Italy

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A nation with a long history stretching all the way back to the founding of Rome, the territory now known as Italy once hosted one of the grandest civilizations of humanity. The Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries marked a change of cultural epoch for the entire western world. The many relics and vistas from these times are considered some of Italy’s greatest treasures and features.
==History==
===Pre-War===
The country of Italy was formed in the 19th century following a 23-year long social, political and military campaign known as the Risorgimento, consolidating the various states on the Italian Peninsula into a single kingdom. Italy obtained status as a Great Power and, in the last decades of the 19th century, established colonies in Eritrea, Somalia, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. Italy was initially aligned with the Triple Alliance during the First World War, but switched sides in 1915 with promise of substantial territory gains in return. The war nearly ruined the kingdom, with over 650000 Italian soldiers lost throughout it and the country on the brink of bankruptcy. In the interwar period, fears of a socialist revolution in a similar vein to the one that had occurred in Russia in 1917 saw national endorsement of a small national fascist party. The fascists would attempt a coup in 1922, but the king would instead appoint the facist party leader as prime minister at the last minute. 
Now a dictatorship, Italy would invade Ethiopia in 1935, forming the grand colony of Italian East Africa, and would annex Albania in 1939. Following international alienation, Italy would ally with Germany and Japan first in the Pact of Steel with Germany in 1939 and later joining the Tripartite Pact in 1940, and would strongly support Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War. 
In accordance with the aforementioned pacts, Italy would join World War II with Germany in Japan. Following the Allied invasion of the island of Sicily in 1943, the fascist government in Italy would quickly collapse, and Italy would sign an agreement two months after the initial invasion ending their part in the war against the Allies. Nonetheless, fascist military forces remained in control of northern and central Italy, and the peninsula remained a battlefield throughout the end of the war. The Second World War ended with another half a million Italian soldiers killed and the Italian economy again nearly destroyed.
After the war, Italy transitioned into a republic. Italy was able to rebuild its economy thanks to American monetary aid and experienced consistently strong growth throughout the 50s and 60s, followed afterwards by economic crisis, severe national debt, social conflict, terrorist attacks and corruption scandals. The period prior to the Vannai Invasion in 2014 was marked with political turbulence.
===Human-Vannai War===
Due to its mountainous geography, Italy was less severely hit compared to other regions of Europe, but also was one of the regions that struggled with Vannai Puppets the longest as well for the very same reason. Italy received some assistance from the Green Initiative in dealing with this, but neither group interacted with the other well, with Italy claiming vandalism of various cultural sites by GI operatives and troops.
===Post-War===
Shortly before the war's end, Italy became keen to press the advantage of a relatively intact economy to flex authority over the rest of Europe, with sentiments of pulling apart from the floundering EU rather than contributing to support it if not ceded greater control. The Italian government encouraged Spain to do the same, with Spain's influence resulting from the substantial agricultural development it had undergone to address food security with France out of the picture. Spain declared its isolationist stance ahead of Italy, inviting armed intervention from the Anglo-German Alliance. Italy, having witnessed invasions of France, Spain and Portugal, abruptly changed its stance to a more cooperative one, abandoning its separatist ideal to renew a number of mutual defense and trade pacts. A few years later, Italy would become a founding member of the European Federation.
==Government==
After Italy’s accession to the European Federation, most elements of its government were removed and replaced with politicians with a more favorable stance to the EuF. As with other constituent nations, it lacks real political power, and its scope of influence is limited to local policies of very little consequence. 
==Policies==
===Military===
As a member of the Federation, Italy is required to contribute troops and equipment to the Federal Armed Forces of Europe. Prior to the war, Italy manufactured almost all of its military equipment and vehicles domestically. At the time of the 2014 invasion, Italy possessed one of the largest militaries in Europe, approximately 54% larger than the United Kingdom, 49% larger than Germany, and only 12% smaller than France.
===Economic===
Italy’s manufacturing output prior to the war was second only to Germany’s, and like Germany’s managed to stay mostly intact throughout the war. Discounting Muspelheim, Italy remains one of the European Federation’s most important contributors to overall manufacturing output. Aside from this, Italy also possesses a substantial agricultural sector, with roughly 1.6 million farms catalogued. Most of these farms are, however, very small and previously family-owned before the European Federation nationalized these farms to increase food production efficiency. Prior to the war, Italy was the world’s largest producer of wine, though the global conditions of the post-Vannai world have seen economic prospects in this sector shrink substantially.
The trend started with intense industrialization of northern Italy in the 20th century caused a rift between the north and south ends of the peninsula, with the southern end generally suffering from a slower economy and higher rates of corruption and unemployment.
===Diplomacy===
As a subject of the European Federation, matters of international policy are handled at the Federal level.
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:TE Nations
Category:Europe
Category:European Federation
Category:Italy