History History

The human presence in Italy is attested since the Lower Palaeolithic. In Emilia-Romagna, the foothills of the Apennines have yielded several archaeological sites of great importance for the study of Italian Prehistory. On Mount Poggiolo, in the province of Forlì-Cesena, a site of stone extraction and working, exploited in 800,000 BC, has been identified: thousands of lithic instruments have been found there. Near Bologna, in San Lazzaro di Savena, other stone tools dating back nearly a million years have been discovered.

In the Neolithic period (c. 3500-2000 BC), people settled down; traces of settlements consisting of hut villages have been found in the Padana plain during archaeological excavations.

The Iron Age in Italy began in the 9th century B.C. with the flourishing of the Villanova civilization, whose cultural facies has been identified in Villanova near Bologna. The Villanovians practiced the cremation of the dead, whose ashes were collected in a biconical urn. They establish hut villages in the Po plain, but also in Tuscany and northern Lazio.

Specialists today agree that the Etruscans were not invaders, but the descendants of the Villanovians, who mixed with populations that had arrived from outside and distinguished themselves, giving rise to an original civilization that stretched from Lazio to the Po plain. Bologna(Felsina) and Parma are Etruscan foundations. On the Adriatic coast, Spina is a trading post where Greeks and Etruscans exchange goods. The Etruscans enjoyed great economic prosperity, culminating in the 7th century B.C., thanks to the exploitation and trade of copper and iron ores from Tuscany and the island of Elba. They exported bronze objects and ceramics around the Mediterranean and often faced competition from the Greeks and Carthaginians. They seem to have had a great influence on Roman culture, especially in the fields of art and divination. A good example of their divinatory practices can be found in Piacenza: the "liver of Piacenza" is a bronze reproduction of a bovine liver covered with inscriptions, a sort of copion that should guide the haruspice in its reading of the animal entrails in order to interpret the will of the gods. However, the decline of the Etruscan civilization began in 396 B.C., with the capture of Veias by Rome, while in the north the continuous incursions of Celtic tribes (Lingons, Senons and Boys) weakened the centres of the Po plain. It is to the Celts that we owe the introduction of pig farming in northern Italy.

In order to counter the Celtic threat, Rome founded in 268 BC. Ariminum (Rimini) on the Adriatic coast. From there, it began the conquest of the Po plain. Between 191 and 187 B.C., the Roman consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus embarked on an important publishing venture: the opening of a communication route effectively linking Piacenza to Rimini, a straight axis crossing the plain following a diagonal that runs along the first hills of the Apennines: this is the Via Emilia, named after the consul and which will bequeath his name to the region. Its course crosses a series of rivers descending from the Apennines; at their intersection the main inhabited centres develop: Fidentia (Fidenza), Regium Lepidi (Reggio Emilia), Mutina (Modena), Bononia (Bologna), Forum Cornelii (Imola), Faventia (Faenza), Forum Livii (Forlì), Caesena (Cesena). The Po plain was then part of the province of Cisalpine Gaul.

Under Emperor Augustus (31 BC - 14 AD), the territories corresponding approximately to present-day Emilia-Romagna formed the administrative district of Regio VIII Aemilia. The military port of Classe, near Ravenna, is home to the largest Roman fleet in the eastern Mediterranean. In the year 215, an administrative reorganisation separatedAemilia, between Piacenza and Bologna, from Flaminia to the east, foreshadowing the historical distinction between Emilia and Romagna.

In the 4th century, Christianity, whose practice was legitimised under Constantine, who promulgated the Edict of Tolerance of Milan in 313, spread throughout the Empire, while the ecclesiastical organisation was set up. It became the state religion in 392 under Emperor Theodosius. At his death, his sons shared the Empire: Arcadius reigned over the Eastern Roman Empire from Constantinople; Honorius ruled the Western Roman Empire, whose capital was transferred from Milan to Ravenna in 402. This was the dawn of a flourishing artistic period for the Romagna city and its classy port, as witnessed even today by its religious buildings decorated with splendid mosaics.

In 476, the Western Roman Empire collapsed: the last emperor, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by the barbarian Odoacre at the head of an Ostrogothic army. The peninsula will know dark ages: from Constantinople, the emperor Justinian (527-565) wants to reconstitute the Roman Empire; the Italian territory is then ravaged by the fights which oppose his troops to those of the Ostrogoths. The arrival of the Lombards in Italy from 568 put an end to the Greco-Gothic wars: Emilia came under their domination and Parma was erected as a duchy, while Romagna remained under the control of Byzantium until 751 with the Lombard conquest of Ravenna.

In Rome, the popes worried about the Lombard advance and appealed to the Franks. Their interventions in the peninsula, in 758 under Pepin the Short and then in 774 under Charlemagne, will be at the origin of the Papal States. These were conquered and given by the two Carolingian sovereigns on the basis of a false text ("the Donation of Constantine") used by the Papacy to legitimise its authority over the West. The exarchate of Ravenna, claimed by Byzantium, was thus integrated into the Papal States, while Emilia came under Carolingian domination and its territory was organised into a series of fiefdoms. Crowned emperor in Rome in 800, Charlemagne became the master of the north of the peninsula as well as the protector of the papacy.

With the decline of the Carolingian Empire began a long period of turmoil for Italy. As central power cracked, bishops administered the cities while the countryside was bristling with castles from which feudal lords dominated their fiefdoms. One noble family dominated the political panorama of the region in the 10th and 11th centuries: the Canossa, who owned many lands on both sides of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, from Ferrara and Mantua to the Marquisate of Tuscany. His most famous figure is Matilda of Canossa, who intervened directly in the Quarrel of the Investitures (1075-1122). This conflict pitted the Pope and the Emperor against each other over the investiture of the clergy. Indeed, since the 10th century and the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire by Otto I, it is the Emperor who appoints the bishops on his territory. Pope Gregory VII accused Emperor Henry IV of serving his own interests by entrusting ecclesiastical offices to corrupt figures and the conflict broke out. Matilda of Canossa supports the papal cause, but organizes the meeting of the two sovereigns in her fiefdom of Canossa in order to reach a compromise (the peace reached will however be short-lived, the conflict continues until 1122, when the successor of Henry IV renounces his power of investiture).

The Holy Roman Empire, born on the ashes of Carolingian East Francia and founded in 962 by Otto I, comprises a vast territory stretching from the North Sea to the Papal States. In northern and central Italy, from the year 1000 onwards, the cities experienced a tremendous boom linked to a new economic vitality and the resumption of large-scale trade along the communication routes. They wanted to emancipate themselves from all external power and defend their communal freedoms: this period is called the Age of the Communes. It was also a time of cultural renewal, with the triumph of the Romanesque style, expressed in the cathedrals of Modena, Parma and Ferrara, while in 1088 the first university in the world was founded in Bologna. This desire for independence was not to the liking of Emperor Frederick I of Hohenstaufen, known as Barbarossa, who wanted to restore his hegemony over the territories of the Holy Roman Empire and began a military campaign in Italy. But the communes of Lombardy did not listen to him and organised resistance: they founded the Lombard League, which was joined by several cities of Emilia, including Parma, Bologna and Piacenza. In 1176, at the Battle of Legnano, the League defeated the imperial army and Frederick Barbarossa was forced to sign the Peace of Constance in 1183, in which he recognised communal liberties within the Empire.

However, the peace was short-lived: with the accession of Frederick II Hohenstaufen to the imperial throne, conflicts with the papacy resumed and the cities of northern Italy were dragged into turmoil, taking sides with the emperor (the Ghibellines) or the pope (the Guelphs). In this climate of civil war and internal struggles, which weakened the municipalities, large families emerged, causing the lordships that were to govern the north and centre of the peninsula: these were the Este family in Ferrara and Modena, the Malatesta family in Rimini, the De Polenta family in Ravenna, the Pepoli family and the Bentivoglio family in Bologna, while Parma and Piacenza came under the domination of Milan and the Visconti family, followed in 1450 by the Sforza family.

These great families enthusiastically welcomed the Renaissance wind blowing from the city of Florence, on the other side of the Apennines. In Ferrara, which they governed from 1208 to 1598, the Dukes of Este were enlightened patrons of the city from the Castello Estense, which housed a sumptuous court imbued with the spirit of the Renaissance. They embellished the city and promoted the arts and letters, encouraging the birth of a prestigious school of painting, whose major representatives included Cosmè Tura and Ercole de' Roberti

In 1499 Cesare Borgia, son of the sulphurous Pope Alexander Borgia, began a series of military campaigns in Romagna and conquered Forlì and Imola, which became part of the Papal States. In 1506 Bologna was annexed by Pope Julius II.

In 1598, Ferrara came back under the control of the Holy See and the Este, driven out of the city, withdrew to Modena. The territory of present-day Emilia-Romagna was then divided into three: Bologna and Romagna belonged to the Church; the Duchy of Modena and Reggio was governed by the House of Este; the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza was occupied by the Farnese. In 1545, in fact, Pope Paul III Farnese created the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza and gave it to his son Pier Luigi. His successors gave Parma the face of a small capital; their desire to assert their dominance is illustrated by the ambitious project (still unfinished) of the Palazzo della Pilotta

This tripartition roughly defines the geopolitical aspect of the territory until the unification of Italy in 1861... if we exclude the Napoleonic interlude! From 1796 onwards, Napoleon's French troops entered Italy and the Cispadane Republic was founded, bringing together the duchies of Modena and Reggio, the cities of Bologna and Ferrara, and the duchy of Milan. The Cispadane Republic adopts the tricolour green-white-red flag, ancestor of the Italian flag (but the stripes are horizontal). It is dissolved in 1815 following the Congress of Vienna. But the ferment of a national consciousness is now in the minds and the idea of Italian unity is gaining ground. It took shape during the War of Independence which broke out in 1859: the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia drove the Austrians out of Italian territory, the dukedoms of Emilia were dissolved and the Pope's legates were forced to leave Bologna and Romagna; these territories were annexed to the kingdom of Victor-Emmanuel II in 1860 and the following year the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed.

The Padanian plain is being industrialized and intensive agriculture and livestock farming are practiced. A vast programme of reclamation of the marshy lands near Ferrara is being undertaken. The old ramparts enclosing the towns are demolished, giving way to ring roads

In 1883, Benito Mussolini was born near Forlì. Nourished by socialist ideals, which found fertile ground in this laborious Padanian plain where workers and farmers were associated in cooperatives, he gradually distanced himself from the Socialist Party and was even excluded from it when he declared himself in favour of Italy's entry into the war in 1914. In the aftermath of the First World War, he founded the Italian Battle Groups in Milan. Fascism feeds on socio-economic problems. Social unrest, violence and governmental instability benefited Mussolini who, on 28 October 1922, organised, with his Black Shirts, the March on Rome. On October 30, King Victor Emmanuel III called him to power: Mussolini becomes the strong man of the state and imposes a veritable fascist dictatorship. In June 1940, the Duce sided with Hitler and Italy entered the war, but very soon there was a certain lack of popular support, first of all at the level of public opinion in the country. As for the army, badly prepared, it goes from defeat to defeat. Popular protest even reached the ranks of the Fascist Party, which in July 1943 deposed Mussolini, while a new Italian government negotiated an armistice with the Allies. Warned, Germany sent its troops to occupy Rome and southern Italy. Mussolini, for his part, reconstituted a fascist state in the north of the country with the help of the Nazis: the Republic of Salo. However, in the summer of 1944, the Allies landed in southern Italy and advanced from victory to victory, pushing the Nazis back behind the Gothic Line, a system of fortifications built by the Germans and running from Rimini to La Spezia. Partisan movements, particularly active in Emilia-Romagna, supported the Allies against the Nazis. Emblematic: the massacre at Marzabotto, in the Apennines of Bologna, when 1,830 civilians were killed by the Nazis in 1944 in reprisal for the actions of the Italian partisans. On April 25, 1945, the German army in Italy surrendered. Three days later, Mussolini, who had been arrested near Como while attempting to flee, was summarily executed.

After the Second World War, an institutional referendum abolished the monarchy and confirmed the birth of the Italian Republic. In 1947, at the same time as the Republican Constitution was adopted, Emilia and Romagna were united into a single region.

This term applies to particularly turbulent and difficult years in Italy. They begin with theAutunno Caldo ("Hot Autumn") of 1969, during which strikes, demonstrations and riots followed one another. Things gradually got worse, and Italy had to face violent and uncontrollable activism, involving the Red Brigades and small right-wing groups. In 1978, Prime Minister Aldo Moro, kidnapped by the Red Brigades, was assassinated following the government's refusal to negotiate. The bloodiest episode of this period was, in 1980, the "Strage di Bologna", the terrorist attack on the Bologna railway station, in which 85 people were killed and many injured. By 1985, with the vitality of the Italian economy, terrorism was virtually eradicated. But Italy was then faced with a series of scandals that revealed the extent of the mafia's stranglehold on the country's economic and political circles. Operation Mani Pulite ("Clean Hands") aimed to clean up political and public life.

Italy signs the Maastricht Treaty establishing the European Union, which it then presides over during the first half of 1996.

In May, Emilia-Romagna is hit by a series of earthquakes. The strongest tremor, of magnitude 6, took place on 20 May and mainly affected the provinces of Modena and Ferrara, which suffered several casualties, injuries and significant material damage. The damage is significant: it affects not only buildings and monuments, but also the agri-food sector with, among other things, the loss of 300 000 millstones of Parmigiano Reggiano, damaged by the disaster.

Following the 2018 parliamentary elections, no absolute majority is emerging. Negotiations lasted for months and resulted in the Conte I Government, composed of a coalition between the 5-Star Movement (left-wing party) and the League (party from right to far right) and governed by Giuseppe Conte, the President of the Council of Ministers. However, the antagonism between the two ruling parties, whose ideology and programmes are different and even opposed, weakens the government. The M5S fell sharply in the polls, while Matteo Salvini, Minister of the Interior and head of the League, increased his popularity by increasing his appearances, particularly in his fight against immigration. The break-up took place on 8 August 2019 : Salvini announces the end of the coalition and calls for early parliamentary elections; he hopes to take advantage of the favourable situation of the League in the voting intentions to obtain a majority in the ballot. The reaction of the left was not long in coming: on 10 August, the Democratic Party proposed a coalition with the M5S with a view to forming a new government. The Conte II Government obtained votes of confidence from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and took office on 5 September 2019.

The post-fascist, far-right Fratelli d'Italia party won a clear majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, led by Giorgia Meloni, with more than 44% of the vote.

Feminist, young and radical: Elly Schlein, at 37, is the new leader of the Italian left. She studied law in Bologna, the city at the heart of the left in the country, and forged her political activism.

Floods were caused by unprecedented rainfall (6 months of rain fell in 3 days) and historic floods throughout Emilia Romagna. The toll: 14 dead, 36,000 evacuated and nearly 500 roads cut off, especially around Ravenna.