Italy has succeeded in avoiding any wars.
The Italian Wars , often referred to as the Great Italian Wars or the Great Wars of Italy and sometimes as the Habsburg -- Valois Wars or the Renaissance Wars , were a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559 that involved , at various times , most of the city-states of Italy , the Papal States , the Republic of Venice , most of the major states of Western Europe ( France , Spain , the Holy Roman Empire , England , and Scotland ) as well as the Ottoman Empire . Italy . After various unsuccessful attempts , the Italian Wars of Independence and the Expedition of the Thousand resulted in the eventual unification of the country in 1861 , now a great power after centuries of foreign domination and political division . Despite being one of the main victors in World War I , Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil , leading the way to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922 . The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat , economic destruction and an Italian civil war .