Melissa Olvera

Italy
Italy, is a boot shaped country in south eastern Europe. Italy, also known as
the Italian Republic, is one of the seven most industrialized countries in the world. Italy has a
population of around thirty-seven million people as of 1991. An interesting fact about the
population of Italy is that it is neither growing nor shrinking. During the last decade, Italy's
population has not exceeded a .9% increase or decrease in population. Of the 37 million
inhabitants of Italy, many work as farmers, and factory workers.
The first evidence of humans in Italy was approximately around 10, 000 BC. Evidence
such as multiple different types of tools and cave drawings display this particular fact (kidipede).
The political history of Italy is quite extensive. The Greeks were the first to settle in Italy and
established colonies in the southern part of the country and in Sicily. There was no sense of
political reality as much as there was a civilization. Because of the lack of stability, Italy was
ruled by many different kingdoms and states that ruled them for only a brief period (US
department of state).
The population around this time was about 200,000. Moving forward to the Roman
Empire, at the turn of the millennium the majority of the population was set in Rome at
1,000,000. The population of all of Italy at this time was 1,500,000. During the middle ages in
1200 A.D. the population was 9,000,000 and in 1300 A.D. the population rose 11,000,000.
Unfortunately, in 1348 A.D. the outbreak of the black death took a toll to the population and
reduced it to 8,000,000. During the reunification of Italy in 1900 A.D. the population of Italy
rose to a high to 33,000,000. By 1935 the population of Rome is 1,000,000 and the whole
population of Italy is 42,000,000. Italy is a popular country today with the population in 1981
56,500,000 and currently sits at 60.6 million people today.
After the collapse of the Roman empire Italy suffered a great deal. With no political
structure in most of the Mediterranean Italy was constantly being invaded and put under
temporary rule. Because of this Italy had a very weak economy and low commercial prosperity
when things calmed down after the collapse (US department of state).
Italy is poor in natural resources, much of the land being unsuitable for agriculture due to
mountainous terrain. The waters of Italy crowd with fishes and have the greatest commercial
importance. Italy is definitely in need of coal. The most important mineral resources are natural

Melissa Olvera

gas. Many of these deposits are on the islands of Sicily. However, they had been worn-out by the
early 1990s. On the other hand, Italy is rich in various types of building stone, especially marble.
Italy definitely has come along way since the Greeks first settled into Italy. Although
Italy does not offer many resources but certainly is able to sustain a steady culture.

Melissa Olvera
Helfer, M. E. (1997). The Battered Child. Chicago, IL: He University of Chicago Press.
Italy Population. (2015, January). Retrieved February 02, 2016, from
http://countrymeters.info/en/Italy
Social Structure in Italy: Crisis of a System, Acquaviva, Santino, and Santuccio,
Mario, (1976)