Grey Wolf
Donor
The 1870s ended as they had begun, with warfare raging across several parts of the world. The scenery may have been different but the bloodshed was just as real to those caught up in it.
The accession of King Umberto I to the throne of Piedmont-Sardinia had been the final straw that broke the camel's back of Savoyan acquiescence. The new Pope in Rome had hardly begun to deal with the difficulties of his position as head of the Italian League, when Piedmontese ambassadors began to push for a secular leadership, a larger role for themselves, some change from the past that would bring the Italian ideal closer to fruition. Although they won the support of many, there were equally strong voices raised in opposition. Fellow rulers, from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to the King of the Two Sicilies to the Papacy itself asked why they should subordinate themselves to the leadership of another sovereign power. King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies found his position doubly precarious. Since 1848 his two realms had been legislatively separate, Sicily and Naples ruling themselves under his personal union, which under the Italian League had not seemed to be so great a change. With the League on the verge of collapse, Francesco could see the settlement with regard to Sicily unravelling also.
Watching with concern was the new Emperor of Austria, Franz III Josef who had succeeded to the throne after his father's short reign of a few years. With Italian holdings in Lombardy and Venetia, and with family connections to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the smaller duchy of Modena, Franz III was loathe to let King Umberto have the scene to himself.
From Paris, King Louis Philippe II watched with equal dismay, but less power. The Radical government which had taken power in 1876 backed the general thrust of Piedmontese ambition, and the role of the Pope in temporal affairs was seen as an anachronism whose time had come.
1879 would also see the return of bloodshed to South America. Already destabilised by the death of King Oriele-Antoine of Araucania and Patagonia, the South of that continent was thrown into further turmoil by a fierce row between Chile on the one hand, and Peru and Bolivia on the other over the nitrates industry. With Britain intervening in Patagonia to support Oriele-Antoine's chosen heir, elected by the Mapuche as King Achilles I, Chile launched into a war Northwards, aiming at possession of the nitrate fields currently in Bolivian and Peruvian hands. The initial phase of the war saw the conquest of the Bolivian coastal strip around the town of Antofagusta and the war become a naval conflict, with Chilean bombardment of the Peruvian coastal cities.
Meanwhile, in Europe, events within Italy had gathered to a head and using a perceived slight from the new Pope in his capacity as head of the Italian League as a cassus belli, King Umberto ordered his army to march on Rome...
Grey Wolf
The accession of King Umberto I to the throne of Piedmont-Sardinia had been the final straw that broke the camel's back of Savoyan acquiescence. The new Pope in Rome had hardly begun to deal with the difficulties of his position as head of the Italian League, when Piedmontese ambassadors began to push for a secular leadership, a larger role for themselves, some change from the past that would bring the Italian ideal closer to fruition. Although they won the support of many, there were equally strong voices raised in opposition. Fellow rulers, from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to the King of the Two Sicilies to the Papacy itself asked why they should subordinate themselves to the leadership of another sovereign power. King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies found his position doubly precarious. Since 1848 his two realms had been legislatively separate, Sicily and Naples ruling themselves under his personal union, which under the Italian League had not seemed to be so great a change. With the League on the verge of collapse, Francesco could see the settlement with regard to Sicily unravelling also.
Watching with concern was the new Emperor of Austria, Franz III Josef who had succeeded to the throne after his father's short reign of a few years. With Italian holdings in Lombardy and Venetia, and with family connections to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the smaller duchy of Modena, Franz III was loathe to let King Umberto have the scene to himself.
From Paris, King Louis Philippe II watched with equal dismay, but less power. The Radical government which had taken power in 1876 backed the general thrust of Piedmontese ambition, and the role of the Pope in temporal affairs was seen as an anachronism whose time had come.
1879 would also see the return of bloodshed to South America. Already destabilised by the death of King Oriele-Antoine of Araucania and Patagonia, the South of that continent was thrown into further turmoil by a fierce row between Chile on the one hand, and Peru and Bolivia on the other over the nitrates industry. With Britain intervening in Patagonia to support Oriele-Antoine's chosen heir, elected by the Mapuche as King Achilles I, Chile launched into a war Northwards, aiming at possession of the nitrate fields currently in Bolivian and Peruvian hands. The initial phase of the war saw the conquest of the Bolivian coastal strip around the town of Antofagusta and the war become a naval conflict, with Chilean bombardment of the Peruvian coastal cities.
Meanwhile, in Europe, events within Italy had gathered to a head and using a perceived slight from the new Pope in his capacity as head of the Italian League as a cassus belli, King Umberto ordered his army to march on Rome...
Grey Wolf