The Unification Of Italy In The 1970's

Italy is not the same country today compared to when it first began to establish itself on the globe. Italy was under the rule of the Roman Empire for seven centuries before finally breaking out and being the cultural center of the western part of the world for three centuries. The annexation of Venetia in 1866 and of Papal Rome in 1870 marked the complete unification of the peninsula of Italy into one nation. Italy entered World War I on the side of the allies when Germany embarked upon an offensive war. When the war ended and the dust settled, Italy had obtained far less territory than they expected to. Italy, United States, France, and Canada, along with a few other countries, were the founding members of NATO, established in 1949. However, during Italy’s economic rebuild terrorist attacks

kept threatening their domestic stability in the 1970’s.

This essay aims to prove that even through the struggle and hardships Italy has recovered and is an established, profound nation. One way Italy rebuilt and rose above their past is with tourism. Tourism is very popular in Italy, which led to famous quotes about the beauty of the country such as, “This was Venice, and the flattering and suspect beauty this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism."

Italy has had two major government forms of democratic functioning known as the First Republic and the Second Republic. The two types of democratic functioning governments start after the Second World War beginning with

the First Republic from 1948 to 1996. During the time of the First Republic, the parties dominated, rather than governed. Parties of the government have such a tremendous influence on everything in the economy and society of the country. The outcome from the First Republic is that it was run relatively like a democracy with limited decision-making. The people of Italy felt with their limited decision-making that the democracy was run more like a dictatorship than a democracy. Turmoil and problems with the First Republic led to the development and birth of the Second Republic in 1996. The disintegration of the post-war political parties between 1993 and 1996 led to the emergence of new parties. These new parties later came to be expressions of electoral majorities rather than parliamentary majorities formed after the election of 1996. Shortly after the Second Republic started, multi-party arguments and disagreements tore previous parties down and gave them the current government they are using today. The disparities resulted in the head of state being the President of the Republic who represents the nation’s unity and enforces compliance with the constitution. He is elevated every seven years by a college comprising of both chambers of parliament and three representatives from each region. The minimum age of a presidential candidate is 50 and the current president is Giogio Napolitano who took office in 2006.
Italy has not always been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to their military power and it did not flourish until recently. Italy is currently ranked number ten in the global fire power rankings that factors in manpower, land, air, and naval systems. Italy’s growing military power comes with a huge expansion of their air defense system program. Recently in 2007, Italy added the Spada 2000-Plus to their arsenal of air defense equipping 10 batteries with the system. The Spada 2000 Plus is a medium-range surface-to-air missile. "The Spada 2000 is an all-weather, day and night, highly automated, advanced air defense system." The security provided from the Spada 200 Plus was only for short range threats which led Italy in need of a system to cover the medium range threats. In order to cover further range, the Aster 30-SAMP/T joined the air defense fight. This system is the 21st century’s main mobile defense weapon replacing all existing medium range ground-to-air systems. Italy is currently operating with six batteries equipped with the SAMP/T weapon system. Italy’s most recent deployment of the SAMP/T system is June 2016 on the Turkish-Syrian border in the wake of the ongoing threat from Syria. With the protection provided to Turkey from the Italian missile defense, they can sleep safely under their blanket of freedom at night with SAMP/T system protecting them.
One of the reasons Italy has made such an economic recovery over the years is due to their export economy ranked 7th in the world. During the past five years, the exports of Italy have increased at a tremendous rate of 0.8% every year, bringing their total exports from $427B in 2010 to $446B in 2015. Top exports of Italy have a large range a variation from Packaged Medicaments, Cars, and Refined Petroleum makes up the bulk of their exports. With all the exportation of goods, one of the top three destinations for those exports is the United States spending around $43B annually. With Italy’s exports growing at a favorable rate, their imports are decreasing just as fast from $474B in 2010 down to $404B in 2015 which is an annual decrease of 3.3%. Trade goods are not the only source for Italy. The amount of tourist that visited Italy in 2015 made them the 5th most-visited country in the world. Italy is on track in 2016 to set a record breaking tourism record based on the fact that tourist that visit Italy feel safe there compared to surrounding countries, such as Turkey and France, that were targeted with recent terrorist attacks.
Italy is a country that has fought for everything they have today, including the land they live on and their thriving economy. People have thought immensely that Italy and Rome are great places to live and visit and Italy is emerging as one of the world’s greatest countries. “Rome will exist as long as the Coliseum does; when the Coliseum falls, so will Rome; when Rome falls, so will the world”. Italy has not yet reached its pinnacle of growth yet, but is still growing in every aspect from economics to military power. They continue to do more and reinforce themselves with security by branching out and helping NATO forces and any allies they possibly can. Now becoming more educated on the history and background of where Italy has come from to where it is today is truly remarkable and unbelievable.