Chapter 5: A Popes boredom (1861-1879)
The large increase of South Italians in the Papal State following the popeing of Puglia and Sicily led the Pope to decrease the military spending to 60%. Furthermore administration and education was revised and both ended around 70-80%. This was done to incourage signups for the positions as it was greatly needed. Especially in Madagascar.
During the peace a lot of new discoveries were made on the 9th of May 1861 Clean Coal was discovered. One and a half year later on September 5th 1862 Positivism followed.
The Pope however did not understand this Positivism thing, he believed that his mood couldnt get much better and that it had been so since the war.
But it was soon to get worse. As the days got longer, he would sit bored in his study with no war or conquest to plan.
While the Pope was both bored and lonely, the research department kept themselves well and busy:
- September 10th 1864: Interchangable Parts was discovered to improve the factories.
- April 19th 1867: Impressionism followed due to the Popes hunger for prestige.
As there had been no results from april 1867 to the January 1st 1870 a new head researcher was appointed and he soon got a breakthrough
- January 17th 1870: Analytic Philosophy, a quick breakthrough for the new head researcher which improved the general performance of the research department.
- November 30th 1870: The Practical Steam Engine was taken into use for the first time.
- May 24th 1872: Inorganic Chemistry.
- November 13th 1873: Functionalism.
- October 31th 1875: Biologism was made available to improve the education of his people.
- April 17th 1877: Iron Railroads were discovered as the rail netword needed to be expanded.
Outside of the dark and smelly rooms of the research department quite a bit happened over the two decades. Things that the researchers did not know anything about and cared about even less.
May 16th 1865 as lightning from a clear sky a mob in Cairo burned the Papal Embassy to the ground. The Pope was outraged, "You cant assault property of god!" he yelled. Secretly thinking that a little war would be good to freshen things up.
The Declaration of war fell an hour after the news of the Embassy burning had reached Rome. The armies were outfitted for the desert and the firste army shipped out on the May 22th 1865 with Anfora once again as the leading commander.
Anforas army landed on the Egypt shore of Dumyat and was attacked before they could regroup properly. During the battle Anfora got his men regrouped and attacked hard on the enemy's right flank. This caused them to retreat. Anfora followed the enemy to Suez where they defeated them once more. It ended in the battle of Ras Gharib.
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The heathen army of Egypt was no more now and the infidels had learned not to anger the Pope.
October 14th 1865 the same day as the Egyptian Army was defeated, the unthinkable happened.
Due to no real naval threat untill now the Admirals had not even thought that the Eqyptian Navy could pose a threat. The loss of the navy really depressed the Pope, he was now the laughing stock among the great powers and even the incompetent leaders of the secondary powers mocked him. However what was lost could be rebuild and what was not yet lost had to be saved. The Army was stranded in Egypt but began etablising control of the country while the Papal Whafts was producing ships as fast as possible. As soon as the new navy was finished two more armies were shipped to Egypt.
Complete control of the country was soon establised and peace restored. "This will serve as a warning" The Pope declared from a stand in the heart of Cairo. "The next time we wont leave without proper compensation, mark my words!"
The war had not turned out as the fresh breeze he had hoped. The Pope was irritated. Why had this war not come at a later date, he had already made plans and the goodwill of the world was not unlimited regarding the popeing of other countries even if they were heathens. He was however set in stone that one day he would return to truely avenge the burning of that which belonged to God, by taking the land he did not dare take today.
During the siege of Egypt in 1866 the Pope equipped an expedition to find the source of the Nile. Due to the ongoing war the expedition was heavily guarded and was under a false flag. One of the captured flags from the Poping of Modena was used, "This will fool those uncivs they probably do not know that Modena does not exist anymore" the Pope thought to himself.
In 1869 some time after the war had ended a delegation from Switzerland arrived in Rome to summon the Pope to Geneva in order to participate in a summit wishing to create some rules of warfare. The Pope happily attended as being a spokesman for this new convention would show the world the power of the Pope and amend the humiliation from having his fleet destroyed by Egypt. Another and not outspoken reason for the Pope to speak for the rules of war was that he thought it would highten the fighting spirit of his soldiers.
On February the 3rd the Geneva Convention was a reality as well as the Popes seal on the document.
Hereafter the Pope began to focus on expanding his influence in the rest of the world and on October 9th 1872 the Papal Sphere was expanded to also include Peru and Argentina besides Koreas and Sokoto.
During these peaceful years the socialists in 1874 aquired seats in the upperhouse for the first time. The Pope did not know what to make of this.
They could help this country of god become an even better paradise on earth however he had a nagging feeling that they wanted to take his silverware and give it away to the paperboy, or even worse his golden scepter! "We have to keep an eye on these people" he told the Popaphant which was standing in his dining room to keep him company during the long lonely suppers.
The Pope had now waited for nearly 20 years but now his boredom was soon to end. During the last two decades the international reputation of the Papal States had been improve to the best the Pope could remember. He was ready to act and his country too was ready. His favorite general, Anfora, had unfortunately retired, but new and competent generals had taken his place.
The moment was ripe, it was time to include the last of his Italian brothers under Papal rule and on August 2nd 1879 the enevitable war was declared.
The boredom the Pope had suffered these many years disappeared like mist before the rising sun. His mind was clear and his will set, "It is Popeing time!" he yelled.