Italico Valore - A more successful 1848 revolution in Italy - a TL

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41. OPENING THE DANCES

The Prussian army opened hostilities by marching into Bohemia the day after the declaration of war. Their commander, Von Moltke, had planned a meticulous campaign to bring about a quick conclusion to the conflict as he was advised by Bismarck, who was sure that if they fought the Austrians for too long there would be the possibility of a French military intervention in favor of the Empire.

The Prussian 3rd Corps was the spearhead of the advance and was the first to cross the Sudetenland and head towards Prague. During the crossing of the mountainous region the first armed clash took place between the vanguard of the 3rd and the 44th Austrian infantry brigade in the town of Trautenau, a skirmish that was resolved in a few hours with the Prussian victory and the escape of the Austrians. Two other corps would take part in operations in Bohemia: the 4th, stationed in Kattowitz and headed for Brno, and the 2nd, which would occupy Saxony before proceeding to Prague.

Prussia's declaration of war on Austria divided the German states into two camps: the first was the North German one led by Prussia and made up of the Protestant states which had fallen under the Prussian orbit thanks to the work of Bismarck; the second was that of the southern Catholic nations and Saxony, closely linked to Austria with which they sided in favor. Unfortunately, none of these nations were aware of Bismarck's plans and therefore they lost the first weeks of the war mobilizing their troops, allowing time for the Prussians, represented by the 1st and 5th Corps, to advance rapidly south and reach the borders. of Baden and Bavaria, securing the support of the smaller states.

The Italians immediately made the Austrians feel the pressure in the first weeks of the war, launching diversionary attacks on the Tagliamento in the hope of finding a poorly defended point in which to force a ford and establish a bridgehead. The men were under the command of General Alessandro San Marzano who had the distinction of having fought, and having distinguished himself, in every war in which Italy had participated, from 1848 to 1882.

The Confederate Navy was placed on maximum alert and sent to the Adriatic where it began to hunt down the Austrian merchant ships and lone military ships they could find. A more decisive attack was launched by General Tancredi Saletta with 75,000 men in Trentino, advancing along the shores of Lake Garda and the Adige river. The difficult terrain favored the defenders with forced passes for the attackers but the lack of heavy equipment prevented the Austrians from exploiting their advantage, allowing the Italians to reach Rovereto on 12 June.

 

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42. ENTERING BOHEMIA

On the 10th of June Dresden surrendered to the Prussian troops after a lightning campaign by the 2nd Corps that routed the small Saxon army in the battle of Colditz. Saxony was occupied by Prussian reservists as a launching point for a Sudeten crossing to Prague. The three corps would have acted independently of each other according to a predetermined plan and carefully observed by Von Moltke.

The real baptism of fire of the 2nd Corps took place in the Battle of Aussig, where they clashed with 15,000 Austrians and Saxons. On the 14th the Prussians arrived in the city and conquered it after a battle in the main streets that lasted all morning. Taken by the momentum, the infantrymen crossed the Elbe and established a bridgehead on the other bank, resisting the Austrian counterattacks from the surrounding forests all afternoon and night which, together with the few imperial artillery present, managed to inflict heavy losses on the Prussians massed on the other bank, but at dawn on the 15th it was clear to the commander of the 2nd Corps that his men had won and the enemy was retreating.

The cities of the Sudetenland fell one by one into the hands of the Prussians who advanced among the Germanic population of the region, who were not very happy to see them, but they did not cause any problems for the advancing army in their land. On the 17th of June the northern Sudetenland was effectively in the hands of the Prussians and the Austrians were scrambling to send reinforcements to Bohemia, hoping to stop the Prussian advance by placing most of the imperial army between the enemies and Prague, the clear objective of the advance. But the poor state of the imperial railways made the transfer of troops from Hungary very slow and inefficient.

Bersaglieri holding off Austrian forces during the battle of Canussio-Fraforeano
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Further south, on June 15th, the Italians had launched a devastating offensive aimed at the towns of Canussio and Fraforeano, identified by the scouts as the "weakest" points along the Tagliamento: with the favor of darkness, men forded the river and took control of the Austrian fortifications, while the engineers were preparing to establish a bridge of boats to cross as many soldiers as possible. On the morning of the 16th the Austrian counterattack was not long in coming and, until the night of the 22nd, the two sides fought fiercely to overwhelm the other. The battle of Canussio-Fraforeano was among the most violent of the war but managed to attract enough Austrians to the area to allow the rest of the Italian army to launch a second general offensive along the Tagliamento on the 21st of June which resulted in the crossing of the river in several points, moving the first line in the Friulian hinterland.

 

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43. MOVING FRONTLINES

While the rest of the army was occupied in the violent battle of the Tagliamento, Tancredi Saletta was able to reach Trento and enter the city which, at the news of the arrival of the Italians, rose up and expelled the Austrians in the same way as many cities in the Po Valley rose up during the War of Independence, allowing Saletta's troops to occupy the city and begin fortifying the area. Trento was built along the easiest road to descend to Italy from the Brenner Pass and therefore the Austrians would certainly try to take it back. These considerations led the Italian commander to leave the bulk of his forces along the Adige and to send the rest to ensure control of Trentino to cover the flank of San Marzano.

On the 26th the Prussian III Corps arrived near the Český ráj where, in the unconsciousness of the Prussian commander, about five Austrian divisions had gathered, sent to protect the eastern flank of Prague. The battle began immediately at the crack of dawn with an Austrian attack that was repulsed, albeit with many casualties, in the early afternoon. For the rest of the day none of the armies decided to do battle and therefore the Prussians took the initiative on the 27th by marching directly into the Český ráj, conquering the castles of Trosky and Waldstein, defended to the last man and taken only with help from the artillery. For the next three days, armies clashed in the wooded and hilly terrain of the region, ambushing and assaulting camouflaged trenches in the trees. The battle of Český ráj was the most violent of the entire war and ended in the destruction of three Austrian divisions and the capture of the remaining two, in the face of serious Prussian losses that considerably reduced the strength of the III Corps which had now paved the way for Prague, but they no longer had the strength to conquer it.

Prussian Troops rush an Austrian Position in the Český ráj
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News of the defeat in the Ráj quickly reached Vienna. Maximilian, without listening to the assurances of his generals that they would win the war, ordered his diplomats to contact the European Great Powers, mainly France, to ask for a guarantee on the indissolubility of Austria in case of defeat. In the meantime, it was essential that the imperial army give the best proof of itself, so the inhabitants of Prague were conscripted to build trenches and fortifications around their city, knowing that they were the next target of two Prussian corps.

On 5 July the “Firenze” infantry division was annihilated by an ambush by two Austrian brigades in Palmanova, stopping the Italian advance towards Gorizia and Udine, which remained firmly in Austrian hands. Unlike the Prussians, the Italians had advanced slowly due to the limited Friulian spaces and the large concentration of Austrian soldiers in the area, more than 120,000, which were more than enough to wage a defensive war against 180.000 Italians. On the 6th the "Catania" division was heavily defeated in the battle of Tricesimo, putting an end to the advance of San Marzano in Friuli. Understanding that the Austrians were entrenched, the Italian general adivsed for a diversionary operation to take place, an idea that admiral Acton from the Navy quickly agreed.

 

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44. THE ISTRIAN GAMBLE

Admiral Acton and his naval staff developed a bold plan to divert the attention of the Austrians from Friuli. The plan consisted in luring the Austrian fleet into the open and then completely destroying it, all this followed by the landing of about 50,000 men in Istria.

On 10 July a task force led by the warship Re di Sardegna and composed of another warship and a dozen smaller ships sailed from Venice headed for the Gulf of Trieste. The Austrian lookouts quickly noticed the columns of smoke rising in the sky and understood that it must be the Italian Navy that was coming to shell Trieste. They immediately warned the Austrian fleet that sailed quickly and began to chase the task force which, as soon as it saw the smoke of the Austrians, reversed its course and began to flee towards Ancona, where most of the Italian fleet was located.

The Re di Sardegna before departing from Venice. Belonging to the Caio Duilio class, it was one of the most powerful ships in service to the Confederate Navy
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The Italian task force fled to the island of Premuda, pursued by the imperial fleet. Arriving on the island, the Re di Sardegna and its escorts slipped behind the island, leading the Austrian admiral to believe that he had trapped the Italians between his fleet and the Croatian coast. It was then that the rest of the Italian fleet, exploiting fog banks, showed up behind the Austrian fleet around 4 pm and began shelling it from a distance. The Austrians were caught between two fires when the task force emerged from the other side of the island and began shelling the enemy fleet, which was also inferior both numerically and qualitatively to the Italian fleet.

The battle of Premuda ended with the sinking of all the Austrian captal ships and the escape of some smaller ships which they managed to repair in the ports of Rijeka and Pola. With the Austrian navy neutralized, the second phase of the plan could begin again and the fleet set sail for Istria on the 12th of July, shelling the city of Pula and landing two naval infantry divisions which took the city in a few hours. The mainly Italian population was enthusiastic about the arrival of the Confederate troops they had been waiting for since 1848. About 50,000 Italian soldiers reached Istria in the following weeks and started advancing inland encountering little resistance from Austrian garrisons, which retreated north to meet with their own reinfocements, diverted from Friuli and, by July 20th the frontline had stabilized along the middle of the peninsula

 

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45. THE LAST BATTLES
The Prussians had noticed that Prague was being transformed into a great fortress by its inhabitants with trenches, fortified posts, barricades in the streets and obstacles aimed at making the city a death trap. Von Moltke, wanting to avoid wasting time and men in a useless siege of the city, gave orders to the II and III Corps to bypass the city and advance towards Austria, leaving some divisions to besiege the city, trapping 60.000 Austrian troops in Prague

Operations in Southern Germany, mainly in Bavaria, the only kingdom capable of mobilizing an army large enough to effectively oppose the Prussians, proceeded slowly, not being a main theater. Frankfurt was quickly occupied by the V ° Corps which began marching through the wooded hills of Baden towards Stuttgart, finding little resistance from the Wurttenberg army and occupying its capital on 1 July. The 1st Corps proceeded slowly in Franconia after the bloody nose they had received from the Bavarians in Bayeruth, on their way to Nuremberg, an essential stop to reach Munich. The Battle of Nuremberg involved 50,000 Prussians and 40,000 Austro-Bavarians who managed to inflict heavy casualties on the Prussians at the cost of half their forces. Despite the defeat, the 1st Corps continued its advance southwards, reaching Munich and besieging it on the 14th of July.

Prussian Soldiers hold the line against Bavarian attacks during the battle of Nuremberg​

With Prague surrounded, the Austrian situation had worsened considerably: the losses of the previous weeks as well as the loss of the garrison of the Bohemian capital had been a severe blow to the effectiveness of the imperial army which was in serious difficulty in finding other men and materials to stop it's enemies without compromising a flank. It didn't help that the empire was fighting two industrialized and heavily armed nations, its rivals for years, who had a great interest in winning the war.

San Marzano entered Udine on July 16th after a pitched battle fought the day before in the plains in front of the city. The Italian infantrymen had had to make their way between two lines of defense under the fire of the enemy guns, suffering substantial losses but managing to chase away the enemies with bayonets. The clashes between Italians and Austrians were more ferocious than those that the imperials fought with the Prussians, due to the profound hatred between the two peoples: the former saw the latter as oppressors, the latter saw the former as upstart to be crushed . Udine welcomed the Confederate troops with great joy, rising up during the retreat of the Austrians from the city.

Carabinieri on horseback suffer an accident on the road to Udine​

The arrival of the Italians on the Isonzo on July 24, the fall of Brno the previous day and the siege of Munich prompted the emperor Maximilian to dispose of his generals who insisted on the possibility of a military victory: the Hungarians had begun to agitate after the continuing series of defeats that the Austrian generals suffered from their enemies, increasing their resentment towards Vienna for having prolonged a war that in their opinion was impossible to win. To avoid a division of the empire, Maximilian sent armistice requests to negotiate peace to both the Prussians and the Italians, at the same time asking for French intervention as arbitrators of the peace and, more secretly, to avoid the dismemberment of the empire.

The first messages were rejected by the Prusso-Italians, convinced by now of the imminent capitulation of the Austrian empire, but the mobilization of the French army in Provence and Alsace together with a request from the French president, directed to Bismarck and Umberto II , to join him in the peace negotiations that would take place in Vienna, convinced the allies to halt their advance. However, both refused to hold the conference in Vienna and the Italians proposed Venice; the proposal was accepted by the four parties and the date of August 5th was set as the beginning of the peace negotiations

 

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46. PEACE OF VENICE

The beauty of Venice charmed the delegations of the conferences, who were often found wandering through the city when not discussing peace​

The delegations of the four countries involved in the war that was now called "Tripartite War" gathered in the city of Venice to discuss a satisfactory conclusion of the conflict.. Observers from Great Britain, Russia, Spain and Bavaria were invited to attend the negotiations, although the games would be directed by Prussians and Italians.

The Prussian delegation led by Bismarck and the Italian one led by count Corti, the Italian foreign minister, entered the conference strengthened by the numerous military victories over Austria, which however could still count on the support of France, not willing to see the empire dismembered as a carcass. Prussian demands were relatively mild: they demanded the payment of an indemnity for the war and the end of Austrian diplomatic influence in Northern Germany and the recognition of Prussian hegemony in the region, but they also asked for border revisions along the Sudetenland and Slesia. Austria had no choice than to agree to these demands as the French judged them fair.

Corti, in addition to a war indemnity, asked Austria to surrender the provinces of Trento, Friuli to the Isonzo and the Julian March to Italy. The first two requests seemed reasonable to the French since the Italians occupied that territory, but Austria strongly opposed the loss of the march, reasoning that Trieste was the main imperial port and its loss would have very strong repercussions on the imperial economy. and consequently would have led to an increase in ethnic and social unrest.

Not wanting the implosion of Austria, but also wanting to avoid alienating Italy with which they had always had cordial relations, the French proposed a partition of the region: Trieste would remain in Austria while the Italians would annex the southern part of Istria they already occupied. Corti asked Bismarck for diplomatic support to force the Franco-Austrian hand but the chancellor had already obtained what he wanted and dismissed the Italian requests declaring himself in favor of the division of the Julian march. Unable to break the stalemate, Corti was forced to consent to the partition of the brand, obtaining from France, in a secret stipulation, the creation of an area of exclusive Italian interest in the Adriatic and French diplomatic support for any Italian demand on Ottoman Libya

On August 14, 1882, the four delegations signed the peace of Venice, restoring peace to the European continent. Two weeks later, on the 28th, Von Bismarck and the prime ministers of the North German states including Saxony announced the creation of the North German Confederation using the confederal model that was first adopted by the Italian Confederation in 1849. The states of the Southern Germany refused Bismarck's offer to join the Confederacy, still hostile towards Prussia due to the recent war, preferring to strengthen ties between them and starting to make contact with France, seen as a possible defender of the aims. expansionists of Bismarck.

 

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The mediocre result obtained in the Balkan War had led the Russian Empire to enter a period of isolation and internal reflection led by the energetic Tsar Alexander II who was intent on pursuing his ambitions to modernize the empire.

The losses and waste of materials had ruined the image of the generals and burned their political capital, paving the way for a serious and complete reform of the armed forces: the 25-year conscription was abolished in favor of a national conscription for every male older than 21, lasting 2 years plus permanence in the reserve. The enormous influx of young men into the army allowed for the introduction of literacy programs during the detention but also to initiate the first emancipation of Russian women with the creation of the corps of nurses in the military health system, which gave jobs to hundreds of thousands of girls. The Russian military industry benefited from this influx of recruits as they now had to mass produce more equipment which lead to the opening of more factories.

The money to carry out the Tsar's reform program was obtained thanks to the sale of Alaska to the United Kingdom in 1888 for several tens of millions of Pounds, injecting a large amount of money into the Russian economy that allowed the import of industrial machinery. the opening of new schools and the creation of the first imperial hospitals in large Russian cities.

St. Petersburg boomed during the reign of Alexander II surpassing 1 million inhabitants in the late 1880s. In it's quest to compete with London, the Tsar encouraged the development of the city​

The infrastructure reform went hand in hand with the continuous industrial expansion financed by the massive exports of agricultural and mining products: the need to connect the whole empire from the Baltic to the Pacific became ever stronger with the continuous migration of serfs in Siberia in search of better living conditions, encouraged by the tsarist authorities. Before the works began in earnest, however, more attention was given to European Russia with the intention of creating a robust logistics network that would connect Ukrainian and Uralic production centers to large industrial cities in full expansion such as Moscow and St. Petersburg which, together with dozens from cities across the empire, had seen an influx of former peasants looking for work, often found in fledgling private and state-owned industrial enterprises.

The crowding of cities and the slow but gradual improvement in the living conditions of the population soon gave rise to an intellectual movement with a certain popular support, devoted to the reform of imperial institutions and a restriction of the powers of the tsar and autocracy, as well as humanitarian and trade union demands for factory workers, influenced by the works of Marx. The abolition of restrictions on the press in 1887 gave new life to this movement allowing its intellectuals to have a wider dissemination of their thought thanks to the proliferation of the press.

The rise of this movement worried the Tsar and the aristocracy because of its hyper-democratic and anti-autocratic tendencies, leading Alexander II to consider opening a popular representative body to appease the grievances of the population. These instruments of representation already existed locally under the name of Zemtsvo, one of the first reforms carried out by the Tsar. Thus in 1892 there was the birth of the imperial Duma in St. Petersburg, elected according to the criteria of wealth and literacy thus limiting the electorate to a mere 10% of the Russian population, and in this 10% the votes of the Russians counted more than those of the not Russians.

 

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48. THE UMBERTINE AGE I

The victory in the war with Austria infused the Italian people with a newfound patriotism reminiscent of the one which had crossed the peninsula during 1848-1849. With the signing of the peace of Venice, cities from north to south exploded in a spontaneous celebration of victory, decorating their cities with tricolor cockades and covering the soldiers who paraded through the streets of the main cities with flowers and kisses to celebrate their military success. Many consider 1882 as the true beginning of the Umbertine age, a period of great change and consolidation in Italy

Despite the Prussian apathy that caused a few breakdowns in diplomatic relations between the two countries, Italy had seen most of its claims satisfied in the peace negotiations with the annexation of Friuli, Trentino and southern Istria. Trieste, the main port on the Adriatic of the Austrian empire, as well as a city largely inhabited by Italians, had been missed by little. Friuli was added to the Italian Confederation as the Julian Republic in 1883 with claims on the rest of the Austrian Julian March; Istria was added to the territory of the Republic of Venice on a historical basis and Trentino was added to the Savoy dominions of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The king and parliament had an explosion in popularity among the Italian population who handed the Liberal government a large majority during the 1886 elections, giving Depretis the political capital to carry out his free market reforms aimed at making the Italy and above all the north fertile ground for the proliferation of capitalist enterprises, supported by the state and by the widespread prosperity in the region after forty years of continuous industrialization. One of the major achievements of the Depretis government was the abolition of child labor in factories, meaning that children had to go to school to educate themselves rather than sacrifice their education to work.

In 1888 Italy made a real economic transition as about 60% of national income came from industrial production which benefited from the growing decrease in importance of agriculture and the start of a massive infrastructure renewal plan wanted by the government led to the proliferation of hydroelectric plants especially in the south and along the Alps, which allowed industrial development in areas far from waterways. Thanks to giant leaps in the chemical and steel sectors, the 1880s and 1890s saw the proliferation of large Italian industries which prepared the ground for the future Italian economy dominated by large corporations.

Northern Italy in general and Milan in particular became the main hubs for Italian industry​

Among the largest we can remember the Colombo heavy industries that developed in Milan, specialized in metallurgy and steel making becoming the main producer of locomotives and railway parts of the confederation, the Beretta military industries saw an intense flow of state funds that allowed the company to expand its industrial facilities to the point of becoming the main supplier of small arms to the armed forces, as well as an arms exporter; Martinelli chemical companies developed in Tuscany and became an exporter of chemical products for agriculture and industrial processing. In naval production the Odero (in Liguria) and Palermo shipyards were distinguished, which launched civil and military ships on a daily basis. Credit for these companies was provided by the Bank of Italy, founded in 1887 to guarantee liquidity to companies and make them competitive on the international market. Italian companies turned out to be very virtuous as they were used to operating in a free market regime and Depretis' pro-business reforms facilitated this entry into the European and American markets with South America becoming one of the major markets for Italian products. .

The development of large industry in the north was offset by a proliferation of small and medium-sized businesses in the south that generally operated as subsidiaries of the Nordic conglomerates, shipping their products thanks to the dense railway network that had developed along the coasts. State economic intervention was strong but not pervasive in the south, preventing local industries from falling into welfare. The development of the south stopped the immigration of many people who now had a future in their homeland but this did not prevent an estimated number of 6 million people from emigrating to the Americas and Oceania from the second half of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The high birth rate, especially in the Northwest, mitigated the consequences of this mass exodus.

One aspect the government failed to regulate was the treatment of workers and people, men and women, employed in productive activities. Apart from some moral reforms such as the abolition of child labor, the labor laws of the Confederation remained those promulgated by Cavour during his first term with few changes: the minimum wage was derisory, there was no social security for those who could no longer work, working hours were not regulated and factory security was obsolete. To deal with this government inertia, the Italian workers, inspired by their European colleagues, began to join unions aimed at claiming and protecting their rights with strikes and demonstrations during which they often clashed with the carabinieri or the henchmen of the bosses as they saw. in the exploitation of workers the key to their success. Determined to make the struggle for workers' rights a national question, in 1892 the Party of Italian Workers was founded in Genoa, which in the elections of 1896 managed to win 25% of the seats in the lower chamber along with a modest number of senators, usually the most notable members of the party.

 

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49. THE DARK CONTINENT

Under Europe there was the so-called "Dark Continent", Africa. The north of the continent was controlled or directly influenced by the Mediterranean powers of Italy and France, with an English presence in Egypt. However, below the Sahara, the European presence had always been limited to coastal settlements along the Gulf of Guinea and in the Red Sea, unable to go deeper due to diseases and excessively hostile natives.

With the technological progress and industrialization that took place in the nineteenth century, advances in the field of medicine and firearms gave the possibility to explorers, missionaries and settlers to establish a stable presence in the African jungles and deserts, first of all the English in South Africa and the Franco-Italians in Algeria and Tunisia respectively. This influx of Europeans in search of resources and eager to explore and get to know the most remote corners of the continent guided by a thirst for adventure slowly removed the veil of mystery and secrecy that enveloped the continent which at the end of the 19th century was almost completely explored.

The main European powers had, over time, expanded their dominions inland by coming into contact with organized states such as Ethiopia, Mali and the Zulu, but also with populations alienated from the technological progress that had enveloped the world at the time, who easily fell under European influence or by their weapons. Uncontrolled colonial expansion was encouraged by national governments as an enterprise of civilization and prestige but in reality colonial life was, before the 1880s, harsh and unsafe, especially as there were no official borders and border skirmishes were frequent.

As European tensions cooled, Britain decided to host a congress in London to officially set the rules for European expansion into Africa and to protect indigenous peoples from abuse. In reality, the purpose of the conference was to divide Africa between the three major nations involved in the continent: Italy, France and Great Britain. The North German Federation, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Sweden attended the congress, while Russia and Japan refused because they had no interest in the Dark Continent.

The Congress of London marked the start of the Scramble for Africa as European Powers started to devote more resources to the exploration and exploitation of Africa​

The three main powers met in London in the summer of 1886 and quickly agreed on a tripartite division of the continent: the French would have a free hand in West Africa and a protectorate on Madagascar, the Italians in East Africa, including the recognition of a protectorate on Sudan which until then had belonged to the kingdom of Egypt, justified by the need to repress the Madhist rebels who made incursions in Ethiopia, an Italian ally. The British would eventually have South Africa by extending their influence to Lake Malawi. Portuguese possession over Angola and Mozambique was reaffirmed along with border corrections in Guinea while the North German Federation obtained colonies of Tanzania as a buffer between the Italian and British colonies.

The most controversial issue was on the Congo Basin, an area potentially full of precious resources and the areas of Gabon and Cameroon: Spain, Belgium and Sweden made claims on this large region that escaped the division of the continent, each supported by an ally: Italy. for Spain, France for Belgium and England for Sweden. After weeks of negotiations, the great powers decided to assign the Congo Basin to Sweden which refused to annex the territory directly but created the "African Humanitarian Society", a sort of free state in the Congo dedicated to the exploitation of local resources and the civilization of local population. Spain obtained Cameroon and Belgium Guinea, officially separating the British zone from the French one.

Liberia was recognized as a free and independent nation while Ethiopia officially entered the Italian sphere of influence as an unofficial protectorate recognized by the nations participating in the conference. The division of the continent between the European powers had the effect of calming the tensions still present on the continent through the diversion of the attention of the various nations on the African colonies, triggering a veritable colonial fever.

Libya remained the only African territory in the hands of a non-European nation, the Ottoman Empire, which was suffering a period of economic depression and international withdrawal following the humiliation suffered in the Balkan War. The decline of the Empire was evident to the European powers, who decided to adopt a wait and see attitude and intervening when the situation became critical. Italy instead decided, led by Prime Minister Zanardelli who succeeded Depretis after his death in 1889, to intervene in the decline of the Ottoman Empire: thanks to the positive budget, the Confederation decided to offer several million Lire to the Ottomans in exchange for the territories of Cyrenaica and Fezzan. The Ottomans were receptive to the offer and in 1891 the terms of the exchange were finalized.

 

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50. THE THREE AMERICAS


With the end of the civil war, the dream of the founding fathers of a free, democratic nation interested in the pursuit of happiness was extinguished with the end of the gunshots. Three nations had succeeded the old America and two of them proclaimed themselves to be the "real" America, true to the ideals of the enlightened men who wrote the declaration of independence. United by a very similar cultural substrate, the three successor nations began the second half of the 19th century in search of a unique national identity, as opposed to other views as illegitimate or treacherous.

The American Republic remained firmly under the leadership of the republicans, John C. Freemont and Abraham Lincoln: under their leadership a new constitutional convention met in Philadelphia and built a new America: a strongly abolitionist presidential federal republic. Being in possession of the main sanctuaries of the war of independence it took little to monopolize the patriotic epic, placing themselves as the true heirs to Washington.

Abraham Lincoln, first Vice President of the American Republic and later Second President of the Republic​

The Republic had two advantages: it was the most industrialized state in North America, as well as the most populous. The state and its politicians enjoyed a very high level of support in the coastal metropolises, especially from big business that had grown rich with war orders and the "robber barons" who together formed the upper classes, the elite of the Republic. In turn, the politicians favored the creation of monopolies in the hands of a few families or groups of associates called "cartels" giving rise to an economy dominated by a small group of mega corporations that controlled the small and medium businesses dependent on them for materials and goods .

An allegory depicting a "robber baron", exchanging money for tax cuts and contracts​

Another interest of the Republic was to increase its population with which to meet the needs of the continuously developing industry which in the meantime had expanded to the great lakes in what will be called "steel belt", the heart of American heavy industry. The solution to the shortage of labor was, in addition to encouraging births, to encourage immigration from Europe: millions of poor Italians from the north-east and south, Austro-Hungarian subjects belonging to non-Germanic minorities, Poles, Jews and Germans set sail in the period 1870 -1920 to the American Republic, attracted by the promise of higher wages, guaranteed basic living conditions or the promise of 100 acres of land to the west for those who wished to cultivate them.

The arrival of millions of mainly Catholic and Jewish immigrants was the first sign of what the Republic would become: a melting pot of European cultures and religions that through their mixture would create American culture. Not everyone, however, was happy with this policy of open doors, especially the democrats who remained in the north who led the WASP nativist movements strongly opposed to immigration but, apart from some isolated cases of violence, they never had great diffusion among the population. who, after a period of mistrust, began to warm up towards the new Americans.

Hundreds of European migrants crowd the bridge of a liner directed to New York​

Being close to Canada and the British Empire by extension, the Republic found it easy to orient its foreign policy in order to get closer to England, seen as a potential protector from the Union to the south, but also as a lucrative market and the key to access. to the European markets, so desired by the Republic. A real alliance was never reached, but the American Republic came very close to the Empire and its allied nations, such as Italy.

With the United States dissolved what remained of the federal government resuscitated as the Southern Confederation, a looser union of states dominated by the most populous ones and the presidency as Breckenridge and the Democrats remained the undisputed masters of the nation with the exodus of the few remaining Republicans to the north. The Southern Confederation had, in practice, lost the civil war: they had not maintained the union and had lost the peace. When the peace celebrations ended this reality fell on the thinking heads of the nation, forcing them to a work of soul searching to understand where and what they did wrong, so that they could address the problems that plagued the nation.

The first "problem" was slavery: economic experts knew that in a world in constant industrialization, staying anchored to an agricultural economy based on the strength of men and not machines was a sure way to stay behind, especially compared to the hated Republic. It was also necessary to pay the war debts and with the lowering of the price of cotton agriculture was no longer a viable alternative, so it was necessary to do the thing that had caused the secession: start phasing out slavery. The solution fell on emancipation diluted in 10 years, to give the landowners time to withstand the blow of the loss of slaves; these, once released, often found themselves working for their former masters as free men. It is therefore not surprising that many chose to emigrate west or to Liberia aided by government-organized programs; a small minority migrated to the Republic and South America.

The landowners were not thrilled to let go of their free labor but eventually had to bow to Washington's will. Slowly the economy began to shift from large landowners (who nevertheless remained an important force in the economy) to small and medium-sized industries, mainly concentrated in Virginia, Louisiana and Georgia, although the production of luxury agricultural products remained an important part. of state revenues.

After a rocky start, Southern industry flourished during the late XIX century
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The Southern Confederation was not spared the wave of migration but suffered it in smaller numbers than the Republic due to the difference in prosperity between the two nations: the lower wages and less well-off living conditions of the rural south were not ideal conditions for a stream of migrants, but many people, especially German, British and Scandinavian Protestants, found their way to the Confederation by landing in Norfolk or New Orleans and spreading along the coasts. The few Catholic immigrants were victims of a pro-WASP anti-Catholic movement similar to that of the Republic, made up of vigilantes who made life difficult for papists, but also for blacks and native minorities in the territory. American society thus became informally stratified, a sort of unwritten hierarchy that had to be respected and applied.

With the progress enveloping the Southern Confederation United States from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains, the time came to look outward once the period of national adjustment was over. Ambassadors were sent to Europe, especially to France, seen as an example of republicanism, in search of a military alliance and close commercial relations, but also to verify the European interest in fighting a war in the Americas: the south had long since placed his eyes on Cuba and had begun a work of shipbuilding and militarization in view of a potential conflict to snatch it from Spain, which since 1896 was grappling with an independence rebellion financed and equipped by the United States.

With its heart in California, the Republic of Pacifica could be considered the "newest" nation born from the dissolution of the United States, sparsely populated and not very developed, it seceded from the union because it did not want to remain part of a slave state and the Federal authorities had not yet had time to cement themselves along the Pacific coasts, but the presence of gold and natural resources had convinced millions of people to migrate to Pacifica from the east, reducing the labor problem and allowing the young nation to begin exploiting the better their own resources.

Chinese railroad workers. Asian immigration to Pacifica helped alleviate the manpower shortage but generated racial and cultural tensions between it's inhabitants​

Pacifica was a state that could not afford to refuse anyone, and as China opened its gates for emigration, a wave of millions upon millions of Chinese and Asians poured along the peaceful coasts drawn by the promises of freedom, land. and gold: these masses of workers considered cynically expendable because of their numbers gave an incredible impetus to the Pacific economy by contributing to the construction of roads, railways, bridges, infrastructures and industries, as well as to settle throughout the national territory: in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, Asians represented the second ethnic group after whites and, although racial tensions remained between the two groups that were initially separated, over time there was a cultural amalgamation between Americans and Asians in a similar way to what it was happening in the American Republic.

The Pacific economy was based on trade primarily with the American nations with which they exchanged their resources and then towards other states in the Pacific, such as South America and Japan which was in full economic and industrial boom. Japan became, from the end of the 1880s, the main commercial and economic partner of the Confederation, with constant investments by the large Japanese conglomerates in the American coasts, especially after the discovery of oil in California. Hawaii was occupied i 1897 by the Pacific navy and it's monarchy overthrown, becoming one of the main trade hubs between the republic and Japan

San Francisco during the late '800s​

The capital of Pacifica was moved in 1876 to San Francisco from Sacramento; the Republic of Pacifica was a unitary republic, unlike its Atlantic cousins, in which the states had been replaced by provinces and counties whose administrators were elected locally by the population. Legislation is entrusted to the Pacific congress, a unicameral parliament elected by the population once every five years, when the president is elected who is usually a high-ranking member of the congress.

 

[Deleted member 147289]

51. THE UMBERTINE AGE II

The groom and the bride of the decade: Emanuele di Savoia and Viktoria of Prussia: the union between the couple was based on mutual interest: the young prince was dashing and adventurous, while the prussian princess was a woman of great vitality​

The last decade of the 19th century began with the marriage between Emanuele di Savoia, eldest son of Umberto I and Alice, and Viktoria of Prussia, daughter of the now deceased king of Prussia Frederick III and his wife Victoria. With their mothers being sisters, the spouses had had numerous opportunities to meet and hang out during the family visits to Berlin and Turin that had taken place over the years as Alice wanted to maintain good relations with her sisters. The wedding took place in the summer of 1890 in Turin, in the presence of the Savoy, Coburg-Gotha and Hohenzollern families, together with guests from all over the continent and from both Japan and the US, places that Emanuele had visited during his youth. The union of the young couple was both a love marriage and a political one: Emanuele and Vittoria really loved each other, to the delight of their parents, but the union was also a great way to strengthen the ties between Italy and North Germany after they they had cooled down following Bismarck's indisposition to side with the Italians during the negotiations in Venice. After the wedding, the couple went on a long honeymoon from Sicily to Prussia.

Leo XIII would succeed Pius IX and lead the Catholic Church to a doctrinal and social rejuvination worldwide with the expansion of missionary work in Asia and Africa while fighting the socialists for influence among the masses​

Relations between the Italian Confederation and the Catholic Church had always been rocky since the proclamation of the Roman Republic and the flight of Pius IX but with the death of the pontiff and the election of Leo XIII, relations between the Holy See and the Italian state began to progressively improve. The new pope was aware of the isolation into which the church had entered after the loss of Rome, favored by the Italian authorities who wanted to limit Catholic influence, therefore it would be necessary to re-establish cordial diplomatic relations with the Confederation. These were reached after a decade of meetings between the Vatican secretaries and representatives of the Zanardelli government. Leo XIII directed the church towards a renewed social commitment, elaborating a social doctrine aimed at making religion a central aspect of Italian life, supported in part by the government which, after 1896, preferred that the lower classes turn to the church rather than to the socialists.

The ruling class had a wake up call after the election of the socialists and scrambled to find a leader and a program to prevent further socialist gains​

The election in 1896 saw the newborn Italian Socialist Party conquer ¼ of the parliamentary seats, throwing conservatives and liberals into panic: after forty years of absolute domination of the Italian political sphere, the two majority parties had lost the consent of a large slice of the electorate which, with continued industrial expansion, would only increase along with its electoral weight, since virtually every male born after 1848 had received a basic education which was the main requirement for access to the right to vote. Although the socialists immediately stood in opposition and began to demand greater rights for the workers, the consequences of their victory were a strong political shock for the majority forces who were awakened from their lethargy and began a long process of ideological modernization.

The most ambitious project undertaken by the Confederation in the Umbertine era was not to create a colonial empire from the Mediterranean to China, but it was the urban renewal of Rome: from the 1860s the fashion of redeveloping cities had begun to spread in Europe, the first of which was Paris which underwent a process of “Hausmanisation” from the name of the designer of the works, Baron Haussmann. Paris was followed by London, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg and, initially, Milan. With the rise of Umberto I to the throne, the work in Milan was reduced after he announced that he wanted to transfer the capital of the Confederation to Rome once it had become a city worthy of the ancient Roman splendor. Dozens of architects across the confederation set to work but finally the project by Giovanni Ferrero, an architect, was accepted in 1884 and the works began a few months later.

Officially the "Monument to Carlo Alberto, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I", commonly referred to as "Vittoriano" or "Altar of the Fatherland" was a huge monument celebrating the heroes of the wars that Italy fought, especially the ones for unification​

The renewal of Rome proceeded quickly with huge construction sites that covered the center of the city: Ferrero's goal was to provide the eternal city with large boulevards that crossed the seven hills and bordered the Roman ruins that would become an emblem of the metropolis under construction. . The heart of the city would have been the "Altare della Patria", a gigantic monument to the Risorgimento and its heroes, conceived to celebrate the victories of Italy and designed in a classical style to give a sense of continuity between ancient Rome and modern Italy.

Pioneered by British and American activists, feminism found fertile terrain in Italy under the patronage of queen Alice​

The 90s were also a period of great conquests for Italian women: the meeting between Queen Alice and feminists Anna Mozzoni and Gualberta Beccari sanctioned the alliance between the Savoy monarchy and women's rights, given that the two exponents received the blessing of the queen in carrying on their work. The political influence of Alice and the literary influence of Mozzoni and Beccari contributed to raise awareness in the general public about the condition of women and consequently led the government to introduce more and more laws and provisions to raise the status of women and, at the confederal level, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was the first confederate state to grant women the right to vote for the election of the Tuscan parliament, followed in a short time by the Roman and Julian republics.

P.S. Bonus points for who recognizes Emanuele di Savoia's portrait

 

[Deleted member 147289]

52. AN EASTERN POWER

Japan had, after the conclusion of the Boshin War, experienced an intense period of modernization and reform led by Shogun Yoshinobu which aimed to put Japan on an equal footing with Western powers: he had seen what their technology could do and was convinced that if the Japanese didn't learn from the Europeans they would go the way of the Chinese: humiliated and defeated. The reforms affected every aspect of society: culture, the army, customs and education. Thousands of Western experts were summoned to Japan to share their knowledge especially in the industrial, mining, legislative, banking, economic and military fields to reshape Japanese institutions.

Yoshinobu Tokugawa in miitary uniform during the late 1880s
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Railways and telegraph lines proliferated, as well as an ambitious universal basic education project inspired by the one adopted in Italy. The Western calendar was adopted and European clothing was introduced which quickly became the trademark of the rising bourgeoisie of the big cities. The introduction of Western literature stimulated local literary production which in a few decades had a global spread.

Railways and steamships in a printing depicting the people in western clothing and brick houses​

With the modernization of the nation also began to spread a movement dedicated to the establishment of democracy and a greater participation of the population in the political process that had been carried out by the court of the Shogun, composed of some of the best statesmen in the world. In 1890 Yoshinobu and Emperor Meiji promulgated the first constitution of modern Japan: in it the emperor remained head of the state as well as spiritual of the nation and appointed the Shogun, who would serve as head of the government. The emperor, however, remained devoid of effective powers except for the possibility of the Shogun to confer with him or to be able to propose laws in limited cases, making the head of the government, the Shogun, the true figure of power in the new Japan. A bicameral parliament was established in which the lower house was elected by citizens who exceeded the requirements of education and wealth, restricting the electorate to just under 10% of the Japanese population, while the upper house was appointed directly by the Shogun who received an imperial blessing to do so.

A session of the house of peers, appointed by the emperor and the shogun, the upper house was the real heart of the Japanese political process​

At the beginning of the 1890s Japan had reached a level of development comparable to the great European powers and, after having abolished the unequal treaties with the Westerners, including the return of the port of Sasebo, turned its gaze towards the outside influenced by European imperialist attitudes in Africa. Universal conscription on the Prussian model had endowed Japan with a large army to pursue these conquests and the fact that Japan was made up of islands gave a strong boost to the shipping industry The Ryuku Islands were annexed after a weak Chinese protest which considered the islands an imperial possession and integrated into the Japanese bureaucratic structure. The island of Hokkaido was pacified and a commission was established for the settlement of the island, offering lavish incentives to those who moved there.

Having secured control over the home islands, Japan turned its gaze to what was perceived as the main threat to Japanese rise, namely China which remained an Asian colossus. The natural bridge between Japan and China was Korea, and the Shogunate directed funds and resources to the peninsula to secure a friendly government. A reactionary anti-foreign rebellion that deposed the foreign friendly monarchy in 1896 was the opportunity that the Japanese army was waiting for to intervene militarily in the peninsula and an expeditionary force of 40,000 men was sent to suppress the revolt and restore a monarchy favorable to Japan. The intervention was successful but China refused to recognize the new Korean government, sending the modern Beiyang army (armed and trained by the French) to the peninsula to expel the Japanese and restore order, starting the Korean War.

Japanese marines storm a Chinese battery during the bloody siege of Pyongyang. The Japanese often employed advanced tactics which along with machineguns and artillery, were devastating on the Chinese troops
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During the Korean War, the Japanese army gave a very good test of itself thanks to rigorous training, high morale and simpler supply lines as Japan produced all the military equipment it used itself while China resorted to massive imports. The battles of Kaesong and Pyongyang saw the Japanese win against the much more numerous Chinese thanks to their tenacity and flexibility of command which allowed the commanders on the ground to better exploit the opportunities that presented themselves while the rigid Chinese army failed to adapt to the fluidity of the battlefield. The final confrontation of the war took place off the Shandong Peninsula where the modern Japanese navy sunk the majority of the Beiyang Fleet during an ambush. Defenceless and defeated, the Chinese were forced to ask for peace before the Japanese entered Manchuria. The Seoul treaty sanctioned the end of the war, the payment of massive reparations from China to Japan and the independence of the Kingdom of Korea which became a Japanese satellite; the Japanese also obtained a concession to Weihaiwei, the island of Formosa and the surrounding archipelagos as well as the payment of a large war indemnity by the Chinese.

The Beyiang fleet is annihlated by Japanese warships off the coast of Shandong. The decisive defeat and the consequent shelling of Tientsin made the Chinese reconsider their position and showed the value of the Japanese Navy​

 

[Deleted member 147289]

53. SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR

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After independence from Spanish and Portuguese rule, South America had remained a particularly quiet continent: under the umbrella of the Monroe doctrine, the Latin nations had not suffered any particular influence from the European powers until the outbreak of the American Civil War. With their guardian collapsed, the great powers found ways to increase their involvement in South American affairs by seeing in the region important economic markets but also a perfect place to find resources such as coffee, rubber and tropical wood.

Aside from two relatively large wars, the Cisplatine and Triple Alliance Wars, fought between the great regional powers of Brazil and Argentina, the rest of the continent had settled their disputes with relatively minor conflicts or civil wars, such as the one that led to the breakup of the Peru-Bolivia confederation. The relative tranquility of the continent made it a favorite destination for immigrants who left Europe receiving millions of migrants, not as many as the United States, but enough to allow the major nations (Brazil, Argentina and Chile which together received 90% of all the arrivals) to have a more diverse and knowledgeable population, especially among the more educated migrants. East Prussia, Italy's Northeast, the Honshu countryside, the Hungarian plains and Ukraine provided the vast majority of arrivals to the continent.

Japanese farmers in Brazil. The empire was the largest recipient of Asian migrants, mainly Japanese, who formed a sizeable minority of the Brazilian population​

Of the three most important nations, the Empire of Brazil was the strongest economically and militarily: after the political disaster of the war of the Triple Alliance, Emperor Pedro II had taken a great interest in the governmental management of the country and the accommodation of various factions that made up his government, finding it tedious at first but eventually becoming a skilled player. Pedro then passed his knowledge to his son Pedro Alfonso to whom he was strongly attached after the young Pedro Alfonso, aged 2, contracted a terrible fever and saved himself for what the doctors had called "a miracle". Slavery was officially abolished in 1889 but the liberation of the slaves would happen in a gradual way and no later than 1900 to allow landowners to withstand the blow, also thanks to the modest state subsidies that alleviated the loss.

A newly opened factory in Rio de Janeiro. The Empire of Brazil made large investments in it's industry, hoping to emulate the United States, Europe and Japan in their effort
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Brazil also had easy access to foreign credit and this was allowed by the empire's stability and exports. Pedro II instructed his ministers to use this capital to finance the industrialization of the south coast, mainly Rio and Sao Paulo, by importing foreign machinery and experts to accelerate the development of the nation which was experiencing an internal movement from countryside to coast with the abolition of slavery and the progressive modernization of agriculture even if the estates remained prevalent in the North. The republican revolutionaries who had begun to plague the civilian government in the last decade realized that it was the last chance to overthrow the monarchy and launched a coup in 1891 with sympathetic units of the army but the population and the remainder of the army were largely in favor. to the monarchy and quickly repelled the republicans who were driven underground by repression.

The last republican rebels surrender to the loyalist army, marking the end of the coup of 1891​

Pedro II died in 1891 and the throne passed to his heir Pedro Alfonso I who enjoyed wide popular fame thanks to his interest in grievances of the lower classes, was respected by intellectuals thanks to his great culture, by the army for his military career and by politicians for the education his father had given him. The new emperor had been greatly influenced by his travels to America and Europe and was intent on transforming the Brazilian monarchy into a real constitutional monarchy like in the United Kingdom, a transformation that took place in 1898 after a long preparation of the ground, and only for those who met educational standards, limiting suffrage. Princess Isabella, the emperor's sister, became his chief advisor. Having a woman educated and considered as the princess in the mechanisms of government created friction between the councilors and the Braganza, but Pedro Alfonso often took the part of his sister, especially regarding the emancipation of women and the integration of minorities in Brazilian society.

Emulating Paris, Rome and Vienna, Rio de Janeiro was developed in as a grand imperial capital, fitting of the largest nation of the continent​

Industrialization affected the coastal areas and the Minias Gerais region, which received large state funds to facilitate the opening of new industrial plants. The trade policy was protectionist as Brazilian goods would not have been able to compete with foreign ones, therefore tariffs were raised which until the twentieth century allowed the nascent Brazilian industry to develop without having to fear foreign competition. Taken by the economic boom of the late XIX century the American Republic turned its gaze to Latin America in search of luxury agricultural products and rare raw materials, and the largest producer was Brazil. In an attempt to circumvent the protectionist tariffs, the Americans offered large investments to the empire along with offers to modernize the army and navy by selling American ships at discounted prices. Pedro Alfonso and the Conservative government accepted the offer, increasing their political ties to the American Republic.

The second power of the continent was Argentina: after the victorious War of the Triple Alliance and numerous territorial acquisitions in the north such as Misiones and Chaco, the liberal government began to invest in the modernization of infrastructure and especially agriculture as it was the main source of exports. Despite the government's proactivity, the nation's development never took off as hoped and popular discontent brought conservatives to rule in 1880.

Families migrated from Europe represented the main category of settlers in Patagonia and the furthest reaches of Argentina, blending their cultural identities with the Platine one​

During the conservative government the Argentine republic expanded its borders in Patagonia until it reached the Strait of Magellan, fighting a campaign of colonization and guerilla warfare against the natives who resisted the arrival of settlers in the region, generating comparisons between the conquest of the West and the Patagonia which was declared pacified in 1890. Argentina was hit by the migratory wave that poured into South America welcoming numerous migrants on its territory who increased the population thanks to an easy path to citizenship, government incentives that offered 100 acres of land to anyone who wanted to open a ranch or farm and sufficiently robust democratic institutions.

The conservative rule led to 30 years of political stability that allowed large foreign investments, especially British, in the agricultural and extractive sector: unlike Brazil, Argentina remained a purely agricultural economy well beyond the 20th century, developing an industrial sector.totally devoted to armaments and shipbuilding, both of which are necessary to compete militarily with their Brazilian rival. The prevalence of agriculture, however, did not mean that Argentina remained a poor and underdeveloped country, on the contrary, its agricultural goods found fertile ground in European markets which proved especially greedy for Argentine meat. The economic affluence allowed the government to carry out the education reform by creating a secular and free instruction open to all young people up to 12 years, improving the educational base of the population but alienated the Catholic church which had always had a strong presence in education of young people, starting a marked division between church and state.

Buenos Aires was the largest city in Argentina and it's main Port and industrial center​

The liberal party lost popularity especially among the lower strata of the population in favor of the newborn socialist party which, not being rooted in an industrial state, had to diversify its ideological base by including the rights of peasants and ranchers in its platform. The growing popularity of socialists and anarchists led to the two-year period of social chaos 1897-1899 which saw an expansion in the numbers and tasks of the army that supported the police in the repression of the red movement.

Chile was the scene in 1891 of a violent civil war between the supporters of President Balmaceda and the congressional junta which arose as a result of differences between the presidency and the congress. The president was supported by most of the Chilean army and enjoyed decent popular support while the congress enjoyed the favor of the Chilean navy and a small part of the army.

A naval engagement during the Chilean Civil War​

The hostilities began with the mutiny of the navy swearing allegiance to the congress that had declared the president illegitimate, while the news spread throughout the country and the various provinces declared their loyalty to the mutineers or the loyalists. The armed confrontation lasted 9 months and saw the presidential dominion over the land and the congressional domination over the sea. The duration of the confrontation was long enough to allow other South American nations to intervene supporting one or the other faction such as Brazil which sided in support of President Balmaceda. With foreign help, the presidential army was able to repeatedly defeat the rebels until their prestige was so low that the population began to abandon them. On September 15, the Chilean fleet scuttled itself and its commanders, along with the surviving congressional leaders, crossed the Andean border with Argentina, and then finally took refuge in the United States.

The end of the war led to a substantial reorganization of Chilean civil society which was re-founded on three pillars: the liberal party and its political machine, the army that had gained immense prestige with the victory in the civil war and the alliance between the aristocrats Basque-Castilians and the captains of industry of the cities, transforming Chile into an oligarchic one-party state where the opposition was too weak, repressed or controlled to be really dangerous.

 

[Deleted member 147289]

54. THE ITALIAN COLONIAL EMPIRE

The Italian colonial empire at the dawn of the twentieth century was one of the largest in the world: from Tunis Xiamen, passing through Mogadisco, Aceh, Saigon and Xiamen it was second only to the British one in size and wealth. Wealth that flowed regularly from the extremes to the center of the empire, the metropolis, Italy, that used these resources to power its industrial machine: rubber, oil and rare metals were thrown into the jaws of industrial conglomerates that transformed them into consumer goods, weapons and ships that were then shipped to the four corners of the globe generating a flow of wealth and a condition of prosperity never seen in Italy for a thousand years.

The empire was as vast as it was varied and within it the Ministry of Colonies had created a double division of the territories into colonies of populations and colonies of economic exploitation. The former were regions with optimal characteristics such as location and climate, for large-scale colonization by Italians from all over the nation and recruited either through government programs or through private initiatives; the latter were colonies mainly dedicated to the economic exploitation of the resources present on their territory which were extracted or cultivated and then shipped directly to Italy or alternatively pre-processed on site as a proto industry managed by natives was developing in the coastal cities.

The main populating colonies were Tunisia, Libya and Eritrea. With no natural resources except their population, since the creation of a protectorate over Tunisia the Italian government had encouraged the colonization of the "Fourth Shore" of the Mediterranean, financing the brave settlers who decided to settle in North Africa, offering generous subsidies for farmers and for those who wished to settle in the cities. At the beginning of the 1900s about 35% of the Tunisian and Eritrean population was of Italian origin while in Libya the percentage dropped to 20%. The Italians granted citizenship to the Jewish communities present on condition that they assimilated and encouraged the cultural assimilation of the natives with the creation of schools and social programs to encourage aggregation but a part of the local population had always opposed the arrival of Europeans and it reacted to this perceived invasion with violence and attacks by fleeing into the Sahara, leading the army stationed in the colonies to develop innovative methods to hunt down the insurgents. The appearance of the airplane in 1903 and its adaptation for reconnaissance purposes in 1905 greatly facilitated the task of the colonial troops.

The best known colonies of exploitation were Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, equipped with numerous resources useful for Italian industries. Kenya and Uganda were administered by the Italian colonial authority which maintained its control over the territory through hordes of bureaucrats, soldiers and infrastructures that connected the production centers to the ports along the coast, the most important of which was that of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. . Ethiopia was instead a protectorate, ie the negus had sworn allegiance to the president of the Italian Confederation and was a loyal vassal; in exchange for the military and political protection provided by the Italians, the Ethiopians allowed them to exploit the natural resources present in their territory that they did not have the means to use: the Italian mining conglomerates, thanks to their superior technology, were able to begin the extraction of numerous minerals within the borders of the empire with the blessing of the negus.

Aceh was a protectorate like Ethiopia but, given the presence of resources such as rubber, it was more carefully administered by the colonial authorities, restricting the sultan to a mere popular figure while political and economic decisions were made in the central offices in Rome.

The Indochinese colony was a totally different type of colony: it was of a mixed type, that is, it encouraged both the settlement of Italians and adopted an economic structure based on the collection of resources such as rubber, in great demand at home with the increasing complexity of processes and industrial products. The colony of Xiamen was a separate subdivision administered directly by the ministry of colonies in order to keep an open door for the entry of Italian products into China and their exchange for precious local products, the city developed, like all Chinese concessions, a Sino-European hybrid culture.

Relations between Italy and the only independent state in Southeast Asia, the kingdom of Siam, were biased in favor of European power. The Siam was found itself as a buffer between British Burma and Italian-French Vietnam and therefore was under constant European pressure to comply with their demands, imposing border adjustments or outright cessions as happened for Laos and Cambodia. Of the great powers, Italy was the one that had managed to impose itself more on the court of Rama V, compensating for the transfers with aid for modernization: the sending of specialists and professors, officers to train the army, bureaucrats to modernize the 'state apparatus and engineers to begin the modernization of the country's infrastructure, in order to cement Siam in the Italian sphere of influence in the early 1900s

 

[Deleted member 147289]

55. THE WORLD IN 1900

Finally...we have a MAP! I made it with paint so feel free to ask if you don't understand it

 

[Deleted member 147289]

56. BROKEN DRAGON

The forbidden city was the residence of the Chinese emperor, but the real power was in regent Cixi's hands​

China had suffered greatly in the last decades of the 19th century, repeatedly humiliated by the European powers and Japan, a nation that had been considered a vassal by Beijing until recently. Armed with their weapons, their technology and their industrialization, Westerners and their Eastern allies had won more and more concessions from the Qing Empire, so much so that the entire coast of the China Sea was dotted with settlements that foreigners used as trading centers, penetrating more and more into the Chinese hinterland and having easy access to the products that Europe had desired since ancient times.

Wushun societies were kung fu clubs crowded with angry people who were suffering economic hardship in China, blamed on the Western presence​

Western penetration combined with the spread of Christianity, industrialization and a new way of life had created resentment among the Chinese population who, faced with the humiliation suffered by modernity, withdrew more and more into their past: between the years 1890 and 1901 Thousands of associations were founded devoted to revere the Qing dynasty and expel foreigners, driven by a desire for revenge against the Europeans, called “Wushu” due to the type of martial arts that they practiced. The killing of four Chinese merchants in the Shanghai international settlement in 1902 sparked the ire of the population who began to attack the Europeans found outside the settlement in retaliation.

The Pearl of the Orient, Shanghai, was the seat of the large "International China Authority", an international business board dedicated to the regulation and expansion of commerce with China under the guise of the "Open Door Policy" and was also a large international settlement, a true cosmopolitan city​

When the news spread through China, tens of thousands of people saw it as the beginning of revenge against Westerners and the "Wushu" associations deployed all their personnel to the concessions and the diplomatic district of Beijing, putting Western presence in danger. Thus it was that forced by necessity the 7 powers that had legations in China (United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, NGF, Japan, Spain) assembled an international expeditionary force consisting of more than 300,000 men, most of them Russians. and Japanese. The Seven Nation Alliance saw the Qing Empire as an accomplice of the rioters and were intent on punishing Chinese insolence.

Soldiers belonging to the Seven Nation Alliance pose for a photo before the opening of hostilities​

The Russian army began an invasion of Manchuria using the railway lines that Russia had built to connect Valdivostok and Chita to Port Arthur, known in Chinese as Lushun. The recently defeated and poorly armed Beiyang army was unable to oppose the new Russian army, giving confidence to the generals in the effectiveness of their reforms, and descended from the north towards Beijing. Meanwhile, the remaining nations and the Japanese had sent small contingents to secure their concessions, using the bulk of their forces to land in Tientsin which esd the largest and closest port to Beijing, where. the assault on the legation quarter had been going on for two months now.

British and Japanese troops storm the Forbidden City. The Japanese once again impressed the Europeans with their tenacity and strategy​

The Japanese and French armies challenged each other in the race in Beijing, covered on the flank by Italians, Germans, Spaniards and English. Eventually the Foreign Legion was the first unit to reach the imperial capital and enter it, giving some well-deserved rest to the defenders of the legation quarter who, along with their families and Chinese refugees, were exhausted. When the Japanese stormed the Forbidden City they found no members of the imperial family but only secondary ministers: Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor and their ministers had fled before the western assault and were on their way to Shaanxi and would have been able to escape had they not been intercepted by a battalion of Bersaglieri about 40 km from the capital.

The platoon of Italian Bersaglieri who captured Cixi's imperial convoy pose for a photo in Peking. The unit was led by a young Carlo La Marmora, a descendeant of the unit's legendary founder Alessandro​

The capture of Cixi put an end to the organized resistance led by the imperial armies who, under the terms of the preliminary agreement that the 7 nations signed with the empress immediately after her capture, were redirected to suppress the insurgents. It took a whole year to restore China to a state of relative internal calm, during which violent repercussions hit hard those who had joined or only favored the anti-Western revolt; while the interior was being pacified the 7 powers gathered in Beijing for the signing of the homonymous treaty in which China would pay large reparations in gold and silver to the participating nations, it would open itself completely to foreign trade guaranteeing freedom of navigation and trade, would have protected Christian missionaries and Chinese converts, placed all of Manchuria under Russian influence, allowing them to station troops in the region as well as grant a series of further port concessions, extending the size of the existing ones or creating new ones under the administration of the “International China Authority ”located in Shanghai. The suppression of the Wushun revolt was a real breaking point for China, a national shock that would have had very important repercussions in its history. Teng Fei Hong, leader of the Chinese republican movement in exile said prophetically, “The Qing dynasty has lost the Mandate of Heaven. It is time for a new beginning ”.

Teng Fei Hong was the leading figure in the international Chinese republican movement​

The death of the Guangxu emperor in 1906, according to some killed by Cixi in an attempt to give a new beginning to the Qing dynasty with the appointment of the young Chungsan as successor, did nothing but exacerbate the uncertainties of the various factions which, aware of the continuous decline of the health of the empress, they began to make plans for a succession to power. The sudden death of Cixi in 1908 was the match that started the fire: as soon as death was known Manchu nobles, Beiyang generals, reactionaries and liberal westernizers agreed that the Qing had to go and thus disbanded the monarchy before prince Chungsan could be crowned emperor, sending him and his trusted serveant Zhang Li in exile (with a conspicious sum of gold). As soon as they left the plotters started bickering among themselves and the southern provinces formally separated from the north while nationalist rebels established independent Hui, Tibetan, Mongol and Uighyur states, starting the "chaos" period during which no faction was able to impose it's power and there was widespread fighting in the country. Seein the Qing Empire disgregate in front of their own eyes the Russians decided to intervene to secure their borders by invading Manchuria, denying the region to the Japanese.

The Far East in 1908​

 

[Deleted member 147289]

57. ITALIAN POLITICS IN EARLY 1900

The election of a sizeable minority of socialist deputies to the Confederate parliament profoundly shook the Italian political landscape by waking the old liberal parties from their lethargy and forcing them to realize that the Italy over which they had ruled for the past 52 years was now radically different from what they believed, making an examination of conscience on the part of the parties necessary if not obligatory in order to establish a political map for the future. The main parties that emerged from the reshuffle were:

ITALIAN FEDERAL PARTY: Heir to Cavour's Liberal-Federal party, the Italian Federal Party (PFI) was born in Turin on May 14, 1899 with the intention of renewing the ideas that allowed Italy to be united. Although it has two main currents within it, both agree on a series of common points such as federalism, the free market, strong national defense and the preservation of the social and hierarchical order of the nation. The two currents within it are the liberal one, led by Michele Barraco, who represents a vocal minority that rivals the liberals in influencing large national industries; the other current is the more conservative one, led by Andrea Riva and his deputy Francesco Levi, the majority wing of the party stands as a bulwark of order and tradition, resisting the rapid change proposed by the other parties. In foreign policy, both parties push for a Mediterranean sphere of influence, the development of colonies in North Africa with the dispatch of Italian colonists and an alliance with the NGC seen as a counterweight to Austria and France.

ITALIAN LIBERAL PARTY: Heir to the historical left inaugurated by Depretis, the Italian Liberal Party (PLI) was born in Rome on September 16, 1898 as a reorganization of the deputies of the liberal center belonging to the parliament. It is the most united party of those present in parliament under the leadership of Luigi Morelli, the liberal gray eminence, who manages to maintain an iron grip over the party by marginalizing the currents of thought deviating from the classical liberalism represented by the PLI. In favor of the abolition of all customs barriers, liberals enjoy the support of big business, intellectuals and most of the upper middle classes of the population, attracted by the ideas of personal and economic freedom, equality and personal improvement. Liberals aim not to upset the social order of things but are in favor of changes in the social fabric. In foreign policy they are the main proponents of colonial adventures and an anti-French alliance with Great Britain, seen as Italy's main rival at this time.

ITALIAN SOCIALIST PARTY: Born in 1892 from a union of intellectuals and trade unions, the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) is the main interpreter of the will of the Italian workers and peasants who demand greater rights and greater recognition for the sacrifices they make every day to make work the country. Antireligious, the PSI suffers from its anticlericalism in a country where the vast majority of the population is religious, often coming into conflict with the clerical authorities who never miss an opportunity to portray them in apocalyptic terms. The socialists have two currents within them: the reformists led by Filippo Barbera, the more moderate part of the party willing to cooperate with the establishment to progressively improve the living conditions of the population; and the maximalists led by the anarchist Vittorio De Santis who oppose any collaboration with the established order and aim at controlling the country to implement their own radical policies. Italian socialists are part of the socialist international and tend to prefer an isolationist policy preferring to focus on internal affairs.

Now let us look at the smaller parties that manage to enter parliament.

ITALIAN NATIONALIST ASSOCIATION: Born following Italy's failure to archieve it's golas after the Tripartite War, the Italian Nationalist Association (ANI) is headed by its founder Marco Oriani and is herald of all the irredentist and nationalist instances present in the confederation. In short, the political objective of the ANI is the annexation of the Italian-speaking territories still outside the Confederate borders, the acquisition of the Dalmatian coast and a series of Greek islands that belonged to the Republic of Venice in the past and finally the capture of Corsica. . They propose the application of protectionist economic measures against enemy or rival nations to favor Italian internal development, but they also have a social current that has begun to make its way among workers in "brown unions" demanding higher wages and better working conditions as the party believes that collaboration between working and upper class is necessary to archieve Italian unity, as well as a stronger role of women in society. Among it's ranks are the avant-garde artists of Italy, attracted by it's militarism, fururism, modernism and break from traditional values, the most famous of his supporters, however, is the famous Vate Salvatore De Angelis, famous throughout Italy for his adventurous and theoretical life of a new vaguely defined ideology, Legionarism.

ITALIAN REPUBLICAN PARTY: The Italian Republican Party (PRI) is the heir to the oldest Mazzinian republican tradition aiming to transform Italy from a Confederal Monarchy to a Republic. Founded by anti-monarchical liberals such as Gastone Mondelli, they share numerous ideas with their colleagues from the PLI, including freedom of trade and economic initiative, as well as private and personal. They are the most tending to an alliance with France seen as the beacon of all European republics.

 

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58. THE UMBERTINE AGE III

The twentieth century came after a politically tumultuous period for the Italian Confederation: the continuous growth of the socialist seats in parliement had increased their value exponentially, increasingly reducing the majority held by conservatives and liberals who had to seek more and more compromises with the reds in order to carry on. their legislation, compromises that the socialists did not consider satisfactory, demolishing the numerous bills and condemning the parliament to inactivity.

A strike in 1903 when the workers and their families occupied the Bergamo Steelworks for a month before returning to work. The labour question was becoming the main issue of the early XX century as Italy looked inwards for the first time after looking outwards, finding troublesome situations thought resolved.​

Highly dissatisfied with these developments and opposed to the socialists was Umberto I; the monarch was frustrated by the lack of progress made in parliament due to the red obstructionism and the incompetent prime ministers picked by political plays, longing for the arrival of a new Cavour who could save the country from stagnation. When the liberal government fell in 1903 on the question of the nationalization of the railways, the king decided that he had had enough of the liberals and appointed Andrea Riva, leader of the Federal Party, Prime Minister with the task to untie the gordian knot that was parliement

Riva rose to government in mid-1903 just a few months before the next elections with a seemingly impossible task, but the king had unwittingly found his new Cavour. The prime minister's first goal was to permanently resolve the workers' question, of which the socialists were spokesmen. Deciding to ignore the reds, Riva sent his deputy, Francesco Levi, to negotiate with the captains of industry and all the workers' associations that had shown themselves in favor of dealing with the government, reaching an integral agreement that defined working hours, safety , minimum wage, pensions and benefits for the disabled which was submitted to parliament a few weeks before the election.

Socialist senators protested the Levi Proposal when it was first presented​

The Socialists denounced the agreement as reactionary and, along with dissatisfied Liberals and Federalists, defeated the bill. Levi then leaked the proposal to the press blaming the socialists for it's failure to pass. The population, especially the workers, were infuriated with the socialists for rejecting Riva's proposal. Thus it was that the Italian Federal Party triumphed in the elections of 1904 obtaining a clear majority and no longer having to rely on the liberals, it was able to start its legislative program.

The first reform that was implemented was that of labor, realizing Levi's proposal with a comfortable majority thus giving life to the "Labor Law of 1904" which guaranteed pensions, reduced working hours, a decent minimum wage and more safety standards at work, the all controlled by the newly created Ministry of Labor. The law pacified the workers by further reducing the consensus for socialists who had previously rejected the proposal, channeling support for the federal party which began to gain a foothold among the lower strata of the population.

Automatic rifles were invented by Italian colonel Amedeo Cei-Rigotti in 1890 with the development of the omonimous rifle: thei first version failed tests but was later upgraded and started mass production as the government spended on modernization​

To stimulate the growing economy, Riva initiated a program of modernization and expansion of the armed forces, pumping funds into the creation and expansion of military industries as well as modernization and expansion. The main interest was placed on promising experimental projects: an automatic rifle designed by Amerigo Cei-Rigotti and purchased by Beretta, invented at the end of the 19th century and seen as a potential new service rifle for the army, utilizing this previous experience to get ahead of other European nations such as North Germany and France in the development of a semi-automatic rifle that could also fire in automatic mode. For the Navy, Vittorio Cuniberti's idea of a single-caliber battleship was the one that attracted the most interest and with a budget suprlus, funds were allocated for the construction of the ship in the Palermo Shipyards, the largest in the Central Mediterranean. The ship was called Italia and as the first dreadnought made all warships in the world obsolete at the time of its launch, being better armed, more armored and faster than all other battleships in existence. The effectiveness of the model prompted the government to commission 5 more and study new ships, while major European powers raced to field similar warships, sparking a naval arms race between European powers.

Italia class dreadnought Dante Alighieri was the second Italian dreadnought, which entred service in 1907, a year after the original Italia. Assigned to the Thyrrenian Fleet the dreadnought made the French hasten up their shipbuilding program in order to counter Italian naval supremacy.​

The industrialization of the peninsula proceeded without stopping for a moment: the Po valley had become the main industrial center, dotted with factories from Turin to Udine, with a level of development and production concentration comparable to the German Ruhr. New plants opened every day, each one different from the other: textile, chemical, steel, military and the first automotive, aeronautical and electronic industries. Industry was the main Italian export, fueled by the resources found in the colonies which fueled the continued growth. The industrial north was also a stronghold of the Federal party, as well as the place of origin of Riva; it was only natural that the government ended up favoring the industrial conglomerates of the north with tax cuts, orders and moderate protectionism in strategic sectors. Big corporations like Beretta, Colombo and Martinelli were joined by the newly created Lombard Automotive Society, a union of three car manufacturers located in Milan, specialized in the automotive industry, the first one in Italy and the plains of Emilia saw the creation of the first aeronautical industry in the peninsula, the Italian Aircraft Factory, a semi private enterpirse owned by both the state and private investors interested in aeronautics that since 1903 had charmed the world ans stimulated the mind of many artists such as the Futurists

The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan the most fashionable and culturally active place in the city, serving as a passage between La Scala and Duomo Square. It's restaurants and coffes were gathering place for the city's cultural elite as Furutism, one of the most Avant-Garde styles, was created in it's halls.​

In Italy, as in the rest of the Western world, the international feminist movement that demanded the expansion of civil rights was becoming more and more popular.The traditional parties had a lukewarm reception on the subject, without committing to a real national reform and preferring to leave it to the member states, the socialists showed great support for the idea, but those who fully embraced the movement were the ANI, pushed by their poet Salvatore De Angelis who in his 1907 publication "The Legionary State" defined the contribution of women as "Fundamental and non-negotiable" in the struggle for the liberation of Italy and their important role in society.

In 1906 the redevelopment of Rome ended: the eternal city had now become the ideal place to be the seat of the Italian government, therefore Riva began the "migration", as it was defined by the Italian newspapers, from Milan to Rome in the buildings built especially for the government and to house the king who would have taken up residence in the eternal city permanently by now. Milan remained the economic capital of Italy while Rome, in a more centered position being the historical capital of the peninsula since the Romans, became the seat of political power, shared with the church that was confined to the Vatican City.

 

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N'GUIGMI INCIDENT

Located along the shores of lake Chad, the village of N'guigmi sat on the border between Italian and French colonies. Due to ill defined borders the settlement was occupied by an Italian army company who proceded to fortify the location with basic defences as their commander, captain Luca Aldeghi, believed that N'guigmi was part of Italian Chad as represented in the maps in his possession. When a small patrol of French colonial troops arrived in the village they were fired upon by the Italians who inflicted severe casualties, leading the French patrol to withdraw with only two survivors who run back to the nearest headquarters to report the invasion

Deciding to keep the matter a local one the French commander dispatched a battallion under Major Alexandre Lamarque with orders to evict the Italians from their position in a peaceful way as no real frenchmen had been killed, just natives, but nonetheless he was given artillery in case there was resistance. As the French arrived the Italians opened fire once again thinking that they had come to take them out. Without artillery and support captain Aldeghi was forced to retreat with a fistful of survivors from the village while the French took moderate casualties during the assault.

Five days later a larger Italian force returned to N'guigmi in order to repel the occupiers and the two armies started clashing near the village and by night the French had retreated but gave their attackers a hard time in clearing out the village. As the fighting escalated as both sides believed that the other was trying to invade their colony and wired Europe to know how to proceed and to request reinforcements. As soon as the news reached the upper echelons of command, orders to cease hostilities were issued by both sides in order to avoid further casualties as by now more than 300 soldiers died in the fighting.

Luca Aldeghi was defined by Italian press as the man who nearly caused a war between Italy and France and was quiely assigned to a desk job in Cochinchina but on a more greater level the consequences of the N'guigmi incident were the clarification of colonial borders in Africa between Great Powers in order to avoid further incidents of this kind and the cooling of relations between Italy and France as Italy refused to apologize and the French didn't try alternative ways to make amends, breaking the bond of trust and cooperation that had exsted between the two countries since 1849. Both sides raised tariffs on each other and looked for other trade partners, but more importantly increased their efforts in the naval race as both wanted to obtain naval supremacy in the Mediterranean.

The encirclement by Austria, the traditional Italian enemy, and France, the new enemy, gave rise to a siege mentality in the Roman rooms of power and the Federal Party redirected Italian diplomatic efforts towards the North German Confederation which had sought an alliance or at least mutual assurances from Italy since the retirement of Bismarck and could act as a counterbalance to France and Austria.

 

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THE FALL OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE

Under the Savoy royal family, Spain had managed to recover from the decline that began with the Napoleonic invasion, weaving closer commercial and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Mediterranean area and maintaining a discreet colonial empire which, although it was not vast, was strategically distributed. across the globe. The two jewels of this empire were Cuba and the Philippines, both trading centers and production centers for products such as sugar, coffee and other tropical luxuries that were in great demand in Europe. The wealth of the empire had allowed Spain to begin industrialization in the late 19th century in Catalonia and Castile, as well as being the main port of entry for South American goods to Europe.

Spain lagged behind it's European neighbours in technology and development but was considered a rising economy​

The Spanish Empire, however, had attracted the envy of numerous nations, first of all the Southern Confederation which was only a handful of kilometers from Cuba. The island was in American sights since well before the Civil War but the consequent dissolution of the union it had prevented the plans for its acquisition from proceeding. By the end of the 19th century, the Southerns had financed a revolt for the independence of Cuba from Spain, supported by republican intellectuals, businessmen and popular classes, including numerous former slaves who received weapons and equipment from Florida in such numbers to be, as of 1904 , a serious problem for the stability of the Spanish empire so much so that about 100,000 soldiers were stationed on the island to keep the peace.

Spain employed a wide varity of troops, recruiting from both the local colonial population and it's homeland; most of the soldiers deployed to quell the Cuban insurrection were local loyalists, supported by other European units​

Rising tensions and growing instability on the island was the opportunity that the Confederation was waiting for, and the requisition of a Southron merchant vessel and the hanging of half it's crew, accused of smuggling weapons (which was true) in 1905 was the casus belli that allowed Washington to declare war on Madrid, citing the execution of the sailors and the suppression of the Cuban independence movements as a reason for entering the war. The SC Navy was capable of fielding six battleships against the five Spanish, three of which were modern versus their opponent's two. The Navy quickly gained superiority in the Florida Strait, allowing approximately 40,000 Marines to land in Varadero.

Southern Marines battle through the Cuban countryside: the fighting between Americans and Spanish was often fierce with machineguns, trenches and barbed wire that required hand to hand combat to be cleared out. The shorter supply lines meant that the Southrons had more equipment aviable, while the Spanish were often short on equipment.​

The arrival of Confederate troops galvanized the rebels who organized a general insurrection in the peninsula aided by Southern weapons and advisers mixed with the revolutionaries, taking control of large areas in the northwest of the island, driving out the Spaniards south of Santa Clara and besieging Havana, where urban warfare was raging between loyalists and patriots. In May 1906, the Confederate and Spanish navies collided in the battle of the Florida Strait, which ended with the sinking of three Spanish and two American battleships; left with two battleships, the Spaniards decided to withdraw towards the south of Cuba, leavin gSouthron supply lines open.

The Battle of the Florida Straits was the last naval battle with pre-dreadnought battleships ​

The worsening of the Spanish situation was followed closely by the European powers which, however, had no intention of entering the conflict in support of the Iberians but were willing to provide war material and loans to support the war effort. Japan, on the other hand, watched with interest the diminishing prestige and global importance of Spain, focusing its eyes on the Philippines: the old Yoshinobu Tokugawa aspired to expand Japanese control of the Pacific, looking for an empire to emulate the Europeans and the Philippines belonged to the weakest power in the region. In a realpolitik move, the Japanese declared war on Spain in the summer of 1906.

The end of the monsoons in September allowed the Japanese to use their overwhelming naval superiority to land marines north of Luzon. The stormtroopers quickly established a bridgehead as the Combined Fleet proceeded south to Manila where the Spanish Asian Squadron was moored. Arrived with the favor of darkness, the Japanese were able to shell the port and the city catching the defenders unprepared: a large part of the fleet was sunk in the port but a small battle group consisting of a battleship and half a dozen smaller ships escaped southwards and dispersed in the archipelago. Here they would tease the Japanese fleet for the rest of the war, inflicting modest casualties with their ambushes.

Japanese marines on transport ships bound to reach one of the many islands in the Philippine archipelago: the Spanish employed many locali Filipino irregulars to harass Japanese forces in a year long guerrilla war that demoralized the enemy leading to a loss of confidence in the Japanese government by the population​

Within a year of their first landing, the Japanese now controlled all the Philippines except the island of Mindanao, where what was left of the 150,000 soldiers of the Spanish garrison had withdrawn awaiting the final Japanese assault. Meanwhile in America the Southern Confederation had pushed the front as far as Santiago de Cuba, while the American Republic started considering the island of Puerto Rico, officially claiming it but in reality they were unable to occupy the island as the CS Navy landed 30.000 marines on the islands to secure the last Spanish holdout in America. Defeated and abandoned, Spain was forced to ask for peace which was signed in two different instances: the Washington Treaty, coincluded with the Southern Confederation to which Spain would cede all it's American possessions to, in front of paying a $ 10 million in compensation and the Treaty of Nagasaki, in which Spain ceded control of the Philippines and the remainder of their asian empire to Japan, while the United Kingdom occupied northern Borneo.

The end of the war was a disaster for Spain which was humiliated by the treaties. Having lost its most profitable colonies and having gone into debt to fight the war, the kingdom found itself in a precarious financial condition which, combined with the instability of the population outraged by the military defeat, deeply shook the foundations of the Spanish state. Radical ideologies started spreading among the population and the middle classes while strikes become common occurrences as employers drowning in debt couldn't pay their employees; the defeat had effectively crippled the Spanish industrialization effort and the defeated army returning from overseas had to fight another war back home against radical elements who threatened the stability of the monarchy.