay,
Canada (
Italian Canadians),
Australia (
Italian Australians), and throughout Europe- mainly in
Belgium,
United Kingdom (
Italian-Scots/
Britalian),
France and
Germany (
Italo-Germans).
Historical background
:''Main article:
History of Italy ''
The history of the Italian people is ancient and stretches back millennia to
Paleolithic times. With the rise of agriculture by the
6th millennium BC, Italy's population grew.
Indo-European languages reached Italy between 2000 and 1200 BC and their speakers mingled with the local
Italic tribes. The
Bronze Age by the 2nd millennium BC shows mutual influences involving the
Aegean and the first folks of the
Italian Peninsula and his islands.
Minoan and
Mycenaean influences can be seen in archaeological finds in the
Lipari islands near
Sicily, while
Sardinian influences can be found in the Greek buildings and artcrafts of
Mycenae and
Minoa. While, early
Latin peoples dominated the north,
Greeks settled parts of the
south Italy and the small islands of Sicily. The use of
iron is seen as evidence of a strong influence from the north as the
Latin language developed near the
Tiber region.
By the
8th century BC,
ancient Rome bore, while
Phoenician Semites settled the wetsern part of
Sicily and the
Greek colonists settled in eastern Sicily and along the coast near modern
Naples. These early Greeks formed independent
city-states that often fought each other, but mainly prospered as more Greeks arrived due to overpopulation and political struggles in Greece. Around the same time period,
Etruscans began to develop a state of their own. The origins of the Etruscans remain a mystery; speculation points towards their early forebears coming from
Lydia or
Troy in western
Anatolia, while other sources contend that they were an indigenous Italian people.
Etruscan language remains undeciphered. Trade with the Greeks to the south brought prosperity to Italy.
Etruscans and Greeks began to lose their holdings in Italy as
Gauls (a
Celtic group) invaded the north and Romans overthrew their Etruscan rulers to become masters of the peninsula. From 509 to 202 BC, the
Roman Republic conquered all of Italy and
engaged in the
Punic wars led by
Scipio Africanus against
Carthage and general
Hannibal Barca. Though Hannibal invaded Italy and inflicted several defeats on the Romans, the Romans prevailed and ended Carthaginian power, to become masters of the
Mediterranean and
North Africa. More territory was acquired throughout the republican era by gifted generals such as
Gaius Marius,
Pompey the Great and
Julius Caesar including the
Near East and much of
Europe. This expansion led to the start of a new empire the likes of which had not been seen in Europe. Until the death of the emperor
Marcus Aurelius,the
Roman Empire which lasted from 27 BC to 476 AD knew few rivals in the world. It slowly declined due to
Germanic invaders from the north, pressures from the
Persians in the east and most importantly, an enormous
economic recession in part caused by the weak central government, outsourcing of their military and massive civil wars of the 3rd Century.
Remnants of the empire survived and during the reign of
Constantine I The
Christian faith emerged as the main religion and completely transformed the early Italians.
Ostrogoths,
Visigoths,
Lombards, and other
Germanic peoples conquered Italy in the 5th and 6th centuries, but were themselves
romanized. Bulgars also came with the Lombards. A small group, Alcek (also transliterated as 'Altsek' and 'Altzek'), led by Emnetzur, settled in northeast of Naples.
[1]
In 827 AD, the island of
Sicily was invaded, starting the period of Arab influence in
Sicily,
Sardinia and lower portions of
Apulia, particularily Bari. When the
Normans (a Christian people of
Nordic,
Celtic and
Frankish origins) completely conquered the Arab controlled regions in 1072 AD, they began an extensive conversions, and some deportations of the
Siculo Muslims, sending the few remaining Muslims to
Lucera in Apulia, while some returned to North Africa.
[1]
Also to note in the early 16th century, the expanding
Spanish Empire included the southern half of Italy (i.e. Calabria, Naples, Apulia, Sardinia and Sicily) and some Spanish features in culture and language appeared in local identities, though
Spanish rule in southern Italy (later they became the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) lasted only until the late 1700s.
[2]
Italy emerged from the
Middle Ages as an important centre of religion, as the
Papacy gave the region significant political clout and authority throughout the Christian world. The
Normans conquered southern Italy and
Sicily by the
11th century, but over time they were absorbed by the local population. Numerous
city-states maintained a high degree of autonomy that led to literally hundreds of
Italian dialects that were often
unintelligible to other Italians. The age of the
Renaissance can be traced to the creative and commercial activity that began in Italy with the
international trade and exchange of ideas coming through the powerful city-states such as
Florence,
Milan,
Rome and
Venice. The
Italian Renaissance was carried later in France, UK, Spain and Denmark.
By the 15th century, many of the
Italian city-states began to be dominated by the "Principati" (regional States). This system of regional States (
Milan, Venice,
Florence,
Rome, Naples) maintained a political balance for most of the 15th Century, but experienced a sharp crisis following 1498 (French invasion). The
Italian Wars, fought by the
nation-states of
Spain and
France, in movable alliances with the
Italian states, gave way to the predominance of Spain and then of the
Habsburg Austrian Empire until the rise of Italian nationalism.
Napoleon's efforts in fusing Italy into a single unit inspired many local nationalists in both the north and south to seek some form of unification. This ''
risorgimento'' period in the 19th century was, for various reasons, supported by France and Great Britain, while the
Habsburg Empire was the principal target of conspirations and insurrections. Italy with the exception of Rome and Venice became a nation-state led by the King of Sardinia, from the
House of Savoy in 1861 and other charismatic leaders such as
Giuseppe Garibaldi and his famous
redshirts. After ten years of resistance from the Pope and the clergy, Rome was incorporated with the rest of Italy and made the capital of the new state, Italy was finally unified for the first time since the end of the 6th century AD. Major changes began to unfold in 1896, the country experienced unparalleled industrial growth and social progress. Following numerous conflicts including
World War I, the
Axis Alliance in
World War II along with the rise and fall of a short lived
Italian Empire, Italy emerged in its modern incarnation with borders that largely corresponded to an Italian majority population.
Origins of Italian people
The Italian peninsula has been populated by a number of people throughout history besides the original Italic tribes. The
Gauls in the north, the
Etruscans in
Central Italy (
Tuscany and parts of
Umbria and
Latium) and the
Phoenician Semites in
Sicily and
Greeks in the south preceded the
Romans, who in turn "
Latinised" the whole country and preserved unity until the 5th century AD.
After the collapse of the
Roman Empire in the West in 476 AD, the Italian peninsula was invaded by
Germanic peoples crossing the
Alps, establishing settlements in north-central Italy and to a lesser degree in the south. The Germanic tribes underwent rapid
Latinisation and were assimilated into the native
Latin-speaking majority. There is
a German minority in Northern Italy. Most Italians are descended from the Romans . The Roman Empire encompassed a large number of people that included
Greeks,
Egyptians,
Germans,
North Africans,
Celts,
Jews and
Syrians, evident by the multi-ethnicity of the Roman emperors, which for centuries prior was ruled only by Romans and Italians until the reign of
Septimius Severus in 197 AD.
The
Byzantine Greeks were an important power in Italy for five centuries, fighting for supremacy first against the
Ostrogoths and later against the Germanic
Lombards of
Benevento.
Greek speakers were fairly common in
Calabria and
Apulia until the 11th century when their rule ended: a few small Greek-speaking communities still exist in southern Italy and Sicily.
In 827 AD, the island of
Sicily was invaded starting the period of Arab influence in
Sicily and
Apulia especially
Bari. Arabs, Jews and Berbers settled
Sicily and
Apulia until the
Norman Christians (of
Viking and
Celtic origin) conquered much of southern Italy and Sicily and began converting the majority of Arab and
Siculo Muslim population and sending the remaining Muslims into exile in
Lucera were they lived until the 14th century.
Starting from the 15th to 16th centuries, southern Italy especially experienced a wave of refugees from
Albania where their descendants, language, customs and religious elements still exist in communities in
Calabria,
Apulia and
Sicily, and are collectively know as
Arbereshe.
There are still small
Greek fishing villages,
Maltese-Italian residents whose family originated from
Malta under Italian and then British rule from the 18th to the mid 20th centuries, and
Catalan communities in
Sardinia to this day.
For more than 500 years (12th to 17th centuries) after
Norman rule,
Swabian (German), and
Angevin (French) swapped control of
regions in Italy, predominately southern Italy and Sicily. During the 11th through 16th century the majority of city-states from Northern and Central Italy remained independent. This independence led to great wealth and a strong economy, the rise of courtly and papal patronage, the development of perspective in painting, and advancements in science and architect, and a revival of learning based on classical sources of Roman history and culture now known as the
Renaissance. In the 13th century, Norman rule in Sicily ended to be succeeded by the
Aragonese the
Spanish in
southern Italy. Some
Spanish features in culture and language appeared in the identity of the occupied areas.
In 1720, Sicily came under
Austrian Habsburg rule and was swapped between various European powers until Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Sicily and Southern Italy, allowing for the annexation of the former
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies into the new Italian state in 1860.
In very general terms, many Northern Italians tend to have fairer
complexions, somewhat similar to
central Europeans, along with a higher frequency of light-coloured hair (
see image) and eyes. Most Southern Italians tend to have darker features, similar to other peoples of
Southern Europe such as the
Spaniards and the
Greeks.
[ History and Geography of Human Genes, abridged paperback edition, , Luigi Luca, Cavalli-Sforza, Princeton University Press, , ] Due to population movements throughout Italy's history, these
physical characteristics are not greatly pronounced. For the
Y-chromosome and
mtDNA genetic lineages of the Italian and other peoples, see:
Y Haplogroups of the World and
Atlas of Human Journey.
Italian society and culture
Historically, Italians have been more loyal to their town and region than to the state. This is still evident in
Italian culture today, even as the
Italian language replaced the numerous
dialects and
Italic languages, such as
Sicilian,
Venetian,
Emiliano-Romagnolo,
Lombard,
Sardinian,
Piedmontese,
Ligurian (also known as
Genoese),
Friulian,
Ladin,
Franco-Provençal and
Neapolitan. Standard Italian originated in literature of the 12th to 15th centuries, and was based on the
dialects of Tuscany, along with influences of
Sicilian and
Venetian. In the 19th Century, Standard Italian became more common and helped unify the country.
Some non-Italian speaking minorities live within Italy. Thousands of
German Bavarian speakers remain in the extreme north region of
South Tyrol. Portions of the
Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region have a small
Slovene-speaking minority of
Slavic origin. A small cluster of
French-speaking people live in the province of
Aosta and a small
Catalan-speaking enclave in
Sardinia goes back five centuries after first settled by Catalans from
Catalonia in Spain. Two minor
Italic languages are spoken outside of modern Italy-
Corsican in
Corsica,
France and
Romansch in eastern
Switzerland.
Since the 19th century, the economic disparity between the industrial north and the agrarian southern and north-eastern regions resulted in mass migration from the southern regions to the Americas,
northern Italy and to other parts of Western Europe such as France and Belgium. Economic conditions in the poorer regions of Italy improved, even in the south, to the point that even the less-developed regions of the
Mezzogiorno receive immigrants rather than send immigrants outwards. Today, Italy is less urban than other countries in
Europe, with 67% of
Italians living in a major urban area- compared to 76% of
French, 88% of
Germans and 90% of
Britons. The vast majority of Italians live outside of the large (over 1,000,000 population) cities.
[3]
Some controversial recent global IQ testing (2006) suggests that Italians have the highest IQ scores in Europe.
[2]
Italian diaspora and Italians abroad
There is a history of Italians working and living outside of the Italian peninsula since ancient times. Italian bankers and traders expanded to all parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, sometimes creating outposts. Since the
Renaissance, the services of Italian architects and artists were sought by many of Europe's
noble courts. This migration, though generally small in numbers and sometimes ephemeral, pre-dates the unification of Italian states.
Italy became an important source for emigrants after 1870. More than 10 million Italians emigrated between 1870 and 1920, mostly from the country's underdeveloped southern regions and the agrarian north-east regions. In the beginning (1870-1880), the main destination of the migrants were other European countries (
France,
Switzerland,
Germany,
Belgium, the
United Kingdom and
Luxembourg), where most Italians worked for some time and then returned to Italy. Many Italians also went to the Americas, especially to
Brazil,
Argentina and the
United States. From about 1880 until the end of the early 1900s, the main destinations for Italian immigrants were
Brazil,
Argentina as well as
Uruguay and
Venezuela.
[3] Brazil was in need of workers to embrace the vast
coffee plantations, and Italian immigrants became a main source of manpower for that country. Argentina and
Uruguay were rapidly industrializing and attracting immigrants for work and settlers to populate the country. Italian immigration heavily influenced the culture and development of these countries (Today,
Argentina and
Uruguay have the highest national concentrations of Italians outside of Europe - about 50% of the population in each country).
[4] Starting in the early 20th century until the 1950s, the
United States became a main destination for Italian immigrants, settling mainly in the
New York metropolitan area, as well as cities such as
Boston,
Philadelphia,
Detroit, and
Chicago. Other countries that received large numbers of Italians, primarily from about 1940 to the 1970s, were
Australia,
Canada, and again
Venezuela. Smaller migration patterns of Italians went to
Mexico,
New Zealand,
South Africa,
Chile,
Panama and
Corsicans constituted a large proportion of immigrants to
Puerto Rico. (see
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico).
In other waves of Italian migration, from 1920 to the 1970s (peaking in the periods of WWI and WWII), Italian "
guest workers" went mostly to
Austria, Belgium, France,
West Germany, and Luxembourg.
[5] Like the earlier waves, most Italians returned to Italy, but some remained and
assimilated in these countries.
The migration of Italians has at times been very large and has influenced much of the world. It is estimated about 80 million people of Italian origin live outside Europe, primarily in the
Americas. Large numbers of Italian descendants are found in Brazil (25 million people of Italian descent), Argentina (18 million), the United States (17 million -unofficial estimates claim as many as 26 million),
[4] Australia, and
Canada.
Significant Italian
expatriate population is noted in
Cyprus,
Egypt,
Ethiopia,
Greece,
Israel,
Malta,
Morocco,
Spain,
Turkey and
South Africa. Former Italian communities once thrived in their African colonies of
Eritrea,
Somalia and
Libya (150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting about 18% of the total population) until the late 20th century.
[5] Today, with the economic assimilation of the
European Union Italians, as other
Europeans, are mobile throughout Europe and can be found in most major centres in Europe.
Within Italy
From the
Lombard invasion until the mid-nineteenth century, Italy was not the nation-state as we know it today. The landmass was fractured into various kingdoms, duchies, and domains. Over the centuries,
dialects or
regional minority languages and customs evolved differently as a result of isolation of the kingdoms from one another, and their being influenced by foreign powers. While all these states were similar in that they retained basic elements of Roman language and culture, each one built upon this ancient culture to develop their own independent culture and ethnic identity. Even to this day, Italians living in their homeland define themselves by their home region or even by their home province, and many speak the local dialect or regional language in addition to standard Italian. In the 1980s and 1990s, small regional separatist movements (that never reached more than 5% of the national vote) developed in the Northern regions of Italy (where they promoted support for a new nation-state nicknamed ''Republic of
Padania''), in
Sicily and in
Sardinia.
Italians and ''Italia irredenta''
The process of unification of the Italian people in a national State was not completed in the nineteenth century. Many Italians remained outside the borders of the
Kingdom of Italy and this created the Italian
irredentism.
Italia irredenta (Unredeemed Italy) was an
Italian nationalist opinion movement that emerged after
Italian unification. It advocated
irredentism among the Italian people as well as other nationalities who were willing to become Italian and as a movement; it is also known as ''Italian irredentism''. Not a formal organization, it was just an opinion movement that claimed that Italy had to reach its "natural borders". Similar patriotic and nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century.
Italian irredentism obtained an important result after
World War I, when Italy gained
Trieste,
Gorizia,
Istria and the city of
Zara. During WWII Italy defeated
Yugoslavia and created the "Governatorato di Dalmazia" (from 1941 to September 1943), so the Kingdom of Italy annexed temporarily Spalato (
Split), Cattaro (
Kotor) and most of coastal
Dalmatia. From 1942 to 1943 even Corsica (
Corse) and Nizza (
Nice) were temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, nearly totally fulfilling in those years the requests of the Italian irredentism.
The movement had for its avowed purpose the emancipation of all Italian lands still subject to foreign rule after
Italian unification. The Irredentists took language as the test of the alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to emancipate, which were
Trentino,
Trieste,
Dalmatia,
Istria,
Gorizia,
Ticino,
Nice (Nizza),
Corsica and
Malta.
Austria-Hungary promoted
Croatian interests in Dalmatia and Istria to weaken Italian claims in the western
Balkans before WWI. After WWII the irredentism movement has faded away in the Italian politics. Only a few thousands Italians actually remain in
Istria and
Dalmatia as a consequence of the Italian defeat in WWII and of the forced removal of Italians (
Istrian exodus) by
Tito's
Yugoslavia.
Contribution to humanity
Main articles: Italian culture,
History of Italy,
List of Italians
The people of Italy have contributed significantly to world culture and scientific, and technological, progress continuously since ancient times. In the
Arts, Italy produced some of the most influential
sculptors,
writers and
painters. Notable examples include
Michelangelo,
Dante,
Pirandello and
Raphael. Italian
composers and
musicians, such as
Vivaldi,
Rossini and
Verdi, contributed to the evolution of western music, and Italians are cited with the creation of the
opera. Great Italian
scientists include
Alessandro Volta,
Guglielmo Marconi,
Galileo and
Giordano Bruno. Italian contributions to
architecture and
engineering are unparalelled since ancient times. Renowned architects include
Brunelleschi,
Bernini and
Renzo Piano.
The rise of
humanism and modern
commerce can be attributed to conditions found in Italy during the
Renaissance. This ambience also lead to the rise of the "
universal man", of which
Leonardo da Vinci can be considered the prime example.
See also
★
List of Italians
★
List of Sardinians
★
List of Italian Jews
★
Demographics of Italy
★
Italian Citizenship
★
Italian diaspora
★
African Italians
★
Italian American
★
★
★
Italian Australians
★
Italo Brazilian
★
Britalian
★
Italian Canadians
★
★
Italians in Egypt
★
★
★
Italo-Germans
★
★
Italian Mexican
★
★
Italians of Romania
★
Italian-Scots
★
★
★
★
White Latin Americans
★
Genetic history of Europe
References
1. The Langobards and the 'Vulgares' in Historia Langobardorum
2. History of the Two Sicilies, 1735-1799
3. 2005 World Development Indicators - Urbanization
4. Order Sons of Italy in America
5. Libya - Italian colonization
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