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Hopefully later today. But I can confirm that, through alliances and guarantees, every scenario will result in war with a certain power.
EDIT: Monday.
EDIT: Monday.
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XIII. GOING TO AMERICA 1873-1877
It was in mid-1873, soon after the calling of the next elections, that Vincenzo Gioberti
announced he was not to contest the 1874 vote. He was 72 and had ruled Italy for about ten years, overseeing its industrialisation and the gain of Dalmatia. The party elected Giovanni Lanza, the Finance Minister and a previous Cavour disciple, to the leadership to assume office immediately after the election.
Gioberti’s last act in office was to commission a plan of rapid naval expansion. Nine men of war and ten frigates would triple the size of the Italian navy and give it at least a fighting chance against the French in the Meditteranean. Despite the fact that this ran Italy’s coffers dangerously low, Gioberti’s popularity remained high and this carried through to the election of January 1874, when Lanza was propelled to power with a convincing victory over the conservative coalition.
The swing away from Gioberti in 1869 had been completely reversed by the Lanza campaign, and due to the fractured nature of the right the Liberals had been able to seize a landslide in Parliament. The monarchists made gains, but the social-liberal Sinistra Constituzionale had been all but wiped out of Parliament, only taking the new seat of the Dalmatian Isles.
So Lanza became the 3rd Papal Consul with a clear mandate to continue Gioberti’s work, and so he did, overseeing the deployment of the 9 men-of-war in 1874. It was, however, not long before the navy had to see action.
The Ecuador Crisis was a defining moment for Italy’s position as a Great Power. In January 1875 liberal radicals assassinated the Papal satellite dictator Gabriel Garcia Moreno, causing a quiet return to constitutional rule and the breaking of political ties with Rome. Lanza’s first action was to cut the military alliance between the two states, but the conservatives pressured him into taking further action. Therefore, on 31st January 1875, Italy declared war on Ecuador. Otto von Bismarck, as with San Domenico, made it known that Hell would freeze over before Berlin got itself involved in a pointless South American colonial war. When the choice came whether to request help from Germany came through, Lanza knew it best to take the one option:
Colombia joined the war against Italy soon after, and the army struggled to get any foothold on the Ecuadorean coast. Throughout 1875 the navy battled back and forth to ship more troops to Guayaquil, but to little avail. Therefore, when Ecuador offered land as part of a separate peace, Italy was happy to accept.
War with Colombia ensued and, after a defeat at Quibdo, the Italian army fumbled its way to the seizure of Bogota. As a result, Colombia took the extraordinary step of offering the entire of its North to the Pope, who gladly accepted the addition of yet another colony.
Italy was returning to normality in 1877 when the Balkan Crisis exploded violently into a major war. Germany, with whom Italy’s alliance had been renewed, took the surprising and out-of-character decision to militarily support the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Bismarck, who had constantly been ambivalent to Italy’s American concerns, then had the temerity to demand that the open-mouthed Lanza declare war on Russia. Lanza very narrowly suppressed his anger enough to politely refuse, before Bismarck flew into a rage and declared the Italo-German Alliance over. Italy would face the next few years alone.
The world before the Russo-German War 1877.
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1873==
-Business Banks discovered, Naval Decision Making research begun;
-Relations improved with: Germany, United States;
-Literacy up to 61.2%;
-Italy remains 5th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1874==
-Naval Decision Making discovered, Strategic Mobility research begun;
-Relations improved with: Germany, United States, Austria;
-Literacy up to 62.2%;
-Italy remains 5th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1875==
-Strategic Mobility discovered, Breech-Loaded Rifles research begun;
-Relations improved with: Tunisia, Hungary, Ottoman Empire;
-Literacy up to 62.9%;
-Italy remains 5th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1876==
-Breech-Loaded Rifles discovered, Army Decision Making research begun;
-Relations improved with: Peru, Germany;
-Literacy up to 63.7%;
-Italy down to 6th most powerful nation (GP).
It was in mid-1873, soon after the calling of the next elections, that Vincenzo Gioberti
announced he was not to contest the 1874 vote. He was 72 and had ruled Italy for about ten years, overseeing its industrialisation and the gain of Dalmatia. The party elected Giovanni Lanza, the Finance Minister and a previous Cavour disciple, to the leadership to assume office immediately after the election.
Gioberti’s last act in office was to commission a plan of rapid naval expansion. Nine men of war and ten frigates would triple the size of the Italian navy and give it at least a fighting chance against the French in the Meditteranean. Despite the fact that this ran Italy’s coffers dangerously low, Gioberti’s popularity remained high and this carried through to the election of January 1874, when Lanza was propelled to power with a convincing victory over the conservative coalition.
The swing away from Gioberti in 1869 had been completely reversed by the Lanza campaign, and due to the fractured nature of the right the Liberals had been able to seize a landslide in Parliament. The monarchists made gains, but the social-liberal Sinistra Constituzionale had been all but wiped out of Parliament, only taking the new seat of the Dalmatian Isles.
So Lanza became the 3rd Papal Consul with a clear mandate to continue Gioberti’s work, and so he did, overseeing the deployment of the 9 men-of-war in 1874. It was, however, not long before the navy had to see action.
The Ecuador Crisis was a defining moment for Italy’s position as a Great Power. In January 1875 liberal radicals assassinated the Papal satellite dictator Gabriel Garcia Moreno, causing a quiet return to constitutional rule and the breaking of political ties with Rome. Lanza’s first action was to cut the military alliance between the two states, but the conservatives pressured him into taking further action. Therefore, on 31st January 1875, Italy declared war on Ecuador. Otto von Bismarck, as with San Domenico, made it known that Hell would freeze over before Berlin got itself involved in a pointless South American colonial war. When the choice came whether to request help from Germany came through, Lanza knew it best to take the one option:
Colombia joined the war against Italy soon after, and the army struggled to get any foothold on the Ecuadorean coast. Throughout 1875 the navy battled back and forth to ship more troops to Guayaquil, but to little avail. Therefore, when Ecuador offered land as part of a separate peace, Italy was happy to accept.
War with Colombia ensued and, after a defeat at Quibdo, the Italian army fumbled its way to the seizure of Bogota. As a result, Colombia took the extraordinary step of offering the entire of its North to the Pope, who gladly accepted the addition of yet another colony.
Italy was returning to normality in 1877 when the Balkan Crisis exploded violently into a major war. Germany, with whom Italy’s alliance had been renewed, took the surprising and out-of-character decision to militarily support the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Bismarck, who had constantly been ambivalent to Italy’s American concerns, then had the temerity to demand that the open-mouthed Lanza declare war on Russia. Lanza very narrowly suppressed his anger enough to politely refuse, before Bismarck flew into a rage and declared the Italo-German Alliance over. Italy would face the next few years alone.
The world before the Russo-German War 1877.
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1873==
-Business Banks discovered, Naval Decision Making research begun;
-Relations improved with: Germany, United States;
-Literacy up to 61.2%;
-Italy remains 5th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1874==
-Naval Decision Making discovered, Strategic Mobility research begun;
-Relations improved with: Germany, United States, Austria;
-Literacy up to 62.2%;
-Italy remains 5th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1875==
-Strategic Mobility discovered, Breech-Loaded Rifles research begun;
-Relations improved with: Tunisia, Hungary, Ottoman Empire;
-Literacy up to 62.9%;
-Italy remains 5th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1876==
-Breech-Loaded Rifles discovered, Army Decision Making research begun;
-Relations improved with: Peru, Germany;
-Literacy up to 63.7%;
-Italy down to 6th most powerful nation (GP).
There we go. I shalln't make a habit of these world maps, and there isn't a larger version. Also note that Dalmatia on the electoral map is not necessarily in either the right size or position.
Especially since Russia's the country that took 5th place from Italy in 1876.
@hoi2geek: I don't have V2. Could you please elaborate?
The world looks so pretty with Italian provinces in Latin America! 
However, the sight of my ancestors lands, Austria, looks rather sad and depressing with a free and independent Hungarian state!
However, the sight of my ancestors lands, Austria, looks rather sad and depressing with a free and independent Hungarian state!
The world looks so pretty with Italian provinces in Latin America!
However, the sight of my ancestors lands, Austria, looks rather sad and depressing with a free and independent Hungarian state!
Oops. That was a mistake, Hungary is very much a Dominion of the Austrian Empire and should not have been put on the map.
I meant that you should have used the Victoria 2 paintable map that they had provided instead of the paintable map for Victoria 1.
XIV. NEW THINGS 1877-1883
Vincenzo Gioberti died in December 1877, and was given a state Requiem funeral presided over by the Pope. Vittorio Emmanuele II, last king of Sardinia-Piemonte, died a month later and was not given a state funeral- however, his popularity in the north caused a similarly large turnout at his funeral in Torino. But both these events were overshadowed by the passing of Pope Pius IX on 7th February 1878 at the age of 85. Public outpourings of grief occurred across Italy as the Cardinals descended upon Rome to decide who would replace the man declared to be the greatest temporal Pope of all time.
The Quirinale, once again the venue of the Papal conclave.
This caused some problems. The conclave was to elect purely based on spiritual grounds, and yet they were choosing the next Head of State of Italy. Opposition to the Papal system rose to new levels as Vincenzo Pecci became Pope Leo XIII.
Leo was probably the most acceptable choice to the Italian populace. A moderate and intellectual, he seemed to focus more on theology than on interference with the State and its affairs. Nevertheless, this caused worries that he would formulate a Catholic political doctrine to which political parties would be forced to adhere.
This did not do anything to stop Lanza who, in October 1878, found himself propelled to power once again with a popular majority (which translated into a massive Parliamentary one). His 55% liberal victory surprised Leo, who was growing aware of a move away from mainstream conservatism towards socialism and even ultramontanism.
Lanza’s platform of doing nothing much had proven popular (presumably due to the massive East European war continuing), and so it endured until, out of the blue, Italy found itself dragged into a European war.
Austria and Britain had decided to go to war with Italy. Austria probably due to revanchism, and Britain probably because they’re Protestants allied to Austria. Lanza soon realised that the Italian army was bad, and so was the navy. After a drubbing in the Mediterranean and a failed venture into Trento, Italy offered peace to the British. It transpired that the British weren’t exactly that excited about the prospect of war, especially after Italy seized some of its lucrative Caribbean colonies, and got out. Austria, appalled at being left in the lurch by Britain, decided war was also against their best interests, and Italy narrowly evaded a war they were probably going to lose.
Pope Leo, now even more alarmed than he had been for the entire duration of his Papacy, ordered Lanza to get the military in gear again. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be done before the Ottoman Empire thought they’d give the Pope a good kicking.
Unfortunately for them, the ailing Ottoman State was probably the only in Europe that could fail to do so, and by 1881 the Italians occupied much of Bosnia. However, it caused Italy to have to accept the French protectorate over Tunisia as agreed by the Treaty of Bardo, which embarassed Italy and Lanza’s administration. It seemed so long ago that Lanza was riding high with 55% of the people’s support- now his rule was deeply unpopular, and even the Pope was contemplating moving against him.
The war with the Ottomans came to an end with the gain of some minor territories in Bosnia in which Italy had very little interest. Therefore, a small Kingdom of Bosnia-Herzegovina was founded for the House of Savoy as an Italian satellite.
Finally, on November 3rd, 1881, Pope Leo XIII fired Giovanni Lanza. In a long statement the Pope blamed Lanza for Italian failures in almost every field- diplomacy, war, America, the economy, education, research & development, social upheaval, and popular unrest. He was replaced with the leader of the Parliamentarily-challenged Sinistra Constituzionale, ex-Garibaldist Benedetto Cairoli. The Pope demanded the DC support Cairoli’s policies or face disbandment, and so they did- many MPs switched parties over this period.
Naturally, this itself caused mass uproar and in turn an economic decline. However, Cairoli spent 1882 making minor social reforms, cutting taxes on the poor, slashing defence spending, and reorganising the 56 division-strong army. Soon he, like Lanza before him, was polling at 60%, as revolts were crushed, the deficit turned to surplus, and the debt paid off.
Cairoli won the election of 1883 with a large majority, as he continued to consolidate Italy after a five years best forgotten. Lanza slipped into obscurity, and the SC completely supplanted the DC in terms of votes and seats as the conservatives remained fractured.
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1877==
-Army Decision Making and Naval Plans discovered, Private Bank Money Bill Printing research begun;
-Relations improved with: Venezuela, Austria;
-Literacy up to 64.4%;
-Italy remains 6th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1878==
-Private Bank Money Bill Printing discovered, High & Low Pressure Steam Engines research begun;
-Relations improved with: Germany, Russia.
-Literacy up to 65.1%;
-Italy remains 6th most powerful nation (GP).
==NO GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORTS 1879-1882 DUE TO WAR AND BUDGET CUTS==
Vincenzo Gioberti died in December 1877, and was given a state Requiem funeral presided over by the Pope. Vittorio Emmanuele II, last king of Sardinia-Piemonte, died a month later and was not given a state funeral- however, his popularity in the north caused a similarly large turnout at his funeral in Torino. But both these events were overshadowed by the passing of Pope Pius IX on 7th February 1878 at the age of 85. Public outpourings of grief occurred across Italy as the Cardinals descended upon Rome to decide who would replace the man declared to be the greatest temporal Pope of all time.
The Quirinale, once again the venue of the Papal conclave.
This caused some problems. The conclave was to elect purely based on spiritual grounds, and yet they were choosing the next Head of State of Italy. Opposition to the Papal system rose to new levels as Vincenzo Pecci became Pope Leo XIII.
Leo was probably the most acceptable choice to the Italian populace. A moderate and intellectual, he seemed to focus more on theology than on interference with the State and its affairs. Nevertheless, this caused worries that he would formulate a Catholic political doctrine to which political parties would be forced to adhere.
This did not do anything to stop Lanza who, in October 1878, found himself propelled to power once again with a popular majority (which translated into a massive Parliamentary one). His 55% liberal victory surprised Leo, who was growing aware of a move away from mainstream conservatism towards socialism and even ultramontanism.
Lanza’s platform of doing nothing much had proven popular (presumably due to the massive East European war continuing), and so it endured until, out of the blue, Italy found itself dragged into a European war.
Austria and Britain had decided to go to war with Italy. Austria probably due to revanchism, and Britain probably because they’re Protestants allied to Austria. Lanza soon realised that the Italian army was bad, and so was the navy. After a drubbing in the Mediterranean and a failed venture into Trento, Italy offered peace to the British. It transpired that the British weren’t exactly that excited about the prospect of war, especially after Italy seized some of its lucrative Caribbean colonies, and got out. Austria, appalled at being left in the lurch by Britain, decided war was also against their best interests, and Italy narrowly evaded a war they were probably going to lose.
Pope Leo, now even more alarmed than he had been for the entire duration of his Papacy, ordered Lanza to get the military in gear again. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be done before the Ottoman Empire thought they’d give the Pope a good kicking.
Unfortunately for them, the ailing Ottoman State was probably the only in Europe that could fail to do so, and by 1881 the Italians occupied much of Bosnia. However, it caused Italy to have to accept the French protectorate over Tunisia as agreed by the Treaty of Bardo, which embarassed Italy and Lanza’s administration. It seemed so long ago that Lanza was riding high with 55% of the people’s support- now his rule was deeply unpopular, and even the Pope was contemplating moving against him.
The war with the Ottomans came to an end with the gain of some minor territories in Bosnia in which Italy had very little interest. Therefore, a small Kingdom of Bosnia-Herzegovina was founded for the House of Savoy as an Italian satellite.
Finally, on November 3rd, 1881, Pope Leo XIII fired Giovanni Lanza. In a long statement the Pope blamed Lanza for Italian failures in almost every field- diplomacy, war, America, the economy, education, research & development, social upheaval, and popular unrest. He was replaced with the leader of the Parliamentarily-challenged Sinistra Constituzionale, ex-Garibaldist Benedetto Cairoli. The Pope demanded the DC support Cairoli’s policies or face disbandment, and so they did- many MPs switched parties over this period.
Naturally, this itself caused mass uproar and in turn an economic decline. However, Cairoli spent 1882 making minor social reforms, cutting taxes on the poor, slashing defence spending, and reorganising the 56 division-strong army. Soon he, like Lanza before him, was polling at 60%, as revolts were crushed, the deficit turned to surplus, and the debt paid off.
Cairoli won the election of 1883 with a large majority, as he continued to consolidate Italy after a five years best forgotten. Lanza slipped into obscurity, and the SC completely supplanted the DC in terms of votes and seats as the conservatives remained fractured.
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1877==
-Army Decision Making and Naval Plans discovered, Private Bank Money Bill Printing research begun;
-Relations improved with: Venezuela, Austria;
-Literacy up to 64.4%;
-Italy remains 6th most powerful nation (GP).
==GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORT 1878==
-Private Bank Money Bill Printing discovered, High & Low Pressure Steam Engines research begun;
-Relations improved with: Germany, Russia.
-Literacy up to 65.1%;
-Italy remains 6th most powerful nation (GP).
==NO GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS REPORTS 1879-1882 DUE TO WAR AND BUDGET CUTS==
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Ah, badboy wars. At least France didn't try and get involved, and now I've released Bosnia as a satellite they may all be more forgiving. The reason for the economic failure was the perplexing collapse of coal mining in the Savoy- either they got really angry or I converted some to soldiers by mistake.
And I apologise for my perhaps unorthodox definition of 'this weekend'.
And I apologise for my perhaps unorthodox definition of 'this weekend'.
They're never going to stop acting up unless they're busy trying to keep some semblances of a functioning constitutional monarchy in a trinational half-Bosnia. Of course, there's a decent chance a revolution might have them gotten rid of, in which case all the better.
It's interesting how the parties don't seem to be spread out on a regional basis, especially the minor ones. Good work in getting Bosnia as a dominion - much better than trying to directly control it.
It would appear as if Il Duce's dream of a new "Roman" Empire is coming true, 50 years earlier and without him at the helm!
I vote for you driving the Turks out of Europe and reclaim all the old Italian colonies that had been stolen during the Ottoman-Venetian Wars.
I vote for you driving the Turks out of Europe and reclaim all the old Italian colonies that had been stolen during the Ottoman-Venetian Wars.
I was thinking of a war to take back something we lost a while ago longer. Remember we are a theocracy.
But I'm not going to invade anyone for a good while now. The economy's pretty unable to sustain a fully-manned 50-division standing army right now, I'm really paying for the Papal States' initial literacy deficit and for choosing Clausewitzian theory in that my army's got nowhere near as much morale, and my badboy's up in the 30s. So no invasions for a while as I realise why Sardinia-Piemonte unified Italy historically.
But I'm not going to invade anyone for a good while now. The economy's pretty unable to sustain a fully-manned 50-division standing army right now, I'm really paying for the Papal States' initial literacy deficit and for choosing Clausewitzian theory in that my army's got nowhere near as much morale, and my badboy's up in the 30s. So no invasions for a while as I realise why Sardinia-Piemonte unified Italy historically.