History of Milan
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During the Middle Ages, the city's history was the story of the struggle between two political factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Finally the Visconti family took power (signoria) in Milan. In 1395 Emperor Wenceslas made Milan a duchy, thus raising the dignity of the city's citizens. In the mid-15th century the Ambrosian Republic was established, taking its name from St. Ambrose, a beloved patron saint of the city. The two rival factions worked together to create the Ambrosian Republic in Milan. However, the republic fell apart in 1450 when Milan was conquered by Francesco Sforza of the House of Sforza, which ushered Milan into becoming one of the leading cities of the Italian Renaissance.
From the late 15th century until the mid 16th century, Milan was involved in
The Milanese staged a rebellion against Austrian rule on March 18, 1848. The Kingdom of Sardinia joined the rebels, and a vote was held in Lombardy which voted to unify with Sardinia. The Austrians defeated the Sardinians on 24 July and reasserted their domination over Milan and northern Italy. Just a few years later another insurgency by Italian nationalists succeeded in ousting the Austrians with the help of Sardinia and France in 1859. Following the Battle of Solferino Milan and the rest of Lombardy joined the Kingdom of Sardinia, which soon achieved control of most of Italy. In 1861 the re-unified city-states and kingdoms became the Kingdom of Italy once again.
With the unification of the country, Milan became the dominant commercial center of northern Italy. In 1919 Benito Mussolini rallied the Blackshirts for the first time in Milan, and later they began their March on Rome from Milan. During World War II Milan was extensively damaged by Allied bombings. Upon the surrender of Italy in 1943 German forces occupied northern Italy until the end of the war in 1945. Members of the Italian resistance in Milan took control of the city and executed Mussolini, his mistress, and other leaders of his Fascist government by hanging in Piazzale Loreto, Milan.
Since the end of World War II, Italy experienced an economic boom. From 1951 until 1967 the population of Milan grew from 1.3 million to 1.7 million. The city was reconstructed, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the city suffered from a huge wave of street violence, labor strikes and political terrorism during so called Years of Lead. During the 1980s, Milan became one of the world's fashion capitals. The rise of financial services and the service economy during the late 20th century further strengthened Milan’s position as the Italian economic capital. The city’s renewal in the 21st century was marked, among others, by hosting of the World Expo 2015 or big redevelopment projects such as Puorta Nuova or CityLife.
Antiquity
Insubresgroup 590–222 BC
Roman Republic 222–27 BC
Roman Empire 27 BC–AD 395
Western Roman Empire 395–476
Kingdom of Italy476–493
Ostrogothic Kingdom 493–553
Eastern Roman Empire 553–569
Lombard Kingdom 569–774
Carolingian Empire 774–781
Regnum Italiae 781–1014
Holy Roman Empire 1014–1114
Free Commune1114–1259
Lordship of Milan 1259–1395
Duchy of Milan 1395–1447
Golden Ambrosian Republic 1447–1450
Duchy of Milan 1450–1796
Transpadane Republic 1796-1797
Cisalpine Republic 1797–1802
Italian Republic 1802–1805
Kingdom of Italy 1805–1814
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia 1815–1859
Kingdom of Sardinia 1859–1861
Kingdom of Italy 1861–1943
Italian Social Republic 1943–1945
Kingdom of Italy 1945–1946
Italian Republic 1946–present
Around 590 BC,
Milan was conquered by the Romans in 222 B.C. due to its strategic position on the northern borders of the Empire and was renamed Mediolanum. When Diocletian decided to divide the Empire in half choosing the Eastern half for himself, Milan became the residence of Maximian, ruler of the Western Roman Empire. The construction of the second city walls, roughly four and a half kilometers long and unfurling at today's Foro Bonaparte, date back to his reign. After the abdication of Maximian (in 305 A.D.) on the same day on which Diocletian also abdicated, there were a series of wars of succession, during which there was a succession of three emperors in just a few short years: first Severus, who prepared the expedition against Maxentius, then Maxentius himself in a war against Constantine, and finally Constantine himself, victor of the war against Maxentius. In 313 A.D. the Emperors Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan (Edict of Constantine), ending the persecutions against Christians.[3]
The beginning of the 5th century was the start of a tortuous period of barbarian invasions for Milan. After the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. An age of decadence began which worsened when Attila, King of the Huns, sacked and devastated the city in 452 A.D.
Middle Ages
In 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Germanic tribe, the Lombards (from which the name of the Italian region Lombardy derives), conquered Milan, overpowering the small Byzantine army left for its defense. Some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule,[5] but the city was eclipsed by the nearby Lombard capital of Pavia during the next two centuries.
Milan surrendered to
The 11th century saw a reaction against the control of the
A period of peace followed and Milan prospered as a centre of trade due to its position. As a result of the independence that the Lombard cities gained in the Peace of Constance in 1183, Milan returned to the commune form of local government first established in the 11th century.[7][8] In 1208 Rambertino Buvalelli served a term as podestà of the city, in 1242 Luca Grimaldi, and in 1282 Luchetto Gattilusio. The position was a dangerous one: in 1252 Milanese heretics assassinated the Church's Inquisitor, later known as Saint Peter Martyr, at a ford in the nearby contado; the killers bribed their way to freedom, and in the ensuing riot the podestà was almost lynched. In 1256 the archbishop and leading nobles were expelled from the city. In 1259 Martino della Torre was elected Capitano del Popolo by members of the guilds; he took the city by force, expelled his enemies, and ruled by dictatorial powers, paving streets, digging canals, and taxing the countryside. He also brought the Milanese treasury to collapse; the use of often reckless mercenary units further angered the population, granting an increasing support for the della Torre's traditional enemies, the Visconti. The most important industries in this period were armaments and wool production, a whole catalogue of activities and trades is given in Bonvesin della Riva's "de Magnalibus Urbis Mediolani".
On 22 July 1262,
Much of the prior history of Milan was the tale of the struggle between two political factions: the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Most of the time the Guelphs were successful in the city of Milan. Eventually, however, the Visconti family were able to seize power (signoria) in Milan, based on their "Ghibelline" friendship with the Holy Roman Emperors.[9] In 1395, one of these emperors, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (1378–1400), raised Milan to the dignity of a duchy.[10] Also in 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti became Duke of Milan. The Ghibelline Visconti family was to retain power in Milan for a century and a half from the early 14th century until the middle of the 15th century.[11]
In 1447
Early modern
The Italian Wars – from 1494 to 1559
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved, at various times, most of the city-states of Italy, the
In 1556, Charles V abdicated in favour of his son Philip II and his brother Ferdinand I. Charles's Italian possessions, including Milan, passed to Philip II and remained with the Spanish line of Habsburgs, while Ferdinand's Austrian line of Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire.
Great Plague of Milan
The
War of the Spanish Succession
In 1700 the Spanish line of Habsburgs was extinguished with the death of
Napoleon
Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796, and Milan was declared the capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Later, he declared Milan the capital of the Kingdom of Italy and was crowned in the Duomo. Once Napoleon's occupation ended, the Congress of Vienna returned Lombardy, and Milan, along with Veneto, to Austrian control in 1814.[16] During this period, Milan became a centre of lyric opera. Here in the 1770s Mozart had premiered three operas at the Teatro Regio Ducale. Later La Scala became the reference theatre in the world, with its premières of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. Verdi himself is interred in the Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, his present to Milan. In the 19th century, other important theatres were La Cannobiana and the Teatro Carcano.
Wars of the 19th century
On 18 March 1848, the Milanese rebelled against Austrian rule, during the so-called "
Early industrialization
The
Late modern and contemporary
In 1919,
During the post-war economic boom, a large wave of internal migration (especially from rural areas of
In the 1980s, with the international success of Milanese houses (like
In the early 21st century, Milan underwent a series of sweeping redevelopments. Its exhibition centre moved to a much larger site in
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-2-7605-1588-8.
- ^ a b "Cronologia di Milano dalla fondazione fino al 150 d.C." (in Italian). Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^ "313 The Edict of Milan". www.christianitytoday.com. Christian History. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
- ^ The table is part of the Tematic Atlas realized by the Touring Club Italiano Cartographic Office with CNR - Italian National Research Council (1989-1992).
- ^ See the Laudes Mediolanensis civitatis.
- ^ "Milan: a history of greatness, from its origins to the twentieth century". Portale per il Turismo del Comune di Milano. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
- ^ Lecco, Alberto; Foot, John (2020). "Milan Italy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ^ "History of Italy". HistoryWorld. HistoryWorld. p. 2. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ^ Henry S. Lucas, The Renaissance and the Reformation (Harper & Bros.: New York, 1960) p. 37.
- ^ Ibid., p. 38.
- ^ Robert S. Hoyt & Stanley Chodorow Europe in the Middle Ages (Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich: New York, 1976) p. 614.
- ^ a b Henry S. Lucas, The Renaissance and the Reformation p. 268.
- ^ "The History of Milan – Relazioni Internazionali – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore". internationalrelations.unicatt.it. Archived from the original on 8 November 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
- ^ John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic Vol. II (Harper Bros.: New York, 1855) p. 2.
- ^ Cipolla, Carlo M. Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981.
- ^ Bloy, Marjie (30 April 2002). "The Congress of Vienna, 1 November 1814—8 June 1815". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
- ^ Graham J. Morris. "Solferino". Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
- ISBN 978-0199219346.
- ISBN 0-7190-5172-X.
- ISBN 1-4039-6153-0.
- ^ ISBN 1-85973-545-2.
- ^ "Italian Stock Exchange – Main Indicators 1975–2012". Retrieved 16 October 2012.
- ^ "L'uomo che inventò la Milano da bere". Lastampa.It. 4 January 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
- ^ "New Milan Exhibition System official website". Archived from the original on 1 December 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ "Milano Porta Nuova official website". Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ISBN 9780857934215.