DBWI AHC unite Italy

What is the best route to get a single country, run by Italians, and containing all Italian speaking areas?

OK, it doesn't have to include that one canton in Switzerland.

There was a movement promoting this in the nineteenth century so I am putting this one here.
 
One way might be to not have Louis Napoleon assassinated by Felice Orsini in 1858, which pretty much made supporting Italian unification a poisonous prospect even for enemies of the Austrians like Prussia.

You're also going to have the tank the popularity of the Sicilian Bourbons among both their own people and European royalty at large, considering how much their cause was helped in the wake of Louis' death.

Avoid the assassination and you might be able to bring the Prussians on board under Bismark and have a combined Sardinian-Prussian attack on Austria as a spearhead to eventual unification ala the German Empire, with Sardinia being the dominant power in Italy analogous to Prussia in Germany.
 
What are you defining as Italian-speaking areas? In that time period Venetian nationalism hadn't really begun picking up steam yet, so are you including Veneto, Istria, and Dalmatia?
 
((OOC: In OTL, yes, but what about ATL?))

That's...a highly contentious statement there. Try going to Venice or Fiume and telling them they speak the same language as the Piedmontese and see how they like it.

((OOC: Serbo-Croatian is a range of dialects but nationalists fiercely claim Serbian and Croatian are distinct languages. ITTL I'm picturing the same with the different Italian dialects.))
 

samcster94

Banned
((OOC: In OTL, yes, but what about ATL?))

That's...a highly contentious statement there. Try going to Venice or Fiume and telling them they speak the same language as the Piedmontese and see how they like it.

((OOC: Serbo-Croatian is a range of dialects but nationalists fiercely claim Serbian and Croatian are distinct languages. ITTL I'm picturing the same with the different Italian dialects.))
Of course, or Romanian/Moldovan(which are also Romance language like every language in Italy is).
 
Shouldn't the PoD be further back? One can definitely argue that there was one Italian language in the high middle ages, but even in the 18th century, the various statelets had turned their dialects into nigh-on mutually unintelligible languages.
 
Italy was united... under the Roman Empire!
And a seccond time under Emperor Frederick II of Sicily ( if we do not count the Papal state and Venice and Genova). Make Frederick more successful and voila!

Oh, you mean a modern state wich cover Italy?... maybe a more successful Napoleon wich create an Italian pupet kingdom for one of his brothers...
 
You're also going to have the tank the popularity of the Sicilian Bourbons among both their own people and European royalty at large, considering how much their cause was helped in the wake of Louis' death.
Nerfing the Bourbon line in Naples? It's difficult, but could be done. I see you're of the school that credits them with helping foster the Sicilian/Neapolitan identity? Interesting. I'd always assumed that they latched onto, rather than been pivotal in, its development. I obviously need to read deeper into the subject.
Avoid the assassination and you might be able to bring the Prussians on board under Bismark and have a combined Sardinian-Prussian attack on Austria as a spearhead to eventual unification ala the German Empire, with Sardinia being the dominant power in Italy analogous to Prussia in Germany.
Franco-Savoy-Prussian alliance? It could happen. Not sure what France get out of it, mind. I could see them siding with the Austrians here.
 
Nerfing the Bourbon line in Naples? It's difficult, but could be done. I see you're of the school that credits them with helping foster the Sicilian/Neapolitan identity? Interesting. I'd always assumed that they latched onto, rather than been pivotal in, its development. I obviously need to read deeper into the subject.

Well, I don't think we can understate how helpful they were to the cause. I think without royal support the movement is swamped by the national Italian identification but I could be mistaken. Nevertheless, turning Naples back into a great European city was definitely their crowning achievement, and without the city becoming a center of the greater Sicilian identity I don't see how the movement could have stood up long term.

Franco-Savoy-Prussian alliance? It could happen. Not sure what France get out of it, mind. I could see them siding with the Austrians here.

Well, maybe not the French; I can see just a Prussia-Sardinian alliance being enough to overwhelm the Austrians considering how badly the Prussians beat them in 1867. But yes, I can see how France would be more inclined to interfere and possibly reclaim Savoy from them.
 
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