Italy buys the Nicobar Islands

[Tocomocho]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicobar_Islands

The history of organised European colonisation on the islands began with the Danish East India Company in 1754/56. During this time they were administrated from Tranquebar (in continental Danish India) administrated under the name of Frederiksøerne; missionaries from the Moravian Church Brethren's settlement in Tranquebar attempted a settlement on Nancowry and died in great numbers from disease; the islands were repeatedly abandoned due to outbreaks of malaria: 1784–1807/09, 1830–1834 and finally from 1848 gradually for good. Between 1778 and 1783, William Bolts attempted to establish an Austrian colony on the islands on the mistaken assumption that Denmark–Norway had abandoned its claims to the islands.[7]

Italy made an attempt at buying the Nicobar Islands from Denmark between 1864 and 1868. The Italian Minister of Agriculture and Commerce Luigi Torelli started a negotiation that looked promising, but failed due to the unexpected end of his Office and the first La Marmora Cabinet. The negotiations were interrupted and never brought up again.[8]

Denmark's presence in the islands ended formally on 16 October 1868 when it sold the rights to the Nicobar Islands to Britain,[7] which in 1869 made them part of British India.

Seems easy to accomplish and without causing big ripples immediately. Unless, the Italians use it to to try to meddle or expand into Aceh which was still independent in this time:

Under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 the British ceded their colonial possessions on Sumatra to the Dutch. In the treaty, the British described Aceh as one of their possessions, although they had no actual control over the Sultanate. Initially, under the agreement the Dutch agreed to respect Aceh's independence. In 1871, however, the British dropped previous opposition to a Dutch invasion of Aceh, possibly to prevent France or the United States from gaining a foothold in the region. Although neither the Dutch nor the British knew the specifics, there had been rumors since the 1850s that Aceh had been in communication with the rulers of France and of the Ottoman Empire.[12]

What then? Does Italy keep focusing on colonial expansion in Asia? How does this impact Italy at home and other countries?

 

[LordKalvan]

There is quite a story behind the (half-hearted) Italian attempt to buy the Nicobare islands from Denmark (and not much later on to set up a penal colony in Borneo).
The Nicobares and Borneo were a step on a path started by Celso Cesare Moreno, a Piedmontese born in 1831 who fought in Crimea with the Sardinian troops and after that went eastward, in search of adventure and to make a fortune for himself. There is a rumor that he fought during the Indian Mutiny on the insurgents side, and it is certain that he was in China during the Tai-ping rebellion as an adviser to Hong Xiquang. After the insurrection is repressed (and it is already the second time that the British ruin the plans of captain Moreno) he travels to the sultanate of Aceh, where he gains the confidence of the sultan, becomes minister and marries a daughter of the sultan. At the end of 1865 he's back to Italy to offer king Victor Emmanuel an opportunity to gain a foothold in Aceh (and possibly a protectorate) to oppose Dutch expansion in Sumatra: his bad luck is that in June 1866 the war with Austria starts, and no one has a lot of time to give to him. Celso Moreno sails back to Aceh, but the seeds he left in Florence were not dead: the construction of the Suez canal offered to Italy a shorter route to Far East, and it is for this reason that in 1869 Rubattino and Cie. purchases from Egypt (upon secret instructions of the government) the bay of Assab in Eritrea, which he develops into a coaling station. In the same 1869 Nino Bixio (the second in command of Garibaldi during the campaign to liberate Sicily and Naples, and who later became a general in the Italian army) sails also to Sumatra (where he possibly meets again Celso Moreno), ostensibly to assess "commercial opportunities in the isles of Sonda and the sea of China". Was he also on a secret mission to assess the possibility of an Italian protectorate on Aceh? There are no hard data to support this hypothesis, but it is remarkable that the Dutch lodge a protest with the Italian government, and in 1871 the British cease there opposition to a Dutch take over of Aceh. I believe there is enough smoke (also the French were sniffing around Aceh, and the Americans too) to give a little credibility to this idea. Note that Nino Bixio was a well know figure in Italy, with clout both in parliament (where he served a couple of terms as representative) and among the military. Sumatra was also the place where Bixio died in 1873 of typhoid fever.
Whatever the truth is, the Dutch pressed on in their campaign against Aceh and Celso Moreno left Sumatra for China (where he apparently worked for both France and the imperial government), then migrated to California where he got involved in politics (there was a sizable Italian immigrant community) and attempted to find financing for a telegraphic cable from California to China. Then went to Hawaii (which was still independent at the time) where he got involved in setting up sugar plantations and became a close adviser of the royal family and in particular of king David Kalakaua. After the annexation (which he obviously opposed) he went back to California and politics: he was elected to the House and his name is appended to the Moreno bill, against the exploitation of children forced to beg in the streets. He died in 1901, quite poor but after having had a very exciting life.

Celso Cesare Moreno

 

[Tocomocho]

Woah.

 

[LordKalvan]

It's a classic example of reality trumping imagination: it'd be hard to make this stuff up

I found out the story of this guy doing some research for a TL where Italy does better in the war of 1866, and as a consequence is also bolder in its aftermath. Maybe one day this project will get on the front burner, and Celso Moreno will play a role in it

 

[HJ Tulp]

The Dutch might be better off without Atjeh. The cost of pacifying the place were enormous and control was never total.

 

[LordKalvan]

You are quite right, and it is very easy to see from a more distant perspective. 150 years ago the perception was quite different, and the Dutch resented other players trying to muscle in on what the Dutch considered their turf