Italy

Italy was a human nation that existed in Southern Europe on Earth in the Sol System. The country was on a peninsula surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Countries Italy shared land borders with included France, Germany, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.

Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures throughout human history. The Italian peninsula was the centre of the Roman Empire, which emerged as humanity's greatest political and military power during the 1st century BC.

During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured the fall of the Western Roman Empire and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century numerous rival city-states and maritime republics, mainly in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through trade, commerce, and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism. These mostly independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East, often enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe; however, part of central Italy was under the control of the theocratic Papal States, while Southern Italy remained largely feudal until the 19th century, partially as a result of a succession of Byzantine, Arab, Norman, Angevin, Aragonese, and other foreign conquests of the region. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars, artists, and polymaths. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Nevertheless, Italy's commercial and political power significantly waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of foreign meddling and conquest, and the rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left Italy politically fragmented, and it was further conquered and divided among multiple foreign European powers over the centuries.

By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was almost entirely unified in 1861 following a war of independence, establishing the Kingdom of Italy. In 1870 the newly-unified Italy captured its historical capital of Rome from the Papal States. Italy, whose constituent states had largely industrialised before unification, soon became a European great power.

In 1882 Italy secretly formed the Triple Alliance with the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In 1884 Italy made its first successful manned orbital spaceflight from a spaceport established in Sardinia.

In 1902 Italy made its first successful landing on Mars, sending an expedition of 50 astronauts to the planet's Utopia Planitia region.

In 1913 Italy deployed its first orbital weapons platform.

Italy did not immediately join the Great War when it began in 1914. Despite forming the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, the alliance with Austria-Hungary remained purely formal as the Italians were keen to acquire Trentino and Trieste, corners of Austria-Hungary populated by Italians. Italy therefore accepted an invitation from Great Britain to join the Allied Powers in 1915, as the western powers promised territorial compensation (at the expense of Austria-Hungary) for participation that was more generous than Vienna's offer in exchange for Italian neutrality.

The Great War ended in 1916 with an exchange of orbital weapons and long-range rockets which led to widespread destruction in Europe. The Italian capital of Rome was targeted and destroyed by orbital strikes by the Central Powers in retaliation for its allegiance with Britain and France. The destruction of Rome led to the deaths of King Victor Emmanuel III, much of his line of succession, and many government and military officials. Around 650,000 Italian soldiers died during the conventional phase of the war in 1915 and early 1916, while one million Italians - the vast majority of them civilians - were killed in the orbital strike on Rome.

Faced with a succession crisis in which no legitimate successor to Victor Emmanuel III could be found, Italy changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic in 1917. The capital of Italy was moved to Florence, which had escaped destruction during the war. The Catholic Church, which had been based in the Vatican in Rome, redesignated the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi as a major basilica and moved its base to the town of Assisi.

Representatives of Italy participated in the negotiations with the former Great War combatants in Switzerland, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Geneva in 1918

In 1918, Italy entered into negotiations with the new government of Yugoslavia over the status of the city of Trieste, which was historically Italian and had been part of the now-collapsed Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy joined the League of Nations as a founding member in 1919. To resolve the dispute over Trieste, both Italy and Yugoslavia agreed in 1920 to have the city governed under an international League of Nations mandate.

Although the years following the Great War were challenging for Italy, as they were for most other nations due to the decades-long post-war economic depression, the fact that Italy had only lost a single city during the conflict left the country in a much better condition than most other nations in Europe. With a large amount of its industry still intact, Italy had the largest national economy in Europe for around a decade after the Great War until the larger economies of Great Britain, France and then eventually Germany recovered. Despite this, Italy did still experience significant internal instability. In 1922 a group of fascist rebels led by Benito Mussolini - angry at the government's failure to obtain all of the territories that had been promised to Italy by the Western Allies in return for its participation in the Great War, as well as by the fact that the Allies had not distributed any of the German or Ottoman territories captured on Mars and Venus to Italy - attempted a coup against the government in Florence. However, the fascists were quickly defeated as the government continued to have the support of the Italian military.

Italy was a founding member of the European Union in 1951.

In 1963, Italy established an interplanetary colony on Mars.

In 1968, the supranational political and economic structures of the European Union and the Commonwealth of Nations were combined to form the United Commonwealth.

When the Cramori Empire launched its opening round of attacks on the Sol System using biological weapons in 1976, more than 500,000 Italian settlers were among nearly 130 million humans killed on Mars.

The government of the United Commonwealth federalised in 1988. The Italian government was therefore effectively absorbed into the United Commonwealth Government in 1988, and Italy is largely regarded to have ceased to exist as a separate nation-state on that date.