Vicenza
Vicenza is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is 60 kilometres west of Venice and 200 kilometres east of Milan. Vicenza is a thriving and cosmopolitan city, with a rich history and culture, many museums, art galleries, villas and elegant Renaissance palazzi. With the Palladian Villas of the Veneto in the surrounding area, his renowned Teatro Olimpico, the "city of Palladio" has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. In December 2008, Vicenza had an estimated population of 115,927 and a metropolitan area of 270,000. Vicenza is the third-largest Italian industrial centre as measured by the value of its exports, is one of the country's wealthiest cities, in large part due to its textile and steel industries, which employ tens of thousands. Additionally, about one fifth of the country's gold and jewelry is made in Vicenza contributing to the city's economy. Another important sector is the engineering/computer components industry.
Vicentia was settled by the Italic Euganei tribe and by the Paleo-Veneti tribe in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The Romans allied themselves with the Paleo-Veneti in their fight against the Celtic tribes that populated north-western Italy; the Roman presence in the area grew exponentially over time and the Paleo-Veneti were assimilated. In 157 BC, the city was a de facto Roman centre and was given the name of Vicetia or Vincentia, meaning "victorious"; the citizens of Vicetia received Roman citizenship and were inscribed into the Roman tribe Romilia in 49 BC. The city was known for its agriculture, marble quarry, wool industry and had some importance as a way-station on the important road from Mediolanum to Aquileia, near Tergeste, but it was overshadowed by its neighbor Patavium. Little survives of the Roman city, but three of the bridges across the Bacchiglione and Retrone rivers are of Roman origin, isolated arches of a Roman aqueduct exist outside the Porta Santa Croce. During the decline of the Western Roman Empire, Vandals and his Visigoths, as well as the Huns laid waste to the area, but the city recovered after the Ostrogoth conquest in 489 AD, before being conquered by the Byzantine Empire soon after.
It was an important Lombard city and a Frankish center. Numerous Benedictine monasteries were built beginning in the 6th century. In 899, Vicenza was destroyed by Magyar raiders. In 1001, Otto III handed over the government of the city to the bishop, its communal organization had an opportunity to develop, separating soon from the episcopal authority, it took an active part in the League with Verona and, most of all, in the Lombard League against Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa compelling Padua and Treviso to join: its podestà, Ezzelino II il Balbo, was captain of the league. When peace was restored, the old rivalry with Padua and other cities was renewed, besides which there were the internal factions of the Vivaresi and the Maltraversi; the tyrannical Ezzelino III from Bassano drove the Guelphs out of Vicenza, caused his brother, Alberico, to be elected podestà. The independent commune joined the Second Lombard League against Emperor Frederick II, was sacked by that monarch, after which it was annexed to Ezzelino's dominions.
On his death the old oligarchic republic political structure was restored – a consiglio maggiore of four hundred members and a consiglio minore of forty members – and it formed a league with Padua and Verona. Three years the Vicentines entrusted the protection of the city to Padua, so as to safeguard republican liberty. Vicenza came under rule of Venice in 1404, its subsequent history is that of Venice, it was besieged by the Emperor Sigismund, Maximilian I held possession of it in 1509 and 1516. Vicenza was a candidate to host the Council of Trent; the 16th century was the time of Andrea Palladio, who left many outstanding examples of his art with palaces and villas in the city's territory, which before Palladio's passage, was arguably the most downtrodden and esthetically lacking city of the Veneto. After 1797, under Napoleonic rule, it was made a duché grand-fief within Napoleon's personal Kingdom of Italy for general Caulaincourt imperial Grand-Écuyer. After 1814, Vicenza passed to the Austrian Empire.
In 1848, the populace rose against Austria, more violently than in any other Italian centre apart from Milan and Brescia. As a part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, it was annexed to Italy after the Third War of Italian independence. Vicenza's area was a location of major combat in both World War I and World War II, it was the most damaged city in Veneto by Allied bombings, including many of its monuments; the end of World War II was followed by a period of depression, caused by the devastation during the two world wars. In t
Iraq
Iraq the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia, bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The capital, largest city, is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Arabs, Assyrians, Shabakis, Armenians, Mandeans and Kawliya. Around 95% of the country's 37 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan and Mandeanism present; the official languages of Iraq are Kurdish. Iraq has a coastline measuring 58 km on the northern Persian Gulf and encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf; these rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers known as Mesopotamia, is referred to as the cradle of civilisation.
It was here that mankind first began to read, create laws and live in cities under an organised government—notably Uruk, from which "Iraq" is derived. The area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian and Babylonian empires, it was part of the Median, Hellenistic, Sassanid, Rashidun, Abbasid, Mongol, Safavid and Ottoman empires. The country today known as Iraq was a region of the Ottoman Empire until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, it was made up of three provinces, called vilayets in the Ottoman language: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, Basra Vilayet. In April 1920 the British Mandate of Mesopotamia was created under the authority of the League of Nations. A British-backed monarchy joining these vilayets into one Kingdom was established in 1921 under Faisal I of Iraq; the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from the UK in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created.
Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party from 1968 until 2003. After an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party was removed from power, multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005; the US presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country. Out of the insurgency came a destructive group calling itself ISIL, which took large parts of the north and west, it has since been defeated. Disputes over the sovereignty of Iraqi Kurdistan continue. A referendum about the full sovereignty of Iraqi Kurdistan was held on 25 September 2017. On 9 December 2017, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over ISIL after the group lost its territory in Iraq. Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of one autonomous region; the country's official religion is Islam. Culturally, Iraq has a rich heritage and celebrates the achievements of its past in both pre-Islamic as well as post-Islamic times and is known for its poets.
Its painters and sculptors are among the best in the Arab world, some of them being world-class as well as producing fine handicrafts, including rugs and carpets. Iraq is a founding member of the UN as well as of the Arab League, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF; the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for "city", UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is "well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿAjamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran; the term included the plain south of the Hamrin Mountains and did not include the northernmost and westernmost parts of the modern territory of Iraq. Prior to the middle of the 19th century, the term Eyraca Arabic was used to describe Iraq.
The term Sawad was used in early Islamic times for the region of the alluvial plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, contrasting it with the arid Arabian desert. As an Arabic word, عراق means "hem", "shore", "bank", or "edge", so that the name by folk etymology came to be interpreted as "the escarpment", viz. at the south and east of the Jazira Plateau, which forms the northern and western edge of the "al-Iraq arabi" area. The Arabic pronunciation is. In English, it is either or, the American Heritage Dictionary, the Random House Dictionary; the pronunciation is heard in US media. In accordance with the 2005 Constitution, the official name of the state is the "Republic of Iraq". Between 65,000 BC and 35,000 BC northern Iraq was home to a Neanderthal culture, archaeological remains of which have been discovered at Shanidar Cave This same region is the location of a number of pre-Neolithic cemeteries, dating from 11,000 BC. Since 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture (k
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to power in Iraq; as vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he controlled conflicts between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and foreign banks leaving the system insolvent due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatus of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years. He suppressed several movements Shi'a and Kurdish movements which sought to overthrow the government or gain independence and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for opposing the United States and attacking Israel, he was condemned for the brutality of his dictatorship; the total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddam's government in various purges and genocides is conservatively estimated to be 250,000, or liberally estimated at 1.5 million. Saddam's invasions of Iran and Kuwait resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, he acquired the title "Butcher of Baghdad". In 2003, a coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, in which U. S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair falsely accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda.
Saddam's Ba'ath party was disbanded and elections were held. Following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'a, sentenced to death by hanging, he was executed on 30 December 2006. Before he was born, cancer killed both Saddam's brother; these deaths so depressed Saddam's mother that she attempted to abort her pregnancy and commit suicide. When her son was born, Sabha "would have nothing to do with him", Saddam was taken in by an uncle, his mother remarried, Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return. At about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Talfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim and a veteran of the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War between Iraqi nationalists and the United Kingdom, which remained a major colonial power in the region.
In his life relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a nationalistic high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam supported himself as a secondary school teacher. Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic throughout the Middle East. In Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites. Moreover, the pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam; the rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq and Libya. Nasser inspired nationalists throughout the Middle East by fighting the British and the French during the Suez Crisis of 1956, modernizing Egypt, uniting the Arab world politically.
In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq in the 14 July Revolution. Of the 16 members of Qasim's cabinet, 12 were Ba'ath Party members. To strengthen his own position within the government, Qasim created an alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party, opposed to any notion of pan-Arabism; that year, the Ba'ath Party leadership was planning to assassinate Qasim. Saddam was a leading member of the operation. At the time, the Ba'ath Party was more of an ideological experiment than a strong anti-government fighting machine; the majority of its members were either educated professionals or students, Saddam fit the bill. The choice of Saddam was, according to historian Con Coughlin, "hardly surprising"; the idea of assassinating Qasim may have been Nasser's, there is speculation that some of those who participated in the operation received training in Damascus, part of the UAR. However, "no evidence has been produced to implicate Nasser directly in the plot."
The assassination attempt was conceived as revenge for communist massacres that killed h
Airborne forces
Airborne forces are military units set up to be moved by aircraft and "dropped" into battle by parachute. Thus, they can be placed behind enemy lines, have the capability to deploy anywhere with little warning; the formations are limited only by the number and size of their aircraft, so given enough capacity a huge force can appear "out of nowhere" in minutes, an action referred to as vertical envelopment. On the other hand, airborne forces lack the supplies and equipment for prolonged combat operations, are therefore more suited for airhead operations than for long-term occupation. Advances in helicopter technology since World War II have brought increased flexibility to the scope of airborne operations, air assaults have replaced large-scale parachute operations, replaced combat glider operations. Benjamin Franklin envisioned the danger of airborne attack in 1784, only a few months after the first manned flight in a hot air balloon: "Five Thousand Balloons capable of raising two Men each, would not cost more than Five Ships of the Line: And where is the Prince who can afford so to cover his Country with Troops for its Defense, as that Ten Thousand Men descending from the Clouds, might not in many Places do an infinite deal of Mischief, before a Force could be brought together to repel them?"
Although Winston Churchill had proposed the creation of an airborne force to assault behind the German lines in 1917 during the First World War, the first modern operation dates to late 1918. Major Lewis H. Brereton and his superior Brigadier General Billy Mitchell suggested dropping elements of the U. S. 1st Division behind German lines near Metz. The operation was planned for February 1919 but the war ended before such an attack could be planned. Mitchell conceived that US troops could be trained to utilize parachutes and drop from converted bombers to land behind Metz in sychronisation with a planned infantry offensive. Following the war, the United States Army Air Service experimented with the concept of having troops carried on the wings of aircraft pulled off by the opening of their parachutes; the first true paratroop drop was by Italy in November 1927. Within a few years several battalions had been raised and were formed into two Folgore and Nembo divisions. Although these would fight with distinction in World War II, the divisions were never used in a parachute drop.
Men drawn from the Italian parachute forces were dropped in a special forces operation in North Africa in 1943 in an attempt to destroy parked aircraft of the United States Army Air Forces. In Peru, on March 27, 1927, Enrique Tavernie Entelador while in an AVRO aircraft piloted by Captain Clifford, from a height of 2,000 meters made a leap in Las Palmas, becoming the first Peruvian paratrooper. Subsequently, on May 10, 1928, Second Lieutenant César Álvarez War Palmas Las voluntarily jumped from a height of 3,000 meters, becoming the first military parachutist. On May 16, 1928, Major Fernando Melgar Conde and Sergeant 1st. Jose Pineda Castro, jumped from the famous Las Palmas at altitudes of 2,000 and 4,300 meters, respectively. On 24 May of that year, Ensign Peter Griva, the seaplane service from Ancon, jumped from a height of 2,000 meters; as part of events to celebrate the Day of the Air Force, Air Force Base in Chiclayo, after being summoned by Colonel Cesar Alvarez Guerra CAP and have completed rigorous training, on 23 September 1940, jumped massively from Caproni Ca.111 Panchos, the following: Captain David Rock, Ensign José Luis Quiñones and NCOs Alferano, Oscar Alamo, Antonio Brandariz, Ricardo Colmenares and Carlos Raffo Madalengoitia.
At about the same time, the Soviet Union was experimenting with the idea, planning to drop entire units complete with vehicles and light tanks. To help train enough experienced jumpers, parachute clubs were organized with the aim of transferring into the armed forces if needed. Planning progressed to the point that Corps-size drops were demonstrated to foreign observers, including the British Military Attaché Archibald Wavell, in the Kiev military district maneuvers of 1935. One of the observing parties, was interested. In 1936, Major F. W. Immans was ordered to set up a parachute school at Stendal, was allocated a number of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft to train on; the military had purchased large numbers of Junkers Ju 52 aircraft which were modified for use as paratroop transports in addition to their other duties. The first training class was known as Ausbildungskommando Immans, they commenced the first course on May 3, 1936. Other nations, including Argentina, Japan and Poland organized airborne units around this time.
France became the first nation to organize women in an airborne unit. Recruiting 200 nurses who during peacetime would parachute into natural disasters but reservists who would be a uniformed medical unit during wartime. Several groups within the German armed forces attempted to raise their own paratroop formations, resulting in confusion; as a result, Luftwaffe General Kurt Student was put in overall command of developing a paratrooper force to be known as the Fallschirmjäger. During the invasions of Norway and Denmark in Operation Weserübung, the Luftwaffe dropped paratroopers on several locations. In Denmark, a small unit dropped on the Masnedøfort on the small island of Masnedø to seize the Storstrøm Bridge linking the islands of Falster and Zealand. A paratroop detachment dropped at the airfield of Aalborg, crucial for the Luftwaffe for operations over Norway. In Norway, a company of paratroopers dropped at Oslo's undefended airstrip. Over the course of the morn
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.
Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. was a United States Army General. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Schwarzkopf grew up in the United States and in Iran, he was accepted by the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army in 1956. After a number of initial training programs, Schwarzkopf interrupted a stint as an academy teacher, served in the Vietnam War first as an adviser to the South Vietnamese Army and as a battalion commander. Schwarzkopf was decorated in Vietnam, being awarded three Silver Star Medals, two Purple Hearts, the Legion of Merit. Rising through the ranks after the conflict, he commanded the U. S. 24th Infantry Division and was one of the commanders of the Invasion of Grenada in 1983. Assuming command of United States Central Command in 1988, Schwarzkopf was called on to respond to the Invasion of Kuwait in 1990 by the forces of Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
Tasked with defending Saudi Arabia from Iraqi aggression, Schwarzkopf's command grew to an international force of over 750,000 troops. After diplomatic relations broke down, he planned and led Operation Desert Storm—an extended air campaign followed by a successful 100-hour ground offensive—which defeated the Iraqi Army and liberated Kuwait in early 1991. Schwarzkopf was presented with military honors. Schwarzkopf retired shortly after the end of the war and undertook a number of philanthropic ventures, only stepping into the political spotlight before his death from complications of pneumonia in late 2012. A hard-driving military commander with a strong temper, Schwarzkopf was considered an exceptional leader by many biographers and was noted for his abilities as a military diplomat and in dealing with the press. Schwarzkopf was born Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. on August 22, 1934 in Trenton, New Jersey, to Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. and Ruth Alice. His father was a 1917 graduate of the United States Military Academy and veteran of World War I.
His mother was a housewife from West Virginia, distantly related to Thomas Jefferson. The senior Schwarzkopf became the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, where he worked as a lead investigator on the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping case. In January 1952, the younger Schwarzkopf's birth certificate was amended to make his name "H. Norman Schwarzkopf" because his father detested his first name; the younger Schwarzkopf had Ruth Ann and Sally Joan. Norman Schwarzkopf was described by childhood friends as active and assertive, protective of his sisters and a skilled athlete, he spent his childhood attached to his father, who subsequently became the narrator for the Gang Busters radio program. When Norman Schwarzkopf was eight years old, his father returned to the military amid World War II, his continuous absence made home life difficult for his wife. As a 10-year-old cadet at Bordentown Military Institute, near Trenton, he posed for his official photograph wearing a stern expression because – as he said afterwards – "Some day when I become a general, I want people to know that I’m serious."
In 1946, when Norman Schwarzkopf was 12, he moved with his father to Iran. In Iran, Norman learned shooting, horseback riding, hunting. Schwarzkopf developed a lifelong interest in Middle Eastern culture; the family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1947, following a new military assignment for Herbert Schwarzkopf. The senior Schwarzkopf visited Italy, Heidelberg and Berlin, Germany during his military duties, the younger Schwarzkopf accompanied him. By 1951 he had returned to Iran before returning to the United States. Herbert Schwarzkopf died in 1958. From a young age, Norman wanted to be a military officer, following his father's example, he attended the Community High School in Tehran the International School of Geneva, Frankfurt American High School, in Frankfurt and Heidelberg American High School, in Heidelberg, Germany. He graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy, he was a member of Mensa. Schwarzkopf graduated valedictorian out of his class of 150, his IQ was tested at 168. Schwarzkopf attended the United States Military Academy, where he played football, wrestled and conducted the West Point Chapel choir.
His large frame, 6 feet 3 inches in height and weighing 240 pounds, was advantageous in athletics. In his plebe year he was given the nickname "Schwarzie," the same as his father, he was pushed by older cadets to imitate his father's radio show as a traditional act of hazing. Schwarzkopf gained a great respect for certain military leaders at West Point, notably Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and Creighton Abrams, believing them excellent commanders who nonetheless did not glorify war, he graduated 43rd of 480 in the class of 1956 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree. Schwarzkopf earned a Masters of Engineering at the University of Southern California. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch, Schwarzkopf spent October 1956 to March 1957 at United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, where he earned his Parachutist Badge, his first assignment was as platoon leader executive officer, of E Company, 2nd Airborne Battle Group, 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
It was during this time he recounted he found chronic problems in military leadership, amid what historians have called a larger doctrinal crisis. Schwarzkopf recounted many officers and NCOs he met in th
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