Since if the Italians were Romans, how come they haven't establised another Empire?

Question

I mean if you look at the British Empire, Spanish Empire, Portuguese, Dutch etc they all conqered, but how come Italians never done anything like this, i mean they were the Romans right? so how come they didnt manage to get another Empire? or is it that Romans were different to Italians & the Roman mentallity just vanished and therefore Italians are another breed altogether.

Answer 1

Romans were never Italians. Italy was only Italy for the 1800's and 1900's/. before that they were split up into the Holy Roman Empire, The Papal States, and Nepal. Before that it was the Roman Empire, which fell in the 5th Century.

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Answer 2

Italy was not a sovereign state until about 1861 and not effective as a European power until 1871. Before that, it was a collection of city states and principalities. The Romans of the Roman Empire constituted only a small fraction of the peoples living in what we now call Italy. They started out conquering the rest of Italy.

By and large, the history of the Italian people is one of peacefulness, music, domani, fine food and wine, fishing, philosophy, science and art. There was nothing in Italian history until the 1920s that even hinted at empire in the sense of the Roman Empire. The Florentines had a banking "empire", the Genoese an exploration "empire", the Venicians a silk and spices "empire". But the Italians, as a people in a European context, simply have not been imperialists, except for the failed attempt under the Fascists.

Answer 3

The Roman was fruit of a union between the Latins and the Troiani. Then they joined also to the Etruschi. Hour the Italians are only partially descendants from the antichi roman but they are also a concoction of razze, had to the invasions of several people: Goti, Vandali, Franchi, Longobardi, Bizantini, Arabs, Normanni… All the great empires of the history of the humanity have had a beginning and one fine, see the Assiro.Babilonese Empire, Persian, Spanish ..... and also the roman empire has followed this destiny….

Answer 4

Since the Roman Empire, The Italians were about 16 powererful states who were always fighting, by the time they united, they were weak. The idiotic Bento Mussolini wanted a new Roman Empire but made things worse

Answer 5

An interesting question.

The Italians are wrongly stereotyped as being cowards by their performance in World War 2 - closer investigation will reveal that the 'Ariete' Armoured Division, using very poor equipment, put up a very good fight in the Western Desert campaign, acting as flank guard to Rommels 2 Panzer Divisions.

Italian frogmen infiltrated Alexandria and severely damaged 2 British battleships.

The Mafia, to this day, are not scared of a fight, and I believe most Italian chefs could give Gordon Ramsay a run for his money, both in quality of cooking and variety of invective!

Mussolini, it is said "made the trains run on time". Maybe there is some truth in this - perhaps the Italians are content with a laid-back attitude. I've been around Italy, not just the tourist joints, and I've found the Italians to be a fine bunch - a little like the Irish - keen on their food and their drink, their music and their conversation. It is worth remembering, however, that the Irish set the scene for the dissolution of the British Empire.

Perhaps the Italians feel that having had one empire, albeit a long time ago, it is not worth trying to start another one. I tend to agree with them.

Answer 6

The Romans were not Italians .Italy came much later when a number of smaller states including Rome came together.The Italians did start to build an Empire when Mussolini invaded north and North East Africa and parts of the Balkans but the British threw them out in WWII.Unlike the Germans the greatest problems with the Italians was the drain of resources on British forces guarding all the prisoners whose main tactic seemed to be to surrender in their thousands.

Answer 7

The Italian Penisular was split into a number of small states after the demise of the roman empire. It was not until the early 19th century they where joined together again by conquest under Napolean the 1st (Bonaparte) but after his defeat they split again. Then joined once more under Garibaldi (yes like the biscuit) and remained a unified country in the 20th century except for a small number of independant enclaves like the Holy See.
In 1921 after the First World War, Mussolini and his Fascists took over the country in a succesful political vote and then started to look to expand. Firstly by taking fiume on the Adriatic Coast which had been promised to Italy by the Allies in return for its support in the war, then the rest of Libya (Italy controlled only the coastal regions) and in 1936 one of the last remaining kingdoms uncolonised by Europeans, Ethiopia. 1939 Albania and outsted King Zog (Brilliant name!).
After that the 2nd World War started and Italy was set on winning the Nice and Monaco area of France, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece and the Islands in the Mediterannian. Unfortunatley the country was not ready for war and would not have been until at least 1944, so really became a Satellite Country to Germany when she failed to make any headway against the British Forces.

Answer 8

The Italians were not the Romans, no matter how much they wish they were.

Descendants of the Romans can be found living in the city of Rome.

You will find very few descendants of the Romans living scattered across Italy.

In any case, Rome was a spend force, especially after the Krauts smashed the place up.

Answer 9

Basically, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy was just too weak and did not have the resources to forge another great Empire or indeed colonies. Mussolini tries to while he was in power but was not very successful. For example, he lost twice in Abyssinia. And nowadays, well, it's against human rights to impose your rule on another nation, or something stupid like that.

Answer 10

The Romans had ONE empire. The British had ONE empire. The Spanish had ONE empire.

You only get one chance. The true Romans have faded into history.