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Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II.

An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed.

Italy was a charter member of NATO and the EEC and has been at the forefront of European economic and political unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.

Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.

The Italian language is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in Italy and San Marino. It is also one of the official languages of Switzerland and is the second official language in Vatican City.

The history of the Italian language is quite complex but the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events.

Italian was first formalised in the first years of the 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri, who mixed southern Italian languages, especially Sicilian, with his native Tuscan in his epic poems known collectively as the Commedia. Dante's much-loved works were read throughout Italy and his written dialect became the standard that others could all understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language.

Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world and is the fifth most taught non-native language, after English, French, Italian and German.