Alternate Map Challenge (AMC): Italy

[Pellegrino]

OK folks, I am going to try a new thing here…the AMC (or Alternate Map Challenge). The rules are pretty much identical to the AHC, only with the only guidance to you being that the country in question has to have the borders featured in the map.

Rules:

POD after 1900 (obviously)

Anything outside the map is up for grabs. So any border change outside of the map is permissible as long as the country in question has the borders reflected on the map.

So with that being said…with a POD anytime after 1900, have Italy’s borders look like this:

 

[Hashoosh]

Tunisia and the Balearic Islands may look nice, but that requires a lot of diplomatic acrobatics by Italy. Not to mention Northern Macedonia; since this is after 1900 PoD, Spain, France, the Turks, Austria-Hungary (and through them Germany), Serbia, Greece and probably Russia and the UK to boot all have to be dealt with.

I'm not sure you could end with that map without multiple PoDs or maybe a Fascist Italy wank in WW2 or some such.

I think a really huge problem with plausibility after 1900 is the sorry state of Italy's military, how are they going to go about acquiring all this land from powers much stronger than them; and their allies as well.

Germany/UK/Italy alliance in WWI? Tough with a PoD after 1900 I think, though if you remove KWII from Germany maybe it would work? That still requires Germany to unshackle itself from Austria-Hungary and make nice with the British though

 

[Pellegrino]

Tunisia and the Balearic Islands may look nice, but that requires a lot of diplomatic acrobatics by Italy. Not to mention Northern Macedonia; since this is after 1900 PoD, Spain, France, the Turks, Austria-Hungary (and through them Germany), Serbia, Greece and probably Russia and the UK to boot all have to be dealt with.

I'm not sure you could end with that map without multiple PoDs or maybe a Fascist Italy wank in WW2 or some such.

I think a really huge problem with plausibility after 1900 is the sorry state of Italy's military, how are they going to go about acquiring all this land from powers much stronger than them; and their allies as well.

Germany/UK/Italy alliance in WWI? Tough with a PoD after 1900 I think, though if you remove KWII from Germany maybe it would work? That still requires Germany to unshackle itself from Austria-Hungary and make nice with the British though

Yeah, I realize this was a tough one. The only thing I could think of was a situation where Italy sits on the fence during WW2 and then jumps in late in the game. But rather than have Germany fold, we have a Korea like ceasefire. Perhaps Valkyrie is successful and somehow the Allies agree to something less than total surrender, which I think itself borders on ASB without something else to tilt the scales so to speak. The front lines become the new borders of Italy with France still under the control of the Vichy Government. but then again, this doesn't explain how Spain enters the picture.

But hey, what fun would it be if it were easy.

 

[Alex Richards]

Even working with WWII that's a very unlikely set of borders. The Balearics might be possible if Franco fails and the Italians occupy the islands (initially as a GiE, in practice as part of the country), but Yugoslavia has clearly been effectively destroyed, in which case Bulgaria is more likely to grab Macedonia and Italy might expand the borders of Albania into Kosovo as OTL.

Of course, theoretically it could be some form of collusion with Serb nationalists, but then that there's a strong Serbia sitting there who would probably just grab Kotor at least.

 

[Pellegrino]

Even working with WWII that's a very unlikely set of borders. The Balearics might be possible if Franco fails and the Italians occupy the islands (initially as a GiE, in practice as part of the country), but Yugoslavia has clearly been effectively destroyed, in which case Bulgaria is more likely to grab Macedonia and Italy might expand the borders of Albania into Kosovo as OTL.

Of course, theoretically it could be some form of collusion with Serb nationalists, but then that there's a strong Serbia sitting there who would probably just grab Kotor at least.

Valid point. Kosovo was a curve ball here, I considered it as well. Could we have a scenario with a Serb-Bulgaria conflict or cold war where Italy is somehow able to capitalize?

And although nobody mentioned it, I figured the biggest deal killer on this map was Italian Malta.

 

[Hashoosh]

I didn't even notice Malta...

I'm not sure this actually possible after 1900

Edit: even without trying to take Malta, if the Italians attempted to attain those borders (most notably against Greece, but also France if the Entente is a go) then they would definitely have to contend with an angry UK (not to mention the rest of the Great Powers)