Italians

For a specific analysis of the population of Italy, see Demographics of Italy. For a more precise analysis on the nationality, see Italian citizenship.

Template:Italian ethnicity The Italian people are a Southern European ethnic group found primarily in Italy, Switzerland, France and, by virtue of a wide-ranging diaspora, throughout Western Europe, the Americas and Australia. Their native language is Italian, and historically Italian dialects and languages. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic.

The appellation Italian possibly derives from the Greeks who used the term to describe the Ancient Italic peoples, who pre-date the coming of Indo-European languages.

There are almost 56 million autochthonous Italians in Italy, about 750,000 in Switzerland, and about 28,000 in San Marino. There is also a large but undefined, autochthonous population in France (Nice, Corsica). Smaller groups can also be found in Slovenia and Croatia, primarily Istria. There is a notable population of Italian descent in Brazil (Italian Brazilians), Argentina (Italian Argentine), the United States (Italian Americans), Venezuela, Uruguay, Canada (Italian Canadians), Australia (Italian Australians), and throughout Europe—mainly in Belgium, United Kingdom (Italian-Scots/Britalian), France and Germany (Italo-Germans).

Origins of Italian people

See also: History of Italy

The Italian people have somewhat varied European origins apart from the original Ancient Italic peoples: Northern Italy had a strong Celtic presence known as Cisalpine Gaul until the Romans conquered and colonised the area in the 2nd century; the Central portion of the Italian peninsula was inhabited by peoples known as the Etruscans; and southern Italy and Sicily was settled significantly by Greeks (see Magna Graecia).

The Romans Latinised the entire peninsula and preserved common unity until the 5th century AD. After the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West in 476 AD, the Italian peninsula was invaded by Germanic peoples crossing the Alps, establishing heavy settlements in north-central Italy and to a lesser degree in the south. The Germanic tribes underwent rapid Latinisation and were assimilated into the Latin-speaking indigens.

The Byzantine Greeks were an important power in southern Italy for five centuries, fighting for supremacy first against the Ostrogoths and later against the Lombards of Benevento. Greek speakers were fairly common in Calabria and Apulia until the 11th century when their rule ended: a few small Greek-speaking communities still exist in southern Italy and Sicily.

In 827 AD, the island of Sicily was invaded starting the period of Arab and North African influence in Sicily and Apulia, especially Bari. Arabs controlled Sicily until the Norman Christians (of Viking and Celtic origin) conquered much of southern Italy and Sicily and began converting or expelling the remaining Arab and Siculo Muslim population.

Starting from the 15th to 16th centuries, southern Italy especially, experienced a wave of 300,000 migrants; both mercenaries and refugees from Albania.[1] Their descendants today still retain aspects of Albanian ethnic identity, language, customs and religious elements in communities in Calabria, Basilicata, Apulia and Sicily, and are collectively know as Arbereshe.

There are still small Greek fishing villages, Maltese-Italian residents whose family originated from Malta under Italian and then British rule from the 18th to the mid 20th centuries, and Catalan communities in Sardinia to this day.

For more than 500 years (12th to 17th centuries) after Norman rule, Swabian (German) and Angevin (French) swapped control of regions in Italy, predominately southern Italy and Sicily. During the 11th through 16th century the majority of city-states from Northern and Central Italy remained independent, nurturing the era now known as as the Renaissance. Habsburg Spain and Bourbon France dominated in southern Italy, resulting in some cultural and linguistic influences.

In 1720, Sicily came under Austrian Habsburg rule and was swapped between various European powers until Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Sicily and southern Italy, allowing for the annexation of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies into the new Italian state in 1860 (see Risorgimento).

Appearance

In very general terms, the frequency of light-coloured hair and eyes amongst Italians decreases gradually from North to South, with the Southern Italians tending to have the highest incidences of darker features, somewhat similar to other peoples of Southern Europe such as the Spaniards, [Occitans]] and the Greeks, and Northern Italians tending to have the highest incidences of lighter features, somewhat similar to peoples of central Europe such as Swiss or Austrians. Due to the internal migration from the South to the North throughout Italy's fairly recent history, these physical characteristics are less pronounced than in the past.

Italian society and culture

Main article: Italian culture

From the Lombard invasion until the mid-nineteenth century, Italy was not the nation-state it is today. The Italian regions were fractured into various kingdoms, duchies, and domains. As a result, Italian dialects or regional minority languages and customs evolved independently. While all Italian states were similar and they retained basic elements of Roman language and culture, each developed its own regional culture and identity. As a result, even to this day, Italians define themselves primarily by their home region, province or town, and many still speak a local dialect or regional language in addition to standard Italian.

The Italian language has steadily replaced the numerous dialects and Gallo-italic and Italic languages, such as Sicilian, Venetian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Lombard, Sardinian, Piedmontese, Ligurian (also known as Genoese), Friulian, Ladin, Franco-Provençal and Neapolitan. Standard Italian originated in literature of the 12th to 15th centuries, and was based on the dialects of Tuscany, along with influences of Sicilian and Venetian. In the 19th Century, Standard Italian became more common and helped unify the country.

Some non-Italian speaking minorities live within Italy. Thousands of German Bavarian speakers remain in the extreme northern province of Bolzano-Bozen. Portions of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region have a small Slovene-speaking minority of Slavic origin. A small cluster of French-speaking people live in the province of Aosta and a small Catalan-speaking enclave in Sardinia goes back five centuries after first settled by Catalans from Catalonia in Spain. Two minor Italic languages are spoken outside of modern Italy- Corsican in Corsica, France and Romansch in eastern Switzerland.

Since the 19th century, the economic conditions of the agrarian southern and north-eastern regions resulted in mass migration from these regions to the Americas, industrial parts of northern Italy, and to other parts of Western Europe such as France and Belgium. By the 1970s economic conditions in the poorer regions of Italy improved to the point that even the less-developed regions of South Italy received more immigrants than it sent outwards. Today, Italy is less urban than many other countries in Europe, with 67% of Italians living in a major urban area- compared to 76% of French, 88% of Germans and 90% of Britons. The vast majority of Italians live outside of the large (over 1,000,000 population) cities.

Italian diaspora and Italians abroad

It is estimated that more than 20 million Argentinians have at least an Italian forefather. It is the most important ethnic group of Argentina.

Main article: Italian diaspora

There is a history of Italians working and living outside of the Italian peninsula since ancient times. Italian bankers and traders expanded to all parts of Europe and the Mediterranean, sometimes creating outposts. Since the Renaissance, the services of Italian architects and artists were sought by many of Europe's royal courts. This migration, though generally small in numbers and sometimes ephemeral, pre-dates the unification of Italian states.

Italy became an important source for emigrants after 1870. More than 10 million Italians emigrated between 1870 and 1920, mostly from the country's underdeveloped southern regions and the agrarian north-east regions. In the beginning (1870-1880), the main destination of the migrants were other European countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg), where most Italians worked for some time and then returned to Italy. Many Italians also went to the Americas, especially to Brazil, Argentina and the United States. From about 1880 until the end of the early 1900s, the main destinations for Italian immigrants were Brazil, Argentina as well as Uruguay. Brazil was in need of workers to embrace the vast coffee plantations, and Italian immigrants became a main source of manpower for that country. Argentina and Uruguay were rapidly industrializing and attracting immigrants for work and settlers to populate the country. Italian immigration heavily influenced the culture and development of these countries (Today, Argentina and Uruguay have the highest national concentrations of Italians outside of Europe - about 50% of the population in each country).[2] Starting in the early 20th century until the 1950s, the United States became a main destination for Italian immigrants, settling mainly in the New York metropolitan area, as well as cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago. Other countries that received large numbers of Italians, primarily from about 1940 to the 1970s, were Australia, Canada, and again Venezuela. Smaller migration patterns of Italians went to Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Panama and Corsicans constituted a large proportion of immigrants to Puerto Rico. (see Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico).

In other waves of Italian migration, from 1920 to the 1970s (peaking in the periods of WWI and WWII), Italian "guest workers" went mostly to Austria, Belgium, France, West Germany, and Luxembourg.[3] Like the earlier waves, most Italians returned to Italy, but some remained and assimilated in these countries.

The migration of Italians has at times been very large and has influenced much of the world. It can be estimated as many as 70 million people of Italian origin live outside Europe, primarily in the Americas. Large numbers of Italian descendants are found in Brazil (28 million people of Italian descent), Argentina (25 million), the United States (16 million), Canada (1.3 million) and Australia (1 million).

Significant Italian expatriate population is noted in Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Greece, Israel, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Turkey and South Africa. Former Italian communities once thrived in their African colonies of Eritrea, Somalia and Libya (150,000 Italians settled in Libya, constituting about 18% of the total population). Today, with the economic assimilation of the European Union Italians, as other Europeans, are mobile throughout Europe and can be found in most major centres in Europe.

Contribution to humanity

Italian immigrants

Main articles: Italian culture, History of Italy, and List of Italians

The people of Italy have contributed significantly to world culture and scientific, and technological, progress continuously since ancient times. In the Arts, Italy produced some of the most widely known sculptors, writers and painters. Notable examples include Michelangelo, Dante, Pirandello and Raphael. Italian composers and musicians, such as Vivaldi, Rossini and Verdi, contributed to the evolution of western music, and Italians are cited with the creation of the opera. Famous Italian scientists include Alessandro Volta, Guglielmo Marconi, Enrico Fermi and Galileo. Italian contributions to architecture and engineering are numerous since ancient times. Renowned architects include Brunelleschi, Bernini and Palladio.

The rise of humanism and modern commerce can be attributed to conditions found in Italy during the Renaissance. This ambience also lead to the rise of the "universal man", of which Leonardo da Vinci often is considered as the prime example.

See also

• List of Italians
• List of Sardinians
• Demography of Italy
• Italian Citizenship
• Italian diaspora
• European ethnic groups
• Genetic history of Europe