The Will of God, an Italian AAR

King Carlo Alberto

Carlo Alberto was crowned king of Sardina-Piedmonte in 1831. While still a relatively young man at 33 he was nonetheless several years older, and more experienced than his chief rival, Ferdinando II of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. He was at the time of his birth, a long way from the crown, but God often chooses the unexpected to be the instrument of His will, and such was the choice of Carlo Alberto.


At the start of the Napoleonic wars, the King of Sardinia was Vittorio Amedeo III, a man who believed in keeping himself busy, with royal business (that is to say he had twelve children) At the time of his death, his eldest son, Carlo Emanuele IV succeeded him to the throne in 1796. Carlo Emanuele lost all the mainland territories to the French army, and upon the death of his wife (with no issue) abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Vittorio Emanuele I. Vittorio Emanuele, following the Congress of Vienna, was restored in the Piedmonte region, and likewise looked to busy himself with the royal business. He had seven children, but the lone male heir died of small pox at the tender age of three. Thus when Vittorio Emanuele I abdicated in 1821 (due to the liberal revolution) the next in line was his brother Carlo Felice (the fifth son of Vittorio Amedeo III). Carlo Felice reigned for ten years without producing an heir, so upon his death in April of 1831, the kingdom fell to Carlo Alberto, a distant cousin, yet the senior male of the house of Savoy.

Carlo Alberto was educated in the intellectually liberal city of Geneva, and later in Paris was granted a commission by Napoleon. After the fall of Napoleon, Carlo Alberto was returned to Turin, were it was hoped he could unlearn his dangerous liberal sympathies. This however met with limited success, when in 1821 while acting as regent he granted a constitution to the people of Sardinia-Piedmonte. The constitution was disavowed by king Carlo Felice, however the path ahead of Carlo Alberto was clear, and upon his ascension to the throne, he began a series of reforms that helped to promote free trade within the kingdom and prepare the nation for constitutional law. These reforms combined with his nationalist tendencies, and vehement opposition to the Austrian hegemony in northern Italy endeared him to many who saw him as a possible liberator and unifier of the Italian people.

Despite this, not all saw him as the savior of Italy. In fact Karl Marx said of Carlo Alberto, “Among the indigenous princes, the number one enemy of Italian freedom was and is Carlo Alberto. The Italians should bear in mind and repeat every hour the old saying: "God watch over my friends, so that I can watch over my enemies." From Fernando of the House of Bourbon, there is nothing to fear; he has for a long time been discredited. Carlo Alberto on the other hand calls himself pompously the "liberator of Italy" while on the very people he is supposed to he liberating he imposes as a condition the yoke of his rule.”

(Oh well, you can’t please everyone)

...And with that my friends, the introductory post have come to an end.

The Maffini Plan

Alberto Maffini was by 1836 an aged and accomplished diplomat. Having been born in 1769 he survived the Napoleonic wars, and while learning the art of diplomacy had served no fewer than 5 separate kings


It was Maffini who met numerous times with Metternich prior to and during the Congress of Vienna to discuss the fate of Genova. While officially Sardinia was not a part of the congress it was the efforts of Maffini that ensured Sardinia’s eventual annexation of the republic. Following the congress, Maffini continued to serve in various diplomatic offices until his retirement from public service in 1824. In 1835 he was recalled back in to public service by King Carlo Alberto to represent Sardinian interest to Austria during the revolutions of 1830 and 1831.

Thus it was not that large of a surprise when King Carlo Alberto asked Maffini in December of 1835 to accept the post of Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmonte. While at 67 his age was somewhat of a concern, his credentials (especially in the area of diplomacy) were beyond refute. Unknown to the king at the time, history showed Maffini was suffering from the early stages of dementia, so while he still had moments of greatness, they were offset by mistakes that cost the kingdom greatly. Knowing the Kings ambitions to unify Italy Maffini presented a simple plan for positioning Sardinia to do just that. Known as the Maffini plan it called had three basic tenants.
1. Strengthen the Sardinian position by allies who could help in the eventual unification.
2. Increase Sardinian prestige by successfully prosecuting a series of wars in Africa
3. Increase the Sardinian military to a size necessary to deal with any opposition to unification.

It was hoped that these three things would be sufficient to encourage/intimidate the other Italian states into unification.

It was a good plan…

He began by setting up the Sardinian economy, and purchasing such goods as necessary to raise the desired army.


Immediately the Sardinian economy began to suffer, and unfortunately this was merely an omen of things to come. Maffini then turned his attention to the diplomatic front. Minor treaties were signed with Montenegro and Saxe-Weimar, while a defensive treaty was signed with Belgium, presently in a war of independence with the Netherlands. The treaty with Belgium, would not involve Sardinia in the war, but would give Sardinia a good ally for the future. Unfortunately Maffini’s next move was to sign a full alliance treaty with the Netherlands. This put Sardinia squarely at odds with Belgium, and now an active participant in the Belgian war of independence.


The second tenant of the Maffini plan called for a series of easy military campaigns in Africa to boost the Sardinian prestige. He planed first to capture Tunisia, and follow that up by partitioning Algeria with the French. Unfortunately the diplomatic fiasco caused by the Belgian affair, saw Sardinia’s prestige shrink rather than grow. While at the same time it put Sardinia in the frustrating position of being unable to prosecute the war in Tunisia. By the time the Belgian and Dutch made peace, the French had almost completed their conquest of Algeria leaving the Sardinians out completely.


War with Tunisia was still a possibility, but at this time the king was beginning doubt Maffini, and stopped any further moves into Africa.

The third tenant of the Maffini plan called for a massive increase of the army. At present the Sardinian military consisted of 5 divisions, while Maffini called for an additional 18 divisions, increasing the size of the army by over 400%. Unfortunately the Sardinian economy was not strong enough to support an army of this size. The king halted the increase after 12 divisions, which still tripled the original size of the army, and dwarfed all the other Italian armies combined combined.


In January of 1837, Maffini was relieved of his position. He died later that year at his villa near Cagliari

Feedback

stnylan said:

Oh that map makes me feel all lovely EU2. Much clearer than Vicky standard.

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Yes, I always liked the visual appearance of standard Vicky, but had a difficult time easily recognizing the terrains. Personally I almost always have my view set to national borders, so I rarely visit the terrain view. I use the mod solely because it makes the game load faster, and uses up less memory (very important with an older computer)

Michaeru said:

First, nice updates. Sardinia-Piemont will get an introduction too, I presume? But second, where can I obtain this terrain mod?

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S-P didn’t get their own introduction, but their king did (of course I’m sure you already noticed that). As to the mod, I can’t remember where I got it from originally, but it wasn’t in the mods section. It technically isn’t a mod, but actually a series of instructions on changes to make to a couple of files. I looked around for it a little but to no avail. Last time I needed it I used the search function to find it (that is I posted a question and OHGamer posted a link)

DerKaiser said:

The stage is well set! Hopefully the conflict between the individual Italian states (as opposed to just Piedmont vs. Austria) won't peter out quite as quickly as it did in real life- it would be a good story! Am I being obtuse, or have you not already detailed how this is being played? Are you one particular faction, or is it going to be done as a story told from all sides (as suggested thus far...)? Keep it up!

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well, I don’t want to give the story away early, but I will say that from the very beginning, (after Maffini’s dismissal) Austria is going to be public enemy number 1. And by now you’ve probably guessed, but yes S-P is going to be our starting nation, although unification should hopefully take place pretty quickly.

stnylan said:

It sounds like he is due to lose out on all counts.

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Well, I don’t want to give too much away, but chances are we won’t be seeing too much of good old Bomba

Terraferma said:

Bravo, it was very good. Cant wait for more as now the real struggle begins yes?

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Thank you, and glad to have you aboard once again. I can promise you the real struggle will begin almost immediately, now that Maffini is out of the way. Our next character will be Raffaldini, and I promise you we will get a lot of use out of him.

Hannibal Barca2 said:

This quick succession of kings reminds me somewhat of what Eu3 sometimes comes into. The kings last for a few years, and always seems to have someone to replace them
Great introduction. I'm eager to see which side you'll choose, and I myself would prefere if you pick Toscana.

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Yea, it was kind of crazy. It really contributed little to the article, but I find stuff like that so interesting I just had to post it.

gis said:

ahh!! how can I miss this AAR?! Well I love your AARs Quirinus308, and defiantly gonna fellow this one!

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Thanks and welcome aboard. This AAR is going to be in a slightly different style than I’ve done before, but I hope to not disappoint.

Corbett said:

The mighty Sardinian light cavalry shall surely crush all resistance beneath their thundering hooves!...at least if said resistance takes the form of irregular 'divisions.' =)

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Yes, and thank you for the support (that was support wasn’t it)

Hannibal Barca2 said:

Carthage will prevail against the evil Italiens!

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Indeed, and that is precisely why Carlo Alberto has called off the invasion. We’ll have to save the Punic War for a later date.

ComradeOm said:

Tunisia is always a smart move for the Italian states... especially if it goes bankrupt at some point. Failing to partition is probably a good thing - the French can get very aggressive if you encroach on their sphere of influence. Similarly cavalry will be most useful against the demoralised Italian states. I am surprised that you've begun the military build up so soon though. None of the Italian states, even the industrialised SP, can maintain a large army for long.

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Tunisia is probably the first country every Italian player goes after in every game (at least it seems that way in all the AARs). My original plan, or rather Maffini’s original plan was to get those lands in Algeria, and then sale them back to the French in order to raise money to pay for the army. Of course that whole plan was shot down due the mishandling of the Belgian affair. So from here we will use my age old strategy (going into debt).

For everyone, I just want to add this little note:
In the Introduction, I tried very diligently to present the quagmire of Italian Geo-politics in 1836 as historically accurate as possible. From now I on I will take great liberties with history as the story dictates. I will of course make every effort to be realistic, but if you see an inaccuracy it may in fact be intentional due to the changes in our timeline. For instance the character of Maffini is entirely fictional, and had nothing to do with Sardinia’s acquisition of Genova, but I thought it added a little to the story to have an aged “hero” mess up. It also gave me someone to blame for my own bungling of the situation.

Armando Rafaldini

The dismissal of Maffini left a power vacuum of sorts on the King’s council. While the king refused to name a new Prime Minister, for fear of seeing a repeat of Maffini’s blunder, he did however rely on a council of ministers, who each vied for the coveted position of being the king’s most trusted advisor. That position went to Armando Rafaldini, the king’s chief military advisor. An accomplished military commander he had served with King Carlo Alberto in the Spanish Civil War prior to the kings ascension to the throne.


Rafaldini was a military man through and through. He was a strong advocate of the cavalry, and believed in the use of ruthless force to both defeat and demoralize an enemy. He was bold, decisive and ruthless, which made him a feared opponent on the battlefield but a loose cannon at diplomacy. While Maffini had ordered the recrtuitment of twelve new divisions it was Rafaldini that made sure they were all cavalry divisions. A move that put him at odds with Maffini whom Rafaldini considered to be antiquated, and without vision.

The question from here is what could Rafaldini do with the new Sardinian army, and the answer to that would be known as the Rafaldini plan.

Ahura Mazda said:

I recognize that picture
Was Rafaldini famous in the real world or something ?

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Yea, I wish I had more time/talent to work on that picture some more. At the very least it would have been nice to give him some eyes

ComradeOm said:

A new man and a new plan. Let's hope that this one works better than the last!

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Well, I don't want to give to much away to early, but I would suggest we all learn how to spell Rafaldini's name, it will be used a lot in the future.

The Rafaldini Plan

The Rafaldini plan was not for the faint of heart. To study the plan elicited two opposite reaction. On the one hand one shuttered at the thought that this might just work, while on the other hand one trembled at the potential consequences if it didn’t. Rafaldini, never known for patience thought that the best course of action for Sardinia was one of bold, immediate, and decisive action. Rafaldini proposed that with 9 cavalry divisions one could capture the capitals, of all of the Italian states within 6 months. From there he argued the various princes could be encouraged or intimidated into joining a greater Italian state (their other options being less pleasant). While there were a few that doubted the plan’s potential militarily, almost all of King Carlo Alberto’s advisors doubted it could be accomplished politically.

To start with, one would have to have justification for going to war with all the Italian states. On top of that one would have to find a way to keep Austria out of the war, either by having the backing of France, or by manipulating the situation to such a degree that it would appear that Sardinia was the victim, and not the provocateur. Thirdly, one would need to convince the people that this war was justified, and not simply an expansionist act.

Rafaldini countered that he cared little for what the Austrians thought. With the Sardinian cavalry he felt the Sardinians could outmaneuver any force the Austrians sent against them. In his mind, the only question militarily was could the cavalry capture the princely capitals in time to force unification, and still return to deal with the Austrians before the enemy could capture Turin. Rafaldini felt confident they could. All that remained was the needed cassus belli. For that Rafaldini was, as usual, bold beyond measure (some might even say arrogant). The only way he argued to bring about a war involving the entire peninsula would be to go to war with the sole nation that was allied to every other Italian state. Rafaldini proposed going to war with the Papal States. Temporal power had been proven illegitimate for over 400 years. Now was the time to restore earthly authority to the nobility where it belonged. (Did I mention, Rafaldini was a staunch conservative) Rafaldini proposed that King Carlo Alberto should contest the Pope’s authority in Italy until the Pope was forced to act. That action would be the cassus belli, needed to justify the war.