Italy became a nation-state belatedly - in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula and Sicily were united under King Victor Emmanuel. The Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini that took over after World War I led to a disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany and Italian defeat in World War II. Revival followed. Italy was a charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC) and joined the growing political and economic unification of Western Europe, including the introduction of the euro in 1999.

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