Nice owes its complex and eventful history to its very remote location in southeastern France as well as to its proximity to Italy, of which it is distant by only18 mi (30 km). Formerly part of Liguria, Nice was attached to the Holy Roman Empire between the 9th and 11th centuries. It later belonged to the Republic of Genoa before choosing the protection of the County of Savoy in 1388. Nice then became the capital of the eponymous county in 1526 and joined the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1720, before its annexation into France in 1860.