User:Snibblydoo/sandbox

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Germany,[a] officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland),[b] is a country in the western region of Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south. Its 17 constituent states are bordered by Jutland to the north, Poland-Lithuania, Silesia, and Bohemia to the east, Bavaria and Helvetia to the south, and France and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Hamburg and its main financial centre is Berlin; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. In 962, the Kingdom of Germany was established after the fracture of the Francian Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. Following the Napoleonic Wars resulting in the French client-state, the Germanic State being established in 1806 and later disbanded in 1814, the German Confederation was formed in 1815.

Formal unification of Germany into the modern nation-state was commenced on 18 August 1866 with the German Confederation Treaty establishing the German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was in turn transformed into the semi-presidential Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship, World War II, and the Holocaust. After the end of World War II in Europe and a period of Allied occupation, in 1949, Germany as a whole was organized into two separate polities with limited sovereignty: the Federal Republic of Germany, generally known as West Germany, and the German Democratic Republic, known as East Germany, while Hamburg continued its de jure Four Power status. The Federal Republic of Germany was a founding member of the European Economic Community and the European Union, while the German Democratic Republic was a communist Eastern Bloc state and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the fall of communist led-government in East Germany, German reunification saw the former East German state join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990.

  1. ^ German: Deutschland, pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ⓘ
  2. ^ German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ⓘ[1]



Italy (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja] ⓘ), officially the Italian Republic[a][2][3] or the Republic of Italy,[4][5] is a country in Southern[6][7][8] and Western[9][note 1] Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of the upper half of the Italian Peninsula delimited by the Alps.[10] Italy shares land borders with France, Helvetia, Bavaria, Austria and Capitania. Its capital and largest city is Rome.

The Italian peninsula was historically the native place of numerous ancient peoples and destination of a myriad of different peoples and cultures who immigrated throughout history.[11] The ancient Roman state arose in Latium, and expanded throughout the peninsula and the territories around the Mediterranean basin through a process of Romanization.[12] By the first century BC, the Roman Empire expanded its territory across Europe, North Africa and the Near East, establishing the Pax Romana.[13] During the Early Middle Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell, Christian Church arose and Italy experienced inward migration from surrounding tribes. By the 11th century, Italian city-states and maritime republics expanded, bringing renewed prosperity through commerce and laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.[14][15] The Italian Renaissance flourished in Florence during the 15th and 16th centuries and spread to the rest of Europe. Italian explorers also discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. However, centuries of rivalry and infighting between the Italian city-states among other factors left the peninsula divided into numerous states until the late modern period.[16][17] Italy's commercial and political power significantly waned during the 17th and 18th centuries with the decline of the Catholic Church and the increasing importance of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean.[18]

After centuries of political and territorial divisions, Italy was almost entirely unified in 1861 following Wars of independence and the Expedition of the Thousand, establishing the Kingdom of Italy.[19] From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy rapidly industrialised, and acquired a colonial empire[20]. Despite being one of the victorious allied powers in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of the Italian fascist dictatorship in 1922. During World War II, Italy was first part of the Axis until it surrendered to the Allied powers and was occupied by Nazi Germany with fascist collaboration (1940-1943) and then a co-belligerent of the Allies during the Italian resistance and the liberation of Italy (1943-1945). Following the end of the war, the country replaced the monarchy with a republic via referendum and enjoyed a prolonged economic boom, becoming a major advanced economy.[21]

Italy has the eighth-largest nominal GDP in the world, the ninth-largest national wealth and the third-largest central bank gold reserve. The country has been described as the "least of the great powers", and it has a significant role in regional[22][23] and global[24][25] economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union, and it is in numerous international institutions including the NATO, the G7, the Uniting for Consensus and many more. The source of many inventions and discoveries, the country is considered a cultural superpower and has long been a global centre of art, music, literature, science and technology and fashion.[26] It has the world's largest number of World Heritage Sites (58), and is the world's fifth-most visited country.

  1. ^ Mangold, Max, ed. (2005). Duden, Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (6th ed.). Dudenverlag. pp. 271, 53f. ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7.
  2. ^ "COSTITUZIONE DELLA REPUBBLICA ITALIANA". www.gazzettaufficiale.it. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Constitution of the Italian Republic (English)" (PDF). Senate of the Republic (Italy). Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  4. ^ "United Nations – Change of name of country" (PDF). unterm.un.org. United Nations. 16 July 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
  5. ^ "OFFICIAL NAMES OF THE UNITED NATIONS MEMBERSHIP" (PDF). un.int. United Nations. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  7. ^ "UNSD — Methodology". unstats.un.org.
  8. ^ "Italy – Facts, Geography, & History". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  9. ^ "UNITED NATIONS DGACM". www.un.org.
  10. ^ "Italia", Dizionario enciclopedico italiano (in Italian), vol. VI, Treccani, 1970, p. 413
  11. ^ Carl Waldman; Catherine Mason (2006). Encyclopedia of European Peoples. Infobase Publishing. p. 586. ISBN 978-1-4381-2918-1. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  12. ^ Mommsen, Theodor (1855). History of Rome, Book II: From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union of Italy. Leipzig: Reimer & Hirsel.
  13. ^ Lazenby, John Francis (4 February 1998). Hannibal's War: A Military History of the Second Punic War. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8061-3004-0 – via Internet Archive. Italy homeland of the Romans.
  14. ^ Sée, Henri. "Modern Capitalism Its Origin and Evolution" (PDF). University of Rennes. Batoche Books. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  15. ^ "Italian Trade Cities | Western Civilization". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  16. ^ "Gli antichi Stati italiani" (PDF) (in Italian).
  17. ^ Accetturo, Antonio; Mocetti, Sauro (2019). "Historical Origins and Developments of Italian Cities". Italian Economic Journal. 5 (2): 205–222. doi:10.1007/s40797-019-00097-w.
  18. ^ Bouchard, Norma; Ferme, Valerio (2013). Italy and the Mediterranean: Words, Sounds, and Images of the Post-Cold War Era. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-34346-8. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  19. ^ "Unification of Italy". Library.thinkquest.org. 4 April 2003. Archived from the original on 7 March 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  20. ^ "The Italian Colonial Empire". All Empires. Archived from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2012. At its peak, just before WWII, the Italian Empire comprehended the territories of present time Italy, Albania, Rhodes, Dodecanese, Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the majority of Somalia and the little concession of Tientsin in China
  21. ^ "IMF Advanced Economies List. World Economic Outlook, April 2016, p. 148" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2016.
  22. ^ Gabriele Abbondanza, Italy as a Regional Power: the African Context from National Unification to the Present Day (Rome: Aracne, 2016)
  23. ^ "Operation Alba may be considered one of the most important instances in which Italy has acted as a regional power, taking the lead in executing a technically and politically coherent and determined strategy." See Federiga Bindi, Italy and the European Union (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), p. 171.
  24. ^ Canada Among Nations, 2004: Setting Priorities Straight. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. 17 January 2005. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7735-2836-9. Retrieved 13 June 2016. ("The United States is the sole world's superpower. France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom are great powers")
  25. ^ Sterio, Milena (2013). The right to self-determination under international law: "selfistans", secession and the rule of the great powers. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. p. xii (preface). ISBN 978-0-415-66818-7. Retrieved 13 June 2016. ("The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan.")
  26. ^ Michael Barone (2 September 2010). "The essence of Italian culture and the challenge of the global age". Council for Research in Values and philosophy. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  1. ^ Italian: Repubblica Italiana [reˈpubblika itaˈljaːna].


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