The Italian cities of Italy was involved in politics.
Italy . Due to cultural , political and historical reasons , Italy is a Western European country . Rome ultimately emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean basin , conquering much of the ancient world and becoming the leading cultural , political and religious centre of Western civilisation . Furthermore , the Italian city-states constantly engaged one another in bloody warfare , culminating in the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries that left them exhausted , with no one emerging as a dominant power .