It is difficult to talk about the history of Italy as a single state. The country has only been formally united since 1861 r "and the post-Roman history of the peninsula was dominated by fights between city-states as well as colonization and annexations by foreign powers. The fragmentation of Italy is unimaginable, but regional differences remain to some extent.
EARLY HISTORY
Little has survived of the Neanderthals, who occupied the Apennine peninsula half a million years ago: the main period of settlement did not begin until after the last ice age. Evidence of the existence of Paleolithic settlements comes from approx 20 000 r. p.n.e.. and the next stage of development was the spread of the Neolithic tribes to the peninsula (6000-5000 years ago). The peoples who lived at the end of the prehistoric era attained a higher level, from 2400 do 1800 r. BC. The most tangible traces were left by the Ligurians (who inhabited an area well beyond modern Liguria). The Sicels in Southern Italy and Lazio, and the Sardis. who practiced agriculture and livestock farming in Sardinia. Even more advanced were the migratory groups from the eastern Mediterranean, which introduced copper processing techniques. Subsequently, various Societies of the Bronze Age (1600-1000 r. p.n.e.) left traces of homesteads and villages in the Apennines and on the coast of Sicily and in the southern part of the peninsula. The latter also traded with Mycenae in Greece..
Other tribes introduced Indo-European languages to Italy. The Venedes, The Latins and Umbras moved from the north down the peninsula, while the Picenes and Messapias crossed the Adriatic Sea from today's Yugoslavia and settled in Apulia. An artificial separation between prehistory and history is placed around the 8th century. p.n.e., with the arrival of the Phoenician alphabet and writing. Sailing west, along the coast of Africa, The Phoenicians founded colonies in Sicily and Sardinia, developing trade ties with Carthage and southern Italy. Encouraged by this, the Carthaginians soon settled in Sicily themselves. Sardinia and the Lazio coast. in the period when the Greek and Etruscan influences grew on the peninsula.
ETRUSCAS AND GREECS
W III w. BC. Greek settlers colonized part of the Tuscan coast and the Gulf of Naples, then they occupied Naxos on the Ionian coast of Sicily, and 736 r. BC. they founded the city of Syracuse. The colonies established in Sicily and southern Italy were later called Great Greece. Next to the Etruscan cities in the north, it is the earliest civilization, which left behind more significant buildings and written sources.
The Greek colonies prospered perfectly, bringing vines and olives to Italy and organizing a very efficient cultivation system. Cities like Syracuse and Taranto were richer and more modern than the cities of Greece itself, and despite competition from Carthage, they dominated trade in the center of the Mediterranean basin. The great abundance of the colony is evidenced by the ruins of such buildings as the temples of Agrigentum and Selinunt. fortified walls around Gela and theaters in Syracuse and Taormina, Sicily. Greater Greece made a significant contribution to the culture of native Greece - Archimedes. Aeschylus and Empedok-les came precisely from Sicily. However, these colonies suffered as much as the Greek states from the fighting between the city-states of Taranto. Metapont, Sybaris and Croton only united in the face of an external threat. 400r each. p.n.e.. when Sybaris lay in ruins, other colonies entered a period of irreversible economic decline and became subordinate to Rome.
Another great civilization of this period was created by the Etruscans, inhabiting mainly the areas between the Tiber and Arno rivers. Their language, known mainly from tombstone inscriptions, is one of the last remnants of the old speech common to the Mediterranean basin. Some claim, that this people came to Wioch around the ninth century. BC. from western Anatolia, others again. that from the north, and according to the third hypothesis it is the indigenous people of Etruria. In any case, they founded an alliance of twelve city-states of northern Italy., traded with the Greek colonies in the south and in the sixth century. BC. they were already the most powerful people in this part of the peninsula, displacing the indigenous Ligurian tribes, Latins and Sabines. The tomb frescoes in Umbria show a refined and luxurious culture, with complicated ways of fortune-telling, based on reading the system of the guts of animals and interpreting the flight of birds. Herodotus made a note, that the lineage of the Etruscans ran along the distaff side, and the excavations of the last century have revealed, that women were buried in special sarcophagi with names engraved on them. Well-preserved burial chambers with murals have been preserved in Cenreteri and Targuinia. two major Etruscan settlements. The Etruscans were technologically advanced, gained new land for cultivation through irrigation and situating their cities on embanked hills - this settlement system left permanent marks on the face of central Italy. Their kingdom, however, shrunk after the invasions of the Cumanites. Syracusans and Gauls, forced to enter into an alliance with the Roman state being formed.