Good Friends, Better Enemies
1759 - 1770 AD
Spiteful Spain
Ever since the First Crusade, the history of the Iberian Peninsula was closely linked to the Lombards of Italy. Arnifrid II, the Lombard Duke of Friuli, played a leading role in Crusade's success, claiming the duchies of Valencia and Barcelona for his own. Together with the Knights of Santiago, the Lombards assisted the small kingdom of Galicia, threatened on all sides by Muslim aggression, to complete the long Reconquista and claim all of the peninsula for Christendom. Galicia had eventually claimed all but a small corner of former Aragon, proclaiming a united Spanish kingdom that had come to be one of the world's greatest colonizers.
After the French forced the dissolution of the long-standing alliance in the early 1700's, Fernando VI sought new allies, embargoing the Italians and later throwing in with the Wendish Empire. The relationship between the Italians and the Spaniards was tense, but peaceful -- however, in 1764, things took a turn toward direct conflict between Europe's former best friends.
At that time, a faction of Aragonese nobles began expressing their desire to secede from the Italian Empire to join Spain. Even as the Italian crown dismissed their claims and called for their imprisonment, Spain's young King Felipe II de Cantabria received the nobles in Madrid for a meeting. The newly crowned 16 year-old Italian Emperor Pierre I Bavarae immediately decried this insult, demanding that Felipe rescind his support of the secessionist nobles. However, rather than accept these demands, Felipe doubled down on his actions, additionally declaring his support for the independence movement in New Brazil, pledging Spain's support to their cause. This was insufferable for Pierre, who declared war on Felipe in April of that year.
Pierre was concerned that the long history of cooperation between the two countries would make the Italian people hesitant to fight the Spanish. However, he found that the opposite was true. Because of the long-standing alliance between the two states, which had stood against the powers of Europe for centuries, Felipe's betrayal inspired anger and a desire for revenge in the Lombards, which Pierre gladly exploited.
The Spanish Empire boasted a powerful army funded by the riches of trade colonization, but Pierre opened with a decisive naval assault designed to take much of Spain's military might out of the picture. The Italian Navy, with support from the Tunisian vassal state, overtook the Spanish fleet in the Mediterranean, holding the waters around the Strait of Gibraltar with hundreds of warships guarding the passageway. At the onset of the war, the majority of the Spanish Army was stationed in Africa, and the rapid seizure of the strait meant that over 100 Spanish divisions were unable to cross back into the mainland. Only a fraction of Felipe's army was able to participate in the fight, and they would be quickly overwhelmed by the Grand Alliance.
Most of the defensive force was concentrated in Soria, where Italian divisions marched south from Navarra to begin their occupation. The Spanish forces, commanded by Felipe's cousin Carlos, set up in the steep hills of Soria to mount their defense. The terrain favored them heavily, but the highly-trained Italian army showed discipline in advancing, gradually whittling down the Spaniards over the course of several weeks. In the end, Carlos was defeated and humiliated, and his defeat opened the doors of Spain to a flood of attacking divisions.
The French soon joined the campaign, with the Royal French Navy engaging Spanish ships in the Atlantic, sending close to 100,000 troops to support Italy's attack. As the few strongholds of the Spanish Army fell, the Iberian Peninsula found itself besieged from coast to coast.
It took several years to break down the fortified strongholds of Spain, but by the summer of 1766, most of the mainland had fallen to the Italian, French, and British onslaught. Madrid was occupied by Italian forces, King Felipe had fled the country, and the decision to back anti-Italian independence movements was increasingly foolish in the eyes of the Spanish people.
As Spain fell, so did the Spanish colonies. New Italy spearheaded an invasion of New Spain, supported by the British Thirteen Colonies and the French Antilles.
The Wendish Empire, Spain's newest ally, had done little to help their friends, engaged as they were with an invasion of Ruthenia. Once Spain had been fully subjugated, the Grand Alliance sent its armies back east to break the final leg of the opposition.
Bavaria and Germany joined the invasion into the east, and Wendish Emperor Mieszko I watched his land be overrun by an unstoppable offensive. As portions of Ruthenia were liberated, his own country fell under expansive occupation, forcing his quick capitulation.
It was in January of 1770 that the terms of peace were negotiated, and Emperor Pierre was in a position of undeniable strength as he made his demands. Pierre demanded Vizcaya, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, and Almeria, which restored all of the historical lands won in the First Crusade and expanded it even further. In a concession to Bavaria, Pierre also demanded that the Wends surrender Saxony and Erz. The Grand Alliance stood victorious, and the folly of Felipe's brash anti-Italian policies was made clear. The end of the 18th century was drawing closer, and it appeared that no nation on earth could challenge the might of the Alliance.
It's good to have you back.
