AHC: Sammarinese Colonial Empire

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to cause San Marino to own an area at least as large as OTL's Belgian Congo, with a POD no earlier than 1300. Points for an even larger colonial empire.

They'd probably need a port or something, first.

MKN said:

They'd probably need a port or something, first.

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Yes, definitely. Basically, to get a significant colonial empire, San Marino needs to develop into a significant European state. To develop into a significant European state, it must first be a significant Italian state. To become a significant Italian state, it has to first be a small Italian state. However (and I think this is the hard part) it needs to change from a village to a small Italian state in its own right.

(Disclaimer: I really have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Here's my suggestion: Spoleto badly beats up Ravenna at some point, but then falls into a conveniently timed civil war. At this point, there is thus a power vacuum in Rimini, which is ssolved by the extension of the Sammarinese government over the region (probably as a result of a convoluted power struggle among the Spoletan contenders, what remains of Ravenna, and some ambitious Sammarinese archon(s)). In any case, the subsequent and prior wars devastate the area enough to give our San Marino a leg up over whoever else threatens it. Probably the capital is moved to Rimini, although the state could well retain its name.

From there, we have a state I presume would be pretty stable. If it can come out of the Black Death all right, it has a decent chance of developing into the one to reunite Italy. From there, establishing a colonial empire is easily achievedl after all, OTL Italy had a bigger empire than Belgium did.

The above may seem pretty plausible. Assuming it does, the unlikely part is that there would be a direct homology between such a notable state ITTL (uniting Italy) and IOTL (an anachronism, a reminder of the times when Europe was made up of tiny political units, sometimes extending no further than a cannon could fire from a city’s walls). Possible, but statistically rare.

Here's a suggestion for a late PoD:

Napoleon was really fond of this statelet and offered to enlarge it by a high multiple, including giving it a port. IOTL, the citizens declined politely but firmly because they - justly - feared that being significant implies being threatened.

But what if they had accepted? Then you need some other ingredient to prevent they are just crushed between other Italian states. They need to gain power over, say, Venice, and become an economically and military factor. Perhaps they can take part in a war where they dramatically just tip off the balance, ensuing in a large myth of victory?


The general problem is: To be powerful, Marino needs other significant cites. But then we would probably not call it San Marino any longer.

Eh, not necessarily. The Republic of Florence was still called that even after they absorbed Pisa and a number of other cities.

Paladin said:

Eh, not necessarily. The Republic of Florence was still called that even after they absorbed Pisa and a number of other cities.

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Florence, however, was the main Tuscan city by a rather large amount in terms of population. That said, yeah, a more succesful San Marino could be the Florence of Romagna. A major colonial empire though? Maybe not. A more balkanized colonial america could lead to small private colonial efforts by smaller states I guess...

I'd think San Marino would need a different government at some point. Having two co-rulers who rotate out every six months doesn't really engender the long term stability needed to build and maintain an empire. Possible POD would then be one of the Captains Regent couping the other and proclaiming himself King/Duke/whatever, though the Sammarinese would probably never accept this as they're quite fond of being the world's oldest continually existing Republic.