3000-1800 BC First traces of migratory peoples in peninsula.

700-300 BC Etruscan federation exists alongside Roman republic.

264-146 BC Punic Wars against Carthage.

AD 200-400 Decline of Roman Empire.

550-770 Peninsula fragmented with different areas under Byzantine, Papal, Lombard and Frankish influence.

1300-1400 Emergence of the city-states in north; Renaissance era.

1500-1848 Fragmentation of peninsula under foreign domination.

1848-61 Struggle for unification, with brief republic established in 1848; kingdom of Italy proclaimed in 1861.

1870 Rome and the Papal States become part of a unified Italy.

1915-18 Italy sides with Allies during World War I.

1940 Italy enters World War II on Axis side.

1943 Fall of Mussolini and armistice with Allies; Mussolini reinstated by Germany as head of puppet republic; Rome liberated in 1944.

1946 Italian Republic established.

1957 Treaty of Rome; Italy becomes a founding member of European Community, now called the European Union.

1985-2000 Corruption is rife, but Italy flourishes as desire for political and institutional reform grows.

2005 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, following the death of Pope John Paul II.