The Italian Wars :: History

The Italian WarsItaly was the back globe for let outside powers between the French invasion of 1494 and the accession of Francis 1 in 1515 for different reasons.Between these years, the States of Italy were invaded on a number occasions by armies from France, Spain and new(prenominal) countries. At this time, the Italian States were very vulnerable there were conflicts in Italy itself-importance, they had out of date military equipment and Italy had insecure frontiers and unreliable allies That Italy failed to organise herself against invaders was due to the selfish policies. This gave outside powers reason to use Italy as their battleground. Italy was a very moneyed country, showing this wealth, a Florentine Historian, Guicciardini said Italy has never enjoyed such prosperity or known so favourable a situation Also, because the Pope lived in Italy, it gave enemies more incentive to fight in Italy as opposed to any other country. Another reason for Italy being the battleground wa s that unknown powers felt they had dynastic claims to certain states and therefore felt obliged to fight for them.I feel the most important reason why outside powers chose Italy to fight in was fundamentally because they could. Italy was divided, unstable and disunited there were even civil disputes e.g. when Venice and its neighbour Ferrara went to war. It was hard to keep foreign powers out of their country because they werent working together apiece state was not strong enough to protect Italy on its own. The Papacy also didnt help in keeping enemies out there was endlessly scope for dissension between them (Orsini and Colonna) and while they remained armed before the very eyes of the pontiff, they kept the papacy weak and insecure. Also, it was playing its usual game of self interest. Pope Leo X in 1513 set about promoting the interests of himself and his family. He was prepared to negotiate for French aid to further his ambitions this lead to more foreign powers (especial ly France), being able to easily use Italy as the main battleground. It can be disputed that the most important reason for Italy being the battle ground was that it was wealthy, but I feel that even though it was wealthy, there were certainly other wealthy states which could have been the battleground, had Italy not been such an easy target, with certain assets other countries did not have.This leads me to the next important reason why Italy was the battle ground wealth.