1. What if Italy joined in the Russo-Turkish war of 1876-1877 with the aim of acquiring some territorial spoils? I am inclined to think that, for logistical reasons, Italy's only realistic military target could have been Tunisia, if that. Libya seems a bit too distant and large, Asia Minor is right out, and the Dodecanese and Cyprus are probably too far at this stage. Did Italy have the money, army and navy to contemplate any aggression against the Ottomans at this time? Would any of its neighbors disapprove to the point of aiding the Ottomans or imposing an ultimatum on Italy?
2. AH challenge: The Normans unite Italy
Well, in OTL they did manage to unite the southern half of Italy and Sicily, can we plausibly enable them to unite the whole peninsula, or at least everything up to the Rubicon, Arno, or Po rivers?
The Popes and Holy Roman Empire seem to be the biggest obstacle to this. Perhaps a PoD could be Otto the Great not reigning or staying out of Italy entirely.
In the absence of Otto's invasion, his son or his brother, rulers of Swabia and Bavaria, might have taken over north Italy, but perhaps this might not have led to establishment of a Holy Roman Empire and German princely authority might have been weak enough for the Normans to later topple it (though the precise Norman individuals and courses of action would have been changed by butterflies).
Or perhaps Adelaide of Italy never escapes from captivity to appeal to the Germans, and we have Carolingians rule over northern Italy for a time, until someone else, probably Normans, topples them.
3. AH Challenge: Earlier Italian unification (other than Normans)- possible candidates, the kingdom of Naples under the Angevins or Aragonese (as the largest Italian state), Papal states that just keep getting bigger, or an enlarged and enduring Visconti domain. Bonus points if Machiavelli or Leonardo Da Vinci can be made a participant in any unification scenario.
4. AH Challenge: A whole peninsula of city states
Can we plausibly get southern Italy and perhaps the island of Sicily to be as politically fragmented for as long as northern Italy, lots of little republics or principalities based in places like Naples, Salerno, Bari, Palermo, Syracuse.
5. AH Challenge: Restoration of parliamentary rule, toppling of Mussolini, between 1924 and 1939. First of all, can we bring this off, and second of all, how does this affect the international scene (perhaps an earlier Anschluss without the prestigious Mussolini opposing it?). Could we end up with an Italian civil war, mirroring Spain's?
6. AHC Italy conquers Abyssinia before 1914?
7. A different Italo-Ottoman War -
what if Italy lost, or if it gained more, perhaps some territory in coastal Arabia?
8. WI A tougher slog in Ethiopia, 1930s:
Could the Ethiopians have done any better, and if any power in a position to do so had wanted to provide aid, how much aid could the Ethiopians have used to any positive effect for themselves?
9. Mussolini-Stalin Pact of 1940: the partition of Turkey?
10. AHC: Mussolini crushes the coup of 1943
11. WI Hitler endorses an Italian invasion of Yugoslavia (or Greece) in 1939 or summer 1940.
12. AHC: London, Paris support all Italy's territorial claims after WWI
13. VDI Cavour as a teenager, VDI Garibaldi as a teenager?
14. WI Italy gets Trentino in 19th century? What if Germany and Italy end up with a common frontier post 1860?
Discuss, let me know if you have any favorites
2. AH challenge: The Normans unite Italy
Well, in OTL they did manage to unite the southern half of Italy and Sicily, can we plausibly enable them to unite the whole peninsula, or at least everything up to the Rubicon, Arno, or Po rivers?
The Popes and Holy Roman Empire seem to be the biggest obstacle to this. Perhaps a PoD could be Otto the Great not reigning or staying out of Italy entirely.
In the absence of Otto's invasion, his son or his brother, rulers of Swabia and Bavaria, might have taken over north Italy, but perhaps this might not have led to establishment of a Holy Roman Empire and German princely authority might have been weak enough for the Normans to later topple it (though the precise Norman individuals and courses of action would have been changed by butterflies).
Or perhaps Adelaide of Italy never escapes from captivity to appeal to the Germans, and we have Carolingians rule over northern Italy for a time, until someone else, probably Normans, topples them.
3. AH Challenge: Earlier Italian unification (other than Normans)- possible candidates, the kingdom of Naples under the Angevins or Aragonese (as the largest Italian state), Papal states that just keep getting bigger, or an enlarged and enduring Visconti domain. Bonus points if Machiavelli or Leonardo Da Vinci can be made a participant in any unification scenario.
4. AH Challenge: A whole peninsula of city states
Can we plausibly get southern Italy and perhaps the island of Sicily to be as politically fragmented for as long as northern Italy, lots of little republics or principalities based in places like Naples, Salerno, Bari, Palermo, Syracuse.
5. AH Challenge: Restoration of parliamentary rule, toppling of Mussolini, between 1924 and 1939. First of all, can we bring this off, and second of all, how does this affect the international scene (perhaps an earlier Anschluss without the prestigious Mussolini opposing it?). Could we end up with an Italian civil war, mirroring Spain's?
6. AHC Italy conquers Abyssinia before 1914?
7. A different Italo-Ottoman War -
what if Italy lost, or if it gained more, perhaps some territory in coastal Arabia?
8. WI A tougher slog in Ethiopia, 1930s:
Could the Ethiopians have done any better, and if any power in a position to do so had wanted to provide aid, how much aid could the Ethiopians have used to any positive effect for themselves?
9. Mussolini-Stalin Pact of 1940: the partition of Turkey?
10. AHC: Mussolini crushes the coup of 1943
11. WI Hitler endorses an Italian invasion of Yugoslavia (or Greece) in 1939 or summer 1940.
12. AHC: London, Paris support all Italy's territorial claims after WWI
13. VDI Cavour as a teenager, VDI Garibaldi as a teenager?
14. WI Italy gets Trentino in 19th century? What if Germany and Italy end up with a common frontier post 1860?
Discuss, let me know if you have any favorites