Dalla riforma teresiana all'invasione francese Dal Regno d'Italia napoleonico al Regno Lombardo-Veneto

The essay focuses the relationship between Milan and the neighboring territory during the years 1750-1861. In that period State power manifested a strong administrative practice and transformed the local governments. Basing himself on prevailing political, institutional, and fiscal dynamics, the author shows four phases of this historical process. 1) With the land register reform of Empress Maria Theresa (1750), the City of Milan was placed on top of the entire Duchy (the ancient province) which fed it. This expansive movement of Milan began slowing down in 1781, with the creation of the autonomous municipality of Corpi Santi. 2) The establishment of a uniform structure of local governments by the Republican authorities (1802) reduced the Milanese territory to the City walls with a substantial loss of tax revenues. 3) The government attempts to give Milan, the great political capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, larger sources of revenues, by incorporating with it 35 neighboring municipalities (1808). 4) The Austrian rule of Lombardy-Venetia abolished this vast Napoleonic district (1816), and Milan’s territory returned to the City walls. The surrounding small towns regained their autonomy until 1873.