Italico Valore - A more successful 1848 revolution in Italy - a TL
Deleted member 147289
The Argentines could have won had they offered peace after occupying Uruguay and defeating the Brazilian army but Jimenez's decision to escalate the war was their downfall
65. 1917-1920: THE QUIET YEARS
Deleted member 147289
65. 1917-1920: THE QUIET YEARS
With the conclusion of the Cisplatine War, the world returned to normalcy, allowing its inhabitants to continue living their lives regardless of the fact that the political, colonial, economical and military tensions between the Great Powers were about to reach a breaking point.
Allegoric map of the Imperial Federation: the British Empire and it's culture spanned four continents and shaped much of the world to it's image, the Greatest Power, but it's position would soon be challenged by powerful competitors, both foe and ally
In 1918, the British Empire rearranged itself as the Imperial Federation, made up of Great Britain and more developed dominions (Canada, South Africa and Australasia). The federation established a single internal market protected by tariffs, the increased control of dominions over their internal affairs but still remaining closely bound to Westminster, an imperial military command and a Permanent Imperial Conference, a board made of members coming from all over the empire that managed imperial integration. The implementation of these new rules and the restructuring of the empire on a federal basis would have required some time during which Britain would have had to withdraw from international affairs and devote its attention to the internal reform of the country, the completion of which was indicated in 1924. The colonial administration remained in the hands of the British but the Canadian, South African and Australasian governments had more say in the management of the colonies on their continents, leaving to the motherland the dominion over Asia in particular India whose ruling class, which had mingled with the British to the point of being called Anglo-Indian, had made demands for limited self-government, granted in the form of open elections to upper castes in view of India's potential entry into the Federation in the indeterminate future.
Northern Germany was a center of technical, scientific and cultural innovation, but its governing structures remained archaic: the Prussian voting system was still in use in Prussia while smaller states such as Saxony and Hanover had adopted wider suffrages for the their own population, which became the reference model of the various social democratic and liberal groups that advocated for the reform of the voting system to definitively remove power from the Prussian landed aristocracy. Backed by private and state capital, the Pan-Germanist movement was back in vogue throughout the German area, spread by newspapers, university professors, radio and literal publications clamoring for a united Germany to resist French and Russian pressure. The Hohenzollern dynasty and the current Prussian king Wilhelm II made no secret of its ambitions to annex the states of southern Germany whose elites had always been opposed the Protestants of the north but whose populations were in complete agreement with the ideas coming from Prussia. In 1919 every southern German state had a Pan-German party, including Austria where the idea began to gain traction after Joseph III granted semi-independence to Hungary, leading certain intellectuals to think that the era of the Habsburg Empire was over and that the future lay in a unitary Germanic state. The broad popular support of these ideas fueled by numerous private donations (especially from northern tycoons) made the pan-Germanic parties real contenders in the elections despite the continuous attempts of the national parties to discredit them.
The rise of Pan-Germanism had created a feeling of profound insecurity in France which saw the realization of a unitary German state as a foregone consequence of the strong popular movement that accompanied it. The French knew best of all that if the popular will had not been nipped in the bud the only result would have been the revolution, that is the end of French domination on the continent: already undermined by the Italians, the rise of a united Germany would have been the gravestone for French ambitions. The French state embarked on a double offensive, diplomatic and military, aimed both at discrediting Pan-Germanism and at preparing for a possible war for the domination of the Germanic area. French weapons were some of the most advanced in the world and the population boom provided recruits and workers needed to support the war effort, but the armed forces were also fertile ground for the proliferation of monarchical ideas with many officers formally siding with the republic hiding their ideals in the scrutiny of republican security, guaranteeing the Droite a strong presence in the national security apparatus. Algeria had become the main relief valve for the French population who preferred the comfort of the Mediterranean to the far colonies of Senegal and Madagascar, filling the coast and the hinterland with French-speaking settlements to the chagrin of the natives who were becoming more marginalized and driven to the desert. Some natives chose to embrace French culture by converting to Christianity but most of the inhabitants of the Tell were opposed to European penetration and began to resist, only to be dispersed by aircraft and machine guns belonging to the Foreign Legion: the plan to Frenchize Algeria would proceed smoothly .
The gradual transition from coal to oil as a source of energy was the fortune of the Pacific Republic and Southern Confederation which with their oil fields in California and Texas became the main oil exporters by 1920, giving a significant boost to their economies which filled the industrial gap with the American Republic by increasing their wealth. The Southern Confederation's plan to create an economic empire in the Caribbean had received a major boost with the annexation of Cuba and the Confederate leaders were turning their eyes to Haiti and Central America, interested in their agricultural potential: investments in these states created gave rise to the economical predominance of Southron companies such as General Fruits and Ozark Mining, whose flow of resources was protected by the Confederate fleet which had become the main navy in the Caribbean with six dreadnoughts.
The continuous flow of Asian migrants had profoundly changed the racial makeup of the Pacific coast making whites a narrow majority within the state and creating much discomfort to the native inhabitants, therefore the political arena was divided between those who wanted to favor the integration of immigrants and a new national character and those who preferred. nativist policies aimed at preserving European culture, exacerbating the social situation to the point that in 1913 racial riots broke out in Los Angeles that saw Whites, Asians and Latinos openly fight each other on the street calling for the intervention of the army to quell the rebellion. The victory of the Progressive Party in 1916 allowed for a much fairier distribution of the oil wealth to the population, establishing the first national hospital service, founding higher education and expanding existing cities and infrastructure; this eased the racial tensions quite considerably, allowing for a more peaceful society to be slowly created.
Oil wells on Long Beach, California: the rapid growth of the oil industry sparked a massive economic boom in the south-western states, allowing their citizens to thrive
The industrialization of Brazil and the modernization of the economies of its neighbors had thrown into crisis the industrial sector of the American Republic which, despite remaining the most prosperous nation of North America, fell into a period of economic stagnation that increased political polarization, attracting many workers to socialist and the new legionarist ideas that were beginning to spread in the western hemisphere, directed against the coastal elites seen as manipulators of the population. The Southern Confederation's alignment with France prompted the Republic to tighten its ties with the Imperial Federation in search of a sponsor for the potential reunification of the United States, an idea that was beginning to make its way into political circles and propagated in the streets between the enthusiasm of the population.
The Shogunate of Japan was experiencing a period of great national prosperity now that the benefits of industrialization had begun to be evident, sparking a feeling of national pride that strengthened the Japanese ideal and the foundation of the Shogunate, now ruled by Tokugawa Ieasu, heir by Yoshinobu. The annexation of the Philippines in 1905 and Korea in 1912 had shifted the army's focus from the country to the colonies that were being pacified, allowing the Shogun to begin a process of decentralization and democratization of the Japanese state by implementing suffrage for literate males. over 25 and breaking the power base of the old Daymo by creating a system of prefectures run by one of the best bureaucracies in the world. Great conglomerates like Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Yasuda were the backbone of the national economy, each producing a multitude of industrial and consumer goods, in particular Japanese shipbuilding and motor works were quite appreciated. Workers' rights began to receive attention after the four bombings of 1915 to strangle the popularity of the nascent Japanese socialist party which was having luck among proletarians subjected to exploitation for the past century: shorter working hours along with safety regulations, pensions and primary health care did the job, restoring social peace. For the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the Rising Sun would take on more responsibility in Asia, starting with the expansion of its navy in an anti-Russian perspective: in 1922 the Japanese navy could deploy 12 dreadnoughts against the 7 Russian ones anchored in Vladivostok.
In 1917 the Russian Empire under the leadership of the triumvirate had initiated a naval expansion program destined to be completed in 1927 producing 12 dreadnoughts and dozens of capital and minor ships, signaling to the world the Russian intention to bridge the naval gap with the Imperial Federation to compete for the title of pre-eminent world power. The extension of the railway network in Siberia and the colonization of the region had made Asian Russia a source of raw materials destined to feed the growing hunger for resources of the industries that had developed along the St. Petersburg-Moscow-Tzaritzyn line, the latter a planned city for which the government did not spare rubles by envisioning it a as the center of a future industrial zone on the Volga connected to the industry of southern Ukraine. A duma elected by the upper middle classes guaranteed a minimum of representation to the population that could be said to be satisfied with the level of democracy, which had never been higher in Russia and extended to Belarus, Finland and the Ukraine; certain regions were excluded from the democratic process such as the Baltic, Poland, Central Asia and the Caucasus, except in the Russian enclaves due to the intense Russification process which had been most successful in Kazakhstan, where about 60% of the population was now of Russian origin. Resentment towards Russians was increasing among non-Slavic populations who saw them as oppressors: after all, the progress that had affected the empire had never reached these areas except in the form of improved military infrastructure and oil facilities; this led part of the population to agitate following independence leaders, increasing the workload of the Okhrana, already engaged in the suppression of the socialists.
The civil and military technological evolution did not slow down and the global increase in wealth led to the spread of conveniences such as electricity, telephone, radio, cars and airplanes with the flight assuming the status of the icon of the end of the decade, with the organization of numerous competitions and airshows that captured the attention of the public and the state, especially the military who saw infinite possibilities in a weapon like the plane, leading to an acceleration in the development of both aircraft and airships. The first skyscrapers were built in the Americas while the cities of Europe and Asia adopted new urban renewal and enhancement measures necessary to accommodate the growing population on the line of the Haussmanizations of the late 19th century, creating metropolis with streets for tram cars and illuminated by electricity. The Western population was increasingly educated thanks to widespread literacy programs and the continuous construction of universities and technical institutes that prepared the new generations to continue the work of their parents. The increase in individual wealth and national prosperity led to a three-year period of good feelings for the future, somewhat detached from the reality of the facts.
From an ideological point of view, the political class made up of conservatives, liberals and socialists (now institutionalized as social democrats) was undergoing targeted attacks from right and left: the breaking of the most extremist wings of socialist parities, seen as moderates by now, had led to the foundation of the communist parties, more extremist and militant than their former colleagues who aimed at the definitive upheaval of society through revolution, as indicated by Marx. These, to coordinate their global revolutionary efforts, founded the Third International (1920), expelling the social democrats and moderate socialists seen as collaborators of the capitalists. Opposite from all over the political spectrum, communism had difficulty spreading. outside the factories where he competed with social democrats and legionaries.
The Ouroboros is the main symobol of legionarism, representing the eternal movement of society as the new eats the old to be eaten again in a perpetual cycle of action, movement and renovation, much to the delight of Avant-Garde movements
From the right, the assault came from the adherents of legionarism, a right-wing ideology theorized at the beginning of the 1900s and then codified in the "Manifesto of the Legion" published in Milan in 1919 by Salvatore de Angelis, Mathieu Aubert, Hans Gallwitz and Olivia Reed: an eclectic mix of nationalism, syndicalism, corporatism, feminism, futurism, militarism and progressivism, Legionarism aimed to lead the march of mass society in a new era of progress and nationalism that would be inaugurated by the end of the traditional power structures and by breaking down social order to rebuild it to give a makeover to society. Many intellectuals from all over the world theoretically adhered to the manifesto and the proliferation of legionary parties began in 1920, gathering adherents from the working and middle classes. Although theorized in Europe, legionarism had its maximum diffusion in the American Republic which was plagued by economic stagnation and the lack of a serious workers' movement.
With the conclusion of the Cisplatine War, the world returned to normalcy, allowing its inhabitants to continue living their lives regardless of the fact that the political, colonial, economical and military tensions between the Great Powers were about to reach a breaking point.
Allegoric map of the Imperial Federation: the British Empire and it's culture spanned four continents and shaped much of the world to it's image, the Greatest Power, but it's position would soon be challenged by powerful competitors, both foe and ally
In 1918, the British Empire rearranged itself as the Imperial Federation, made up of Great Britain and more developed dominions (Canada, South Africa and Australasia). The federation established a single internal market protected by tariffs, the increased control of dominions over their internal affairs but still remaining closely bound to Westminster, an imperial military command and a Permanent Imperial Conference, a board made of members coming from all over the empire that managed imperial integration. The implementation of these new rules and the restructuring of the empire on a federal basis would have required some time during which Britain would have had to withdraw from international affairs and devote its attention to the internal reform of the country, the completion of which was indicated in 1924. The colonial administration remained in the hands of the British but the Canadian, South African and Australasian governments had more say in the management of the colonies on their continents, leaving to the motherland the dominion over Asia in particular India whose ruling class, which had mingled with the British to the point of being called Anglo-Indian, had made demands for limited self-government, granted in the form of open elections to upper castes in view of India's potential entry into the Federation in the indeterminate future.
Northern Germany was a center of technical, scientific and cultural innovation, but its governing structures remained archaic: the Prussian voting system was still in use in Prussia while smaller states such as Saxony and Hanover had adopted wider suffrages for the their own population, which became the reference model of the various social democratic and liberal groups that advocated for the reform of the voting system to definitively remove power from the Prussian landed aristocracy. Backed by private and state capital, the Pan-Germanist movement was back in vogue throughout the German area, spread by newspapers, university professors, radio and literal publications clamoring for a united Germany to resist French and Russian pressure. The Hohenzollern dynasty and the current Prussian king Wilhelm II made no secret of its ambitions to annex the states of southern Germany whose elites had always been opposed the Protestants of the north but whose populations were in complete agreement with the ideas coming from Prussia. In 1919 every southern German state had a Pan-German party, including Austria where the idea began to gain traction after Joseph III granted semi-independence to Hungary, leading certain intellectuals to think that the era of the Habsburg Empire was over and that the future lay in a unitary Germanic state. The broad popular support of these ideas fueled by numerous private donations (especially from northern tycoons) made the pan-Germanic parties real contenders in the elections despite the continuous attempts of the national parties to discredit them.
The rise of Pan-Germanism had created a feeling of profound insecurity in France which saw the realization of a unitary German state as a foregone consequence of the strong popular movement that accompanied it. The French knew best of all that if the popular will had not been nipped in the bud the only result would have been the revolution, that is the end of French domination on the continent: already undermined by the Italians, the rise of a united Germany would have been the gravestone for French ambitions. The French state embarked on a double offensive, diplomatic and military, aimed both at discrediting Pan-Germanism and at preparing for a possible war for the domination of the Germanic area. French weapons were some of the most advanced in the world and the population boom provided recruits and workers needed to support the war effort, but the armed forces were also fertile ground for the proliferation of monarchical ideas with many officers formally siding with the republic hiding their ideals in the scrutiny of republican security, guaranteeing the Droite a strong presence in the national security apparatus. Algeria had become the main relief valve for the French population who preferred the comfort of the Mediterranean to the far colonies of Senegal and Madagascar, filling the coast and the hinterland with French-speaking settlements to the chagrin of the natives who were becoming more marginalized and driven to the desert. Some natives chose to embrace French culture by converting to Christianity but most of the inhabitants of the Tell were opposed to European penetration and began to resist, only to be dispersed by aircraft and machine guns belonging to the Foreign Legion: the plan to Frenchize Algeria would proceed smoothly .
The gradual transition from coal to oil as a source of energy was the fortune of the Pacific Republic and Southern Confederation which with their oil fields in California and Texas became the main oil exporters by 1920, giving a significant boost to their economies which filled the industrial gap with the American Republic by increasing their wealth. The Southern Confederation's plan to create an economic empire in the Caribbean had received a major boost with the annexation of Cuba and the Confederate leaders were turning their eyes to Haiti and Central America, interested in their agricultural potential: investments in these states created gave rise to the economical predominance of Southron companies such as General Fruits and Ozark Mining, whose flow of resources was protected by the Confederate fleet which had become the main navy in the Caribbean with six dreadnoughts.
The continuous flow of Asian migrants had profoundly changed the racial makeup of the Pacific coast making whites a narrow majority within the state and creating much discomfort to the native inhabitants, therefore the political arena was divided between those who wanted to favor the integration of immigrants and a new national character and those who preferred. nativist policies aimed at preserving European culture, exacerbating the social situation to the point that in 1913 racial riots broke out in Los Angeles that saw Whites, Asians and Latinos openly fight each other on the street calling for the intervention of the army to quell the rebellion. The victory of the Progressive Party in 1916 allowed for a much fairier distribution of the oil wealth to the population, establishing the first national hospital service, founding higher education and expanding existing cities and infrastructure; this eased the racial tensions quite considerably, allowing for a more peaceful society to be slowly created.
Oil wells on Long Beach, California: the rapid growth of the oil industry sparked a massive economic boom in the south-western states, allowing their citizens to thrive
The industrialization of Brazil and the modernization of the economies of its neighbors had thrown into crisis the industrial sector of the American Republic which, despite remaining the most prosperous nation of North America, fell into a period of economic stagnation that increased political polarization, attracting many workers to socialist and the new legionarist ideas that were beginning to spread in the western hemisphere, directed against the coastal elites seen as manipulators of the population. The Southern Confederation's alignment with France prompted the Republic to tighten its ties with the Imperial Federation in search of a sponsor for the potential reunification of the United States, an idea that was beginning to make its way into political circles and propagated in the streets between the enthusiasm of the population.
The Shogunate of Japan was experiencing a period of great national prosperity now that the benefits of industrialization had begun to be evident, sparking a feeling of national pride that strengthened the Japanese ideal and the foundation of the Shogunate, now ruled by Tokugawa Ieasu, heir by Yoshinobu. The annexation of the Philippines in 1905 and Korea in 1912 had shifted the army's focus from the country to the colonies that were being pacified, allowing the Shogun to begin a process of decentralization and democratization of the Japanese state by implementing suffrage for literate males. over 25 and breaking the power base of the old Daymo by creating a system of prefectures run by one of the best bureaucracies in the world. Great conglomerates like Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Yasuda were the backbone of the national economy, each producing a multitude of industrial and consumer goods, in particular Japanese shipbuilding and motor works were quite appreciated. Workers' rights began to receive attention after the four bombings of 1915 to strangle the popularity of the nascent Japanese socialist party which was having luck among proletarians subjected to exploitation for the past century: shorter working hours along with safety regulations, pensions and primary health care did the job, restoring social peace. For the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the Rising Sun would take on more responsibility in Asia, starting with the expansion of its navy in an anti-Russian perspective: in 1922 the Japanese navy could deploy 12 dreadnoughts against the 7 Russian ones anchored in Vladivostok.
In 1917 the Russian Empire under the leadership of the triumvirate had initiated a naval expansion program destined to be completed in 1927 producing 12 dreadnoughts and dozens of capital and minor ships, signaling to the world the Russian intention to bridge the naval gap with the Imperial Federation to compete for the title of pre-eminent world power. The extension of the railway network in Siberia and the colonization of the region had made Asian Russia a source of raw materials destined to feed the growing hunger for resources of the industries that had developed along the St. Petersburg-Moscow-Tzaritzyn line, the latter a planned city for which the government did not spare rubles by envisioning it a as the center of a future industrial zone on the Volga connected to the industry of southern Ukraine. A duma elected by the upper middle classes guaranteed a minimum of representation to the population that could be said to be satisfied with the level of democracy, which had never been higher in Russia and extended to Belarus, Finland and the Ukraine; certain regions were excluded from the democratic process such as the Baltic, Poland, Central Asia and the Caucasus, except in the Russian enclaves due to the intense Russification process which had been most successful in Kazakhstan, where about 60% of the population was now of Russian origin. Resentment towards Russians was increasing among non-Slavic populations who saw them as oppressors: after all, the progress that had affected the empire had never reached these areas except in the form of improved military infrastructure and oil facilities; this led part of the population to agitate following independence leaders, increasing the workload of the Okhrana, already engaged in the suppression of the socialists.
The civil and military technological evolution did not slow down and the global increase in wealth led to the spread of conveniences such as electricity, telephone, radio, cars and airplanes with the flight assuming the status of the icon of the end of the decade, with the organization of numerous competitions and airshows that captured the attention of the public and the state, especially the military who saw infinite possibilities in a weapon like the plane, leading to an acceleration in the development of both aircraft and airships. The first skyscrapers were built in the Americas while the cities of Europe and Asia adopted new urban renewal and enhancement measures necessary to accommodate the growing population on the line of the Haussmanizations of the late 19th century, creating metropolis with streets for tram cars and illuminated by electricity. The Western population was increasingly educated thanks to widespread literacy programs and the continuous construction of universities and technical institutes that prepared the new generations to continue the work of their parents. The increase in individual wealth and national prosperity led to a three-year period of good feelings for the future, somewhat detached from the reality of the facts.
From an ideological point of view, the political class made up of conservatives, liberals and socialists (now institutionalized as social democrats) was undergoing targeted attacks from right and left: the breaking of the most extremist wings of socialist parities, seen as moderates by now, had led to the foundation of the communist parties, more extremist and militant than their former colleagues who aimed at the definitive upheaval of society through revolution, as indicated by Marx. These, to coordinate their global revolutionary efforts, founded the Third International (1920), expelling the social democrats and moderate socialists seen as collaborators of the capitalists. Opposite from all over the political spectrum, communism had difficulty spreading. outside the factories where he competed with social democrats and legionaries.
The Ouroboros is the main symobol of legionarism, representing the eternal movement of society as the new eats the old to be eaten again in a perpetual cycle of action, movement and renovation, much to the delight of Avant-Garde movements
From the right, the assault came from the adherents of legionarism, a right-wing ideology theorized at the beginning of the 1900s and then codified in the "Manifesto of the Legion" published in Milan in 1919 by Salvatore de Angelis, Mathieu Aubert, Hans Gallwitz and Olivia Reed: an eclectic mix of nationalism, syndicalism, corporatism, feminism, futurism, militarism and progressivism, Legionarism aimed to lead the march of mass society in a new era of progress and nationalism that would be inaugurated by the end of the traditional power structures and by breaking down social order to rebuild it to give a makeover to society. Many intellectuals from all over the world theoretically adhered to the manifesto and the proliferation of legionary parties began in 1920, gathering adherents from the working and middle classes. Although theorized in Europe, legionarism had its maximum diffusion in the American Republic which was plagued by economic stagnation and the lack of a serious workers' movement.
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The world is teetering between war and peace.
Only time will tell which one will happen.
Only time will tell which one will happen.
66. THE UMBERTINE AGE IV
Deleted member 147289
66. UMBERTINE AGE IV
Seventy years after the fateful moment when Carlo Alberto decided to ford the Ticino to lead the Piedmontese armies to liberate Lombardy-VenetIA, the Italian peninsula had gone from being "a geographical expression" to one of the main world powers: the value of its people was undisputed in international circles, as was their resourcefulness and ingenuity, signs of the great respect that the Italians had accumulated among the European peoples but unfortunately Italy was plagued by an archaic government structure that prevented access to the modern age.
The idea that had emerged over the last thirty years on how to solve the problem was that of federalism that had found expression in the Italian Federal Party: Prime Minister Riva was a great supporter of the idea and his deputy Levi was a theorist of the project, commissioned by the government to study a federal structure for the nation that was presented to the king and the council of ministers in 1916. What should have been a simple law took on the character of a constitutional reform of proportions never seen before in Italy, going to replace the Statuto Albertino. Umberto I was now approaching the end of his years and decided that a similar reform was necessary to cement his legacy to the Italian people, as well as to honor the memory of his grandfather, so it was that on February 1, 1918 the Umbertine Constitution was promulgated.
The official flag of the Federation; each state had it's own flag which consisted in a tricolor with a national symbol
It's main points were:
An administrative map of the federal states
New elections were set for autumn 1920 as indicated by the constitution and were won with a large majority by the Federal party reconfirming the Riva-Levi duumvirate at the helm of the country, respectively as Prime Minister and President of the Senate. Levi was the most powerful Jew in Italy, assuming the third most important position in the civil administration, reflecting the increasingly high engagement of the Israelites in Italian life due to their growing numbers due to the attrctiveness of the boot which was one of the most Jew friendly states in Europe
A project shared by the Federal and Liberal parties was the Italianization and integration into the federation of Tunisia and Libya, now firmly under Italian control, which with their favorable climatic conditions were the perfect outlet for the ever-growing Italian population ( exceeding 50 million at the end of the 1910s): migrants from the south and the north poured into the “fourth shore” colonizing the hinterland that lent itself to modern agriculture and the coasts were industrialized. The local population became a minority in its territory but, due to the low numbers especially in Libya and many chose the path of assimilation also because the Italians did not impose stringent criteria as in France. The colonization effort was reserved for the Mediterranean shores, having Eritrea (the other main African colony) reached parity between Italians and indigenous people, to consolidate the control of the two shores: the central Mediterranean became an area of exclusive Italian competence except for Malta.
By the 1920s Tripoli was an Italian city, much like Tunis or Benghazi.
Italy had a reliable ally in Northern Europe in Northern Germany: the dynastic ties created through the marriage of Emanuele of Savoy and Viktoria of Prussia were just one of the many aspects of the cooperation between the two countries that extended on a commercial, scientific and military level.. The worsening of the geopolitical situation prompted the two great powers to sign the Double Alliance in Berlin in 1915, affirming the mutual intention to help each other in the event of an external attack and to support each other diplomatically in the pursuit of their objectives. The Imperial Federation was also an important Italian ally even if their relationship was not formalized by any treaty; from the British point of view Italy was a fundamental ally to contain the Russian advance in the Mediterranean since the Ottoman Empire was subjected to strong ethnic pressures, especially in the Balkan area
The development of new locomotives and the ever wider diffusion of motor vehicles was the opportunity that the Italian government was waiting for to undertake a project of expansion and restructuring of the existing infrastructures; the progress in construction techniques had made the once inaccessible landscape of the peninsula accessible to any railway line through the construction of bridges and tunnels that crossed the Apennines, especially in the South which had now reached a comfortable standard of living. New ports were built and the existing ones were enlarged, dams and power plants were built and above all the first highway in Italy and Europe was built between 1918 and 1921 connecting Milan with Lake Como. This, together with the autodrome built outside Monza, was synonymous with the growing fascination of Italians with motor vehicles produced by the first car manufacturers: LAS, Vaccari, Adami and Dutto became recognizable vehicle brands all over the world.
The Autostrada dei Laghi was the first of it's kind in Europe and was entered by paying a fare at the checkpoint when entering and exiting the highway
The personal pride of Umberto I were the armed forces, admired as per the tradition of the Savoy kings who saw in the army and its loyalty a fundamental component of their power.
The Royal Italian Federal Army had three million troops deployed all over the globe, from China to the Horn of Africa, from Savoy to Friuli, charged with protecting Italian borders and interests: The army was built on the Prussian model, seen as the most effective, with a universal male conscription system and the maintenance of about two million reservists; the special units were expanded including the Bersaglieri, the elite light infantry, the Lagunari, marine infantry specialized in landings and green light was given to Colonel Roberto Maino to experiment with the launch of men equipped with parachutes from an airplane Innovations such as tanks, armored cars, heavy artillery and SMGs were viewed with great interest by the military which in the last decade had shifted its continental focus from defensive to an aggressive one
The Royal Federal Navy was the single largest naval force in the Mediterranean, with 10 dreadnoughts in the region and another 6 around the world, for a total of six fleets accompanied by hundreds of minor support vessels such as tankers, coalers, destroyers and cruisers; the fleets protected Italian trade and provided security to colonies far from the motherland. The construction of new naval bases in Africa and Asia, as well as the expansion of the ports of Genoa, Livorno, Palermo, Taranto and Tunis to accommodate the increasingly large infrastructure required for ships. The larger capital ships began to embark on reconnaissance seaplanes even though many visionary officers looked with interest to England where the first ships entirely dedicated to the transport of aircraft were being built, a revolutionary idea.
Aviation was the newest force but unlike some countries it was already an independent weapon framed as the Royal Federal Air Force, its development was favored by the proliferation of aircraft production plants that made Italy one of the leaders in the production of civilian and military planes, producing fighters, bombers and transport and racing aircrafts, experimenting with new designs in an attempt to abandon biplanes for monoplane, which promised well in testing.
A flight of Sforza-Minetti I-21 seaplanes. The I-20 was protagonist of a trip around the world under the command of Colonel Gabriele Luce, starting from Italy then going to Brazil, the former USA, Japan, India, the Ottoman Empire, North Germany, England and France. The flight captured global imagination making the Italian aviators global heroes and launching the era of comfortable local seaplane travel especially in the Caribbean, Japan and the Mediterranean
Seventy years after the fateful moment when Carlo Alberto decided to ford the Ticino to lead the Piedmontese armies to liberate Lombardy-VenetIA, the Italian peninsula had gone from being "a geographical expression" to one of the main world powers: the value of its people was undisputed in international circles, as was their resourcefulness and ingenuity, signs of the great respect that the Italians had accumulated among the European peoples but unfortunately Italy was plagued by an archaic government structure that prevented access to the modern age.
The idea that had emerged over the last thirty years on how to solve the problem was that of federalism that had found expression in the Italian Federal Party: Prime Minister Riva was a great supporter of the idea and his deputy Levi was a theorist of the project, commissioned by the government to study a federal structure for the nation that was presented to the king and the council of ministers in 1916. What should have been a simple law took on the character of a constitutional reform of proportions never seen before in Italy, going to replace the Statuto Albertino. Umberto I was now approaching the end of his years and decided that a similar reform was necessary to cement his legacy to the Italian people, as well as to honor the memory of his grandfather, so it was that on February 1, 1918 the Umbertine Constitution was promulgated.
The official flag of the Federation; each state had it's own flag which consisted in a tricolor with a national symbol
It's main points were:
- The Italian Confederation would transform in the Federal Kingdom of Italy, whose crown would have belonged to the king of Piedmont who would ruled from Rome
- The Federation would have been composed of 8 states: Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, Republic of Venice, United Provinces of Emilia, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Principality of Adria, Roman Republic, Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily, all subordinated to Piedmont through political, historical and cultural ties.
- Legislative power would belong to two federal chambers, the Chamber and the Senate, the first elected on a national basis with universal male suffrage to give representation to the citizens of the Federation while the second would have been elected on a state basis. The Prime Minister will be expressed by the majority of the Chamber and is the head of government, receives the position with blessing from the king and has legislative initiative; the Senate is composed of a number of members proportional to the population of the individual states and legislates on matters indicated as state competence, the areas of competence of the two chambers do not overlap except in some cases where the approval of both is required, otherwise the approval of a single chamber is enough, the President of the Senate is chosen by the Prime Minister and is usually his deputy. Elections for both chambers are held every 5 years.
- Every single state will elect a national parliament every 4 years whose head is either the president or the local monarch, in the second case it will appoint the head of the majority as Prime Minister and order him to govern in his or her place. The states will decide independently the criteria for the election of their own government.
- National defense belongs to the federation, the king is the head of all armed forces that swear undisputed loyalty to him, the maintenance of public order is left to the individual states who will have to set up a national police and maintain a contingent of no less of 20,000 men as a national guard. The Carabinieri are the federal gendarmerie with authority in all states.
- The Federation is committed to maintaining, preserving, promoting and developing Italian culture together with the states: the official language is standard Italian developed by the Accademia della Crusca and taught in schools, but individual states strive to protect their unique cultural identity. inserted in the larger fabric of the common Italian identity that unites all the inhabitants of the Federation
- Trade between states will take place without the imposition of customs barriers or other methods of discouraging trade, the Federation will regulate trade between itself and foreign states with non-binding opinion of individual states, private property is the basis of the economy, freedom of enterprise is guaranteed as well as the protection of workers from the worst abuses as the first national productive engine. Taxes are collected by the states and then given to the federation that oversees the entire process
- The right to education would be granted to all citizens as well as the right to dignified health and hygiene conditions, which the federation together with the individual states would provide.
- The king holds the legislative initiative and the power of veto over the laws of both chambers, he can grant a pardon and the Prime Minister answers to him.
An administrative map of the federal states
New elections were set for autumn 1920 as indicated by the constitution and were won with a large majority by the Federal party reconfirming the Riva-Levi duumvirate at the helm of the country, respectively as Prime Minister and President of the Senate. Levi was the most powerful Jew in Italy, assuming the third most important position in the civil administration, reflecting the increasingly high engagement of the Israelites in Italian life due to their growing numbers due to the attrctiveness of the boot which was one of the most Jew friendly states in Europe
A project shared by the Federal and Liberal parties was the Italianization and integration into the federation of Tunisia and Libya, now firmly under Italian control, which with their favorable climatic conditions were the perfect outlet for the ever-growing Italian population ( exceeding 50 million at the end of the 1910s): migrants from the south and the north poured into the “fourth shore” colonizing the hinterland that lent itself to modern agriculture and the coasts were industrialized. The local population became a minority in its territory but, due to the low numbers especially in Libya and many chose the path of assimilation also because the Italians did not impose stringent criteria as in France. The colonization effort was reserved for the Mediterranean shores, having Eritrea (the other main African colony) reached parity between Italians and indigenous people, to consolidate the control of the two shores: the central Mediterranean became an area of exclusive Italian competence except for Malta.
By the 1920s Tripoli was an Italian city, much like Tunis or Benghazi.
Italy had a reliable ally in Northern Europe in Northern Germany: the dynastic ties created through the marriage of Emanuele of Savoy and Viktoria of Prussia were just one of the many aspects of the cooperation between the two countries that extended on a commercial, scientific and military level.. The worsening of the geopolitical situation prompted the two great powers to sign the Double Alliance in Berlin in 1915, affirming the mutual intention to help each other in the event of an external attack and to support each other diplomatically in the pursuit of their objectives. The Imperial Federation was also an important Italian ally even if their relationship was not formalized by any treaty; from the British point of view Italy was a fundamental ally to contain the Russian advance in the Mediterranean since the Ottoman Empire was subjected to strong ethnic pressures, especially in the Balkan area
The development of new locomotives and the ever wider diffusion of motor vehicles was the opportunity that the Italian government was waiting for to undertake a project of expansion and restructuring of the existing infrastructures; the progress in construction techniques had made the once inaccessible landscape of the peninsula accessible to any railway line through the construction of bridges and tunnels that crossed the Apennines, especially in the South which had now reached a comfortable standard of living. New ports were built and the existing ones were enlarged, dams and power plants were built and above all the first highway in Italy and Europe was built between 1918 and 1921 connecting Milan with Lake Como. This, together with the autodrome built outside Monza, was synonymous with the growing fascination of Italians with motor vehicles produced by the first car manufacturers: LAS, Vaccari, Adami and Dutto became recognizable vehicle brands all over the world.
The Autostrada dei Laghi was the first of it's kind in Europe and was entered by paying a fare at the checkpoint when entering and exiting the highway
The personal pride of Umberto I were the armed forces, admired as per the tradition of the Savoy kings who saw in the army and its loyalty a fundamental component of their power.
The Royal Italian Federal Army had three million troops deployed all over the globe, from China to the Horn of Africa, from Savoy to Friuli, charged with protecting Italian borders and interests: The army was built on the Prussian model, seen as the most effective, with a universal male conscription system and the maintenance of about two million reservists; the special units were expanded including the Bersaglieri, the elite light infantry, the Lagunari, marine infantry specialized in landings and green light was given to Colonel Roberto Maino to experiment with the launch of men equipped with parachutes from an airplane Innovations such as tanks, armored cars, heavy artillery and SMGs were viewed with great interest by the military which in the last decade had shifted its continental focus from defensive to an aggressive one
The Royal Federal Navy was the single largest naval force in the Mediterranean, with 10 dreadnoughts in the region and another 6 around the world, for a total of six fleets accompanied by hundreds of minor support vessels such as tankers, coalers, destroyers and cruisers; the fleets protected Italian trade and provided security to colonies far from the motherland. The construction of new naval bases in Africa and Asia, as well as the expansion of the ports of Genoa, Livorno, Palermo, Taranto and Tunis to accommodate the increasingly large infrastructure required for ships. The larger capital ships began to embark on reconnaissance seaplanes even though many visionary officers looked with interest to England where the first ships entirely dedicated to the transport of aircraft were being built, a revolutionary idea.
Aviation was the newest force but unlike some countries it was already an independent weapon framed as the Royal Federal Air Force, its development was favored by the proliferation of aircraft production plants that made Italy one of the leaders in the production of civilian and military planes, producing fighters, bombers and transport and racing aircrafts, experimenting with new designs in an attempt to abandon biplanes for monoplane, which promised well in testing.
A flight of Sforza-Minetti I-21 seaplanes. The I-20 was protagonist of a trip around the world under the command of Colonel Gabriele Luce, starting from Italy then going to Brazil, the former USA, Japan, India, the Ottoman Empire, North Germany, England and France. The flight captured global imagination making the Italian aviators global heroes and launching the era of comfortable local seaplane travel especially in the Caribbean, Japan and the Mediterranean
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Just found this TL and I love it!
America is very interesting in my opinion with three distinct successor states to the USA forming and developing differently from each other. The unfavourable economic situation in the north and the quick enrichment of their neighbours thanks to black gold will definitely be the cause for much resentment. What I'd like to see is a more in depth detail of their administration, culture, etc, but I think that it's outside this TL's scope.
Italy is shaping up to be a powerful nation, much more than OTL and comparable to French levels, I'm curious about the population figure, did you calculate it or decided on a plausible number? European Immigration to North Africa looks much more consistent than OTL so would there be a chance that both Italy and France maintain their African shore assuming that decolonization happens?
Deleted member 147289
I'll see what I can do about America even if it might come later...
About the population numbers I cross referenced italian census from 1861 to 1920 with immigration from Italy to the rest of the world and removed much of them as the more favourable economy leads to more people remaining. Thus census plus migration plus something more from the TL gives around 50 million, not lower.
It's early to talk about decolonization but I have a feeling that those areas will be well integrated in their Metropole to be lost
i kinda hope that the tunesians and lybians will form smth like a brother relationahip and integrate into the state properly we could probably have a bunch of tunesians living in sicily. I think its pretty likely becuase the Italians seem to treat their subjects fairly okay. maybe a popular class in italy in the late 20th century and beyond could be arabic
Deleted member 147289
I think that it's kinda early for that kind of integration, for now Libyans ant Tunisians would remain in North Africa, adapting themselves to the Italian way of life while their society modernizes and liberalizes. The two groups (Italians and Arabs) tend to keep to themselves with few intermixing, but with time and effort integration might be complete
The fact we didn't have a great war in the 1910s would make one in the late 1920s or early 1930s way more destructive, but maybe can avoid a more devasting reprisal later. I guess?
The renewed federalization of Italy is a step in the right direction, maybe it could work as it worked for Germany after all.
And well French paranoia is quite worrisome, but I wonder what would be the eventual trigger at this point as North Germany as for now is in sort of a stall. Maybe would be Russia to create the decisive crisis? Or Austria...?
The renewed federalization of Italy is a step in the right direction, maybe it could work as it worked for Germany after all.
And well French paranoia is quite worrisome, but I wonder what would be the eventual trigger at this point as North Germany as for now is in sort of a stall. Maybe would be Russia to create the decisive crisis? Or Austria...?
Deleted member 147289
Despite believing that a Great War might be avoidable it really won't be OTL as tensions in Europe and Asia are kinda high right now. All that it is needed now is the right spark for everything to blow up. As for an eventual second round we'll have to see how the end of the war is handled, as Versailles made WW2 possible OTL.
As I see it there are three focal points: Southern Germany (the NGF wants to annex it while France is opposed to it while Austria is...kinda stagnating and it's evident to it's peoples)
The Persian-Indian border (let us not underestimate Imperial paranoia of a Russian invasion of India that ITTL has reached extremely high levels seeing that Russia "owns" Persia now)
Manchuria (Russo-Japanese rivalry at it's fullest, especially now that Japan has it's back covered by the Anglo-Japanese alliance and would seek to dominate the area)
oh for sure that its gonna take a while but i think it would be intresting to see propaganda pamphlets in an alt ww2 that read smth. like: "for our Brothers" to get more support from the tunesians and lybians in the empire. Wich leads to smth like a a good frienship between the two ethnicgroups later in the century.
@Gerna, are this "legionarists" TTL's fascists? Their Ourobos kinda remids me of the flag of Fiume when D'Annunzio established the Regency of Carnaro
Deleted member 147289
They are a third positionist right wing group, a mish mash of intellectual and practical ideas, I would not call them fascists but that would be the most comparable term
67. A TROUBLED LAND
Deleted member 147289
A TROUBLED LAND
The Balkans had remained quiet after the Balkan War of 1872-77, a business as bloody as it was destructive that left no choice for the smaller nations involved other than to rebuild and prepare for the future showdown that Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece knew that was coming against their ancestral enemy: their differences with the Ottomans were irreconcilable, stemming from four centuries of Turkish rule and repression on the Balkan Peninsula. A diplomatic solution was impossible to find, not among the inhabitants of the Balkans, for this reason the states, once they reached a satisfactory economic and social situation, channeled all their resources into militarization and support of the resistance to the Turkish occupation, especially in Bulgaria and Greece.
The Ottoman Empire, for its part, was perhaps experiencing the first era of peace, without riots and revolts, in many years: the Tanzimat reforms and the race to modernization, inspired by both European and Japanese neighbors, had given solid civil and economic foundations. to the empire: the codification of Ottoman law, combined with the strengthening of the judicial, administrative and security apparatus (with the creation of the Imperial Gendarmerie) had spread the word and the will of the sultan to the four corners of the empire; industrialization was confined to the major cities of the Anatolian peninsula such as Istanbul, Smyrna and Ankara while the rest of the Empire lived on agriculture and extraction, increasing the gap between Turks and non-Turks. The most profitable extraction was certainly that of the oil found in Iraq, near the Persian fields. When Persia left the English orbit to enter the Russian one, the Anglo-Persian oil company was expelled from the country and, starving for oil, turned to the Ottomans (who in the meantime had made an agreement with the Italian AIP and the German PPG ) for the exploitation of the fields, an offer that the Porte was happy to approve in exchange for a substantial percentage of the profits.
Costantinople was a multicultural city, a representation of what the Ottoman Empire might have been, but unfortunately wealth remained in the hands of the Turks who let other nationalities live in poor conditions.
Despite modernizations, liberalization, education, growing secularism in the Turkish-speaking area, the granting of a constitution in 1911 by the Sultan and the election of a representative body for the population, most of the empire remained underdeveloped and seen as a Turkish colony in the general resentment of the population, especially in the Balkans and Arabia: harsh repression, violence, taxes and incompetence generated only ethnic and social tensions in the multicultural empire that was under assault by the nationalist ideas that were spreading.
By the spring of 1920 the Ottomans were tired of the continuous guerrilla and passive resistance put in place by the Balkan Christians, especially the Bulgarians of Rumelia; traditional military action was impossible and the Turkish army did not have much experience in guerrilla warfare, but had many bloodthirsty commanders: frustrated, they decided to cut off manpower sources for the partisans by carrying out a harsh repression against the civilian population by looting, stealing , raping and killing indiscriminately. Together with the Turkish troops was British photographer William Marlcaster, who was doing a report on life conditions in the Balkans; when he saw the atrocities perpetrated by Ottoman irregulars he immediately began to document them by taking photos of mass graves, executions and raids which were sent to his he publishers in London; from there the photos went around the world and turned public opinion against the Ottomans.
When the survivors of ethnic cleansing fled their villages, they spread the word of the atrocities committed by the rulers on the population, increasing popular resentment that erupted in the Great Balkan Revolt during the spring of 1920 when tens of thousands of Bulgarians, Greeks and Macedonians rose up against Ottoman rule, expelling the Turkish garrisons from the countryside and taking control of some inhabited centers such as Plovdiv, Skopje and Thessaloniki, starting an activity of systematic ethnic cleansing and revenge against the Turks who settled in the region as a revenge for four centuries of abuses. The rebels received support from the neighboring countries of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, happy to provide weapons, explosives and training to the guerrillas.
With chaos spreading across the European part of the Ottoman Empire, the great powers of Russia and the Imperial Federation called a European conference on the state of the empire, which was held in St. Petersburg in July. All participants agreed on the need to expel the Ottomans from the Balkans, as they were no longer able to manage or integrate the local population and genocide was not the solution, but not all agreed on the borders that the new Balkan states should have: Russia asked for a shore on the Aegean Sea for its Bulgarian ally while the Imperial Federation claimed those territories for Greece, strong of the Greek minority that inhabited the Aegean coasts. Two distinct camps of European powers emerged at the conference, the Imperial Federation, Italy and the NGF against Russia, France and Austria-Hungary, and both factions were unwilling to concede. The conference would have failed had it not been for the news of the joint declaration of war by Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece against the Ottoman Empire, guilty of persecuting and slaughtering its people.
The Balkans had remained quiet after the Balkan War of 1872-77, a business as bloody as it was destructive that left no choice for the smaller nations involved other than to rebuild and prepare for the future showdown that Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece knew that was coming against their ancestral enemy: their differences with the Ottomans were irreconcilable, stemming from four centuries of Turkish rule and repression on the Balkan Peninsula. A diplomatic solution was impossible to find, not among the inhabitants of the Balkans, for this reason the states, once they reached a satisfactory economic and social situation, channeled all their resources into militarization and support of the resistance to the Turkish occupation, especially in Bulgaria and Greece.
The Ottoman Empire, for its part, was perhaps experiencing the first era of peace, without riots and revolts, in many years: the Tanzimat reforms and the race to modernization, inspired by both European and Japanese neighbors, had given solid civil and economic foundations. to the empire: the codification of Ottoman law, combined with the strengthening of the judicial, administrative and security apparatus (with the creation of the Imperial Gendarmerie) had spread the word and the will of the sultan to the four corners of the empire; industrialization was confined to the major cities of the Anatolian peninsula such as Istanbul, Smyrna and Ankara while the rest of the Empire lived on agriculture and extraction, increasing the gap between Turks and non-Turks. The most profitable extraction was certainly that of the oil found in Iraq, near the Persian fields. When Persia left the English orbit to enter the Russian one, the Anglo-Persian oil company was expelled from the country and, starving for oil, turned to the Ottomans (who in the meantime had made an agreement with the Italian AIP and the German PPG ) for the exploitation of the fields, an offer that the Porte was happy to approve in exchange for a substantial percentage of the profits.
Costantinople was a multicultural city, a representation of what the Ottoman Empire might have been, but unfortunately wealth remained in the hands of the Turks who let other nationalities live in poor conditions.
Despite modernizations, liberalization, education, growing secularism in the Turkish-speaking area, the granting of a constitution in 1911 by the Sultan and the election of a representative body for the population, most of the empire remained underdeveloped and seen as a Turkish colony in the general resentment of the population, especially in the Balkans and Arabia: harsh repression, violence, taxes and incompetence generated only ethnic and social tensions in the multicultural empire that was under assault by the nationalist ideas that were spreading.
By the spring of 1920 the Ottomans were tired of the continuous guerrilla and passive resistance put in place by the Balkan Christians, especially the Bulgarians of Rumelia; traditional military action was impossible and the Turkish army did not have much experience in guerrilla warfare, but had many bloodthirsty commanders: frustrated, they decided to cut off manpower sources for the partisans by carrying out a harsh repression against the civilian population by looting, stealing , raping and killing indiscriminately. Together with the Turkish troops was British photographer William Marlcaster, who was doing a report on life conditions in the Balkans; when he saw the atrocities perpetrated by Ottoman irregulars he immediately began to document them by taking photos of mass graves, executions and raids which were sent to his he publishers in London; from there the photos went around the world and turned public opinion against the Ottomans.
When the survivors of ethnic cleansing fled their villages, they spread the word of the atrocities committed by the rulers on the population, increasing popular resentment that erupted in the Great Balkan Revolt during the spring of 1920 when tens of thousands of Bulgarians, Greeks and Macedonians rose up against Ottoman rule, expelling the Turkish garrisons from the countryside and taking control of some inhabited centers such as Plovdiv, Skopje and Thessaloniki, starting an activity of systematic ethnic cleansing and revenge against the Turks who settled in the region as a revenge for four centuries of abuses. The rebels received support from the neighboring countries of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece, happy to provide weapons, explosives and training to the guerrillas.
With chaos spreading across the European part of the Ottoman Empire, the great powers of Russia and the Imperial Federation called a European conference on the state of the empire, which was held in St. Petersburg in July. All participants agreed on the need to expel the Ottomans from the Balkans, as they were no longer able to manage or integrate the local population and genocide was not the solution, but not all agreed on the borders that the new Balkan states should have: Russia asked for a shore on the Aegean Sea for its Bulgarian ally while the Imperial Federation claimed those territories for Greece, strong of the Greek minority that inhabited the Aegean coasts. Two distinct camps of European powers emerged at the conference, the Imperial Federation, Italy and the NGF against Russia, France and Austria-Hungary, and both factions were unwilling to concede. The conference would have failed had it not been for the news of the joint declaration of war by Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece against the Ottoman Empire, guilty of persecuting and slaughtering its people.