His passions against tyranny and love of Italy fueled his many military exploits, and his warfare efforts freed northern Italy, as well as Sicily and Naples, from foreign rule. As the third critical component of Italy’s reunification, King Victor Emmanuel II was the monarch in power during the process as he reigned from 1861 to 1878. He was from the royal House of Savoy and allowed both Cavour and Garibaldi to receive great recognition during his reign, with Cavour’s political power even surpassing his own.
King Umberto I reigned from 1878 to 1900. His successful military leadership in the war with Austria in 1866 earned him a good name among Italians even though public opinion was not in support of a monarchy. Important factors which contributed to his murder in were his unpopular Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, his insistence that Italy compete in an
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During World War II, from June of 1940 to July of 1943, under Mussolini’s direction, Italy fought alongside the Axis Forces in Africa and were defeated. After the Allied forces gained control of Sicily, Mussolini was deposed, and Italy changed their alliance to join the Allies. In 1949, Italy joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and joined the United Nations in 1955. In 1957, they became a founding member of the European Economic Community (EEC) which later became the European Union. “NATO was a formal alliance between the territories of North American and Europe. From its inception, its main purpose was to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation.” The European Union consisted of 28 member countries, joined together by unified trade and monetary currency. It was created to provide European nations a more competitive position in the global marketplace. The constant challenge remained of balancing the member countries’ political and financial