The emperor Charles V in 1540 invested his son—the future Philip II of Spain—with the duchy of Milan. Under Spanish rule—which was to last until 1706—the political and artistic elite of Milan rapidly succumbed. The dramatic period of dynastic struggle, which was also a period of economic growth, was replaced by a long period of economic stagnation and political decline associated with unimaginative foreign rule. In 1630 the city was struck by the plague—a catastrophe later vividly portrayed by the local author Alessandro Manzoni in his historical novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed; 1825–27). The end of the desolation of the period of Spanish domination began with the outbreak, in 1701, of the War of the Spanish Succession, following the death of Charles II of Spain. In September 1706 Prince Eugene of Savoy entered Milan as its first Austrian governor, and the city passed thus from Spanish to Austrian rule.

Although the first half of the 18th century was marked by neglect and oppression, after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), the new rulers, in collaboration with the wealthy commercial classes of Milan, were able to foster a half-century of enlightened, if despotic, growth and a flowering of Milanese culture. It is during this period that such figures as Cesare Beccaria, the outstanding criminologist and economist, and Pietro Verri, the gifted administrator and man of letters, were active. These and other members of a Milanese group known as the Società dei Pugni (Society of Fists) accepted the innovations of the theoreticians of the French Revolution, despite Austrian censorship. Neoclassical architecture also flourished.

When, on May 15, 1796, the republican army of France, with Napoleon Bonaparte at its head, entered Milan, it was greeted enthusiastically, particularly by the middle classes. In 1797 France created the Cisalpine Republic out of the territories it had conquered in northern Italy. This nominally independent state was reconstituted in 1801 as the Republic of Italy, which in turn ceased to exist in 1805. That year Milan became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy, under Napoleon, who was crowned Italian king in the city. During this time the city prospered from its domination of most of the Italian Peninsula.

Milan’s sense of prominence was dashed, however, by the invasion and reestablishment of Austrian authority, which followed the collapse of the Napoleonic empire in 1814 and the settlement made by the Congress of Vienna the following year. A new Austrian-controlled kingdom, that of Lombardy-Venetia, was proclaimed—though the two regions actually remained separate—and Milan lost its role as a capital.

Influenced by the new currents of Italian unity and nationalism known as the Risorgimento, and smarting under the oppressive Austrian rule, the Milanese citizenry finally rose up in the cinque giornate, the “five days” of March 18–22, 1848. In what has become one of the most celebrated episodes of the city’s history, Milan was liberated from the Austrians for several months until the rebellion was finally brought under control. In spite of the fact that by August 6, 1848, the brutal occupation forces of the aging Austrian commander Joseph, Count Radetzky, were once more in firm control of Milan, resistance forces of the city decided to continue their opposition to the invaders. Young men crossed the borders of Sardinia-Piedmont to enter the city’s army. A second war with Austria finally liberated Milan from foreign control; a few days after the Battle of Magenta (June 4, 1859), the people of Milan witnessed the triumphant entry of the anti-Austrian allies—Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia-Piedmont, and French emperor Napoleon III. The city—by now in the throes of an industrial revolution emphasizing metal products—was thenceforth linked with the fate of the new, unified Italian state, maintaining itself in a position of prime importance in the national economy.

Milan was the capital of Italy’s socialist reform movement in the late 19th century, when workers managed to construct an impressive network of cooperative organizations, mutual-aid societies, trade unions, and coordinating institutions such as the city’s Chamber of Labour. Key figures behind this movement were the socialists Filippo Turati, Anna Kuliscioff, and Claudio Treves. Milan was also home to various revolutionary movements, such as those led by the nationalist Enrico Corradini and the anarchist Armando Borghi. After 1914 a reformist socialist administration ran the city under Mayor Emilio Caldara; it instituted a range of modern municipal policies that favoured the city’s large and well-organized working class, which for the most part inhabited the industrial suburbs.