In Italy, national unification was unsuccessful. The temporal power of the popes in the center of the peninsula and imperial authority in the North prevented the consolidation of the territories. The interplay of factions, of parties, from one city to another, even within the same city, caused an endless war of a thousand episodes between Guelphs and Ghibellines. The South, on the other hand, saw too many successive foreign dominations to achieve a solid administration.
