Italian History

This is the discussion about Italian history, from the greek colonies in 7th century BC to now. That's it.

I always found interesting how Italy began having several Merchant Republics in several areas and had more and more centralized governments (Venice, Genoa, Pisa) while the rest of Europe was developing into decentralized Feudal societies. Why did it occur mainly in Italy and have such a different form of government compared to the rest of Europe during the Middle Ages?

The traditional 4 merchant republics (Amalfi, Genoa, Pisa and Venice), which in 11th century became two and in 14th three (with the disappear first of Amalfi and then of Pisa), were an exceptional kind of state in medieval Europe. They took profit of the feudal decentralization of the Holy Roman Empire to gain more and more autonomy and at the same time having a key role in the Mediterranean commerce (and not only mediterranean). Basically that's it.

To think these guys used to own one of the biggest empires in europe, only to be destroyed by a bunch of barbarians.

Rare color image of sensitive documents of the Italian Social Republic being shredded before the Allies march into the de jure capital of Salò, 1945.