Trentino-Alto Adige

About Trentino-Alto Adige

Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol (US: / trɛnˌtiːnoʊ ˌɑːltoʊ ˈɑːdiːdʒeɪ /, UK: / -dɪdʒ-, - ˌæltoʊ ˈædɪdʒeɪ /; Italian: Trentino-Alto Adige [trenˈtiːno ˈid; German : Trentino-Südtirol; Ladin: Trentin-Südtirol) is an autonomous region of Italy, located in the northern part of the country. Since the 1970s, most of the legislative and administrative powers have been transferred to the two autonomous provinces that make up the region: the Province of Trento, commonly known as Trentino, and the Province of Bolzano, commonly known as Alto Adige.

From the 9th century until its annexation by Italy in 1919, the region was part of Austria-Hungary and its predecessors, the Austrian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Together with the Austrian state of Tyrol it is represented by the Euroregion Tyrol-Alto Adige-Trentino. With a past of poverty, the region is today among the richest and most developed both in Italy and throughout Europe.

In English, the region is also known as Trentino-Alto Adige or with its Italian name.

History

The region was conquered by the Romans in 15 BC. After the end of the Western Roman Empire, it was divided among the invading Germanic tribes in the Lombard Duchy of Tridentum (today's Trentino), Val Venosta and the Bavarians (who took the remainder). After the creation of the Kingdom of Italy under Charlemagne, the Marquisate of Verona included the areas south of Bolzano, while the Duchy of Bavaria received the remainder.

From the 11th century onwards, part of the region was governed by the bishops of Trento and Bressanone, to whom the Holy Roman Emperors had conferred extensive temporal powers on their bishops. They were soon defeated by the Counts of Tyrol and the Counts of Görz, who also controlled the Val Pusteria: in 1363 its last owner, Margherita, Countess of Tyrol, ceded the region to the House of the Habsburgs. The regions north of Salorno were largely Germanized in the Middle Ages and important German poets such as Arbeo di Frisinga and Oswald von Wolkenstein were born and lived in the southern part of Tyrol.

The two bishops were secularized by the 1803 Treaty of Lunéville and given to the Habsburgs. Two years later, following the Austrian defeat in Austerlitz, the region was entrusted to Napoleon Bavaria's ally (Pressburg Treaty, 1805). The new rulers provoked a popular rebellion in 1809, led by Andreas Hofer, a landlord of San Leonardo in Passiria; this rebellion was crushed the same year. The resulting Treaty of Paris of February 1810 divided the area between Austria and the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. During the French control of the region, Haut Adige was officially called (literally "Alto Adige", Italian: "Alto Adige"; German: "Hochetsch") to avoid any reference to the historic County of Tyrol. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the region returned to Austria.

Under Austrian rule, the territory of today's province of South Tyrol was called südliches Tirol or Deutschsüdtirol, but was also occasionally called Mitteltirol, or Alto Adige, due to its geographical position, while Südtirol (Italian: Tyrol southern), or South Tyrol, mostly indicated the current province of Trentino . Trentino was also called Welschtirol ("Romance Tyrol", Italian: Italian Tyrol) or Welschsüdtirol ("Romance Alto Adige", Italian: Italian South Tyrol). Sometimes Südtirol also indicated the entire Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol region.

During the First World War, the great battles were fought high in the Alps and in the Dolomites between the Austro-Hungarian Kaiserjäger and the Italian Alpine troops, for whom control of the region was a key strategic objective. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian war effort allowed Italian troops to occupy the region in 1918 and its annexation was confirmed in the post-war treaties, which assigned the region to Italy under the Treaty of Saint-Germain.

Source: Wikipedia
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trentino-Alto_Adige%2FS%C3%BCdtirol