05/07/2024
https://www.facebook.com/100044382670908/posts/1023073449182068/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v
How many times a day do you think about the Roman Empire? And how often does post-Roman Italy come to mind? Perhaps less than it deserves. True, for most of the millennium and a half since Rome fell, Italy has been politically fragmented; but throughout the Middle Ages and after, it maintained its status as an arts and culture superpower, and as a beacon for refinement and innovation.
And while Rome’s legions reached the borders of Scotland and the shores of the Persian Gulf, modern Italians ventured much further into the world. Not just explorers like Columbus, Vespucci or Cabot either. The peninsula’s poor, huddled masses emigrated far and wide, and their descendants form large parts of the population of the more than 20 countries shown on this world map.
Argentina is the world’s only majority-Italian country (besides Italy, of course. And San Marino. The Vatican, for obvious reasons, has no ‘native’ population). Close to half of all Uruguayans have Italian ancestry, as do more than a third of Paraguayans.
In fact, Latin America as a whole was a favourite emigration destination for Italians, whose descendants are particularly plentiful in Venezuela (16%) and Brazil (15%), and to a lesser extent in Costa Rica (7.5%), Colombia (4%), Chile (3.5%), the Dominican Republic and El Salvador (both 3%), Peru (1.6%) and Mexico (1%).
Not all Italians went as far as that. Europe itself was a major destination for Italian emigrants, with both France (8%) and Switzerland (7%) having a larger share of Italian descendants than the U.S. (5.4%), Canada or Australia (both 4%). In Belgium too, 4% of the population is of Italian descent, as are 1.4% of Germans, and 1% of both Brits and the Spanish.
In terms of cultural radiance and geographic spread, not to mention culinary excellence, it could be argued that the Italians are not merely the successors to the Romans, but also their betters.
One is reminded of that scene in The Sopranos, where an Orthodox Jew invokes the example of Masada in a business dispute with Tony Soprano, and asks: “The Romans, where are they now?” To which the latter replies: “You’re looking at them, a——e”.
Map via Maps Interlude
https://mapsinterlude.wordpress.com