AHC: italian prussia

With any PoD after the formation of the HRE (so a nice thousand years or so), have an italian state similar to OTL prussia in its militarism and stately procedure. Bonus points if you can get it to form somewhere not in the peninsula itself but in some remote corner of the italian world (like OTL prussia was formed at the northeastern fringes of germany).

Where would this state be? how will it interact with the maritime republics, the renaissance and the constant meddling of the french in italian affairs?
 
Perhaps we can start by having the Knights of Malta usurp the temporal authority of the Pope and relegating him to mere priestly duties like the Japanese emperor.
 
I think milan might be a good option, but in the interest of those sweet sweet bonus points, urbino? At the time of federico III, urbino's prosperity was almost wholly responsible due to his spectacular performance as a condittere, and if his son, guidobaldo, manages to have a decent career as a condittere and not die at 36, you could see a ridiculously millitaristic state.
 
The kingdom of Sardinia seems to have many superficial similarities with Prussia. It was arguably Italy’s Prussia at least during the mid 19th century and the Italian unification. Plus Piedmont could be Sardinia’s “Rhineland” and the term Kulturkampf has been applied to the secular elements of the Italian unification.
 
My idea:
Around the 12th-13th century a crusader state is established in Tunisia with rulers of Italian origin and a lot of italian settlers overtime. To subdue the local populace the state is heavily militarized - actually the state means the military elit of the country in this period. With conversions - which like for the prussians usually means becoming italian as well- and settlers about 10 percent of the population becomes catholic/italian by the 15th century. After that by further conversions and a more heavy setllement and some expulsions of the non catholics by 1700 about half of the population is italian and a further 25 percent catholic. The state remains heavily militarized. The state was named after its capital the Kingdom of Cartaggio.

They have been a staunch allies of Spain and the Habsburgs against the wars with the Ottomans but beside this they didnt influence much in Europe. In 1700 during the war of spanish sucession they sided with their traditional allies - the Habsburgs. For their efforts their received Sicily. They went to great pains to reform the island and succeded. As they now had another mostly unruly territory (before the success of the reforms) to control they were even more dependent on the army so they went to great pains to have as big and strong an army as possible. However because of their realm being divided by the mediterranean they were relying havily on the naval might of Great Brittain. It was because of this that they remained on Brittain's side when the british-austrian alliance ceased to exist. During the 7 years war the army performed fabulusly and they managed to acquire Naples as the result*. This too was successfully integrated in to the kingdom - no separate crowns were kept. Cartaggio became a heavily centralized and militarized country.

During the Napoleonic wars they performed well but were finally driven from the peninsula. Because of the defeats in the war they spent a lot of energy reforming the military. They played a crucial role on driving the french and pro french forces from Italy when Napoleon was finally defeated**. After the wars were over they not only got back Sicily and Naples but acquired Sardinia and Piedmont as well - so they could function as a buffer against the French.

However at this point the realm was so divided that the idea of unifying the whole peninsula so they could unify themselfs was entertained from early on. They however distanced themselfs from italian nationalism and its anarcho liberal tendencies. During the 1848 rebellions they actually fought together with Austria against the liberal rebels. They finally fought Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866 and created the Italian Federation as a result. Milano was annexed while the republic of Venice was restored as part of the federation. The rest of the italian principalities became part of the federation as well except for the Papal State - the Eastern part was annexed for the unity of the realm but the Pope remained independent. The state was founded on as conservative a base as possible. The Papal state was only annexed in 1871.

After the unification the state invested heavily in railway building and truly unifying the country. The liberals were however very torn about the new country. They got their dream - an unified Italy. However this Italy was anything but liberal. In the end the more nationalistic minded decided to support it while the liberals became the opposition. During the creation of the state they were shamelessly copying what Bismarck did in Germany. They had their own "kulturkampf" - the process of secularizing the Italian state was not an easy one.

*ITTL Austria didnt loose it earlier
**ITTL Murat was driven from Naples before Waterloo
 
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Dalmatia? It is in the fringes of the Italian world, it would be surrounded by hostile powers. Venice, Hungary, eventually the Ottomans; maybe like the Duchy of Prussia with Poland there would be a Duchy of Dalmatia with Hungary or Austria, or maybe an Ottoman Tributary.
 
Perhaps the Exarchate of Ravenna lasts longer and ends up in communion with Constantinople rather than Rome, later ending up independent but still Orthodox? The religious conflict then provides the basis for it becoming an ultramilitaristic state...
 
What about the Swiss Italian population becoming the dominant class in Switzerland or Switzerlands drifts towards recognizing themselves as more Italian? They then create a republic dominated by military elites. The republic is heavily centralized, bureaucratic, secular, and militarized. The republic becomes allies with Prussia. Switzerland helps Prussia in wars against Austria and France which leads to Switzerland gaining land from both of them while slowly annexing all of Italy over the centuries. Due to its mix Italian and German culture Switzerland also tries to play up Italian and German cultural and historical ties during 1800s/1900s. This leads to a Italian culture with much more Germanic influence especially in northern Italy. They often copy Prussia and later Germany model of society. Italy joins Prussia in the brothers war. They take all their claims including almost all of Austrian Empire coast. They then join Prussia in Franco-Prussian war and takes Corsica and some of southeast France. Maybe Tunis too.
 

gurgu

Banned
The kingdom of Sardinia seems to have many superficial similarities with Prussia. It was arguably Italy’s Prussia at least during the mid 19th century and the Italian unification. Plus Piedmont could be Sardinia’s “Rhineland” and the term Kulturkampf has been applied to the secular elements of the Italian unification.
Meh sardinian never had that great army, Only Cavour modernize it and even then it wan't on the prussian level...
I would rather propose a surviving Visconti/sforza in Milan, they even made for a short time an union with Genoa so an idea would be to unite the 2 nations and then seizei the italian territories of savoy to have a nation protected from the alps. at that point just keep swapping alliances with france/spain (basically italy of the 2 world wars XD) and take down slowly venice( and the colonies before ottomans) then just go south on Tuscany( around 1580?).
After taking tuscany Italy was technycally formed( until 1800 italy was considered only the north of the peninsula) take the iron crown from Austria and wait for the religious league to ally france/sweden and jump on the pope while spain and austria are busy in germany/netherlands. after the 30 years war the new nation lacks only southern italy and island( except corsica alredy owned ) spain is in its decaying period( no gold left from americas, no tech advance and habsburg are busy with making deformed childs from their incest marriages) so ally again france and take the south while france takes colonies or barcelona. At the end of the war italy is reunited with crimean colonies(from genoa), greeks colonies( from venice and genoa) and the Gibraltar street( from genoa, even today in OTL there is plenty of genoese surnames and one of the offical languages is genoese) and it's like almost 1700?


P.S. you may say:" wait what about the ottomans, they won't just sit there and look." you're right but i'm pretty sure that a nation that has the bot the genoese and venetian navy arsenal under single command would be pretty able to defend from the ottoman one, just know that Andre D'oria was able to do great things with he's 30 private ships ,imagine him at Lepanto with 60 or even 70 galley all under his command

as usual any correction is well accepted( both grammar and history) an thank you for reading
 
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