The period 1796 to 1871 was marked by two major events: the invasion of Italy by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796, leading to the
Napoleonic era that ended in 1815; and the rise of nationalist movements, leading to the eventual unification of Italy. When
Rome was taken from the French in 1870, the Italian peninsula was fully united as a single nation under the control of the Italian people for the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century
AD.
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