A Little Breathing Room
Excerpt from The Byzantine Empire in the Victoria Era: 1836-1936 by Prof. Charles Whitsford:
The treaty ending the war was seen by many in central Europe as a victory for nationalism, if only a minor one (to the detriment of both Germany and Russia). However, when the fiercely nationalist government of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont declared war on the recently humiliated Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on October 31, 1880, victory seemed all but assured for the northern Italians. It seemed as if the Sardinian would quickly overrun Naples, and that would be that. But, it was not to be.
The Sardinians failed in their ultimate goal for a number of reasons. First of all, King Umberto I had expected the two smaller northern republics to side with him against the Sicilians, in the interest of cultural unity. However, both Venice and Lombardy had other ideas. From the perspective of these two small countries (whose militaries, although small, probably could have turned the balance in favor of the Sardinians enough to win the war), helping to unify the peninsula under either Torino or Naples would only lead to the expansion of what they saw as almost reactionary, monarchical rule. As you can imagine, this did not sit well with either of these fairly liberal republics.
Second, although he was inept at times, Francis II of the Two Sicilies was not a fool. One of the reasons why the Greeks were able to capture Sicily so easily in 1879 was that the majority of the Sicilian land forces were in the north, guarding the border with the Sardinians. When the Northern Italians did cross the border in November of 1880, they did meet some initial success, driving the southerners back to the gates of Naples. This success, unfortunately did not last. Although humiliated barely a year beforehand, only the Regia Marina Sicilia [1] had actually been destroyed. The army was left mostly untouched, and was still an effective fighting force, and one seething with wounded pride at that. Within months, the early string of Sardinian victories had been halted, and the northern advance had been turned around. On May 18, 1881, the advancing Sicilians had reached Florence, quickly routing the 9000 or so defenders.
Sardinian troops being forced out of the city of Florence, which proved to be the final major action of the Third War of Italian Unification.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Umberto conceded defeat, and on August 8th, in a humiliating treaty, signed away the provinces and Perugia and Ancona to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. One Italian nation's pride had been restored at the expense of another, which believably left issues on both sides of the border. It was a border that would not stand quiet for long.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, peace (although young) seemed to be being embraced with open arms in Greece. The Kingdom was enjoying newly fruitful relations with the United Kingdom, thanks to the recent agreement of colonial borders between British Sudan and Greek Egypt. The possibility of even allowing Royal Navy vessels to dock in Cyprus during peacetime was tossed around, although no treaties were signed. London was taking an increased interest in the Suez Canal, which was entering the final stages of completion [2], and would soon provide an easier line of communication between India and Great Britain proper. Athens, always a center of culture was entering into a mood of realist art, with a number of slightly somber, but still talented artists frequenting the streets of the Greek capital. The French painter Édouard Manet even made the city his home for a few short months, before he returned home to receive the Légion d'honneur.
The recent de facto puppetization of the Kingdom of Ethiopia was also a topic of political action in the 1880-1881 timeframe. After much deliberation, the Senate and Parliament voted to extend major economic reform and aid to the African kingdom. This action set a number of precedents for the time. First and foremost, as much as the guiding hand of Prime Minister Geórgios Karamanlís had tried to steer Greece into a tolerant, open, fairly liberal society, inbred racism was still an immense issue in everyday political life, as it was everywhere in the Victorian Era. As early as 1841, with the Treaty of London, the Kingdom of the Hellenes had found itself with a small, but growing colonial empire, one made up of a large population that was by no means Greek, and very much Muslim. The most recent census data showed that Orthodox practicing members of society (not all even Greek, a significant population were Serbs or Bulgarians) while still a majority, were only just that. Practicing Muslims, mostly Arabs now made up over one third of the population. The ethnic Greek population had a hard enough time learning to live with and accept other Balkan peoples (by this point, most of the "conquered" Serbs, Bulgarians, and even the very few Romanians had fairly successfully assimilated into society, with there still being viable friction towards the Sunni majority Albanians), but that had mostly been taken care of, and institutionalized discrimination was a non issue. But, when parts of Thrace came under the control of Athens, the Hellenes were confronted with a harsh reality. Over 140,000 of the hated Turks now lived within their country. As one can imagine, this provided a bit of a problem.
It fell to the central government in Athens to come up with a solution. This came in the form of the Equal Protection Law of 1881. According to the Greek constitution of 1844, a citizen was described as any "male over the age of twenty". There was no clauses or legal basis for institutionalized discrimination against a certain ethnic group, as constitutionally, denying the right to vote and hold office to any citizen was a breach of national law. Three attempts at kingdom-wide disenfranchisement of the Albanian Muslims (either via inter-ethnic marriage laws, settlement requirements, etc) over the past decade had failed, mostly due to this reason, and the fact that every time the issue came up, Karamanlís made it a point to use every political tool in his disposal to get the bill defeated in the legislature. The argument of ethnic mingling and legal equality was one of the major factors that in the final years of pre-imperial era continued to drive Karamanlís into a leading position among the liberal establishment in Athens. Despite the enacting of the EPL however, in practice ethnic Turks continued to experience instances of friction in their everyday lives. Areas in Thrace that had been majority Turkish for centuries began the process of re-Hellenization, forcing many Turkish families to abandon their homes and move. Every other minority people (including the Albanians mostly) had successfully assimilated, retaining their languages and customs for local use. However, soon after the end of the war, laws were passed at the local and national level, banning the use of the Turkish language in administrative or political roles, a fact that made Otto's Prime Minister cringe, although the King refused to work with Karamanlís to repeal the laws. The final fact of the matter was, that by national law, despite one legally being a citizen, one had to be literate in Greek to participate in any major elections.
The question of whether or not to help transform the Kingdom of Ethiopia into a modern constitutional monarchy also brought up the true nature of colonialism. By practice rather then law, territory Greece had acquired outside of Europe had been governed in a territorial manner directly by Athens, rather then via the blended unitary/federal provincial structure that existed everywhere else in the Kingdom. The eventual passing of the aid bill for the small client African kingdom on June 1, 1881 was the first step in the legislative process (once again, spearheaded by Greece's tireless Prime Minister) for construction of an actual colonial authority.
Social and legal issues were not the only ones tackled in the 1880-81 period. The performance of the Hellenic armed forces in the recent conflicts exceed expectations. However, more then a few politicians in Athens saw that the current German-based program of re-arming and reorganizing the Ottoman Army was one to be worried about, and that soon, the Kianolefki [2] would march against the star and crescent. In mid-July another military spending bill, submitted by Otto and Samaris, was passed by the Senate. Three standard divisions of infantry would be formed, along with another two divisions, each built around a core brigade of heavy artillery. Extra care would be taken to encourage enlistment of Serb, Albanian, and and Bulgarian soldiers (the Military Spending Act of 1881 is considered another step towards ethnic social equality in the Kingdom, an event that is seen over and over again in modern Greek history). Funding for the construction, crewing, and arming of eight new Ironclad vessels would also be given, to bring the slowly aging Hellenic Navy into the modern age (only two iron ships were in service with the HN at the time). Samaris also announced that he would be resigning his command of the B' Sóma Stratoú on account of his age. The newly promoted General John Alexíou (of the Battle of Sicily fame) was approved to replace him. On request of Otto, Samaris would take over the molding and building of a general staff for both the Army and the Navy, further strengthening the Greek armed forces into one of the best trained (if still quire small) military forces in Europe.
As 1881 began to come to a close, things seemed to be looking up. The economy was fairly strong, social issues were being tackled, and with the white peace ending the eight year colonial war between France and Germany signed on November 12, Europe seemed to finally be at peace. This illusion however, was crushed, when on December 10th, the Ottoman ambassador in Athens delivered a letter to Otto informing him that hostilities between the Empire and Greece would commence at dawn the next morning.
The Second Crimean War had begun.
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[1] Royal Sicilian Navy.
[2] About a decade behind OTL. For some reason neither canal will open in game, is there a way I can change this in the save file?
[3] Rough translation would be "the blue-white". Unofficial name of the Greek flag.
Sorry it took so long to get up. I was honestly hoping to get at least another five to six years in before having to go to war again. Bleh.