Lombardy

History

Lombardy is inhabited until the second millennium BC, as evidenced by the numerous archaeological sites. In the following centuries it was inhabited first by some Etruscan tribes, founding the city of Mantua,and later, from the fifth century BC, by Celtic tribes, who founded several cities (Milan) and extended their rule to the Adriatic Sea. Their development was stopped with the Roman expansion in the Po Valley from the third century BC onwards. After centuries of struggle, in 194 BC the whole area of what is now the Lombardy became a Roman province under the name of Cisalpine Gaul.

In late antiquity the Lombardy has played a strategic role of fundamental importance, underlined by the movement of capital of the West Roman Empire to Mediolanum (Milan). Here, in 313 AD, Emperor Constantine issued the famous edict that gave freedom of confession to all religions within the empire.

During and after the fall of the Western Empire, Lombardy has suffered a series of invasions of barbarous nations, of which the last, the Lombards, gave the region its present name, and reigned there estanlishing the capital in Pavia.

The end of Lombard rule came in 774, when Charlemagne conquered the Kingdom of Italy annexing Pavia to his empire. The Lombard aristocracy was thus replaced by other German vassals, princes and bishops.

During the eleventh century, the significant boom in the economy of the region led to a greater spirit of independence in the cities, now able, for the growing wealth, to challenge the traditional feudal power of the German emperors and their governors. During the next two centuries German rule was finally removed, after the defeat at Legnano of Emperor Frederick I, and that of Frederick II in Parma.

From the fourteenth century, the instability created by incessant infighting led to the birth of many nobles as those of Visconti (later Sforza) in Milan, the Gonzaga in Mantua, cities that became, in time, two major centers of the Renaissance. This wealth, however, has attracted much more united and organized armies, such as those of France and Austria: after the decisive Battle of Pavia, Duchy of Milan came under Austrian control, and managed by the Spanish branch of the Habsburg family, while the eastern part of the region, with cities like Bergamo and Brescia became a dominion of the Republic of Venice, which had begun to extend its influence in the region since the fourteenth century.

Austrian rule was broken in the late eighteenth century with Napoleon's conquest, and later restored in 1815, in the form of the Kingdom of Lombardy and Venetia,but had to cope with new social ideals introduced by the French Revolution. The Lombardy became one of the most important intellectual centers of the Italian unification. The People's Republic of 1848 was short-lived, but Wars of Independence, Lombardy finally freed itself from Austrian rule and became part of the Kingdom of Italy.