page_title: Italians
section_title: The Kingdom of Italy
hierarchical_section_title: Italians / History / The Kingdom of Italy
caption_attribution_description: La partenza da Quarto.
context_page_description: Italians are a Romance ethnic group and nation native to the Italian geographical region and its neighbouring insular territories. Italians share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. Legally, Italian nationals are citizens of Italy, regardless of ancestry or nation of residence and may be distinguished from ethnic Italians in general or people of Italian descent without Italian citizenship and from ethnic Italians living in territories adjacent to the Italian peninsula without Italian citizenship.
  The majority of Italian nationals are native speakers of the country's official language, Italian, or a regional variety thereof. However, many of them also speak a regional or minority language native to Italy, the existence of which predates the national language. Although there is disagreement on the total number, according to UNESCO there are approximately 30 languages native to Italy, although many are often misleadingly referred to as "Italian dialects".
context_section_description: After the Battle of Waterloo, the reaction set in with the Congress of Vienna allowed the restoration of many of the old rulers and systems under Austrian domination. The concept of nationalism continued strong, however, and sporadic outbreaks led by such inveterate reformers as Giuseppe Mazzini occurred in several parts of the peninsula down to 1848–49. This Risorgimento movement was brought to a successful conclusion under the guidance of Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, prime minister of Piedmont.
  Cavour managed to unite most of Italy under the headship of Victor Emmanuel II of the house of Savoy, and on 17 March 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel II as king. Giuseppe Garibaldi, the popular republican hero of Italy, contributed much to this achievement and to the subsequent incorporation of the Papal States under the Italian monarch. Italian troops occupied Rome in 1870, and in July 1871, this formally became the capital of the kingdom. Pope Pius IX, a longtime rival of Italian kings, stated he had been made a "prisoner" inside the Vatican walls and refused to cooperate with the royal administration. Only in 1929 did the Roman Pope accept the unified Italy with Rome as capital.
  World War I has been interpreted as completing the process of Italian unification, with the annexation of Trieste, Istria, Trentino-Alto Adige and Zara. After World War I, Italy emerged as one of the four great powers after the victory of the Allies.
  In the decades following unification, Italy began creating colonies in Africa, and under Benito Mussolini's fascist regime conquered Ethiopia, founding the Italian Empire in 1936. The population of Italy grew to 45 millions in 1940 and the economy, which had been based upon agriculture until that time, started its industrial development, mainly in northern Italy. But World War II soon destroyed Italy and its colonial power.
caption: The Expedition of the Thousand.
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