Duchy of Milan
The Duchy of Milan was an Italian state located in northern Italy. The duchy was created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, that had been ruling the city since 1277. 

At that time, it included twenty-six towns and the wide rural area of the middle Padan Plain east of the hills of Montferrat. During much of its existence, it was wedged between Savoy to the west, Venice to the east, the Swiss Confederacy to the north, and separated from the Mediterranean by Genoa to the south. The duchy was at its largest at the beginning of the 15th century, at which time it included almost all of what is now Lombardy and parts of what are now Piedmont, Veneto, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.

Under the House of Sforza, Milan experienced a period of great prosperity with the introduction of the silk industry, becoming one of the wealthiest states during the Renaissance.

From the late 15th century, the Duchy of Milan was contested between the forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France. It was ruled by Habsburg Spain from 1556 and it passed to Habsburg Austria in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession as a vacant Imperial fief. The duchy remained an Austrian possession until 1796 when a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte conquered it, and it ceased to exist a year later as a result of the Treaty of Campo Formio, when Austria ceded it to the new Cisalpine Republic.

After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 restored many other states which he had destroyed, but not the Duchy of Milan. Instead, its former territory became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, with the Emperor of Austria as its king. In 1859, Lombardy was ceded to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, which became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Q4345530
northern Italy
LOC
Q357539
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
PER
Q212475
Visconti family
Concept
Q202207
Padan Plain
LOC
Q19868
hills of Montferrat
LOC
Q200229
Savoy
LOC
Q4948
Venice
LOC
Q435583
Swiss Confederacy
LOC
Q174306
Genoa
LOC
Q1210
Lombardy
LOC
Q1216
Piedmont
LOC
Q1243
Veneto
LOC
Q1273
Tuscany
LOC
Q1263
Emilia-Romagna
LOC
Q130858
House of Sforza
Concept
Q70972
Kingdom of France
LOC
Q600093
Habsburg Spain
LOC
Q153136
Habsburg Austria
LOC
Q150701
War of the Spanish Succession
EVE
Q517
Napoleon Bonaparte
PER
Q206752
Treaty of Campo Formio
MEDIA
Q213353
Cisalpine Republic
LOC
Q46362
Congress of Vienna
MEDIA
Q209857
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia
LOC
Q165154
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia
LOC
Q172579
Kingdom of Italy
LOC
Q153529
Duchy of Milan
LOC
Q153529
Duchy of Milan
LOC
Q153529
Duchy of Milan
LOC
1395-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1395
DATE
1277-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1277
DATE
1556-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1556
DATE
1707-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1707
DATE
1796-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1796
DATE
1815-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1815
DATE
1859-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1859
DATE
1861-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1861
DATE
+15^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
15
NUMBER
+15^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
15
NUMBER
head of state
family
participant
signatory
point in time