A brief of the History of Tuscany
The Etruscan have inhabited Tuscany since the 10th century BC. This mysterious people had occupied the territory between the valley of the Arno and Tiber rivers. In this region that Latin speaking people called
Tuscia, hence the name Tuscany, the Etruscan founded several autonomous city-states, which constituted the
League of the Twelve. Between the 7th and 6th centuries BC, the Etruscan extended their boundaries up to part of the Po Valley and to Corsica, but in the 5th century BC the Greece and the Carthaginian defeated them and they withdrew inside their traditional boundaries. The Roman definitively crushed the Etruscan in the 2nd century BC and the Tuscan cities experienced a long period of decay, which continued in the Middle Ages, under the Lombard.
Tuscan economy began to recover only in the 12th century, when Pisa developed commercial relationships with the Orient, while in Florence and Siena flourishing financial and industrial activities were founded. A new social class developed – the so-called communal bourgeoisie – which gave raise to a dispute with the traditional imperial and feudal power. Thanks to the alliance with the Papal State, Florence the guelph triumphed in this long and bloody dispute and acquired a dominating position all over the region. At the beginning of the 15th century, Lucca and Siena were the only two independent Tuscan cities.
In 1434 the Medici became the Lords of Florence. Under Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent Florence became Tuscany and Italy’s cultural capital and a real economic and political power. In the 16th century the seigniory was transformed into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and subdued Siena. Lucca was the only independent city of the region.
After decades of bad rulers, in 1737 the Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed in the hands of the Lorraine, who proceeded to its modernization. Apart from a brief period during the Napoleonic Age, the Lorraine governed in Tuscany until the Grand Duchy was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy (1860). Florence was the capital of the new Kingdom from 1865 to 1871.
In the period following World War I, Tuscany experienced an economic crisis, whereas after World War II Tuscan industry recovered and tourism developed.
