vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Italian Empire
In the Balkans , the Fascist regime claimed Dalmatia and held ambitions over Albania , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Vardar Macedonia , and Greece based on the precedent of previous Roman dominance in these regions . Dalmatia and Slovenia were to be directly annexed into Italy while the remainder of the Balkans was to be transformed into Italian client states . The regime also sought to establish protective patron - client relationships with Austria , Hungary , Romania , and Bulgaria .
Modern history
However , the crisis did not exist in a void ; it came after a long series of diplomatic clashes between the Great Powers over European and colonial issues in the decade prior to 1914 which had left tensions high . The diplomatic clashes can be traced to changes in the balance of power in Europe since 1870 . An example is the Baghdad Railway which was planned to connect the Ottoman Empire cities of Konya and Baghdad with a line through modern - day Turkey , Syria and Iraq . The railway became a source of international disputes during the years immediately preceding World War I . Although it has been argued that they were resolved in 1914 before the war began , it has also been argued that the railroad was a cause of the First World War . Fundamentally the war was sparked by tensions over territory in the Balkans . Austria - Hungary competed with Serbia and Russia for territory and influence in the region and they pulled the rest of the great powers into the conflict through their various alliances and treaties . The Balkan Wars were two wars in South - eastern Europe in 1912 -- 1913 in the course of which the Balkan League ( Bulgaria , Montenegro , Greece , and Serbia ) first captured Ottoman - held remaining part of Thessaly , Macedonia , Epirus , Albania and most of Thrace and then fell out over the division of the spoils , with incorporation of Romania this time . Various
Third Rome
Giuseppe Mazzini , Italian nationalist and patriot , promoted the notion of the `` Third Rome '' during the Risorgimento . He said , `` After the Rome of the emperors , after the Rome of the Popes , there will come the Rome of the people '' , addressing Italian unification and the establishment of Rome as the capital . After the unification of Italy into the Kingdom of Italy , the state was referred to as the Third Rome by Italian figures .
Causes of World War II
Expansionism is the doctrine of expanding the territorial base ( or economic influence ) of a country , usually by means of military aggression . In Europe , Italy under Benito Mussolini sought to create a New Roman Empire based around the Mediterranean . It invaded Albania in early 1939 , at the start of the war , and later invaded Greece . Italy had also invaded Ethiopia as early as 1935 . This provoked angry words and an oil embargo from the League of Nations , which failed .
Military history of Italy during World War II
Some 28 Italian divisions participated in the Balkan invasions . The coast of Yugoslavia was occupied by the Italian Army , while the rest of the country was divided between the Axis forces ( a German and Italian puppet State of Croatia was created , under the nominal sovereignty of Prince Aimone , Duke of Aosta , but actually governed by the Croatian fascist Ante Pavelić ) . The Italians assumed control of most of Greece with their 11th Army , while the Bulgarians occupied the northern provinces and the Germans the strategically most important areas . Italian troops would occupy parts of Greece and Yugoslavia until the Italian armistice with the Allies in September 1943 .
Geography of Asia
Since the 18th century Asia has been divided into several subregions independently defined from Asia as a whole . There have been no historical consensus and there is not now any universal consensus on the use of these terms , just as there is none for the word `` Asia '' .
Italian Empire
`` The bars of this prison are Corsica , Tunisia , Malta , and Cyprus . The guards of this prison are Gibraltar and Suez . Corsica is a pistol pointed at the heart of Italy ; Tunisia at Sicily . Malta and Cyprus constitute a threat to all our positions in the eastern and western Mediterrean . Greece , Turkey , and Egypt have been ready to form a chain with Great Britain and to complete the politico - military encirclement of Italy . Thus Greece , Turkey , and Egypt must be considered vital enemies of Italy 's expansion ... The aim of Italian policy , which can not have , and does not have continental objectives of a European territorial nature except Albania , is first of all to break the bars of this prison ... Once the bars are broken , Italian policy can only have one motto -- to march to the oceans . '' --
Macedonia (terminology)
Macedonia or Macedon , the ancient kingdom , was centered on the fertile plains west of the Gulf of Salonica ; the first Macedonian state emerged in the 8th or early 7th century BC . Its extent beyond the center varied ; some Macedonian kings could not hold their capital ; Philip II expanded his power until it reached from Epirus , across Thrace to Gallipoli , and from Thermopylae to the Danube . His son Alexander the Great conquered most of the land in southwestern Asia stretching from what is currently Turkey in the west to parts of India in the east . However , while Alexander 's conquests are of major historical importance as having launched the Hellenistic Age , Macedon as a state had no significant territorial gains due to them . Alexander 's kingdom fell apart after his death in 323 BC ; several of his Successors attempted to form a kingdom for themselves in Macedonia ; the kingdom formed by Antigonus Gonatas contained all the land Philip II had started with and controlled much of what is now modern Greece ; it lasted until the Romans divided it into four republics in 168 BC . Roman
Romance languages
Although Italy also had some colonial possessions before World War II , its language did not remain official after the end of the colonial domination . As a result , Italian outside of Italy and Switzerland is now spoken only as a minority language by immigrant communities in North and South America and Australia . In some former Italian colonies in Africa -- namely Libya , Eritrea and Somalia -- it is spoken by a few educated people in commerce and government .
Renaissance
By the 15th century , writers , artists , and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations that were taking place and were using phrases such as modi antichi ( in the antique manner ) or alle romana et alla antica ( in the manner of the Romans and the ancients ) to describe their work . In the 1330s Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua ( ancient ) and to the Christian period as nova ( new ) . From Petrarch 's Italian perspective , this new period ( which included his own time ) was an age of national eclipse . Leonardo Bruni was the first to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People ( 1442 ) . Bruni 's first two periods were based on those of Petrarch , but he added a third period because he believed that Italy was no longer in a state of decline . Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire ( 1439 -- 1453 ) .
Italian Empire
Mussolini entered World War II on the side of Adolf Hitler with plans to enlarge Italy 's territorial holdings . He had designs on an area of western Yugoslavia , southern France , Corsica , Malta , Tunisia , part of Algeria , an Atlantic port in Morocco , French Somaliland and British Egypt and Sudan . Mussolini also mentioned to Italo Balbo his ambitions of capturing British and French territories in the Cameroons and founding an Italian Cameroon , in the hope that Italy could establish a colony on the Atlantic coast of Africa .
Middle Ages
The Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent during the 2nd century AD ; the following two centuries witnessed the slow decline of Roman control over its outlying territories . Economic issues , including inflation , and external pressure on the frontiers combined to create the Crisis of the Third Century , with emperors coming to the throne only to be rapidly replaced by new usurpers . Military expenses increased steadily during the 3rd century , mainly in response to the war with the Sasanian Empire , which revived in the middle of the 3rd century . The army doubled in size , and cavalry and smaller units replaced the Roman legion as the main tactical unit . The need for revenue led to increased taxes and a decline in numbers of the curial , or landowning , class , and decreasing numbers of them willing to shoulder the burdens of holding office in their native towns . More bureaucrats were needed in the central administration to deal with the needs of the army , which led to complaints from civilians that there were more tax - collectors in the empire than tax - payers .
Republic
Italy was the most densely populated area of Europe , and also one with the weakest central government . Many of the towns thus gained considerable independence and adopted commune forms of government . Completely free of feudal control , the Italian city - states expanded , gaining control of the rural hinterland . The two most powerful were the Republic of Venice and its rival the Republic of Genoa . Each were large trading ports , and further expanded by using naval power to control large parts of the Mediterranean . It was in Italy that an ideology advocating for republics first developed . Writers such as Bartholomew of Lucca , Brunetto Latini , Marsilius of Padua , and Leonardo Bruni saw the medieval city - states as heirs to the legacy of Greece and Rome .
Axis powers
Mussolini on 29 May 1940 discussed the situation of the Italian Army in which he acknowledged that it was not ideal but believed that it was satisfactory , and discussed the timeline for a declaration of war on Britain and France . He said : `` a delay of two weeks or a month would not be an improvement , and Germany could think we entered the war when the risk was very small ... And this could be a burden on us when peace comes . ''
Horn of Africa
Modern Ethiopia and its current borders are a result of significant territorial reduction in the north and expansion in the east and south toward its present borders , owing to several migrations , commercial integration , treaties as well as conquests , particularly by Emperor Menelik II and Ras Gobena . From the central province of Shoa , Menelik set off to subjugate and incorporate ' the lands and people of the South , East and West into an empire . ' He did this with the help of Ras Gobena 's Shewan Oromo militia , began expanding his kingdom to the south and east , expanding into areas that had not been held since the invasion of Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al - Ghazi , and other areas that had never been under his rule , resulting in the borders of Ethiopia of today . Menelik had signed the Treaty of Wichale with Italy in May 1889 , in which Italy would recognize Ethiopia 's sovereignty so long as Italy could control a small area of northern Tigray ( part of modern Eritrea ) . In return Italy , was to provide Menelik with arms and support him as emperor . The Italians used the time between the signing of the treaty and its ratification by the Italian government to further expand their territorial claims . Italy began a state funded program of resettlement for landless Italians in Eritrea , which increased tensions between the Eritrean peasants and the Italians . This conflict erupted in the Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896 , in which Italy 's colonial forces were defeated by the Ethiopians .
Concordat of Worms
This takes only Germany into account , though . As for Burgundy and Italy , elections were to be held without interference by the Emperor , and consecration and investiture by the ecclesial superior would , here , precede the investiture with the scepter which was to follow some time afterwards . Thus , by the Pope accepting the German bishops to be nominated with a large amount of secular influence , his right was recognized to freely choose the bishops in the other parts of the Empire , especially in Imperial Italy at the very doors of the Papal States . To see in the Concordat of Worms mere face - saving of the Church is thus not correct .
Punic Wars
This new - found Punic militarism alarmed many Romans , including Cato the Elder who , after a voyage to Carthage , ended all his speeches , no matter what the topic , by saying : `` Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam '' -- `` And I also think that Carthage must be destroyed '' .
Axis powers
At its zenith during World War II , the Axis presided over territories that occupied large parts of Europe , North Africa , and East Asia . There were no three - way summit meetings and cooperation and coordination was minimal , with slightly more between Germany and Italy . The war ended in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis powers and the dissolution of their alliance . As in the case of the Allies , membership of the Axis was fluid , with some nations switching sides or changing their degree of military involvement over the course of the war .
Meroë
The next recorded contact between Rome and Meroë was in the autumn of 61 CE . The Emperor Nero sent a party of Praetorian soldiers under the command of a tribune and two centurions into this country , who reached the city of Meroë where they were given an escort , then proceeded up the White Nile until they encountered the swamps of the Sudd . This marked the limit of Roman penetration into Africa .
Revolutions of 1830
Insurrected provinces planned to unite as the Province Italiane Unite ( United Italian Provinces ) , which prompted Pope Gregory XVI to ask for Austrian help against the rebels . Metternich warned Louis - Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be , and that French intervention would not be tolerated . Louis - Philippe withheld any military help and even arrested Italian patriots living in France .
New World
One can speak of the `` New World '' in a historical context , e.g. , when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus , the Spanish conquest of Yucatán and other events of the colonial period . For lack of alternatives , the term is also still useful to those discussing issues that concern the Americas and the nearby oceanic islands , such as Bermuda and Clipperton Island , collectively .
Italian nationalism
Italian nationalism has also faced a great deal of opposition from within Italy itself . Regionalism and municipal identities have challenged the concept of a unified Italian identity , like those in Friuli - Venezia Giulia , Naples , Sardinia , Sicily and Veneto . Such regional identities evoked strong opposition after the Piedmontese - led unification of Italy to plans for `` Piedmontization '' of Italy . Italian identity has also been long strained by an ever growing North - South divide that developed partly from the economic differences of a highly industrialized North and a highly agricultural South .
Italian Empire
On 10 June 1940 , Mussolini declared war on Britain and France ; both countries had been at war with Nazi Germany since September of the previous year . In July 1940 , Italian foreign minister Count Ciano presented Hitler with a document of Italy 's demands that included : the annexation of Corsica , Nice , and Malta ; protectorates in Tunisia and a buffer zone in Algeria ; independence with Italian military presence and bases in Lebanon , Palestine , Syria , and Transjordan as well as expropriation of oil companies in those territories ; military occupation of Aden , Perim and Sokotra ; Cyprus given to Greece in exchange for Corfu and Ciamuria given to Italy ; Italy is given British Somaliland , Djibuti , French Equatorial Africa up to Chad , as well as Ciano adding at the meeting that Italy wanted Kenya and Uganda as well . Hitler accepted the document without any comment .
Colosseum
Around the perimeter of the Colosseum , at a distance of 18 m ( 59 ft ) from the perimeter , was a series of tall stone posts , with five remaining on the eastern side . Various explanations have been advanced for their presence ; they may have been a religious boundary , or an outer boundary for ticket checks , or an anchor for the velarium or awning .
Republic
In medieval Northern Italy , a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments . In the late Middle Ages , writers such as Giovanni Villani began writing about the nature of these states and the differences from other types of regime . They used terms such as libertas populi , a free people , to describe the states . The terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology . To describe non-monarchical states writers , most importantly Leonardo Bruni , adopted the Latin phrase res publica .
Geography of Asia
Strabo , geographer of the Early Roman Empire , has an explanation of the geography Herodotus found so puzzling . The key is the coast - hugging requirement of most ancient navigation . As the ancient navigator passed under the Rock of Gibraltar on his way into the Mediterranean Sea ( `` our sea '' to those who lived there ) , two paths appeared to him , the north shore or the south shore . Strabo says :
Geography of Asia
Asia is equal to its shores , which also define Europe and Libya . The northern shore runs eastward along the line if the Phasis and Araxes Rivers ; that is , south of the Caucasus Mountains , and around the south of the Caspian Sea . The southern shore continues the Red Sea and the Nile River , as Darius had constructed a canal between them . This division and system was already in place before Herodotus . He professes not to understand it : `` I am astonished that men should ever have divided Libya , Asia and Europe as they have , for they are exceedingly unequal . '' His astonishment continues : `` I can not conceive why three names , and women 's names especially , should ever have been given to a tract which is in reality one ... nor can I even say who gives the three tracts ( akrai ) their names . '' Previously he had spoken of two tracts . He says that an alternate northern border is the mouth of the Don River .
Military history of Italy during World War II
On 10 June 1940 , as the French government fled to Bordeaux during the German invasion , declaring Paris an open city , Mussolini felt the conflict would soon end and declared war on Britain and France . As he said to the Army 's Chief - of - Staff , Marshal Badoglio :
Economic history of Italy
After the birth of the unified Kingdom of Italy in 1861 , there was a deep consciousness in the ruling class of the new country 's backwardness , given that the per capita GDP expressed in PPS terms was roughly half of that of Britain and about 25 % less than that of France and Germany . During the 1860s and 1870s , the manufacturing activity was backward and small - scale , while the oversized agrarian sector was the backbone of the national economy . The country lacked large coal and iron deposits and the population was largely illiterate . In the 1880s , a severe farm crisis led to the introduction of more modern farming techniques in the Po valley , while from 1878 to 1887 protectionist policies were introduced with the aim to establish a heavy industry base . Some large steel and iron works soon clustered around areas of high hydropower potential , notably the Alpine foothills and Umbria in central Italy , while Turin and Milan led a textile , chemical , engineering and banking boom and Genoa captured civil and military shipbuilding .
Ancient Roman architecture
Roman roads were vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state , and were built from about 500 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire . They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies , officials and civilians , and the inland carriage of official communications and trade goods . At the peak of Rome 's development , no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital , and the Late Empire 's 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great road links . Roman road builders aimed at a regulation width ( see Laws and standards above ) , but actual widths have been measured at between 3.6 ft ( 1.1 m ) and more than 23 ft ( 7.0 m ) . Today , the concrete has worn from the spaces around the stones , giving the impression of a very bumpy road , but the original practice was to produce a surface that was no doubt much closer to being flat .
Ancient Greece
Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries BC had resulted in emigration of many Greeks to form colonies in Magna Graecia ( Southern Italy and Sicily ) , Asia Minor and further afield . The emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century BC by which time the Greek world had , culturally and linguistically , become much larger than the area of present - day Greece . Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities , although they often retained religious and commercial links with them .
Munich Agreement
On 18 September , Italy 's Duce Benito Mussolini made a speech in Trieste , Italy where he declared `` If there are two camps , for and against Prague , let it be known that Italy has chosen its side , '' with the clear implication being that Mussolini supported Germany in the crisis . General
Economic history of Italy
The unification of Italy in 1861 - 70 broke down the feudal land system that had survived in the south since the Middle Ages , especially where land had been the inalienable property of aristocrats , religious bodies , or the king . The breakdown of feudalism , however , and redistribution of land did not necessarily lead to small farmers in the south winding up with land of their own or land they could work and profit from . Many remained landless , and plots grew smaller and smaller and thus more and more unproductive as land was subdivided among heirs . The Italian diaspora did not affect all regions of the nation equally , principally low income agricultural areas with a high proportion of small peasant land holdings . In the second phase of emigration ( 1900 to World War I ) most emigrants were from the south and most of them were from rural areas , driven off the land by inefficient land management policies . Robert Foerster , in Italian Emigration of our Times ( 1919 ) says , `` ( Emigration has been ) ... well nigh expulsion ; it has been exodus , in the sense of depopulation ; it has been characteristically permanent . `` .
Balkans
In pre-classical and classical antiquity , this region was home to Greeks , Illyrians , Paeonians , Thracians , Dacians , and other ancient groups . The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia , Thrace , Bulgaria , and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania between the late 6th and the first half of the 5th - century BC into its territories . Later the Roman Empire conquered most of the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language , but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence . The Romans considered the Rhodope Mountains to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied approximately to the border between Greek and Latin use in the region ( later called the Jireček Line ) . The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the 6th - century and began assimilating and displacing already - assimilated ( through Romanization and Hellenization ) older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans , forming the Bulgarian Empire . During the Middle Ages , the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman and the Bulgarian Empires .