The Second Roman Republic

Giovanni Vicini, Father of the Roman Republic


From 1831 to 1836, the Vicini government ran as effectively as it could. The remaining bastions of monarchist and papist sentiment were eliminated, and the Austrian Crisis was successfuly resolved when Vicini convinced Pope Gregorius to mediate and convince the Austrians from involving themselves further in Italian affairs. (Vicini's success in such, apparently, was mostly due to finding or creating a forged document that purported to establish Austrian plans to simply annex the Papal lands for themselves.) It was largely on the basis of the Austrian Crisis that the Republicani Party won re-election in 1832.


By 1834, however, it became obvious that the Republicani Party had lost the affections of the very people it had freed. Vicini had instituted a free-trade policy that lowered the costs of basic goods across the state, but which meant that local farmers had trouble selling their goods even in their home towns due to increased competition. And without tariff income to fund the government, promised education serviced never materialized. Even worse, the Republicani anti-military attitude even affected how they treated the very armies that had given birth to the Republic, with many soldiers abruptly dismissed from service. Finally, Vicini's call for the people of Italy to rise up against their monarchs and join in democracy had been met with little heed.


In was on these issues that his main rival, Giovanni Ciacherri, had set his campaign. His Moderati Party called for renewed tariffs to protect the farmers and putting the money to use in new schools and in improving the army. Ciacherri had been a schoolteacher who joined the rebellion in 1831 and ended up in command of a small division of troops, and so spoke easily with soldiers, farmers, and the intellectuals. After the rebellion, Ciacherri felt that the Republicani leaders were too interested in affairs of philosophy rather than actually ruling well through practical means, and created the political part that would win the elections of 1836.

Giovanni Ciacherri, Prime Minster of the Roman Republic 1836 - 1852

Ciacherri's party won an overwhelming majority, allowing him to act with a near free hand in raising tariffs and implementing spending as he needed. And the growing jingoist movement within the party encouraged him to literally follow his campaign promise to unify Italy using "every tool in our arsenal."

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There are two ways to unify Italy. The first is to sit around, wait for a long series of events to possibly fire off, and if they all do correctly, let the French push you to victory.

Or you can seize the bull by the horns yourself and capture every other capital and proclaim Italy yourself. Not that I'm biased as to which option is more interesting.

There are three states eligible for this: Sardinia-Piedmont, the Two Sicilies, and the Papal States. (Note that the Papal States event to create Italy is bugged; you have to edit the event text to allow them to create Italy the same way the others do.) Whichever one of these three you play, the other two become your main rivals- they can amass nearly as many troops as you can (certainly enough to annoy you in a way that the minor states can't); they have enough provinces so that you can't simply annex them in one war; and they have entangling alliances that could truly harm you.

The easiest of these to play is Sardinia-Piedmont. SP starts with a good economy, access to precious, precious coal, enough navy to get around, and a few troops. More importantly, they have France begging and pleading to be their very bestest friend (France sending two diplomats a year to up relations isn't uncommon).

Second comes the Two Sicilies. TS has a better navy and a better army than any other state, and a moderate economy (though a complete lack of Machine Parts is problematic). They also start with a defensive alliance with Spain, which can eventually be turned into a full alliance.

Last is the Papal States. No navy. A single infantry unit. An economy about middling (access to timber and coal is good), but again with no machine parts. And they have no alliances with major powers; only connections to the very rivals that they need to beat.


Whichever state you play, your two rivals are your biggest concern. You'll either need two wars to annex them, or fight them both simultaneously (not recommended, unless you're good enough to handily beat the USA as CSA in the 1861 scenario) to occupy their capitols. But your biggest resource is their defensive treaties. If you attack a country, it calls in its defensive allies. But those called in can't call *their* defensive allies. This is the best way to isolate someone with a big ally.

For SP, it's pretty simple: attack the small Duchies to drag Rome into a war, and grab the small duchies and knock Rome down to annexable size. Then either declare war on Tuscany or Rome (if one has no allies), annex that, then declare on whichever one will drag TS into a war and occupy TS. For TS, pretty much the same deal- declare a war on Parma, roll over Rome as they get called in, and annex as much as you can (along with the minor states). Wait five years, then take out Rome. Then declare war on Tuscany, hope they drag SP into it, and annex Tuscany and grab Torrino ASAP.

For the Papal States, it's a good deal harder. I'll have to arrange two wars that drag either SP or TS into it in order to annex them without getting France or Spain to show up and stomp me. Perhaps an alliance can be made with France to counterbalance Spain (or keep him out of the SP fight), but money's going to be tight enough.....

Guerra Di Unificazione Del Lampo (1836-1838)

The election of 1836 passed nearly absolute control of the Parliament to the Moderati Party. Vicini's Republicani Party held no more than 10% of the seats, and could do little more than protest and Ciacherri enacted his entire legislative agenda.

The first order of business for the Ciacherri government was to reform the budget. Tariffs were raised, and the money gained was put directly into education. Less spoken of- but something that would have vast implications later- was the destruction of the budget for federal police and oversight agencies. The offical Moderati position- when such matters were even spoken of- was that such agencies on the behalf of the government amounted to little more than the kind of 'secret police' that the Austrians were known to have used during their occupations; however, there is much historical evidence that shows that the leadership of the Moderati party were well rewarded by the larger mafia families and leading industrialists for being willing to turn a blind eye to rampant crime and political skullduggery.

The second order of business was to create a new army. Men who had proven themselves capable soldiers during the initial Revolution were contacted and paid bonuses in order to return to the Escercito Romano. What the Republicani had decimated to a straggling artillery unit was suddenly flush with new recruits and the monies to resupply themselves into a truly professional organization. Three new Cavalry regiments were raised, and directed into the field. Finally, the Moderati unvieled the foundation for a true "volunteer army", allowing- if not outright encouraging- patriotic citizens to join up for local militias that could be pulled into a cohesive unit should the need ever arise.

As the groundwork for these units was laid, Ciacherri completely reorganized the top layer of the military. Antonio Farini was made chief-of-staff of the Escercito Romano. Farini had been Ciacherri's commanding officer in the Revolution, and Ciacherri recognized someone who was a kindred spirit in both aims and methods.

Antonio Farini, Commander of the Roman Armies 1836-1857

Setting The Stage

Following the initial founding of the Republic, many of the other Italian states had kept their defensive treaties with Rome in a state of flux- while the treaties still existed on paper, there were questions as to whether the Romani Republic was the true designee of these treaties, or whether the various defensive pacts actually applied directly to the Pope, holed up in Vatican City. Given Republican calls for a unified Italy (by hook or by crook- or by "arsenal", the term Ciacherri would be associated with), few of the States wished to tie their fortunes to this upstart state. But at the same time, these treaties bound Rome to non-interference in the Italian states, and therefore could be to stop any sort of direct aggression.

On March 3rd, 1836, Foreign Minister Alberto DiGiacomo met with Farini and Ciacherri to lay the final plans for the war to unify the penninsula. Once the plans were established, DiGiacomo pushed Romani diplomats to solidify the treaties involving two states: Tuscany was pressured into accepting the old treaties as still valid (which Grand Duke Leopoldo was more than amenable to, as he was watching the Republic train a vast new army); and Parma was told that its treaty was considered null and void, and diplomats withdrawn.

By early May, the new units were trained and in place. Farini had overseen their direct training, and the entire army carried an "esprit de corps" that was directly centered on their (and Farini's) belief that a true republican army was undefeatable, and that it was their destiny to unify Italy. Studies of Jominian tactics and philosophies had been passed through the officer ranks, and the soldiers truly felt themselves the best army in the world.

On May 13th, the Republican Parliament was near unanimous in passing its declaration of war upon Parma, and the first phase of the "Guerra Di Unificazione Del Lampo" began.


1836 - the Duchies

The Italian penninsula had long been kept in balance by two factors. The first was an intricate series of treaties and prmoises which ensured that should one country be attacked, others would rise to their defense. Lucca and Modena were well protected by these, but Parma was in an unfortunate situation. Ruled as it was by Maria Luigia in absentia, many of its treaties had lapsed. When Parma called its allies to the forefront, only Massa and Lucca heeded the call- exactly the countries that Ciacherri had desired.

The second factor keeping the penninsula at peace was that it fell into the sphere of influence of three Great Powers. Austria, which owned the Venetian states; France, which had claims on Sardinian territories; and Spain, a long ally of the Two Sicilies. Each of these powers had a vested interest in keeping either of the other two from making any sort of gains on the penninsula; but given that the Napoleonic Wars were so fresh in mind, none of the three were very interested in jumping in to a war with either of the others- or especially both.

This indecision played directly into the hands of the Romans. When war was first declared, the reaction of the French, Austrian, and Spanish governments was to assemble diplomats and hold a council to decide what to do. The French, happy to support a fellow Republic and see a comeuppance for Maria Luigia, had every intention of keeping the conference at a deadlock... but it truly did not matter. For by the end of the first week of the conference, the matter was already resolved.

Farini had divided his cavalry into three main groups. The first group was stationed in Livorno, pushing the limits of the treaty that Grand Duke Leopoldo had agreed to. From there, they marched into Lucca as soon as the war was declared. Lucca's army was small and poorly maintained, as could only be expected given the size and wealth of the country (or lack thereof). They were quickly scattered, and by the 8th of August, Duke Carlo Lodovico signed a treaty entering Lucca into the Roman Republic. Before the ink was even dry upon the treaty, the Cavalry charged northwards into Massa.

The other two cavalry units, combined with the artillery division, started the war scattered across Bologna and Ferrara. When the war began, they all crossed into Modena from different directions, causing the Massan army to pull itself apart in trying to respond. It was only a few days before the Massans realized they were unable to set up a defense, and so they retreated to Modena. Farini ordered one cavalry unit to give chase, while the other pushed north into Parma. The artillery remained in Modena to pacify the population and to set a line to which the cavalry could retreat if no necessary.

But no retreat was necessary. The Massan army was broken, and by the time it had retreated to Massa, it found itself fighting Roman cavalry that had already arrived and set up defenses. The Massans broke again, and retreated to Modena, only to be broken again by the artillery line Farini had set. Farini wrote back to Ciacherri on August 12th, "We are playing tennis with the Massan army. Praise Mary that the ball is dead."

On September 7th, the governors of Parma reached Rome and agreed to renounce Empress Maria Luigia and join the Republic. Before they could even return home, the ambassadors from Modena arrived to ask for the same terms.

On September 13th, four months to the day since the Roman Parliament had declared war, Parma, Modena, and Lucca were entered into the Roman Republic as full members. Parma and Modena were assembled into the single state Parma-Modena, and Lucca was assigned with Grosseto as part of the Lesser Tuscany state.

The peace lasted for but a single month. With constant newspaper reports regarding the success of Roman troops, the volunteer brigades had seen their numbers swell. However, Farini insisted on proper training procedures to ensure their success in the field, and therefore none were truly ready before the last of the Duchies had surrendered. Morale in the Volunteer Brigades plummeted, as most soldiers felt they had lost any chance of seeing the glorious victories the cavalry had brought forth.

Ciacherri decided to act before the momentum was completely lost. The best of the volunteer brigades were pulled in as replacements for the small losses the cavalry and artillery divisions had seen. The remainder were organized into 5 divisions, and deployed in the newly freed areas.

It was then that DiGiacomo, in the final stage of the "Unification Plan" he had established with Ciacherri and Farini, pulled off a diplomatic coup. He had journied to Tuscany to receive directly the list of complaints that Grand Duke Leopoldo had compiled. Leopoldo was furious at the idea of his country having been used as a staging area for the invasion of his fellow duchies; and the treatment he received from the Republican Army and Republican diplomats during the early part of the war were slights he was not willing to set down easily. DiGiacomo, ever a brilliant judge of character, met with Leopoldo to discuss these complaints- but DiGiacomo used the meeting as an opportunity to further tweak the Grand Duke's feeling of being slighted and made a fool of. The conference ended in a screaming match, at the end of which Leopoldo ripped up a facsimile of the very treaty he had signed six months prior. News of this insult flew through Tuscany and Rome, and Moderati newspapers made the most of it. When the Romani Parliament met on October 7th, 1836, a declaration of war against Tuscany was a foregone conclusion.

To Ciacherri, the war with Tuscany would be a sideshow, a simple theater where the Grand Duchy would be overrun in the same manner that the other Duchies had been. The true prize was in Tuscany's stalwart ally: Sardinia-Piedmont.

King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia-Piedmont was seen as the strongest leader of the Italian states. Unlike King Fernando II of the Two Sicilies, he was not hiding behind the support of a Great Power to keep his kingdom solvent.

King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia-Piedmont

He had not acted in the prior war because he had no desire to support either side. The Roman Republic was diabolical in his eyes, and needed to be suppressed.. but the duchies were ones he himself wishes to conquer, and letting them be bled against The Republic would make his own conquests later a much easier task. As with many monarchs, he misjudged the speed with which the Romans would take control of the duchies; and he rued his lack of foresight greatly, as it had cost him his best chance to claim those states as his own while stregthening a hated rival.

Therefore, when King Carlo was presented the opportunity to go to war with the Republic, he sprang upon the chance. Laborers from all over Piedmont were impressed into military service, to raise an army that would be nearly half again what the Romans had mustered.

It was this army that was to be Sardinia-Piedmont's own downfall.

Farini had arranged his army very carefully for the coming war. The new Volunteer divisions were mostly placed in position to lay siege to Tuscany; 40,000 men in all charged in when war was declared, and it was assumed that the country would fall quickly. The other 10,000 volunteers were placed in Massa, while the cavalry and artillery that had proved so effective in the Ducal fights were placed in Parma.

When the news of Sardinia's entry into the war came, they sprang into action. The Volunteers moved to occupy Genoa, while the Army moved to attack Allessandra. The cavalry arrived in Allesandra first, and found themselves facing equal numbers. But the morale of King Carlos' new regiments was extremely shaky, and the battle had barely started before they were broken and fled to Torrino.

It was then that Farini's belief in esprit de corps and heavy cavalry would show its merit. Rather than stay in Allessandra to esnure control, the Romani cavalry spread out in all directions, living off the land as necessary. More importantly, they attacked Sardinian armies that were poorly-led and poorly-trained, and their experience and morale proved the deciding factor in making quick victories. Soon the north of Piedmont was covered with retreating Sardinian armies, with occasional spring attacks by Roman cavalry to rout a force as it was trying to gain its composure. Meanwhile, the Volunteers and the Artillery plodded slowly behind, occasionally pushing away retreating Sardinian units, as they secured control of Allesandra, then Genova, then Torino, then Savona, then Novara, then Aosta, then Nice. By June of 1838, the Sardinian army had been pushed in entirety to Annency.

Unfortunately, such successes were not repeated on all fronts. Duke Leopoldo, for his arrogance and temper, was no fool; he had not submitted to an angry meeting with Roman diplomats without ensuring that his own army was ready to face a war when the time came. When war was declared, Tuscany had 30,000 men ready- as much as all of the Duchies combined- and they were well trained and ready to fight, in direct contrast to King Carlos' forces.

As a result, the Volunteer invasion of Tuscany carried none of the spirited charges and quick victories that had marked the Ducal war and the fight in Piedmont. Livorno and Sienna saw little resistance, but 20,000 Tuscans awaited the Roman forces in Firenze, while the other division of Tuscans ran rampant through the undefended Roman north. Eventually, the enireties of the Roman forces committed to Tuscany would fight a month-long campaign in Firenze that would end with the Tuscans defeated and Duke Leopoldo killed; but Farini had counted on those troops being available to pull into the Piedmont theater months before Tuscany eventually capitulated and joined the Republic.

Even worse for the Romans was the fate of King Carlos himself. Once he had seen the defenses of Torrino break, Carlos quickly secured passage through Nice and sailed to his castle in Cagliari to direct the war from there. Since formulating his plan, Ciacherri had done his best to buy transports from any other country. But none had deigned to sell possible weapons to the belligerent and liberal state, and so the island of Sardinia was simply unassailable by Roman forces.

The advances in Piedmont slowly came to a halt as the summer of 1838 progressed. The Sardinian armies had retreated to mountainous terrain, where it would be harder to break them. And the lack of Volunteer regiments to help hold the line- the first few were only barely leaving Tuscany- meant that further offensives were becomes less and less likely. And without further offensives, the Sardinian armies were finally able to compose themselves and gather strength for a full assault upon Torrino- one where they would outnumber the Romans by 2 to 1.

In mid-August, an envoy from Sardinia-Piedmont arrived in Rome to discuss peace. Finding that King Carlos was willing to give up nearly half of his land for a chance at peace, Foreign Minister DiGiacomo seized on the opportunity. A general peace was declared, and Allessandra, Genova, Savoy, and Novara were passed over to Roman control.

The reactions to the peace were mixed. Those who should have been most happy with the gains- the extreme revanchists of the Moderati party- were in fact disappointed that King Carlos still reigned over any lands at all when absolute victory seemed in the cards. The Volunteer regiments returned home to accolades and praise, but were cynical about how they had been promised quick and light victories but only seen slog and death.

Even in the cabinet, there was some dissatisfaction over the treaty reached. But those in the know understood the exact reason why peace had been necessary. When the Republicani Party had left power, the government had been 6000L in debt due to the reformation of the government. The Guerra Di Unificazione Del Lampo had only added to that, and now the government was 15,000L in debt, and interest payments were more than the government could continue to afford while keeping the army maintained and pushing its education program. Continuing the war would have been financial disaster. Unfortunately for the Ciacherri government, the best solution to this financially- demanding reparations from Sardinia-Piedmont as part of the treaty- would have been the hardest sell politically: Ciacherri would either have to admit the economic ineptness of the party, or his government would have to stand claims that it had sold dreams of Italian unification for bushels of money.

Peace was at hand, but it was not the peace that had been hoped for: the Republic had doubled its size, but gained a ferocious enemy in Sardinia-Piedmont; and the economic boom expect from owning new lands was not materializing, leaving Roman hopes to continue industrialization and building up of the army in flux.

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Okay, a few notes on how I've played the game so far. Not that there's been much of it so far.

First step, as always, is to drop crime spending to minimum, raise education to maximum, drop defense spending to minimum, raise tariffs to maximum, and set taxes to 49.22% (the highest under 50%). This sets me with a stable economy. Or, at least, it *would* if I hadn't just spent 6000L to completely reform my government to Universal Suffrage, Free Press, and All Parties Allowed. While this early is a great time to institute social programs (as cheap as they'll ever be!), I'm in enough debt as it is.

Taking a look over the various POPs that make up the Papal States, one thing becomes quickly clear: I have way too many clerks and craftsmen. Okay, technically, one really can't have "too many" in a general sense, but I've got way more factory-working POPs than I have factory slots to put them in. If I don't expand my factory base quickly, then they'll leave- either they'll join existing POPs, or they'll find other countries. Joining other POPs isn't *so* bad (though still annoying; if you have the factory capactity, you're better off with 3 25K POPs than one 75K POP), but leaving the country is something I distinctly want to avoid- population is wealth (through taxes and tariffs) and strength (through production and being able to turn them into soldiers and officers). And downgrading these clerks and craftsmen to laborers might be a temporary employment solution, but it's one that will hurt me in the long run when I need to re-promote them. Therefore, my technical course is set: get to Mechanical Production ASAP, for the 5 free Machine Parts and the chance to build more factories. So while there are plenty of good technologies to go for, Practical Steam Engine has to be first and foremost. Once that finishes in May of 1837, switch to Mechanical Production. After that, I *may* have more freedom to go for other techs. We'll see; I often find my hand is forced by what I desperately need.

As for the army building- there are three basic types of troops: Infantry, Cavalry, and Dragoons. Cavalry starts out the game as the king of the battlefield: with high shock values compared to low enemy morale, and high speed to run around and jump on retreating enemies or make flank attacks, cavalry is definitely worth every penny early on. But as the game progresses, Infantry gets better and better (higher Fire Values, better Defense, and higher morale to resist Cavalry attacks) while Cavalry doesn't change much at all. By mid-game, Cavalry falls well behind infantry in utility, while still being more expense. If I were building more than three units, I might have to seriously consider whether a fourth or fifth cavalry unit was actually worthwhile. But with only three units, it's still worth it: even in the mid and late game, Cavalry works well for knocking out rebellions or destroying native troops. Three cavalry should be more than enough for that purpose.

Now, on mobilization: I don't really like mobilizing, and don't tend to do it. The troops are dragged from your POPs, which means many of those that die will be valuable cratfsmen or laborers. It's much better to find a large but low-paying POP (one harvesting fruit or wheat or other low-value crops), convert it to soldiers (while Defense Spending is maxed, so you get the most added directly to manpower), and use those soldiers in the field. Then, all the people that die were just uneducated farmers anyways, right? Not those valuable craftsmen, clerks, aristocrats, and capitalists. But here, I don't really have the choice: raising 5 Infantry would cost me 5000L, and I'm already in debt up to my eyeballs.


Okay, at this point, some things are going well, and some things aren't. I've just made off like a bandit with a bunch of new provinces. But I have no real friends- the switch to Democracy annoyed most of Europe (though the USA is friendly!), and wanton aggression didn't help. The biggest problem for me, though, is the economy. 15,000L in debt may not be much if you're Prussia or Britain, but it's wiping me out. The interest payments are the difference between losing 5L a day (my current situation) and making 5L a day (which would be nice). Even worse, I have lots of situations in front of me that need cash thrown at them: new factories, rebuilding my army, and doing diplomacy.

I have a few options, but we'll have to see which works best.

1.) I could go bankrupt. Ignore the debt, put in some expensive social programs, buy lots of goods, and build my army back up. The good news is, I'd wipe the economic slate clean and be able to start on a good footing again. The bad news is, I'd lose at least 300 prestige. Right now, I have about 150, and I'm the best in the game. Dropping from that to -150 would be... sucky. But even worse is the "lose half your factories". I'm already short on factories for my workers; losing two of them when I'm only going to have 5 Machine Parts to play with is invitation to send my Clerks on a long boat to New York.

2.) I could slash the budget. Drop education spending and army spending. Army spending can probably go down, since my troops are in bad shape anyways. But dropping education spending means slowing my technological gains. And I'm already in a poor position, technology-wise. Plus, even at best it'd take 5-6 years to pay off the debt, and I have *way* too much to do before the peace treaty with S-P ends.

3.) Mass selling. I've sold some of my surplus goods to keep from falling too far into the pit of debt; but I still have all of my artillery and luxury clothes, along with lots of timber, lumber, cement, and steel because I'll need them 'eventually'. Dropping them all on the market now could make me a lot of cash for paying off the debt... but I'd need to buy them back later when it comes time to build factories, expand my infrastructure, make new troops, or train POPs up. Still, if it gets rid of the interest on the loan, the loss in selling now and buying later might end up being worth it.

4.) Tech selling. Once you're making more than 10 RP a year, technology trading is very worthwhile: you can still only research one tech a year yourself, but you can save up RP to use to instantly cover the cost of any technology you gain in trades. Unfortunately, I'm only making 6 RP a year, so if I trade for tech, I push my own research initiatives back a year-and-a-half. Once I have Mechanical Production, that might be acceptable, but right now I need MP ASAP. Unfortunately, I'm also in a position where any country that has a tech I want probably doesn't want any of my techs- they're either ahead of me across the board, or behind me across the board.

Now, I could just trade technology for cash. I'd lose 10 prestige each time I do, but since I'm #1 in prestige right now (and expect to get more in future wars), that's an acceptable burden. Unfortunately, the question is whether there's anyone to sell to. As I said earlier, I'm a bit of a diplomatic pariah being a Democracy and all, and of my two good friends, Krakow can't afford techs, and the U.S.A. doesn't need 'em. I can't even improve relations with anyone because I don't have the cash. If I can find a rich and neutral country, it might be worth it. We'll see.


Thanks for reading, folks! Oh, and my utmost apologies to any actual Italians reading this thread. I don't speak Italian, so I'm using Babelfish, and fully expect my translations to be silly or flat. Likewise, I'm having trouble finding a good source for "generic Italian politicans and generals from the 19th century", so I have to make use of semi-famous ones, and I'm sure people who really know Italian history are wincing at my images in the same way I might wince at someone who uses a picture of Horatio Seymour and calls him "U.S. President Sidney Martins".

Peace into Prosperity: 1838 - 1845

The budget of 1838 was a political disaster for the Moderati. In order to deal with the burgeoning debt, Prime Minister Ciacherri had slashed the education and military budget. If it were not for the increased tariffs, the Moderati budget would be indistinugishable from the Republicani budget of three years previous. The Republicani tried to make the most of this, claiming that the Moderati government had gained the country nothing more than "blood, debt, and tariffs"; even Moderati Parliament members questioned Ciacherri's wisdom, and his government barely survived a vote of no-confidence shortly after the budget was enacted.

But Ciacherri had his military victories to rely upon, and the near-doubling of the Roman Republic in size gave him the prestige necessary to hold onto his office, even if only tenuously at times. Paying off the national debt, toning down the revanchist rhetoric, and making diplomatic overtures to neighbors such as Switzerland and France slowly pulling the Roman Republic from a pariah state under threat of being outsted by Austria to a seat at the Congress of 1839, seen as formal recognition of Rome being one of the great states of Europe.

But the economic crisis did not pass easily. The Piedmont lands captured had seen much devestation in the fighting, and there was a growing class of laborers without factories to employ them. Unemployment had already been high in Rome; the land captured nearly tripled that. By 1839, the crisis had grown to such proportions that the Moderati government intervened- massive tax breaks and grants were given to capitalists willing to help industrialize the country. This plan worked perhaps too well for the government's comfort; by the end of the year, so much money was spent (or not collected) in helping the industrialization that the national debt had soared back to even beyond previous levels. Investors across Europe began serious discussion as to whether the country would fall into bankruptcy; the government in London drew up contingency plans for invasion should order need to be restored in the face of Roman malfeasance and financial incompetence.

It was in this atmosphere that the elections of 1840 began. The Republicani expected a complete victory- with high unemployment, mothers mourning sons lost in the recent war (mothers on *both* sides of the war, as well), and the Moderati's failed education and military spending proposals, it would seem obvious to anyone that the Moderati government was a complete failure. Even better, there were rallies for minority rights and free trade across the country- all issues the Republicani stood firmly for.

When votes were counted in November, however, the Moderati had won a resounding 60% of the vote. The Republicanis claimed fraud and that Moderati ties to organized crime had gained the victory; however, no actual proof of malfeasance could be gained, and so the Republicani could do little more than complain bitterly and vociferously- both of which they did.

In studying the situation, however, there are larger events which secured the Moderati victory. While corruption may have played a small part, it does not measure up to two very significant factors. First was the economic boom. By the last few months of the election, the industrial push that the Moderati had made was finally taking hold- unemployment rates collapsed, and the government was taking in more money in a day than it had in a week previously. Second, and perhaps most important, was the general make-up of the Roman populace at that time. The areas captured in the last war had some industry, but most of the populace were farmers and miners- those naturally predisposed to vote for the Moderati's high-tariff, pro-Catholic platform. Those most displaced by the economic problems and the recent war were factory workers and the middle-class, who were naturally disposed to vote for the Republicani in any case. Therefore, it can be assumed that much of the Republicani's complaints about the economic crisis and the failures of the war merely reinforced the beliefs of people already planning to vote for them, and did nothing to bring new voters into the fold.


Ciacherri's second term was heralded by the wringing of hands from the Republicani newspapers- it was assumed that the debt would drive the country into bankruptcy, and that Ciacherri was drawing up plans to invade Sardinia, the Two Sicilies, Austria, France, and possibly Iceland for good measure. The next four years, according to the papers, would bring war, debt, and destruction to the Republic.

In fact, they could not have been more wrong- although whether that was because Ciacherri was less of a monster than they assumed, or because larger events forced his hand, is hard to say.

The peace treaty with Sardinia-Piedmont was fixed until mid-1843. Having been brought into the 'council of nations' as a Great Power, Ciacherri was unwilling to break the treaty and lose the prestige- perhaps the exact intention of the other nations in bringing Rome into said council. Especially given the poor economic condition of Rome, Ciacherri decided to simply wait out the peace and rebuild the lands recently conquered. When the national debt was finally paid off in mid-1841, Ciacherri still demurred on the idea of immediate build-up of troops; he instead raised the education budget and ensured the storage of the surplus to act as a buffer in a future war.

Ciacherri's unwillingness to push for immediate reward was only furthered in August of 1841 by one Joachim Dieboltz. Dieboltz was a Viennese merchant long fallen on hard times; in desperation, he had turned to smuggling Indian tea and Chinese silk through the Ottoman Empire and into Austria. Trade into Austria meant trade through Venice, and trade through Venice eventually led to smuggling goods into the Republic itself. On August 14th of 1841, Roman police forces managed to capture Dieboltz as he and a few associates were inventorying supplies. It is believed, though not confirmed, that the police noticed Dieboltz's activities not because they were investigating crime, but because a local Italian syndicate wished to eliminate a foreign rival. When police entered Dieboltz's warehouse, they were fired upon, and the ensuing shootout killed two police officers and three of Dieboltz's "employees". Dieboltz himself was captured while he tried to flee the chaotic scene.


Joachim Dieboltz


Wishing to make an example of him, the Roman government confiscated all goods associated with Dieboltz's business (both legal and not) and tried Dieboltz for conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of the two police officers. The Austrian government lodged numerous protests, stating that as Dieboltz was an Austrian citizen, extradition to Austria would be the correct response. Unwilling to compromise, the Roman government proceeded with the trial even as Austria threatened hostilities were the matter not resolved. In the end, Ciacherri ordered forces moved to the Austrian border to prepare against incursion, and the Austrian government backed down. However, this only reinforced the idea in Ciacherri's mind that future wars would need to be chosen carefully; the diplomatic luck Rome had with the first was unlikely to be repeated.


By the time the peace treaty with Sardinia-Piedmont was ended, Rome had regained her economic footing and was in very strong shape. Farm output was at a record high, and Roman industry was proceeding at a fair pace, keeping up with many of the other small European states and well outpacing such backwards states as Spain. The Roman army, while still kept small, had been outfitted with new rifles of better quality than that of even French make. The Moderati's spending on education was reaping great benefits, with newly trained factory-workers and clerks contributing to a growing middle class.

Unfortunately for Rome, the rest of Europe had proceeded diplomatically where Rome had accelerated economically. France, regretting its willingness to let Rome conquer much of Northern Italy, had decided to step in and stand against Roman aggression. To that end, they had signed a guarantee of Sardinia-Piedmont's indepence and a defensive treaty with The Two Sicilies. Were Rome to pursue its revanchist dreams, it would necessarily have to fight France... an option that no one looked forward to.

The Ciacherri government decided to fight fire with the best fire possible. If its enemies were allied to France, the best response would be to gain an alliance with France as well- if France saw that Italy would be unified under a friendly banner, it would be less likely to stand in the way.


The election of 1844 was perhaps the most tumultuous and bitter election that the country had seen. Vicini saw the Republicani factions begin to split apart: the economic boom combined with six solid years of peace (excluding minor Restorationist rebellions in the north) had given the Moderati a nearly unassailable hold on the government. In addition, the Moderati were building a true political philosophy: one built on fraternity and paternalism, appealing to old ideals of the Senate from the first Roman Republic. The Republicani had only a collection of various ideas that were generally unliked by the populace. To that end, Vicini decided that the only way to keep his party together, let alone have a chance of winning the election, was to go on the attack. The Republicani Party was still furious with what they saw as a stolen election from four years previous; tapping into that fury and slandering the Moderati to all degrees possible seemed the only path to survival.

For the most part, the Moderati held back. Ciacherri sent a private letter to other Parliament letters admonishing them to "never shoot a dying man"- words that would turn out to be eerily appropriate later. The Moderati knew they were well on the way to victory, and saw no reason to push the issue. When a Tuscan paper began claiming that it was necessary to vote for the Moderati in order to reclaim Italian lands in a war that, France or no France, Rome was destined to win, Ciacherri paid a personal visit to the editor to ask him to abandon the position.

Unfortunately, such moderation in the leadership was not match in the populace. Republicani and Moderati supporters spat upon their opponents, or travelled in gangs to attack their rivals. The idea that democracy would turn into true mob rule seemed to be proving itself true.

Augusto Bernucci

The culmination of these activities came on July 18th. Augusto Bernucci, representing the Abruzzi district, had just given a speech decrying the Republicani as anarchists, atheists, and lunatics, and calling for "all decent Christians" to vote Moderati. While being escorted through the crowd, an unemployed factory worker named Vincente Illato pushed his way forward and fired a small caliber pistol. Bernucci was mortally wounded; Illato was grabbed by the crowd and lynched before the police could restore control.

Vicini reacted to the news with horror, and as his later letters would attest, he blamed the entire affair upon himself and his demagougery. Three days after the incident, Vicini would withdraw from the race, writing a public letter calling for "sanity, honesty, and camraderie" and reminding Romans that the true enemies were not "fellow members of our Great Humanity, but those on the outside, those whose power we threaten, who dance with glee when we destroy Ourselves." Ciacherri, not to be outdone, called for a two-week period of mourning and a moratorium on electioneering during it; he also placed enormous pressure on the Abruzzi police to round up men to be prosecuted for inciting the lynching of Illato. In all, five men were tried and found guilty, though it is still debated as to whether they were truly ring-leaders or members of the crowd unfortunate enough to be easily recognized and disliked enough to be scapegoats.

The September election was anti-climactic. The Republicani party was nearly wiped out at the polls, and there was no possible claim of fraud to be placed on Ciacherri's success. Many of the elected Republicani joined the Moderati party within a year or two as the party further disintegrated. Ciacherri reacted to this not with joy, but with great disappointment. "When my political opponents called themselves Republicani, at least I could know where I stood with who," he wrote DiGiacomo in Feburary of 1845. "Now that everyone calls themselves a Moderati, the name means nothing, and I must work even harder to figure out who opposes me and who supports me. I would disband the party and force the Parliament to start from scratch if I could have my way."


Given the great upheavals of 1844, it is of little surprise that the next year passed uneventfully- the populace seemed worn out from the horrible campaign and desperate for peace and tranquility. Before the Tangieri incident, the only event of note was the culmination of DiGiacomo's seven years of diplomacy in a formal Military Alliance with France. Now, the Romans were protected from Austria and possibly had the opportunity to make its final conquests of the penninsula. Whether that was possible would depend on the mood of France, however, and DiGiacomo indicated to Ciacherri that pressing the point might be a horrible mistake.

But again, while Romans discussed and debated their next steps, the world moved along and forced their hand.

1845 - 1857 : Wars of Conquest, Wars of French Madness, and Wars of Unification

The conquest of the northern Italian lands had gone relatively peacably. Most of the residents of the conquered lands were farmers and laborers; what changes they saw in their lives were mostly beneficial. For the middle-class, the change was from a conservative regime they despised but had no influence over to a conservative regime they despised but could attempt to vote out of office.

Those who were most disenfranchised by the Unification Wars were the aristocracy of the now-conquered lands. A few of the more minor nobility saw the Republic as a way to get ahead, and in fact many of the Members of Parliament elected from the conquered lands of Sardinia-Piedmont or the annexed Tuscany were in fact former nobility who used their monies and popularity with the populace to catapult into politics.

But for most of the nobility, the Republic had disenfrachised them. And some of them plotted against the government. The "restoration" movement started out as a loose network of allied former nobility, but soon found roots in farmers who feared the economic and technological changes occuring in the country. The movement was doomed from the start due to a lack of support and a leadership that fought more with itself than with the Republic. But the movement was still able to make itself heard, and to lead uprisings against the government. The uprisings were usually hastily quelled, but the forced bloodshed against their own citizens caused many party leaders to blanch.

In October of 1845, two members of the Restoration movement were arrested in Firenze; a search of their places of business found large storehouses of French-manufactured rifles and plans to distribute them to Tuscan farmers for a mass attack against the government. The government followed the paper trail that was left to a merchant ship named The Tangieri, and found that the rifles had actually been donated by the French government to the Tunisan government (ostensibly to keep the Tunisian government in power and therefore keep any uprisings from threatening their holdings in Oran). The Tangieri was seized for its involvement in the smuggling operation, which led to a series of nasty notes from Bey Hussein, governor of Tunisia, demanding the return of the ship.

The situation might well have stayed a mere diplomatic annyoance if not for the intervention of the Rome Herald. While most of the Ciacherri government wished to downplay the event, the more hawkish elements of the government saw the crisis as a chance to establish Roman dominance in the Mediterrenean. The letters from the Bey, as well as details of the original impoundment of the Tangieri, were anonymously sent to the Herald, which faithfully reprinted them with editorials decrying Ciacherri's unwillingness to act. As the months went on, the Herald pushed the investigation farther, pointing out the horrible slave trade still continuing in Tunis and calling for all good citizens of the world to remove this barbaric state.

Ciacherri did his best to avoid the war and attempted to put pressure on the Herald to drop the issue, but to no avail. Ciacherri's motives in this stem less from any peaceable designs, but from his fear that devoting the army to a campaign in Tunisia would remove any possibility of a campaign against Sardinia-Piedmont in the next few years. However, Ciacherri soon found his hand forced- the hawks in his government threatened to split from the party unless war was declared, and popular sentiment seemed to be very much in their favor. Thus, the Roman government declared war upon Tunisia on January 4th, 1846.

By this point, Rome had built a small navy (commandeered is probably the better term); one that simply had no naval strength to project, but which could adequately transport Roman soldiers assuming no naval resistance was encountered. Thankfully for the Republic, Tunisia had no naval forces either, and therefore two Roman cavalry units were able to be dispatched to Tunisia without danger.

The campaign lasted a little over a year, mostly because Ciacherri was unwilling to disrupt the Republic's economy by calling for volunteers. At no point were the armies of the Bey as capable in leadership, quality, or technology as the Romani army; even though the Bey's forces outnumbered the Romans by three to one at times, they were easily routed when it came to actual battles. By May of 1847, the Tunisan armies were completely crushed, and all Tunisian lands in the hands of the Roman army. Given the circumstances that had led to war, the Ciacherri government saw no reason to let the treacherous Bey keep any power at all, and the entirety of the country was taken over as a Roman colony. Government was set up along the lines of French rule in Oran, and the slaves were given their freedom.

This war perhaps would be a sidenote in the Republic's history if not for two things. First, the officers involved in the war begans to develop what would later be termed "Mobility Theory"- the idea that having troops able to move faster than the enemy, as well as free to move from one front to another quickly, was the key to dominance. The basic elements of these thoughts had been laid by Farini in his campaign against Sardinia-Piedmont, where cavalry units had kept King Carlo's units in constant disarray. These theories would be expanded and form the dominating ideals in Roman military thought, and be in many ways responsible for future Roman victories.

Second, the horror stories the Herald had printed of slavery, decadence, and lack of civilization in Tunis instilled in many leading citizens of the Republic a general idea about Africa as a place where good-minded citizens could- and in fact must- bring civilization to the benighted natives. The decades after the Tunisian War would see many colonies started across Africa in the name of the Republic and in the ideal of bringing light to the Dark Continent.

But the war did not interfere with the timetable that Ciacherri had set for the next war. In August of 1847, France let its guarantee of independence to Sardinia-Piedmonet lapse. Ciacherri wasted no time in declaring war against the country and in mobilizing the vast number of Roman volunteers. This time, King Carlos would not repeat his mistake of raising vast numbers of unready troops that Roman would easily rout; if only because he did not have nearly the population to draw it from. The Sardinian troops which saw battle were tested, experienced, and ready to fight. But they were outnumbered by the Romans on the order of four to one, and they had less room to fall back if matters at the front went poorly.

Unlike the previous war, where Farini's plan had gone so stunningly well that Ciacherri was unwilling to press his luck to push further, in this war the expectation was for dominance. And in this Farini succeeded. The Sardinian armies fought well, but were overwhelmed by numbers; and when they attempted to retreat, they found the Roman Cavalry waiting for them in the rear. In addition, the small Roman navy was able to send a division of men to Sardinia itself unmolested.

By April of 1848, the entirety of Sardinia-Piedmont was under Roman control, and the Ciacherri government prepared to annex the entire country. But it was at this point that the French government once again interfered, sending a message to Ciacherri that a full annexation by the Roman government would be seen as barbaric war, and possibly see French intervention- something the Roman army was not at all prepared for, to say nothing of the Roman navy. Foreign Minister DiGiacomo personally went to Paris to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

Foreign Minister Alberto DiGiacomo

Days of negotiation drug into weeks as the two governments attempted to resolve the matter. DiGiacomo wrote to Ciacherri on May 28th, "I realize that General Farini is attempting to push our government into a quick resolution of the matter given the recent partisan activity in Chamberry. Please inform him that the longer we delay, the stronger our position becomes. When I first arrived here, the French were assured of victory against us should it come to war. But the situation has greatly devolved- people are rioting in the streets against the government and in favor of liberal reforms, and the French army is being manuevered in all directions to put down the revolts. The provisional government with which I work is in constant challenge of being overthrown, and is becoming increasingly desperate for a peaceful solution to this crisis. Within a few weeks' time, I expect to be able to take everything we want from them, and still have them smile when they think about it."

On June 15th, shortly before the uprisings that would cripple the French government and allow Louis Napoleon to rise to power, the French and Roman governments signed the Paris Treaty of 1848. In it, Saridinia-Piedmont was completely disintegrated. King Carlos was left with small holdings in Torino, the former capital of Piedmont; Sardinia, Savoy, and most of the rest of Piedmont was turned over to Rome. Nice was the sole exception- it would be returned to its rightful owners in France. In return, Rome was to be compensated with the French colony of Oran, a smattering of French claims across Africa, and nearly 23,000L. As DiGiacomo had predicted, the French government announced this treaty to the populace with great acclaim, having rid itself of a troublesome colony, saved the independence of Piedmont, and returned lands to their rightful French owners. The French populace were unimpressed, as the later uprisings would show.

The Roman government hoped to use the newly gained moneys and territories to further fuel expansion. Austria and Prussia were being crippled by the revolts of 1848, but their guarantees were still pulling them in different directions. Prussia had already gone to war once with Denmark over the issue of Germans in Schleswig; uprisings in Switzerland seemed to be leading to a general repression of Catholics, which would likely draw Austria's attention. Rome therefore placed its army in position, waiting for a chance for Austria to be pulled in too many directions to stop a Roman reclamation of Venetian lands. But such matters never came to a head in the way that Rome wished; the Swiss Catholics were never repressed enough to draw Austrian attention, and the rebellions in Austria never drew away more than a few of the massive amounts of troops on the border. With no war, then, the Ciacherri government turned the now-massive surplus into continuing to develop the Roman economy through tax-breaks and incentives for industrialization and railroad-building.

But if no wars of fact came, wars in name came in numbers. In February of 1851, the Ottoman Empire once again delcared war on its erstwhile colony Egypt, and France joined in to defend Egypt- pulling the Romans into the war. No sooner had that war ended in 1853 than The Crimean War began. The United Kingdom had been at war with Russia since mid-1852; once the Ottoman Empire resolved its war with Egypt, it saw a chance to re-establish itself as leader within the Balkans by attacking Russia while it was already engaged. France, in an amazing display of sangfroid, joined in on the side of the Ottomans, making allies of a country it had been at war with not a week before. Once again, France demanded that Rome honor the Military Alliance, and once again, Rome decided that having France as an ally in the future wars to unify Italy was worth the trouble.

The Crimean War would drag on until nearly 1857. During this time, Rome committed no forces at all to either the war effort against Russia or the prior war against the Ottomans- the Romans understood that their fleet was simply not capable of making a difference, and that being at war in name only was for the best. This did not stop individual officers and soldiers from volunteering to join the French and Egyptian armies in various fights; but Rome comitted no serious numbers to either war.

Rather, Rome focused on domestic affairs. On June 3rd, 1852 (in the middle of election season), Prime Minister Ciacherri suffered a massive stroke.* With the party leader incapacited and no hope of recovery, the monolithic Moderati Party fractured into a multitude of parties- various factions split along lines of philosophy and personality, all clamoring to be the true heirs to Ciacherri.

By the time the election of 1852 occurred, most of the factions had coallesced into two major parties. The first was the liberal Reformist party, calling for the same matters that the Republicani Party had wished twenty years before- Laissez-Faire economics and Free Trade, combined with more rights for minorities and less intereference by the clergy in the state.

The winning party was the Moderati Party, reunited under Cesare Cairoli. Cairoli was no master politician like Ciacherri, or even much of a deep thinker or planner; he was a successful industrialist who had practically bought his seat in Parliament in order to secure his business interests. However, he was a hard man to dislike, and was thought of fondly by most members of Parliament. And as someone with no strong agenda, little attention to detail, and no real capacity for philosophizing, most of the warring factions saw Cairoli as a man who would be an excellent front while the true party leaders were sorted out behind the scenes.

Cesare Cairoli

Cairoli would continue to lead the Moderate through the bizzarre prosperity that Roma had while the rest of Europe bloodied itself in the Crimean War.

On December 6th, 1856, the Ottomans signed a peace with Russia, moving the Balkan border a few miles south. With Rome and France now free to act, General Farini presented the final plans for Italian Unification to PM Cairoli. Cairoli signed off on them, and Rome immediately declared its annexation of the lands of the Kingdom of Piedmont. King Vittorio attempted to call France in to guarantee its independence, but France was uninterested- having forged a solid alliance with Rome, and being unwilling to spill even more blood in a foreign war after the disaster that the Crimea had been, Emperor Louis Napolean declared that the guarantee had been made by the now-ousted French government, and therefore was void.

King Vittorio called for Torino to raise itself in arms against the invading Romans, and received no response. No troops faced Rome's entry; a few palace guard shot at the Roman cavalry when it surrounded Vittorio's castle, but for the most part it was a bloodless invasion. Vittorio went to Spain in exile, and a plebiscite was held in Torino to determine whether the province would join the Roman Republic.

On March 18th, 1857, Prime Minister Carioli received a wire from Torino stating that the votes had been counted, and that Torino had joined the Republic. With that, Carioli declared to the Parliament, there was but one more step. The Parliament resoundingly declared war upon King Fernando II of the Two Sicilies. Farini, in command of the army at Rome, immediately marched upon Napoli. The Army of the Two Sicilies made no move to block them; rapid mutinies were occuring throughout the Army as officers and soldiers demanded to join the Roman Republic. King Fernando attempted to rally the army, and then failing that, the people, against Roman invasion and unification. But there was no response; the Roman army was treated in Napoli as a liberator. Facing the inevitable, King Fernando abdicated on August 29th, with his son following suit.

On August 30th, 1857, Prime Minister Cesare Cairoli declared the new Republic of Italy, with all of the Italians- save those still under Austrian rule- to be members.

************************************************
Well, only three years ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, couldn't declare war on anyone while I was dragged into France's non-stop wars.


So- is anyone reading this? Comments? Concerns? Aggravations?

Cinead IV, sw_meyers, and BBBD, thank you for the praise! It helps keep me interested in updating this one rather than wandering off and trying something new... like Poland...

Oh, and defensive alliances are always something to keep in mind. The easiest way to attack someone with guarantees or strong defensive alliances is to find a small partner that will drag them into the unfortunate war. Parma is really perfect for this- you can have most of northern Italy very quickly if you declare war on Parma.

A quick update on the status of the new country of Italy (screenshots forthcoming, I swear!):

Current standings: 5th overall (Behind, in order, U.K., Russia, France, and the U.S)


Prestige: 569, 4th overall (behind U.K., France, and Russia)

Most of my Prestige is from annexing Two Sicilies in one huge gulp- about 9 provinces. That's also why my badboy is up to 20, so no prestige through wars of conquest anytime soon- I can two-step a few small colonial countries, but grabbing too much too fast is going to hurt.

My general research strategy early on is to focus the heck out of Industrial techs. At the same time, I'm promoting my largest pops to be clerks both for the economic boon and for the research boon. Once I get to the point of having 8-9 spare RP (at this point, once every three years), I can trade those top-line industry techs to a friendly country for a low-level tech and mucho dinero. Since it takes me the same amount of time to research a top level tech as it does a low level tech, it puts me ahead the same amount of research, while reaping me 5K a trade... not too shabby.

In this scenario, I deviated from that slightly; picking up military techs became important when I hoped to go to war with Austria (occasionally Austria DoWs Switzerland in 1848, which occasionally brings England in on the Swiss side- add that in with '48er revolts, and a French-Italian war on Austria can usually make good gains). I also picked up Ideological Thought *very* early, which requires some explanation.

IT spawns up to fifteen different mini-inventions, five for conservative/reactionary governments, five for liberal/anarco-liberal governments, and five for socialist/communist governments. The conservative inventions lower plurality and convert pops to conservative; the liberal inventions raise plurality and convert pops to liberals; the socialist inventions raise plurality and convert pops to socialists. Since plurality is good for democracies and bad for monarchies, it seems at first that going for it early benefits liberal democracies or conservative monarchies (though monarchies should wait until plurality hits 25% or more for maximum effect), but hurts conservative democracies (which I currently am). But those inventions stick around, and will fire off if your government ever changes. If I wait to become a liberal democracy before firing it off, then if the conservatives *ever* gain control again, then suddenly I lose 25 plurality and gain 25% conservative voters, pretty much entrenching the conservatives in power- not good. By going for it early, I lose 25 plurality when I only have 2 or 3 (and it can't go negative), and converting 25% of my population to conservative when it's already nearly 95% conservative- no big deal. But then, once the liberals do take power, the liberal inventions fire, jumping my plurality and liberal population. Not only does this help entrench them, if the conservatives ever *do* take power again (which can be useful, as you'll see later), I don't have to worry about losing plurality or liberal pops, as those conservative inventions have already happened.

Anyways. So I'm doing okay, army-wise, horribly navy-wise (navies can usually wait to mid and end game for Italy; most of your immediate attention is to fighting wars with land-based powers like the other Italian states and Austria), moderately well commerce-wise, very well industrially, and not very well culturally.

Since my badboy is pretty high, much of my future prestige won't come from conquests- I'm not strong enough (or good enough!) to face badboy wars yet. Since I'm still producing high RPs, and still have high-level techs that France and Prussia (my major trading partners) don't, I'll switch over to cultural techs every other choice. That way, I can catch up on those prestige-builders (and, just as nicely, deny them to my rivals), while still keeping on top of industry and military techs through trade and the occasional research.

I've also set up quite a few trading posts and colonies; I'm ready to claim Yebuti and will put myself in position to claim Algeria soon (through my tiny connection in Tunis. I'm abusing the AI here- I need only build a trading post, a mission, and a colonial fort and let the Spanish AI build TPs in every other province, allowing me to claim). But I'm holding off on actually claiming- there are inventions later on that up the prestige for claiming, and quite frankly I don't have the army or navy available to hold a lot of disparate colonies.


Industrial Strength: 140, 6th overall (Behind U.K., Russia, France (notice a trend?), U.S.A., and Prussia)

Current factories:
Savoie: None (1 captialist, but given that it's mostly French population and only two provinces, one of which is coal, I have no intention of building any factories here.)

Napoli: Ammunition Factory lvl 1, Small Arms factory lvl 1 (1 captialist, 19 unemployed craftsmen, and 10 unemployed clerks. Way to industrialize, Two Sicilies. This is my first priority in new factories for most of the game; even once those 29 (!) factory workers are put to work, there's another 18 baseline farmers and laborers ready to be promoted.)

Sicilia: Glass Factory lvl 1, Winery lvl 1 (No capitalists, and two of the three provinces produce sulphur, so no more industrializing here.)

Romagna: Glass Factory lvl 1 (1 capitalist, and a medium number of possible hires. Might see some new factories.)

Umbria: Winery lvl 1 (No capitalists, but a medium number of possible hires. Might see some new factories.)

Toscana: Glass Factory lvl 1, Lumber factory lvl 1, Cement factory lvl 1 (1 captialist, medium number of possible hires. #3 in the industrializing priority list.)

Latium: Fabric Factory lvl 1, Luxury clothes lvl 1, Furtniture lvl 1 (1 capitalist, but practically no possible new hires. I had hoped to get immigrants pouring into this state, but my inability to get anything other than a conservative government kinda put the kibosh on that. So no new factories here.)

Parma-Modena: Canned Food lvl 1 (Big nada on new factories here. No captialists, and all the areas in it are either timber-producing or iron-producing.)

Piedmonte: Steel lvl 2, Fabric lvl 2, Clothes lvl 1, Machine Parts lvl 1, Ammunition lvl 1, Small Arms lvl 1 (Up to now, this was my big production center. It'll still be number 2, since there's still a lot of famer/labor pops possible to promote. The Ammo and Small Arms factories are currently empty.)

Sardinia: Canned Food lvl 1, Glass lvl 1 (I *swear* I never built a glass factory in the game- the four I have now (which is three too many!) all started out in game. Anyways, no industrialization here- the RGOs produce precious metal and suplhur, so are too valuable to deplete.)


My industrialization strategy, if you haven't picked up on it, is to empty out any RGO that produces cheap, easily found goods (fruit, grain, wool, and cattle) while keeping the scarce materials as utilized as I can (in this case, timber, iron, coal, precious metals, and sulphur).

Current factory demands:
I require a lot of imported cotton (no problem, as the stuff is plentiful and cheap); I've got extra fabric and not enough clothes for the luxury clothes plants, so new (or expanded) clothes plants are a priority.

I'm producing more lumber than my Furniture factory requires, but not enough to support expansion (or a paper factory), so more lumber mills are needed. I'm already importing timber, but timber rarely becomes precious.

My steel mill is fine in production; enough to keep the machine parts factory at full capacity with some left over for sale or other use. But I'm running serious deficits in coal and iron, and these commodities get *real* precious one other countries hit the industrialization kick. So no expansion there until absolutely necessary, and I have my eye on a few sources of iron and coal out there.

I'm making nearly ten times as much glass as I need, so more liquor distilleries and winerys would be useful. Seeing as I have no liquor distilleries at all, that'll be more important. I like trying to produce all of the goods my people desire, as it's cheaper for them to buy from me than from the WM, which means they satisfy more desires. Happier people mean less rebellions, which is always good.

Finally, I'm only making about half the ammo my small gun factories need, and I'm doing fine for sulphur, so I'll re-open the ammo factory in Piedmont.


As for money- education spending is at full, crime spending is at nil, defense spending is minimum and army maintenance is getting cut to half now that the war is over. Taxes are at 49.22% across the board, and tariffs are at max. End result- about 40-50L a day. Not bad, but it'll get better.


Military Strength: 21, 9th overall (Behind U.K., France, Russia, U.S.A., Ottomans, Brazil (!), Prussia, and Austria)

My military kind of sucks right now. In terms of absolute strength, I'm okay- I can throw as much at a fight as most minor European powers. I'm also near the top in technology, which helps. But of my 10 military units, 3 are cavalry (which are becoming less and less useful in real combat), 5 are plain vanilla infantry (3 built by Two Sicilies at the start of our war, and handed over to me once they were annexed); only 2 are artillery, and those 2 artillery are the only above-average troops I have. To win wars now I'm going to need engineers (which still aren't available! ) and more artillery... which means more money spent on maintenance.

The good news is that there's enough troops there to occupy every border province with Austria, while still leaving my cavalry and a few spare infantry around to deal with local uprisings and... other stuff. See the next history update for more information on that latter item.

My navy is great for what I want, horrible for everything else. I have several man-o-wars, a single raider, and about 6 transports. What I want is a fleet that can survive against Austria (check!), and ferry my troops to important places (check!). What I can't do with it is survive against France, England, or maybe even the Ottomans. England and France aren't a worry right now. The Ottomans... maybe.


Okay, that's where I stand. Still trailing the U.K. by a bunch, but ahead of Prussia and Austria where it counts. Time to move forward!

Unification and Peace 1857-1860

Once the Italian Republic was officially established, there was a great deal of pressure on Prime Minister Cairoli to simply keep plowing forward- the volunteers were still enrolled, and now the former Two Sicilies' armies were calling themselves part of the Italian Army. Jingoist members of Parliament and leading newspapers called for an immediate war with Austria to liberate the states of Lombardy and Venetzia.

But Cairoli, to his credit, resisted those calls. Cairoli had initially been installed as Prime Minister because many of the faction leaders in the Moderati saw him as dull and easily led, and therefore a perfect puppet. But once in power, Cairoli changed. None were sure whether it was due to a sense of stewardship of the Italian people, or whether Cairoli was simply a brilliant politician who had suckered the faction leaders into believing he would be maleable and easily led. But by the time that the Italian Republic was declared, "maleable" would be a word never used to describe him. Rather, he would pick up the appelation "Il Mulo", or "The Mule". As DiGiacomo would exasperatedly write to a friend in July of 1858, "Once the man has lumbered into a position, he is impossible to pull from it. He simply drops his bulk upon that place and refuses to budge, no matter how much pressure is applied." Cairoli was still not the forward thinker or philosopher that Ciacherri had been; he was first and foremost a pragmatist, who saw government and philosophy as a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

Cairoli saw that the unification of Italy, while simple in name, was a massive undertaking bureaucratically. Government administrations, education systems, even basic roads and rail lines needed to be set up in the newly conquered lands. The army, now three seperate departments (e. Republicano, e. Volontari, and e. Siciliano) needed to be arranged into a single army under a unified leadership, with standardized equipment and training. The navy needed less reforms, but still needed to be brought under central administration. Even worse, poor administration by The Two Sicilies had left massive unemployment and poverty throughout Napoli, and the lower and middle classes expected the Republic to fix their situation almost magically, as if freedom would lead to immediate economic recovery.

The final topping to all of this was the resurgence of the Restoration movement. While King Fernando had abdicated and fled to Switzerland, there were still plenty of local noblemen who refused to accept the validity of the Republic. The worst of it was in Sicily, where an independence movement played directly into the hands of Count Alberto di Palmero, who called for an independent Sicilian Monarchy.

With all of these issues demanding government attention, Prime Minister Cairoli felt the idea of pushing them to the side while carrying on a joyous (and possibly doomed) war with Austria would be complete folly. On June 16th, 1858, Cairoli stated that the matter of Austrian occupation of Italy was "a matter for diplomacy", and that the Republic's attention should be to "matters of the people who elected us, first and foremost." The deflation of the jingoist boom led to much resentment against the government, and specious questions as to whether Cairoli was possibly in the pay of Austrian agents.

Cairoli's plans, instead, were for a massive expansion of the Italian economy. Tax breaks and government subsidies funded massive expansion of the industrial base of Napoli, while expanding the Italian rail lines to cross the entire state.

By the time of the 1860 election, the country was splitting itself apart on the issue of war with Austria. Massive peace rallies were held to demand government attention to its own citizens first and foremost; at the same time, the newspapers called for war and reclamation of the Italian states under Austrian rule. Bertramo Famigli, a leading Roman industrialist and newspaper owner, even personally funded the creation of a division of volunteers to expand the Italian army.

Cairoli navigated a tough path in leading the Moderati through the election; his position was that war would come eventually, but that now was too soon. In doing so, he attempted to woo the pacifists that the Reformista Party was solidly counting on, but he risked losing the hawkish elements of his own party. In the end, the Moderati still won, claiming 54% of the seats in Parliament- but it was the closest victory that the Moderati had won since Ciacherri had taken control of the party. Cairoli shrugged off the blame for the Moderati's poor showing, and instead pushed the completion of his programs. On December 29th, the same day that most European papers headlined the secession of South Carolina from the United States of America, Italian papers trumpeted the completion of the trans-Italian rail network, with rail lines now extending to every major city in the country.

Cairoli's second term- his first full term as Prime Minister of Italy- seemed completely passive and with little event on the outside. But deep within the government, secret plans and negotiations were being undertaken which would change the nature of Italy.

1860-1866 Preparations

"Ciacherri ran the government as Prime Minister of the Moderati. I plan to run the government as Prime Minister of the Italians, and damn the political consequences."
- Prime Minster Cesare Cairoli


Cairoli had stated that the Italian lands under Austria would be gained back "through diplomacy". He stuck true to his promise, though not in the way that most assumed it would happen.

The Austrians took Cairoli's intentions as meaning a willingness to negotiate for the Italian lands. The Hapsburg empire had suffered greatly over the last twenty years, seeing constant uprisings from militant minorities, and falling ever more behind Prussia and Italy in industry and technology. The chance to gain access to Italian technologies- and more importantly, Italian money- in exchange for rebellious provinces was seen as a golden opportunity by the Austrians. The Hapsburgs sent several emissaries to Italy to discuss the possibility of partnership and exchanges of land for money.

But rather than dealing with Foreign Minister DiGiacomo- now in his early seventies and gaining the reputation as "the Talleyrand of Italy"- they found themselves dealing with low level dignitaries and incompetent negotiators. While Italy was happy to promise peace and improve relations, any negotiation over the Austrian-held lands collapsed into animosity and recriminations.

Instead of the Austrians, DiGiacomo was dealing with the Prussians. Through his actions and speeches- especially during the Schleswig Matter- King Friedrich Wilhelm IV had made it clear that uniting the Germans under a single banner was a goal of his. DiGiacomo recognized two things about this: first, that this ideal of his was very parallel to the Republic's goal of uniting all of the Italians, and therefore sharing plans and experiences with the Germans would be seen as a boon to them; second, that to unite the Germans, Prussia would eventually come into conflict with Austria.

Having Prussia as an ally against Austria would be an unmistakable boon to any attempt to take back Italian lands; even Prussian neutrality would be preferable to the current situation, which would be Prussia assisting Austria in any war. Therefore, DiGiacomo cultivated a careful- and secret- relationship with Prussian Ambassador Baron Hans Strosser. The Prussian was at first very cold to the idea of partnership with the Italians; he felt the success of the Republic had inflamed the liberals in the German states, leading to the 1848 rebellions. But DiGiacomo soon managed to get past that viewpoint and bring Strosser into an understanding of the convergence of Italian and Prussian goals. By 1865, what had been cold distrust was replaced by warm embrace, and the Prussians fully expected Italy's support when matters with Austria finally came to a head.


In public, none of this discussion was mentioned. Rather, Cairoli maintained a public attitude of peace with European powers as his goal. Peace towards non-European powers, however, was a different matter.

In 1861, the debt crisis in Mexico reached critical proportions; Mexico's response- to cancel the debt- led much of Europe to declare war. Italy, bound by treaty to France, joined in the declarations, but as with previous French-initiated wars, did little more than send a few observers and volunteers to the front. Cairoli's actions drew praise from the Reformists, and only mild criticism from the hawks- even those who hoped for an Italian empire in America, or to bring true peace and civilization to the benighted Mexicans, had to recognize that Italy simply did not have the fleet strength to support a trans-Atlantic Empire.

However, in 1863, Cairoli ramped up Italian colonial ambitions. In a strident speech in June of that year, Cairoli called it the job of "all civilized men" to strike out and end evil where they saw it... and specifically, the evil of slavery. Slavery had been abolished in the Italian colonies of Tunis and Oran, but it still flourished in the uncolonized lands of Morrocco and Aldjazair, as well as the Ottoman-held country of Tripoli. In private letters to Moderati leaders, Cairoli revealed that his intentions were less for the freedom of "savages to whom freedom brings no difference" and more for "the iron and coal produced in these regions, which will lessen our dependence upon Prussian and Austrian sources".

However, Cairoli's call for intervention in Africa met with heavy resistance from the Reformist Party. The Reformists were already up in arms given Cairoli's handling of the Lega Dei Coltivatori De Napoli. The LDCDN was a conglomerate of Naples farmers who had stopped work and threatened armed rebellion over the Republic's subsidies of industry; they demanded that either those subsidies be ended, or that farms receive an equal amount of subsidies. Unfortunately for them, Cairoli was the wrong person to present such grievances to. As a former industrialist, he had no love for the group which he would privately call "attached to their ancient and rustic ways, in the same way that a stone might be attached around the neck of a drowning man. Is it any coincidence that the Restorationist movement draws so much support from these people? While the LDCDN might be loyal to the Republic, their demands and ideals will doom it in the end." Much to the horror of both the Moderati (who drew much of their support from the farmers) and the Reformists (who felt such actions highly unbecoming a civilized and free state), Cairoli had the leaders arrested and imprisoned on highly suspicious charges of treason, and what little armed resistance was offered was heavily crushed by Italian armies.

Because of this, Cairoli had little support except from the Moderati hawks when he tried to sell his plans to attack Aldjazair and Morrocco to the Parliament. After weeks of negotiations and wrangling, the end result would be a declaration of war against these countries- combined with measures to greatly reduce most tariffs. As a result, only a few Moderati- protesting both the reduction of tariffs and Cairoli's actions in the LDCDN affair- voted against the declaration when it was introduced in October of 1863.


The war against both Aldjazair and Morrocco were lengthy affairs, but only because the Republic chose not to deploy all of its possible forces to the front. Instead, a mere three infantry divisions were sent to the area to support the infantry division still in Tunis. The remainder was kept in Italy, either to hold the border with Austria, or to put down the occasional Restorationist uprising. While many battles were fought with the locals, there were none of note, and certainly at no point were the Italian forces in danger from the local tribes- Italian losses to disease and exposure outnumbered combat losses on the order of 10-1.

But the war allowed the Italians to try out their latest weaponry and tactics.
General Farini had overseen the integration and expansion of the Italian armies, as well as the implementation of an Italian-made version of the Maxim gun, called the "Alveare" or "Beehive". Farini died of a heart attack only shortly after the war started, but his successor turned out to be the perfect man for the times.

Mario Crenca, head of the Italian armies, 1863 - 1886

Mario Crenca had joined the Republican Army in 1838 as a volunteer for the Ducal Wars. His unit saw action in the occupation of Nice, and Crenca was promoted to Captain for his ability and courage. When the volunteers were disbanded, Crenca secured a commission in the Cavalry in the Regular Army,. During the Tunis campaign, he was credited with having orchestrated the plan that led to the Tunisians being routed at Gabes, and was promoted to Colonel and command of his division by the end of the war. In the Second War against Sardinia-Piedmont, his unit completely destroyed the Saridinians entrenched in Annency, thus forcing the army retreating from Torino into surrender, and was given command of the entire cavalry in 1858 following the death of Major General Gambini. Up to that point, he had been a firm adherent to General Farini's doctrine that a fluid and fast attack would win the day, and that massed cavalry was the secret to quick success.

However, his most recent station had completely changed his opinion. In summer of 1861, he was sent by General Farini to act as an observer with the United States of America's Army of the Potomac. The American Civil War was the first one to truly be fought with both sides equipped with modern weaponry and modern tactics, and proved the competence of defense and death of the cavalry, though few in Europe paid any attention. General Crenca did. The fast, fluid cavalry attacks that had won Italy so much in its early wars were nothing but useless (or, at best, pyrrhic) bloodshed against massed rifle-fire and artillery. Co-ordinated, massive attacks were necessary to drive the Rebels from their entrenchments; only in open areas where neither army had the chance to set up a defense were cavalry worth more than mere scouts.

Most European generals wrote off the American conflict as a "war between two mobs", believing that trained troops would never fight in war as the Americans had. But Crenca thought differently- the defensive lines in Virginia and especially around Richmond reminded him far too much of the lines he had seen the Austrian set up across the Po river.

When Farini died, Crenca was recalled back to Italy to oversee the war in Aldjaizar. As Crenca would write to a friend, "It is appropriate that this area is such a desert, for I am finding it the greatest sandbox in the world to test out my new theories and toys." The campaign was the perfect place to test out the new Alveare guns, as well as to train entrenchement setups.

Italian politicians view a test of the new Alveare gun


The election of 1864 was an extremely tumultuous affair. Opinions on Cairoli ran the spectrum; whether you were liberal reformist, conservative Moderati, or revanchist Moderati, Cairoli had done something to please you and something to drive you mad. Moderati politicans varied widely in whether they clung to Cairoli for his coattails or denounced him as a plague on society to gain votes. Even some Reformists broke ranks to support him.

But for the Moderati party itself, things went rapidly downhill. In December of 1863, the Rome Herald ran a series of investigative articles regarding the local Firenze government and bureaucratic offices. The results were infuriating to most citizens- the Firenze department was run as a personal playground of Alton DiMarco (M-North Firenze), with his sons and nephews all on the local payroll while providing no work whatsoever. Even worse, many of the so-called 'leaders' of the Firenze department were not merely DiMarco cronies, but members of the old Tuscan aristocracy. "As far as Firenze is concerned," editorialized the Herald, "there has been no change in the government since the days of Duke Leopoldo. The same aristocrats run the same games with the same lack of responsibility to the people. The only difference is, they have a Republican front-man to claim that the shell game is different this time around."

Once the Firenze story in the Herald broke, other papers across the country ran similar investigative pieces into the local departments, and the populace quickly came to believe that the new Republic was that in name only. The only exception was in the original Roman states, where the caridnals who had once run things were long since removed from politics. But in their place had come corrupt officials looking to establish their own minature empires.

Reformists were horrified, and called for a complete restructuring of the bureaucracy and a devotion to a civil service rather than the old nepotistic network. Some Moderati even joined the call, and pointed out that several of the leading Reformists were just as involved in the graft.

By Election Day, no other issue was quite as prominent. Even the pro and anti-war rallies became sparesly attended, as questions of how- or even whether to- reform the government became tantamount.

In the end, the moderates won the election, but with a bare 52% of the vote. This meant that small defections from the party could easily swing any vote, and so effectively neither side was truly in power.

Cairoli once again took the reigns of government; while many Moderati leaders decried him as the reason for their losses, there was no questioning that he was the best man for the job: he had won his personal re-election by a staggering amount; he had a proven history of being able to work with the opposition Reformists on issues, which would be vital in the coming years; and he was barely tainted by the corruption issues that had destroyed the careers (or at least the national careers, as they could always get re-elected to their Parliament seats even if no other MP would wish to be seen in public with them). The only serious candidate against him was Antoni Cavanga, who was emerging as the leader of the "hawk" or "revanchist" Moderatis.

But as 1865 progressed, the Moderati proved themselves more and more irrelevant. The political scandals had already depleted their numbers; but more importantly, Cavagna found he had more in common, philisophically, with the Reformists than he did with the Moderati. Cavagna believed in full rights for all members of the Republic, even the non-Italians; an abolishment of tariffs and full Italian entry into the world economy; and a militaristic policy designed to prove Italian dominance in Europe. Of these, only the last point was in conflict with the Reformists, and so long as Cairoli ran foreign policy, it was not a point of contention. As a result, the Reformists and Cavagna's faction in the Moderati began to work together more and more to pass legislation. Cairoli worked with them, partially because he believed in the policies, and partially to keep his government from being voted out and Cavagna being voted it. 1865 then saw a complete abolishment of tariffs in Italy, as well as Italian entry into "The Latin Union", a free-trade union between France, Belgium, and Greece.

Antoni Cavagna, leading "Revanchist Moderati" politican


Then, in late December, events fired with rapid succession. Prussia began its agitation to unify the seperate Germanic states; Austria declared unequivicably its opposition to Prussian leadership; and on January 1st, 1866, just a week after the telegrams had started flying, Prussia declared war upon Austria. Prime Minister Carioli found himself awoken at four in the morning to sign a hurried Military Alliance with Prussia which Strosser and DiGiacomo had spent most of the night preparing. At five that morning, the Austrian ambassador was informed that Italy was now at war with Austria. By six, the French ambassador was informed that Italy expected France to adhere to their treaty.


It was not until eight o'clock that someone in the government remembered to send a telegram to the armies on the border to inform them that war had been declared.

The Austro-Prussian War

Thanks, SW- but I ain't done yet!

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Troops on the border at the start of the war



The war had been coming for years, and the government of Italy had known it. Still, the suddeness of the actual declaration was a complete shock, and there was grave worry in the Italian cabinet that the army was in no condition to fight.

Austria had 60,000 men standing behind the Po River, led by General Ludwig von Benedek. Of those, 20,000 were stationed at Milano; the rest were evenly spread out across the borders. Italy had less than 30,000- six half-strength units were all that defended Italy's border with Austria. Newspapers in Rome constantly attacked General Crenca and Prime Minister Cairoli, expecting the Austrians to come swarming down at any time.

But Crenca knew that Italy had five things that the Austrians did not. First, they had equipment. Austria had not kept pace with European military gains, and relied upon mere Muzzle-loaded rifles, which were no match for Italian Alveare guns. Likewise, the Italian lines were interspersed with heavy artillery; the Austrian lines had few guns, and certainly not enough to cover all of the possible river crossings. Second, the Italians had training. The Austrian units were standard infantry; but the Italian units included several engineers, specifically raised and trained at Crenca's request. Between these two items alone, Crenca knew that an Austrian attempt to cross the river would be suicidal- even with less troops, the Italians could bring more firepower to bear on any Austrian attack, and had heavy entrenchment.

The other three items that Italy possessed- something Crenca saw, but the newspapers did not- were time, resources, and a lack of front. Austria had five allies- Hesse-Kassel, Baden, Bavaria, Frankfurt aum Man, and Hamburg. Italy had a mere three- Prussia, France, and Spain. The northern Italian border was the complete extent of Italy's front; Austria's border with Prussia was just as large, forcing Austria to cover twice the area with her troops. And that assumed that Baden and Bavaria stood firm- with 350,000 French troops stationed at their border, there was no question that it was only a matter of time before France was able to attack Austria directly.

Whatever troops Austria could spare from the German and Italian fronts would have to go into defending against France. But Italy would have the luxury of pulling its other troops- the ones currently mopping up in Northern Africa, the ones stationed in Sardinia and Sicily to defend against the threat of Restorationist uprisings, and the 30,000-man strong cavalry force stationed to defend Rome- as needed and creating a strength of force in one location. The only thing which could ruin that would be an Austrian incursion out of the Adriatic.

And so Crenca's only obvious move for the first three months of the war was to call Admiral Fabio to station his fleet in the Adriatic and keep the Austrians bottled up. The rest of the time was spent gathering recruits, calling up volunteers, and slowly getting the northern forces to full strength. Crenca saw no reason to push forward with the troops unprepared- especially with winter weather ready to play havoc with Italian supplies and attrition rates.

By March, the forces were prepared, and Programma Valanga ("Plan Avalanche") was put into effect.

March 1866 - June 1866: La Valanga

Italian ownership of Novara gave them the advantage they needed- a safe place to cross the Po River. General Guarino, in command of the Cavalry Wing of the Army, set out on March 10th along the north side of the river. Constant messengers were sent back to apprise Crenca of his progress, and in response, Crenca would order assaults across the river from the Italian infantry. The result was a rolling attack- the Italian armies would push forward and engage the Austrians, only to have Guarino's cavalry appear on the Austrian side of the river, smashing into the Austrian flanks. When the Austrians retreated- as they always did- the army would move north to take control of the area and set up entrenchements, while the cavalry would continue to follow the river east and attack the next Austrian unit just as the Italian army was engaging it. In this way, the Italians had complete control of the Po river by June. The only strong resistance that the Austrians gave was at Verona, where General von Benedek had enough troops to spread a line to defend his flank from the expected cavalry assault. The battle for Verona lasted for nearly a week before constant pounding from Italian artillery combined with quick sorties by Italian cavalry pushed the Austrian army past the breaking point.

Much to Crenca's dismay, the Austrian retreat did not break them entirely. The time it took for the Italians to secure the area north of the river was much longer than any revanchist had expected, and by the time Crenca could be assured of Italian control of the area, the Austrians had repositioned themselves in the mountains north of the Venetian plains. If the river crossing was dangerous, Italian commanders speculated, then assaulting the Austrians in the mountains was sucidial. So Crenca planned a diversion.


June 1866 - November 1866 : La Lama

Admiral Fabio had won several small skirmishes with an obviously inferior Austrian fleet; the Adriatic was completely in Italian hands. Crenca placed the new 50,000 volunteers under the command of General Marianella, who had shown great skill at the battle for Verona. These troops were landed at Trieste, on the other side of the mountain range. The expectation was for Marianella to push north from there, cutting the supply lines of the Austrian forces (thus the name "La Lama", or, "The Knife").

But once the invasion force landed, it found itself as neatly bottled as the other Italian troops. Klagenfurt, as a major source of coal for Austria, was a nexus point for Austria railroads. Therefore, most of the troops being hurriedly sent from eastern and southern-eastern Austria passed through the area; once Italians were spotted in Trieste, it was little work for the Austrians to divert troops destined for the Baden front to instead turn south and occupy the mountains and hills that surrounded Trieste.

The Italian situation was now decidedly mixed. The Austrians had solid defenses now erected- any Italian assault would involve attacking units entrenched in mountain passes, while even Italian technology and equipment would find a tough match. A rolling assault on the Austrian line akin to La Valanga was possible, but the casualty rate was expected to be high, possibly too high to make any real gains from a breakthrough.

But if the Italians were tied down, they had successfully tied the Austrian down with them, and that meant less Austrian troops available to face the Prussians and the French. The massive French army was simply chewing its way through the pathetic defenses that Baden and Bavaria were trying to offer; outnumbered on a scale of 3 to 1, the two countries offered little more than a running defense, forcing the French to spend time chasing after them. Had Austria been able to send them any of the hundred thousand men, perhaps the outcome of the war would have been different.

But if the Italians were stymied, the Prussians were near disaster. The rapid declaration of war had not merely caught the Italians by surprise. The entirety of the Prussian army was either demobilized or in putting down rebellions in Denmark when the war began. The Prussians had apparently been planning on pushing matters to a head with Austria within the next year or so; the swiftness with which the crisis came and turned to war caught them less prepared than any other power. By the time the Prussian armies were mobilized, several Austrian divisions had invaded Prussian territory. Had Prussia been prepared for war, with troops mobilized and massed on the border, perhaps the war would have been a quick Prussian victory. As it was, the Prussians spent much of the first year simply trying to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.


A complete picture of the mere 4,400 Prussian troops actually in Prussia at the beginning of the war. Also note the 450,000 French troops who happen to be at the right border at the right time.



February 15th, 1867 - The Mistaken Peace

By the time winter set in again, the Prussians had pushed the Austrians back out of their lands and managed to make a few inroads. But faced with growing public distaste for the handling of the war, as well as the complete unpreparedness with which it was entered, Otto von Bismarck decided to make a quick peace and declare a victory while he still could. On February 15th, the Italian government was shocked to find the Germans had signed peace with the Austrians. Dresden and Zator were passed into Prussian hands, and the province of Milano was thrown as a sop to the Italians.

Italian reacted to the treaty with fury. Even with Crenca's care to not assault the Austrians directly in entrenched positions, thousands of Italians has still died... for but a single province. Prussian incompetence in arranging the war, combined with cowardice during it, had only been saved by Italian planning and ability; and Prussia, as leader of the alliance, took the lion's share of what little gains there were.

March passed with great confusion. The Italians constantly demanded further reparations from Prussia for its part in the war, and the Prussians continually dismissed them. France, not a party to the treaty at all, continued to push forward into Germanic lands in the hopes of forcings its own peace with Austria. Meanwhile, the various German states were beginning to band together into Federations to better secure themselves. Austrian troops abandoned their defenses to meet the incoming French threat, while Italian troops dejectedly marched through winter weather back to the borders.

Then, in April, Foreign Minister Alberto DiGiacomo scored the greatest coup of a long and established diplomatic career.

DiGiacomo and his department had been studying the Prussian-Austrian peace treaty for a month, desperately looking for loopholes or for a chance to re-enter the war, but none was to be found. But on April 11th, DiGiacomo decided to re-read the treaty of Alliance signed between France and Italy. And within it, he found the most important clause.

"This treaty shall last for five years, excepting the case that one member is attacked or attacks another country; the treaty shall then be extended until the country such attacking or attacked has come to peace."

The treaty had been signed on March 3rd, 1861. The outbreak of war with Austria had caused the treaty to remain in effect. But with Italy now at peace, the treaty was officially over.

Which meant that a new one could be signed with France, bringing Italy back into the war with France as the leader of the alliance.

Telegrams flew back and forth between Rome and Paris as DiGiacomo explained the situation to Napoleon's government. On April 12th, an exhausted rider arrived in Rome, having spent the entire night carrying the proposed treaty from Paris. He was practically bodily carried into the Parliament by the Moderatis waiting for him, and Prime Minister Cairoli ran through the parliamentary procedure to approve the treaty in record time. A few know pacifists in the Reformist party attempted to make speeches to decry the bill- and more importantly, waste time- but Cairoli pulled long unused parliamentary procedures to have discussion on the matter stifled. The treaty was then quickly read aloud, and a roll call vote was mustered.

It is oft told that one fervent member of the Reformists, representing the deparment of Savoy, attempted to disrupt the vote by beginning to make the speech he had planned, only to be tackled by Cavagna, who shouted "The Honorable Member from Savoy chooses to abstain!" Whether that actually occured is still debated, but it is unassailable fact that the vote on the treaty passed before noon, less than three hours after it arrived in Rome.


April 12th - June 18th: The Great Scramble

This time, the army was notified immediately, and in fact had received a great deal of prior warning. When the war became official again on the 12th, Italian soldier were still spread throughout Austrian-owned Italy, and The Great Scramble resulted. Italian troops suddenly turned around and rushed to grab the northern mountains before the Austrians could turn around and re-occupy them. Austrian troops redeployed to join the western front found themselves re-redeployed and ordered to jump on the trains they had just departed to take up the positions they had just abandoned.

General Guarnio's cavalry proved indispensable in this effort, racing to put temporary screens up to hold off the Austrians until the serious defenses could arrive. Once the forward lines were safely established by Italian artillery and engineers, the cavalry raced back through the pocket of Austrian territory to clear it of wayward Austrian troops.

By the time the Austrians had regrouped and pushed forward, they found themselves in the same situation they had put the Italians in previously- with no way to advance without attacking troops entrenched in mountainous terrain.

The great confusion of all of this proved a vital boon to the French advance. But even more so was the creation of the South German Federation. Italy had already learned of the chaos that resulted in trying to assemble a single state out of many; the SGF was attempting to not only do the same thing, but to do it while still under attack from France. Confusion over who was in command over certain forces, or even certain elements of the government, led what little defense remaining in the new country to completely collapsed. SGF surrendered to France on July 24th. Some land was turned over to France; but more importantly, France was allowed to dictate the terms under which the SGF government would be created- thus ensuring that the SGF would be a puppet of the French government.

The war was over by then, but it took the Austrians a few more months to agree. The French led a great force into Austrian lands, and captured the capital on October 25th. On October 30th, Austria signed a peace treaty with Italy and France ceding Bergamo, Verona, Padua, and Brescia to Italy. France was more than satisfied with what it had received from the SGF.


The new borders of Europe. Italian troops mark the extent of what Italy managed to grab during the Great Scramble.


The war had been started by Prussia in an attempt to be the unrivaled leader of the Germans; it is widely accepted at this point that they lost the war even if they gained land and status. The greatest winner of this war was France, who now directly held German lands and who had the South German Federation as a satellite. Any further attempts to unify the Germans would necessarily involve a war with France, and now France was much stronger. As for Italy, it made moderate gains- not as much as the revanchists had hoped, but certainly more than any other country would have expected them to.


There is one other matter of note from this war.

On November 14th, 1866, Prime Minister Cairoli held a state dinner to honor the members of the alliance against Austria. Swiss Ambassador Jean Malfitte was an attendee; during the dinner, he was heard to loudly remark "I have no expectation to be Ambassador to Italy next year; once the Austrians are done with them, there will be no Italy left." Malfitte's reasons for making this statement are unknown; it is supposed that he was exceedingly drunk at the time. The Italian government demanded that Malfitte be recalled and dismissed; the Swiss government, for reasons still not clear, refused to do so until the Italian government threatened to forcibly expel him. Some newspapers suggested that if Malfitte thought so much of the Austrian troops, perhaps the best way to deal with him would be to deliver him to the Austrian front line directly, and let him make his way to the 'better army'.

While relations slowly returned to normal, the statement would come back to haunt Malfitte most tremendously.

sw: Yeah, it's amazing how infrequently Prussia wins *either* the Austro-Prussian War *or* the Franco-Prussian War, let alone both and forms Germany. I think it has to do with how the event happens- in both cases, Prussia suddenly finds itself in war with no warning. Players recognize that the events are coming, and plan for them; the AI doesn't at all.

As for France- well, we'll see. The problem with them growing stronger is that they were already stronger than I was; trying to knock them down a peg now... well, read ahead a bit, brother. Besides, they're my best trading partner; they've been focusing on naval research, so they'll pay top dollar for my industrial and commercial research- I can pick up a low tech and 6-7K from them in a normal trade. (I usually trade with 95% certainty; I could probably make more money by going for less likely trades, but every failed trade lowers the diplomatic relations, so unless I was overloaded with DI- which I'm not- I prefer the sure thing.)

BBBD- that's a good point; I hadn't tried land-trading with Austria. On the other hand, since Austria starts off annoyed with the Italian states to begin with, and then to top it off I switched to Democracy, it'd mean a -200 relation that I'd need to slowly erase. I may try that next time, though- go for Austrian friendship and land/tech trading rather than Prussian friendship and war.

Jim Bob- thank you for the compliments! And, uh, no, that's certainly not what happened with forgetting to move troops and all. Ah heh. Not at all. o


Okay, only a little bit of forward motion, but a long summary afterwards. Enjoy!

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The Moderati went into the 1868 elections expecting nothing short of complete victory. The Italian economy was humming along, literacy rates were finally starting to approach Northern European standards, and most importantly, the Moderati had delivered great military victories to the country. Aldjaizar had been completely subjugated by the Italian armies, and Morrocco had only avoided the same fate because war with Austria broke out- Italy decided to sign a quick peace with the Morroccans, but given Italian dominance in the war, the treaty was a complete humiliation to the North Africans- stripping them of all lands outside of Kasir el-Kabir, and forcing them to end slavery. As for the Austrian war, as noted, Italy had managed to win about a third of the lands they claimed were rightfully theirs. And the lands gained included the rich iron mines of Milano and the silk farms of Verona and Brescia.

But on May 5th, Prime Minister Cairoli stated that he would not be seeking re-election. Publicly, he stated that he had accomplished all of his goals- reforming the Republic's bureaucracy, expanding Italian lands and claims, and overseeing the unification- and therefore merely wished to retire to his villa outside of Rome. Privately, he felt that he had no chance of the Moderatis naming him Prime Minister again: he had ignored and worked around much of the party faithful, instead making deals with Cavagna's Revanchist faction and the Reformist Party. If the Moderati won enough of a majority to rule without question- as now looked likely- the party faithful might decide they were strong enough to oust him as the party leader and choose someone more faithful to the party line. It was only to his family that he admitted that the major reason for his decision was his declining health; he had begun to develop rheumatiod arthritis shortly into his second term, and now it made the standard political tasks of shaking hands, writing correspondence, and standing at podiums nothing short of torture.

The announcement sent Moderati leaders scrambling to try and figure out who would become the next Prime Minister. By the time of the election, they had barely winnowed the field down to four candidates: Antoni Cavagna, leader of the "Revanchist" Moderati; Silvio Colletti, who had been one of the most outspoken supporters of the LDCDN and other "farmer's rights" groups; Gino DiMontessa, formerly one of Sardinia-Piedmont's aristrocracy and considered the most charismatic man in Parliament; and Alberto DiGiacomo, long-serving Foreign Minister, who felt that he deserved the Prime Ministership after so many years of careful stewardship of the state's diplomacy.

The election results were as overwhelming as the Moderati expected- they controlled nearly 58% of Parliament, with the Reformists controlling a mere 40%. (Independent parties, including the Monarchist Party, made up the rest). But the question of who to make Prime Minister was not made any easier; no single one of the candidates had enough support to claim an outright majority of the Moderati Party's support. Even after DiGiacomo pulled out of the race, there was no absolute leader. Cavagna had the most support overall, but certainly not a majority.

As the weeks leading up to the first Parliament session for the new government progressed, Cavagna began to assume that the Prime Ministership was naturally his due to the size of his support, and refused compromise with the other sides. DiMontessa and Colletti were practically driven into each others' arms by Cavagna's attitude and the bellicose statements he made about how he would run the government once he became Prime Minister. Shortly before the caucus where the Moderati would choose their candidate, DiMontessa and Colletti struck a deal: DiMontessa would be the candidate for Prime Minister, but would accept Colletti as Home Secretary, and Colletti's "Call to Action" plan to reduce industry subsidies and replace them with farm subsidies would become the first item on the new government's agenda. At the caucus, Cavagna was stunned when the results were decided upon the first vote; DiMonessa would be the Moderati's choice for Prime Minister. DiMontessa then made it clear that the Revanchists would have no part in the new government.

Seething with rage at what he considered a betrayal by his own party- especially given that his supporters made up the largest single contingent of the party- Cavagna contacted Stefano Moretti, the leader of the Reformists. In exchange for being made Foreign Minister, and having his friend and leading supporter Paolo Ricci made Minister of War, Cavagna promised the Reformists enough votes to allow Moretti to become the next Prime Minister. Moretti, sensing one of the greatest political opportunities he would ever see, quickly agreed. Thus, when the Parliament convened and selected their new Prime Minister, it was DiMonessa's turn to be stunned- the Revanchists bolted nearly to a man, and Moretti was elected Prime Minister by a decent margin.

Stefano Moretti, Prime Minister of Italy 1868-1876

Stefano Moretti had been a cobbler by trade in Pisa until his business became embroiled in a lawsuit over the quality of the leather which a local farm had provided him. When he lost the suit for what he thought of as no good reason, Moretti began to study the law in what little spare time his shop left him. Eventually, he sold his business to a friend in order to attend school, and in 1846 became a lawyer. He made a great name and reputation for himself in bringing cases before the Italian Supreme Court, arguing Constitutional issues and fighting for the free rights of all men. When he ran for Parliament in 1860, he was easily elected, earning the largest margin of any Reformisti that year.

The Reformisti were in poor shape when Moretti first joined them; they were without strong leadership, and had no philosophical alternative to the patrician model that the Moderati were selling to the Italians. Moretti worked with a few friends to create what he called "The Manifesto of Freedom", a short document that outlined the rights and freedoms that the Reformists believed that all humans were entitled to. Moretti was quickly seen as a leader of the party, and was the one who worked most closely with Prime Minister Cairoli in negotiating what the Reformists wanted out of any Parliamentary session. When it came time to choose a party leader in 1868, Moretti was the only choice in most Reformists' eyes.


Once he became Prime Minister, Moretti immediately worked to solidify his position. The "Manifesto of Freedom" was quickly published as a pamphlet to be passed around at all Reformist meetings, and to be given out at rallies. With an articulated philosophy, they could counteract the Moderati's standard claim that the Reformists opposed ideas without having ones of their own.

The second step was to quell Reformist fears that Cavagna would be a loose cannon, running the government into war from behind the scenes. Moretti tasked Cavagna with setting up a summit between Italy, Spain, and the Ottomans as the civilized powers who had a stake in Northern Africa, so as to articulate borders and spheres of influence. The Bari Accords, as they were called, were not perfect- Spain felt that it was short-changed in the discussions and what was set out as Spanish North Africa, and refused to abide by the treaty. But the Ottomans were more than happy to discuss possible borders and control in Northern Africa, and the slow repositioning of what would be considered "Tunis" and what would be considered "Egypt" over the next half-century would draw mostly from the Bari Accords. Most importantly, Italy drew favor upon itself through these actions- and Cavagna proved that his jingoistic tendencies were not all-encompassing.

By 1870, the Reformists were running the government quite ably with Revanchist support, and the Moderati found themselves shut out. The Moderati's only hope was for an opportunity for war to present itself, and the jingoistic Revanchists and the anti-military Reformists to break their alliance. What came instead, though, was a war even the Revanchists refused to support, and a war that even the Reformists desired.


1870: The beginning of the Eight Years War

The Prussians had initiated the Prusso-Austrian war in the hopes of rallying all Germans to their banner. The hope was to defeat Austria in a quick war, and therefore be seen as the undisputed leader of the Germans. When they signed the quick peace with Austria, they assumed that their plans had succeeded- the only player left was France, and combined German and Austrian support would assuredly lead to their defeat.

They had not counted on France being as strong as it was militarily; and they had not counted on DiGiacomo finding the loophole necessary to bring Italy back into the war on France's side. The end situation they were given, then, was far from ideal- the minor German states had been unified, yes, but many of them under French leadership, with large pieces of German land under direct French control as well. It was obvious, then, to Prussian leaders what the next step was: France would need to be defeated in order to prove Prussian superiority and to finally unify the Germans.

Prussia thus began pushing for reasons for a war with the French. When the Netherlands offered to sell Luxembourg to France, Germany made threats of war in the hopes of drawing France into battle. France avoided that crisis, but when the Spanish king passed away without heirs and the Prussians arranged to put a German prince on the throne, France refused to let the matter stand, and so on June 10th, 1870, declared war upon Prussia.

For the weeks leading up to that crisis, it was obvious to all across Europe that Prussia and France would soon come to blows. Italy was in the peculiar situation of being allied to both sides, and so all political conversation eventually came back to the question of "Which one shall we support?"

Only the most radical of the Revanchists thought that alliance with Prussia would be worthwhile. While the thought of taking Nice back- or even other sections of southern France- appealed to many in the Revanchist movement, there was no expectation of being able to beat the French army in the field. Even worse, the Italian navy was certainly no match for the French navy, and unless Prussia proved itself able to tie down the entire French army, Italy would have to rush to defend its coastline- and Italy was nearly *all* coastline at this point. If French dominance over the German states was a threat to Europe, it would have to be someone else to take the lead in putting them down.

The real question was whether to abide by the treaty with France or not. France had long been a faithful ally to Italy, and it was only French action that allowed Italy to leave the Austrian war with anything more than token gains. But France also had a long history of dragging Italy into silly little wars that Italy wanted no part of- against the Ottomans, against Russia, and against Mexico. But the real question in this coming war would be Russia. Russia was allied to Prussia, and would likely join in on their side. Did the Russians have a large enough fleet to be able to push past the French, and perhaps land troops in Italian holdings in Africa... or worse, on the continent itself?

Moretti and Cavagna had a long meeting shortly after the Bari Accord to discuss how to handle the situation. Cavagna agreed that siding with Germany against France was "a fool's game"; but to back away from their defensive treaty with France for no reason other than a distaste for war would make it hard to keep up Revanchist support for the Reformists. The conversation lasted into the night, and meandered over all matters of foreign affairs. Eventually, the conversation began to focus in on comments made by the Ottomans during the talks, and Cavagna put together a plan which would satisfy both the Revanchists *and* the Reformists.

On June 1st, Prime Minister Moretti called Parliament together for a special session. In a private meeting, he revealed that Britain had been making arrangements with the Ottomans for a joint attack upon Egypt in order to take direct control of the Sinai Canal. To the Moderati, Moretti explained that, if such an action occurred, much of Italy's business and trade would be effectively under British control. To the Reformists, Moretti pointed out that Italian missionaries and colonists traveling to established posts on the Horn of Africa would now be at British mercy, and that Britain had no interest in replacing the Egyptian Khedive with a more enlightened ruler- they would prefer to have one who kept control of the area for Britain even if it meant keeping Egypt effectively in the Dark Ages.

By June 3rd, Moretti felt he had enough support together, and called the issue to a vote. The declaration of war on Egypt passed by a fair margin, with most of the opposition to the bill coming from Reformists unconvinced by Moretti's arguments and Moderati trying to sink the effort out of spite.


Exactly one week later, France would declare war upon Prussia. Italy would apologize profusely to both sides, but as its army was on its way to Egypt, it would have to stay out of the war entirely. French and Prussian anger at Italy's capriciousness would soon be lost in the fury of fighting.


What started as the Franco-Prussian war would take numerous twists and turns before finally ending in . Russia and the North German Federation joined in on Prussia's side immediately; Spain joined in with France right away, and Belgium joined a month later. Austria saw the war as a chance for revenge upon Prussia, and declared war immediately after France did, only to be overwhelmed by Russian soldiers and in late 1871 would cede Fogaras to Russia for peace. Belgium would soon afterwards take a white peace, and then in early 1872, Prussia ended up being forced to cede several of its western territories to France for peace. But the peace only lasted for one week; news came to Paris that the Ukraine had declared itself in rebellion from Russia, and France immediately offered a defensive treaty to it- which pulled them back into war with Russia when Russia attempted to restore the union. This time Greece would be in on Russia's side, only to be split between France and the Ottomans when the latter declared war on Russia in the middle of 1872. The Russians would finally give up land to the Ottomans in 1877 for peace, and one month later Prussia would rejoin the war against France; Prussia would last less than six months before giving up most of Western Prussia to France and Belgium.