Mark 4 Morrel Barrel
Banned
Find a way for the Italy city states to unite and have a decent size Colonial empire in the New World and Africa. How does this effect TTL
Well, now; on TTL, Christopher Columbus did actually approach the Sforza family in search of some financial backing for his trip westward. Suppose we say that the Sforza family did back him; Then the Sforzas et. al. would have been going over to the New World to stake out territorial claims from 1492 onward.
This won't work before the era of nationalism. Prior to that, the Italians were fervent in their belief in the ideal of preventing any one state controlling Italy and if one state threatened to become too powerful, they would all gang up to bring down the threat - and would use external nations to help them if they needed, hence the Holy League wars of the 16th century. It is somewhat possible for a non-Italian state (read: France, maybe Spain but better France) to impose themselves if they crucially have luck on their side, but no Italian state was ever going to win a pan-Italian war of conquest before the era of nationalism because the Italians simply did not want to be part of an Italian nation-state.
I still think that any such TL would simply see the Pope eventually step in, commissioning the French and the Holy Roman Emperor, with others, to march in and destroy the aggressor...as happened IOTL.
Still, just because the Pope can't be ringleader doesn't mean that the other Italian states will roll over and let themselves be taken anywhichway Milan wants it. I just think that Italy was too volatile and contrary an area to allow one of their own to conquer it - eventually that state will be brought down in a hail of fire.
Gian Galeazzo is a proficient enough leader, well above the ones who were opposing him. To his luck, the international scene is very favorable. He's plenty of money (a rarity on the European scene) and once Florence is conquered (when he died the surrender was already being negotiated) his treasury will be even more full. Give him an extra lease on life, and he may succeed in forging something more than a personal dominion; if he's succeeded by an able ruler (and Giovanni Maria was that) a kingdom can be born.
My understanding, however, is that his will divided up his domains among his heirs. This doesn't sound like a man with thoughts of forging anything like a united Italy, does it?