a brief account of formation of weatern european ciuntries 是关于西欧的一些国家的历史由来 要求用英文写包括德国 法国 意大利 英国 西班牙 瑞士 匈牙利!德国以及其他这些国家的历史 都不是指二战的

a brief account of formation of weatern european ciuntries 是关于西欧的一些国家的历史由来 要求用英文写包括德国 法国 意大利 英国 西班牙 瑞士 匈牙利!德国以及其他这些国家的历史 都不是指二战的
a brief account of formation of weatern european ciuntries
是关于西欧的一些国家的历史由来 要求用英文写
包括德国 法国 意大利 英国 西班牙 瑞士 匈牙利!
德国以及其他这些国家的历史 都不是指二战的时候 的东德西德 是指最古老的时候！

a brief account of formation of weatern european ciuntries 是关于西欧的一些国家的历史由来 要求用英文写包括德国 法国 意大利 英国 西班牙 瑞士 匈牙利!德国以及其他这些国家的历史 都不是指二战的
History of Portugal
Image:PortugueseFlag1095.svg
The first Portuguese flag.Portugal as an independent nation started on June 24
1128, when the Count of Portugal, Afonso Henriques proclaimed himself as king.
In October 5 1143, Alfonso VII, King of León and Castile, recognized the
independence of the County of Portugal, with Afonso I as its King. Afonso and
his successors, aided by the military monastic Orders, pushed southwards to
wrest more land from the Moors, as Portugal started with about half its present
area. In 1249 the Portuguese Reconquista ended when it reached the southern
coast of the Algarve.
In 1383, the King of Castile claimed the right to the throne of Portugal, as he
was married to the daughter of the King of Portugal who had died with no male
heir. The ensuing popular revolt led to the 1383-1385 Crisis. A faction of petty
noblemen and common folk, led by John of Aviz (later John I), seconded by
general Nuno Álvares Pereira, defeated the Castilians on the Battle of
Aljubarrota, the most celebrated battle in Portuguese history and still a symbol
of the struggle for independence from neighbour Spain.
In 1373 Portugal made an alliance with England, probably the longest in History
as it still stands today. In the following decades, Portugal spearheaded the
exploration of the world and started the Age of Discovery. Prince Henry the
Navigator, son of King John I, took on the role of main sponsor and patron of
this endeavour.
In 1415, the Portuguese Empire began when a Portuguese fleet conquered Ceuta, a
rich Islamic trade centre in North Africa. There followed the first discoveries
in the Atlantic: Madeira and the Azores, which led to the first colonization
movements.
Throughout the 15th Century, the Portuguese Explorers sailed down the coast of
Africa, establishing trading posts along the way, while they were looking for
the route to India, land of the spices, which were very coveted and precious in
Europe. In 1498, Vasco da Gama finally arrived in India by sea, and economic
prosperity ensued for Portugal, then with a population of one million, one-tenth
the present number.

Belém Tower, in Lisbon, symbol of the Age of Discovery.In 1500, Pedro Álvares
Cabral landed on Brazil and claimed it for the Portuguese Crown. Ten years
later, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa, in India, Ormuz in the Persian
Straight, and Malacca in modern day Malaysia. Thus, the Portuguese Empire had
the dominion of the commerce in the Indian Ocean and in the South Atlantic.
The independence of Portugal was interrupted from 1580 to 1640. As King
Sebastian died in a battle in Morocco leaving no heir, Philip II of Spain
claimed the throne and got it, becoming Philip I of Portugal. Although Portugal
did not lose its formal indepence as a kingdom, the fact is that it was governed
by same king that governed Spain, forming a Union of Kingdoms; but not for long:
in 1640, John IV spearheded a rebellious uprising backed by disgruntled
Portuguese nobles, and was acclaimed King, starting the long-lasting dynasty of
Braganza. By this time, however, the Portuguese Empire was already under severe
attack from the ambitions of other countries, namely Britain and the
Netherlands, and Portugal entered a slow but inexorable decline until the 20th
Century, especially after the independence of Brazil in 1822, entering a period
of political chaos and civil wars.
In 1910, a republican revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy. But the chaos
continued and considerable economic problems aggravated by a disastrous military
intervention in the First World War led to a military coup d'état in 1926. This
led to the establishment of the right-wing dictatorship of António de Oliveira
Salazar. In the early 1960s, independence movements in the colonies of Angola,
Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea originated the Portuguese Colonial War,
weakening the regime. In 1974, a bloodless left-wing military coup led the way
for the democratic regime of today. Membership in the European Union was
achieved in 1986 and since then Portugal has been engaged in a process of
convergence with its EU counterparts.
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History of Italy
The word Italy derives from the Homeric (Aeolic) word ιταλός [1], which means
"bull". Excavations throughout Italy have found proof of people in Italy dating
back to the Palaeolithic period (the "Old Stone Age") some 200,000 years ago.
The first Greek settlers, who arrived in Italy from Euboea island the 8th
century BC, possibly named their new land "land of bulls".
Italy has influenced the cultural and social development of the whole
Mediterranean area, deeply influencing European culture as well. As a result, it
has also influenced other important cultures. Such cultures and civilisations
have existed there since prehistoric times. After Magna Graecia, the Etruscan
civilisation and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this
part of the world for many centuries, Italy was central to European science and
art during the Renaissance.
Image:Lightmatter colosseum.jpg
The Roman Colosseum, perhaps the most enduring symbol of Italy.Center of the
Roman civilisation for centuries, Italy lost its unity after the collapse of the
Roman Empire and subsequent barbaric invasions. Briefly reunited under Byzantium
(552), was occupied by the Longobards in 568, resulting in the peninsula
becoming irreparably divided. For centuries the country was the prey of
different populations, resulting in its ultimate decadence and misery. Most of
the population fled from cities to take refuge in the countryside under the
protection of powerful feudal lords. After the Longobards came the Franks (774).
Italy became part of the Holy Roman Empire, later to become the Holy Roman
Germanic Empire. Pippin the Short created the first nucleus of the State of the
Vatican, which later became a strong countervailing force against any
unification of the country.
Population and economy started slowly to pick up after 1000, with the resurgence
of cities, trade, arts and literature. During the later Middle Ages the
fragmentation of the peninsula, especially in the northern and central parts of
the country, continued, while the southern part, with Naples, Apulia and Sicily,
remained under a single domination. Venice created a powerful commercial empire
in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea.
The Black Death (1348) inflicted a terrible blow to Italy, resulting in one
third of the population killed by the disease. The recovery from the disaster
led to a new resurgence of cities, trade and economy which greatly stimulated
the successive phase of the Humanism and Renaissance (XV-XVI) when Italy again
returned to be the center of Western civilisation, strongly influencing the
other European countries.
After a century where the fragmented system of Italian states and principalities
were able to maintain a relative independence and a balance of power in the
peninsula, in 1494 the French king Charles VIII opened the first of a series of
invasions, lasting half of the 16th century, and a competition between France
and Spain for the possession of the country. Ultimately Spain prevailed (the
Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559 recognized the Spanish possession of the
Kingdom of Naples) and for almost two centuries became the hegemon in Italy. The
holy alliance between reactionary Catholic Spain and the Holy See resulted in
the systematic persecution of any protestant movement, with the result that
Italy remained a Catholic country with marginal protestant presence. The Spanish
domination and the control of the Church resulted in intellectual stagnation and
economic decadence, also attributable to the shifting of the main commercial
routes from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
Austria succeeded Spain as hegemon in Italy after the Peace of Utrecht (1713),
having acquired the State of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples. The Austrian
domination, thanks also to the Illuminism embraced by Absburgic emperors, was a
considerable improvement upon the Spanish one. The northern part of Italy, under
the direct control of Vienna, again recovered economic dynamism and intellectual
fervor, improved its situation.
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic War (1796-1851) introduced the modern
ideas of equality, democracy, law and nation. The peninsula was not a main
battle field as in the past but Napoleon changed completely its political map,
destroying in 1799 the Republic of Venice, which never recovered its
independence. The states founded by Napoleon with the support of minority groups
of Italian patriots were short-lived and did not survive the defeat of the
French Emperor in 1815.
The Restoration had all the pre-Revolution states restored with the exception of
the Republic of Venice (forthwith under Austrian control) and the Republic of
Genoa (under Savoy domination). Napoleon had nevertheless the merit to give
birth to the first national movement for unity and independence. Albeit formed
by small groups with almost no contact with the masses, the Italian patriots and
liberals staged several uprisings in the decades up to 1860. Mazzini and
Garibaldi were the mosteconomic reform for the impoverished masses. From 1848
onwards the Italian patriots were openly supported by Vittorio Emanuele II, the
king of Sardinia, who put his arms in the Italian tricolor dedicating the House
of Savoy to the Italian unity.
Image:Incontro di Teano fra Garibaldi e Vittorio Emanuele II.jpg
Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuele II first King of Italy.The unification of Italy
was obtained on March 17 1861, after a successful war (the Second War of
Independence) against Austria with the support of France, and after Giuseppe
Garibaldi organized an invasion of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies (Naples and
Sicily) in 1860. Vittorio Emanuele II became the first king of the united Italy.
The national territory was enlarged to Veneto and Venice in 1866 after the third
War of Independence, fought by allied Italy and Prussia against Austria. Rome
itself remained for a little less than a decade under the Papacy thanks to
French protection, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy on September 20 1870,
after Italian troops stormed the city.
The first unified state was plagued by a gruesome rebellion of the Southern
populations opposed to the new domination, by economic stagnation, misery,
illiteracy and a weak national consciousness. Italian was spoken by a small part
of the population while the rest spoke local dialects.
In 1878 Umberto I succeeded his father Vittorio Emanuele II as King of Italy. He
was killed by an anarchist in 1900 and succeeded by his son Vittorio Emanuele
III.
Industrialisation and modernisation, at least in the northern part of the
country, started in the last part of the 19th century under a protectionist
regime. The south, in the meanwhile, stagnated under overpopulation and
underdevelopment, so forcing millions of people to search for employment and
better conditions of life abroad. This lasted until 1970. It is calculated that
more than 26 million Italians migrated to France, Germany, Switzerland, United
States, Argentina, Brazil and Australia.
Democracy moved its first steps at the beginning of the 20th century. The 1848
Constitution provided for basic freedoms but the electoral laws excluded the
disposed and the uneducated from voting. Only in 1913 the male universal
suffrage was allowed. The Socialist Party resulted the main political party,
outclassing the traditional liberal and conservative organizations. The path to
a modern liberal democracy was interrupted by the tragedy of the First World War
(1915-18), which Italy fought along with France and Great Britain. Italy was
able to beat the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in November 1918. It obtained Trento
and Trieste and few territories on the Dalmatian coast (Zara) and was considered
a great power, but the population had to pay a heavy human and social price. The
war produced more than 600,000 dead, inflation and unemployment, economic and
political instability, which in the end favoured the fascist movement to reach
power in 1922 with the tacit support of King Vittorio Emanuele III who feared
civil war and revolution.
The fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini lasted from 1922 to 1943 but in the
first years Mussolini maintained the appearance of a liberal democracy. After
rigged elections in 1924 gave to Fascism and its conservative allies an absolute
majority in the Parliament, Mussolini cancelled all democratic liberties on 3
January 1925. He then proceeded to establish a totalitarian state, imposing the
control of the state upon all single social and political activity. Political
parties were banned, independent trade unions were closed. The only permitted
party was the National Fascist Party. A secret police (OVRA) and a system of
quasi-legal repression (Tribunale Speciale) ensured the total control of the
regime upon Italians who, in their majority, either resigned or welcomed the
dictatorship, many considering it a last resort to stop the spread of communism.
While relatively benign in comparison with Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia,
several thousands people were incarcerated or exiled for their opposition and
several dozens were killed by fascist thugs (Carlo Rosselli) or died in prison
(Antonio Gramsci). Mussolini tried to spread his authoritarian ideology to other
European countries and dictators such as Salazar in Portugal, Franco in Spain
and Hitler in Germany were heavily influenced by the Italian examples.
Conservative but democratic leaders in Great Britain and United States were at
the beginning favourable to Mussolini. Mussolini tried, albeit unsuccessfully,
to spread fascism amongst the millions on Italians living abroad.
Image:Benito Mussolini.jpg
Benito Mussolini Prime Minister of Italy and leader of the Fascist Party.In 1929
Mussolini realised a pact with the Holy See, resulting in the rebirth of an
independent state of the Vatican for the Catholic Church in the heart of Rome.
In 1935 he declared war on Ethiopia on a pretext. Ethiopia was subjugated in few
months. This resulted in the alienation of Italy from its traditional allies,
France and Great Britain, and its nearing to Nazi Germany. A first pact with
Germany was concluded in 1936 and then in 1938 (the Iron Pact). Italy supported
Franco's revolution in Spanish civil war and Hitler's pretensions in central
Europe, accepting the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938, although the
disappearance of a buffer state between mighty Germany and Italy was
unfavourable for the country. In October 1938 Mussolini managed to avoid the
eruption of another war in Europe, bringing together Great Britain, France and
Germany at the expense of Czechoslovakia's integrity.
In April 1939 Italy occupied Albania, a de-facto protectorate for decades, but
in September 1939, after the invasion of Poland, Mussolini wisely decided not to
intervene on Germany's side, due to the poor preparation of the armed forces.
Italy entered in war in June 1940 when France was almost defeated. Mussolini
hoped for a quick victory but Italy showed from the very beginning the poor
nature of its army and the scarce ability of its generals. Italy invaded Greece
in October 1940 via Albania but after a few days was forced to withdraw. After
conquering British Somalia in 1940, a counter-attack by the Allies led to the
loss of the whole Italian empire in the Horn of Africa. Italy was also defeated
in Northern Africa and saved only by the German armed forces led by Rommel.
After several defeats, Italy was invaded in May 1943. In July 1943 King Vittorio
Emanuele III staged a coup d'etat against Mussolini, having him arrested. In
September 1943 Italy surrendered. It was immediately invaded by Germany and for
nearly two years the country was divided and became a battlefield. The
Nazi-occupied part of the country, where a puppet fascist state under Mussolini
was reconstituted, was the theatre of a savage civil war between freedom
fighters ("partigiani") and Nazi and fascist troops. The country was liberated
by a national uprising on 25 April, 1945 (the Liberazione).
Particularly in the north agitation against the king ran high, leftwing and
communist armed partisans wanting to depose him as being responsible for the
fascist regime. Vittorio Emanuele gave up the throne to his son Umberto II who
again faced the possibility of civil war. Italy became a Republic after the
result of a popular referendum held on 2 June, 1946, a day since then celebrated
as Republic Day. The republic won with a 9% margin; the north of Italy voted
prevalently for a republic, the south for the monarchy. The Republican
Constitution was approved and entered into force on 1 January, 1948, including a
provisional measure banning all male members of the house of Savoy from Italy.
This stipulation was redressed in 2002.
Since then Italy has experienced a strong economic growth, particularly in the
50s and 60s, while lifted the country among the most industrialized nations in
the world, with a perennial political instability. The Christian Democratic
Party and its liberal and social democratic allies ruled Italy without
interruptions from 1948 until 1994, marginalising the main opposition party, the
Italian Communist Party, until the end of the cold war.
In 1992-94 a series of scandals (nicknamed "Tangentopoli") and the ensuing Mani
pulite investigation destroyed the post-war political system. New parties and
coalition emerged: on the right, Forza Italia of the media-mogul Silvio
Berlusconi is the main successor of the Christian Democrat party. On the left
the Democratici di Sinistra (Democrats of the Left) are the moderate successor
of the Communist Party, while the most liberal and progressive Catholic
politicians belong to La Margherita (the Daisy). In 1994 Silvio Berlusconi's
Forza Italia and its allies (National Alliance and the Northern League) won the
elections but the government collapsed after only a few months because the
Northern League split out. A technical government cabinet led by Lamberto Dini,
supported by the left-wing parties and the Northern League, lasted until Romano
Prodi's new center-left coalition won the 1996 gener