Milan

Milan

Founded by the Insubres Gauls probably in the early 4th century BC, the ancient Mediolanum (a name that according to some sources means “city between two rivers” and according to others “city at the center of the plain”) was in the beginning just a small settlement.

It grew rapidly following its conquest by Rome in 222 BC, cli... Read on

Milan

Founded by the Insubres Gauls probably in the early 4th century BC, the ancient Mediolanum (a name that according to some sources means “city between two rivers” and according to others “city at the center of the plain”) was in the beginning just a small settlement.

It grew rapidly following its conquest by Rome in 222 BC, clinched in 197 BC after a period of rebellion at the time of the invasion of Italy by Hannibal and the Carthaginian armies. As the capital of the 11th Augustan region (Transpadana), an important and strategic trade node enclosed by a first circle of walls, the city attained its maximum splendor in 292 AD, when Emperor Maximianus chose it as capital of the Western Roman Empire, strengthened its fortifications, and moved his court there. It was there that in 313 Emperor Constantine issued his famous Edict; there that Bishop Ambrose worked to firmly oppose Arianism after coming to Milan in 370 as a layman in the guise of imperial governor. The decay of the Empire and the menace posed by the barbarian hordes (Alaric’s Visigoths in 401, Teodoric’s Ostrogoths in 489, and so on through the Goths, who despite strenuous resistance by the Byzantines sacked and devastated the city in 539) marked the rapid decline of prosperous Milan, which in 569 was occupied by Alboin’s Longobards and lost its supremacy in the region in favor of nearby Pavia. Such a position of inferiority and increasingly marked political isolation persisted under the Franks and the Carolingians, but two great forces contributed, in that era, to shoring up Milan’s opportunities and fortune: flourishing trade and the figure of the archbishop, an office which over time had succeeded in reinforcing and strengthening its prestige and power in the political sphere. One bishop in particular, Ariberto di Intimiano (11th century), maneuvering among feudal lords and commoners, even succeeded in defying the emperor and thus in a certain sense laying the groundwork for a slow reawakening of Milan and its return to prominence. The short-term upshot of such tactics was to assure that although the archbishop remained the supreme authority in the city, Milan was constituted as a commune or free city in 1117, with the wealthy bourgeoisie officially called to participate in local government.

Shortly, the city’s economic power increased dramatically, to the point of permitting it to absorb the surrounding territory and substantially replace the pre-existing feudal organization; its expansionist horizons also broadened, to the detriment of nearby centers like Como and Lodi. The intention was to create a truly independent state, and to this end Milan took advantage of the momentary disinterest manifested by the imperial dynasty, involved as it was, in Germany, in fierce struggles for succession. But when Frederick Barbarossa, returned to power, decided to reinforce his theretofore weakened hegemony over the Italian peninsula, he was able to exploit the general malcontent and the consequent support of the communes under Milan’s rule. He put the city under siege and finally, in 1162, took it and razed it to the ground. Milan rose again rapidly, however, and in time to turn the nearby cities’ discontent with imperial rule to its own advantage. And thus these cities joined Milan in the Lombard League founded on the Oath of Pontida; the League emerged from the 1176 Battle of Legnano with a legendary victory over the imperial troops. Communal independence was thus permanently reaffirmed, but the continuing internal conflicts that irremediably marked the political proximity of the various Communes assured the region only a lengthy—and dangerous—period of instability. This situation persisted until once again an archbishop—this time Ottone Visconti, who in 1277—after prolonged and bloody conflicts with other important Milanese families—succeeded in imposing his hegemony over the city, throwing open the doors to power in Milan to his nephew Matteo and Matteo’s grandson Azzone. Thus began that protracted (130 years) period of Visconti rule that on the one hand marked the beginning of the real—and quite determined—rebirth of the city, which went on to return to great pomp and splendor, but on the other was characterized by violent dynastic struggles.

All things considered, we may say that the Visconti family considered Milan and its holdings (which progressively expanded toward Piemonte, Emilia, and Liguria) as personal property, to be handed down and subdivided generation after generation. This explains, for example, why in the mid-14th century the territory was managed by the two brothers Galeazzo II and Bernabò. But in 1378, when Galeazzo II was succeeded by his son Gian Galeazzo, this union became extremely unwieldy—to the point that the man who was destined to become one of Milan’s most important and brilliant lords did not hesitate an instant to brutally eliminate his uncle and his uncle’s heirs. At the death of Gian Galeazzo, who acquired the title of duke in 1395, the situation came to a head due to the rivalry among Gian Galeazzo’s three heirs and the increasing power of a number of ambitious mercenaries. One of these, a certain Francesco Sforza, husband of the last of the Visconti’s, Bianca Maria, after the brief interlude of the Ambrosian Republic ushered in a new period of peace and prosperity, becoming lord of the city by public acclaim in 1450. Francesco, who turned out to be a far-sighted prince and a capable administrator, did all he could to ensure peace among the various Italian states and the well-being of the city he governed. The same cannot be said for his successors, including that Ludovico I il Moro (“the Moor”) who, exploiting the premature death by violence of his brother, Galeazzo Maria, and the hesitation of the widow, Bona of Savoia, succeeded first in obtaining tutelage of his very young nephew, Gian Galeazzo Maria, and then, at his death, absolute power. Ludovico was a munificent lord; during his reign, Milan’s city fabric developed considerably and the economy thrived. But his foreign policy, which reflected his ambitious expansionistic aims, only procured continual wars and an uninterrupted intrigue of alliances and rivalries that in time proved to constitute an element of intrinsic weakness that in the end had serious repercussions on the future of the city. To suffer the consequences were above all the descendents of Ludovico, who watched as the duchy weakened and then rapidly fell to pieces as it was contested by the French and the Spanish, who, in 1535, at the death of Francesco II, the last of the Sforza family, took power over Milan and its territories. Spanish domination, exercised by a governor, was for the city a long period of impoverishment and economic and political stagnancy marked by abuse of power by the local aristocracy, heavy taxes, and even two terrible plagues in 1576 and 1629-1633. And once again it was the archbishopric (this time, guided by the extraordinary Saint Charles and Federico Borromeo) and the city’s incredible economic power and vitality that saved it from catastrophe. When the Austrians replaced the Spaniards in 1737, the situation reached a turning point. From the very first, the new government implemented a policy of centralization in the best absolutist tradition, a policy that designated Venice as the center of power and relegated Milan to the uncomfortable role of passive satellite. But Austrian dominion also brought to the city (and to Lombardy in general) reforms aimed at improving the standard of living of the people and the economy of the territories.

What is more, in the wake of Viennese prestige Milan slowly reacquired a meaningful role in Europe, at least on the cultural plane. Great thinkers and the Illuminist philosophers found Milan to be a particularly favorable habitat; literary societies flourished and with time took on a political valence. Think, for example, of poets like Parini, or of the works of Cesare Beccaria, who with his On Crimes and Punishments laid a milestone for European civilization—and so on down through the imposing figure of Alessandro Manzoni. As time passed, the Lombard peoples began to feel the weight of Austrian supremacy as a despotically-imposed and oppressive yoke. This feeling was perhaps incensed by the revolutionary parenthesis initiated by the French governors, who between 1796 and 1815 saw the institution of the Cisalpine Republic first and then the Kingdom of Italy, following on the new egalitarian and liberal ideas. A victorious Napoleon had entered Milan on 15 May 1796, and in Milan, on 26 May 1805, was crowned ruler of the new kingdom, whose government he had entrusted to his stepson and viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais. But Austrian dominion was restored in 1815, at the fall of Napoleon; and although it was more onerous and less well-tolerated than ever, entered into crisis only in 1848, with the revolts and the mythical Five Days of Milan, when the city’s populace rose and opted for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. This glorious attempt, however, foundered when Carlo Alberto di Savoia was defeated by the Hapsburg armies. Milan thus had to await 8 June 1859 and the triumphal entry into the city of Vittorio Emanuele II and Napoleon III (a historical event prepared with consummate political skill by Cavour) to officially declare the end of Austrian dominion over Lombardy and the region’s entry, in perfect order, into the new unified Italy. Shortly thereafter, Milan became the new Italy’s economic capital—and, in a certain sense, its cultural capital as well.

The city saw rapid and peremptory urban development, a significant increase in population, and alacritous industrial growth; it consequently took on a role at the social avant-garde that was to make it the nerve center of the first Socialist revendications. Following WW1 and the Fascist period, during which time the city proved from the very beginning to be a center of the active and well-organized underground movement, thanks in part to the support of conspicuous political and cultural figures, WW2 inflicted deep and devastating wounds on the city. The repeated aerial bombings— and in particular the tremendous incursions of August 1943—totally destroyed vast areas of the city. After the armistice, during the period of German occupation and until the city was liberated on 25 April 1945, Milan was one of the most important and active centers of the Partisan movement. Following the war, the always-vital and enterprising Milan imperatively reawakened and reaffirmed its role as economic capital of Italy and as a guiding force in a myriad of sectors: industry, city planning, culture, and the social sphere.

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