So the Italian mainland has gone red? And the French and Germans are just standing around and do nothing? Are they really letting another European country go communist? Germany even shares a border with Italy now. I find it hard to believe they would accept a communist state right next to them, especially after Italian communists tried to assassinate the Habsburgs. I would expect some politicians to even come up with some kind of ‘Domino Theory’ at this point, but applied to Europe instead of south-east Asia like in OTL.
Did this have no effect on the 1924 elections in France and Germany? I mean, Rome – which some might consider the heart of western civilization – has fallen, and the church is under siege by communists across Italy, and the other European powers do nothing? I would expect especially catholic countries like France, Spain and Portugal to be appalled by this course of events. Though i guess we will see the reaction to the fall of Italy in coming updates.
It hasn't fallen just yet, but Rome is under Communist rule and the Communists are facing scattered resistance as they press steadily southward. So far they remain in the Lazio.
The Germans just came out of a multi-year intervention in Russia, preceded by the Great War, and are far more concerned with the Austro-Hungarian shit show and absorbing these gains. As for the French, they are only just nearing a stable point in their rebuilding efforts and face considerable resistance from large segments of the Italian royalist leadership in any proposed intervention. Hell, they had a hard enough time getting the Liberals to accept their offers - keep in mind that the French are (to some degree, rightfully) blamed for providing aid to the Italian Communists. Hell, the Communists are securing quite significant supplies through smuggling across the Franco-Italian border. The French government is also balancing on a tightrope between weakened but powerful leftists on one hand and a surging right-wing on the other. An intervention would greatly strengthen the hand of the right, and prior to the election would probably have resulted in the failure of the current government.
There are proponents of the Domino Theory, primarily on the right in both nations, but the Right is not in power in either country. The British are involved to a larger degree, but are still limited mostly to subsidies, supplying weaponry and providing trainers - oh, and their intervention effectively removes any hope on the part of the Reds in securing Sardinia or Sicily.
It did have an effect on the elections, as is mentioned in the previous update, with a significant rise in Catholic power in France and a surging right-wing. The current government in France only barely scrapes by to secure the requisite votes. They are more worried about the threat from the right, than from the left. There are a lot of people talking of Thermidor in Paris. In Germany it has the impact of significantly strengthening Centre's distaste for Communists, and leftists in general, pushing them closer to the DKP and DNVP, but allowing them to maintain their alliance with the NLP.
Spain is too weak and divided at the moment of Rome's fall to do much, and is itself facing a major challenge which I will get into in the future, while Portugal is too far from Italy to be able to do much. There are plenty of condemnations and outrage, but no one has the resources or willingness to actually intervene in full. Everyone is exhausted and no one, not even the moderate right-wing, views war with anything other than absolute distaste. There is a general embargo of Communist Italy in place and other efforts like that, but for now the focus is on containment, not eradication.
