The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Europe from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the predecessor state of today's Italy. A small state with weak institutions when it was acquired by the Duke of Savoy in 1720, the Savoyards united their insular and continental domains and built Sardinia—often called Piedmont-Sardinia in this period—into one of the great powers by the time of the Crimean War (1853–56). Its final capital was Turin, the centre of Savoyard power since the Middle Ages.