Piedmont

In the Atlantic coast of the U.S, especially in the South, the area between the Tidewater coastal plain and the actual Appalachian Mountains. The line between the coastal plain and the Piedmont is the fall line where waterfalls or shoals block navigation upriver from the coast. This area was still a frontier while the coastal plain was quite well settled, and sectional conflicts existed between the coastal areas (site of the majority of Southern plantations) and the smaller farmers moving into the Piedmont.

Region of north-western Italy (Piemonte in Italian) bounded by the Apennines to the south (Liguria), the Alps to the north and west (France and Val d'Aosta), and Lombardy to the east. The regional capital is Turin (Torino). Comprises the following provinces:

• Alessandria
• Asti
• Biella
• Cuneo
• Novara
• Torino
• Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
• Vercelli

The regional economy is based on heavy industry in the Turin area and agriculture and winemaking elsewhere; many of Italy's best wines come from the region. Area approximately 25 000 km2, population around 4.5 million.

Historically, Piedmont was an independent state ruled by the Dukes of Savoy, who became the Kings of Sardinia in the early 19th century by careful political manoeuvring (they didn't really want Sardinia, just the title ...). In the mid 19th century King Vittorio Emanuele II of Sardinia and Piedmont was the figurehead of the Risorgimento, the movement towards the unification of Italy, and became the first king of the new unified state, which thus found itself stuck confusingly with a II-based monarch numbering system.

Pied"mont (?), a. [F. pied foot + mont mountain.] Geol.

Noting the region of foothills near the base of a mountain chain.

 

© Webster 1913.