Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1765-90
Enlightenment leader Leopold I continues his mother Maria Theresa's reforms. Moved by
Cesare Beccaria's case for criminal justice reform, he makes Tuscany the first sovereign
state to outlaw the death penalty.
1796-1801
Italy becomes a battleground between Napoleon, the Habsburgs and their Russian allies,
and Tuscans witness much of their cultural patrimony divvied up as spoils of war.
1805-14
Napoleon establishes himself as king of Italy, with the military assistance of Italian sol-
diers he'd conscripted; when his conscripts desert, Napoleon loses Tuscany to Grand Duke
Ferdinando III in 1814.
1861
Two decades of insurrections culminate in a new Italian government, with a parliament
and a king. Florence becomes Italy's capital in 1865, despite widespread poverty and peri-
odic bread riots.
1871
After French troops are withdrawn from Rome, the forces of the Kingdom of Italy defeat the
Papal States to take power in Rome; the capital moves there from Florence.
1915
Italy enters WWI fighting a familiar foe: the Austro-Hungarian Empire. War casualties,
stranded POWs, heating-oil shortages and food rationing make for a hard-won victory by
1918.
1921
Mussolini forms the Fascist Party, and Tuscan supporters fall in line by 1922. The 1924
elections are 'overseen' by Fascist paramilitary groups, and the Fascists win a parliament-
ary majority.
1940-43
The Fascist Italian Empire joins Germany in declaring war on Great Britain and France.
The Italian government surrenders in 1943; Mussolini refuses to comply and war contin-
ues.
