Just one stroke of a pen...

Hmm... this TL obviously doesnt have a good following anymore. Should I suspend it, or what? I still have a few parts in reserve...
 
Ok, heres my entire reserve. Just one stroke is suspended indefinately. I hope I can update in the xmas holidays.
Your comments are still appreciated.


Napoleon now considered his options. It was now apparent that France could not fight two wars in two different regions, especially with Britain and Turkey angry that France had been collaborating with Austria.

If Napoleon quit the war in Russia, the relationship with Britain and Turkey would be ruined. However the war would go, France would be excluded from the Eastern Mediterranean. It was also almost certain that Prussia would attack in support of Italy, and Britain would of course not intervene. Pride would also be lost, as the war in Russia was mostly sparked by France’s jingoism.

On the other hand, if Napoleon quit the war in Italy, there wouldn’t be so many repercussions. It could all be easily blamed on Austria, and France hadn’t really conquered much territory and killed many people, so there should be no bad feelings. French troops could concentrate on Russia, and Britain would applaud the decision to abandon ‘Austria’s Imperial Adventure’. The decision would be popular among the French people, and all this was enough for Napoleon. A cease-fire was negotiated, and Napoleon, Cavour, and Vittorio Emmanuele were due to meet at Nice on the 15th of November, 1852.

The terms were simple. Cavour and Vittorio went in already saying that they would accept no border changes at all. After some negotiation, a treaty was written, signed by all three men.

No changes in the Piedmontese-French border were to be made.
All troops were to return to their home country.
The island of Corsica is to become an ‘autonomous region’, Italian will be considered official there and ethnic Italian residents of Corsica would be allowed to participate in local elections.
The reverse would happen in the Savoy-Aosta region of Piedmont.
Incentives would be provided for ethnic French in Italy to move to France or to Savoy, and ethnic Italians in France to move to Italy or Corsica.
France would recognize that Italy is an independent nation-state.

This was the go ahead for Prussia. Redirected from the French border, the Prussians got ready to march into the small north German states, the ones that opposed Prussian rule. The war was about to escalate. With all the remaining fronts cleaned up, the Italian army began to really focus on the Austrian front. A huge organized revolt spread through Bologna, Venice, and Ancona, but soon spread through every Italian town or city in Austria. Soon enough, revolts were occurring all over the multi-ethnic empire. This was the perfect moment to attack and after much battle Bologna was captured. The Austrians rallied around Ravenna and in the Battle of Ravenna, 2nd December, The Italians were halted painfully. Austria had declared war on Prussia and recalled all troops from Romania to assist putting down the revolts.

As the Austrian army retreated to put down revolts, Italian reinforcements arrived from the South. Garibaldi took this as a good opportunity and decided to charge Ravenna. In the Second Battle of Ravenna, 15th December, The Italians won, but the Austrians arrived from putting down the revolutions and settled into the ‘Quadrilateral’ group of forts near Venice. As the eventful year 1852 came to a close, the front in Italy settled down for a Christmas of recovery.

It needed it. 1853 was to be the most bloody year in the early history of United Italy.

Late January, 1853. The Italian army charged, full force, at Verona, one of the Quadrilateral forces. It was a desperate attempt to finally break into Venetia and defeat the Austrians. The Prussians were making good progress in Germany, and the Italians didn’t want to be left out. The south German states were teetering on the fence of the conflict. In a passionate speech, the King of Prussia Frederick William asked Bavaria, Baden and Wurttemberg to decide to either ‘stand for the stagnant archaic corruption of the Hapsburg Empire, or fight for the noble idea of the Nation-State, to join the new order of the future.’ In response, they formed a military defence pact, the South German Alliance, and sat on the fence uncomfortably.

Due to several factors, including surprise, the sheer numbers and determination of the Italians, and the lack of Austrians who were putting down rebellions and fighting the Prussians, the Battle of Verona, 27th January, was an Italian victory. With a large loss of life, the Italians had finally conquered the quadrilateral. After seeing this, the Austrians decided that they could take it no more and their armies in the area retreated to Bozen and Trieste.

But the Battle of Verona had more losses than ordinary troops. The great General and hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, had personally directed the attack, knowing that morale was very important in a harsh battle like the one on that fateful day. Garibaldi was struck by a stray shot when the Italians, having won the battle, advanced on Verona. He died of a wound to the left lung the next day, on a bed in Verona surrounded by some of his most faithful captains.

The Hero of Two Worlds, Sword of the Italian Unification, Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Italian Council, Giuseppe Garibaldi, expired on the 28th of January, 1853.

He would be immortalised as a hero, and a martyr, by many Italian generations to come. But, needing to address the more immediate issues, Central Command reduced the conscription age even lower, to 16, and ordered the army to Trento and Udine. War would wait for no-one.



By now, it looked as if Austria would either collapse into a bloody civil war between different ideologies and ethnic groups, or be destroyed by Prussia and Italy. The Italians knew this, but nevertheless wanted to occupy all territory that they would claim later on, so that they would at least be able to get the spoils from this terrible war.


Throughout the war, the Austrians had dominated the Adriatic sea, using boats to provide supplies to coastal towns even when they were besieged by Italian forces. Now, the small Italian fleet slinked into the Adriatic, daring to challenge any Austrian ships they found. The Austrian navy was not too advanced and so it was relatively easy for a secret operation to take place right under the noses of the Austrians in February.

Some of the most elite Italian troops hid in a few boats in Venice, and these headed out to sea. Here, they met an Austrian ship. The captain was a ‘collaborator’, a spy for Italy. He loaded some of his crew on the boats, and headed into Fiume. This all happened in the evening.

When the ships arrived, no-one took any notice of them, it just looked like the Austrians had captured some Italian stray merchant ships. But, in the middle of the night, the troops came out of their boats, Trojan Horse style, and together with some of the mostly Italian population of Fiume, who had arranged to start a large revolt, the Austrian garrisons were attacked. The so called, ‘Fiume Ambush’ was a huge success, and soon the Austrians were driven out. In a myriad of merchant vessels, fishing ships, and propped warships, the Italians of Dalmatia went about the Adriatic islands, forcing surrender from the natives there and the small Austrian garrisons.

Now, most Italian troops, from anywhere in the country, were called to Trieste, where the last battle in the Italian front would occur. The people of Fiume were also called up and with their small navy, they captured the coastal town of Pola on the tip of Istria. All the Austrian navy retreated into Trieste and defences were set up as troops from all directions converged on the city.

As the sun dawned on the first of March, the remaining troops in Trieste had a desperate plan in mind. They planned to charge the Italian besiegers, and through better training and weapons defeat them. They hoped that like that they could receive supplies and reinforcements from the rest of Austria, but it was always a vague plan.

The charge started in the morning, and it devastated the poorly armed mobs that served as the main besiegers. The better trained troops on the flanks tried to converge onto the attackers, but a good section of them were ordered to take Trieste. This was a brutal demonstration of how cities were considered more important than men.

Some of the Austrian ships got away, but most were burned. Soon enough, the city was captured and the troops directed their attention to the battlefield. The Austrians had inflicted huge damage onto the Italian troops, but when the fresh and rested, properly trained soldiers emerged from the city, the commander of the army surrendered. His quick thinking would save the lives of his remaining troops.
By March, all the actual Italian areas of Austria were captured. Prussia had defeated all the small German states, and had gobbled up large areas of northern Bohemia. Some Austrian soldiers arrived from Romania, where they had been held up by the usual revolts by the Romanians in Austria. A tense balance developed. Italy had hardly enough troops to patrol the new areas, yet alone defend them. The military was completely destroyed. The Prussian attack ran out of steam after destroying all the small German states and charging through half Bohemia. The Austrians were on the edge of destruction, yet the reinforcements kept them from complete civil war. It was time for an armistice.

The Munich Conference was hosted by Bavaria, eager to involve itself in European Politics. The leaders from all the Italian states came along, as well as the leaders from Baden and Wurttemberg. It didn’t take long for a treaty to be thrashed out…

All Military operations between Prussia, Italy, and Austria are to cease for three months or until a peace treaty is negotiated.

The current government of Austria is to be considered the only legitimate and proper one, and all peace negotiations shall be made with this government.

The Italian Council is to be considered the only legitimate and proper government of the Italian states in all matters regarding foreign, financial, and military affairs. Peace negotiations shall be made with this government.

The areas occupied by the armies of Prussia and Italy shall remain so until a peace treaty is negotiated, and borders shall be established on a case by case basis.

All the treaty powers shall recognize the claim of Karl Ludwig to the throne of Romania.

The German Confederation is to be dissolved, and the basis of a new German organization is to be discussed.

The South German League, being a military alliance of Baden, Wurttemberg and Bavaria, is to guarantee the Armistice, and in the case that Prussia, Italy or Austria breaks it, the League is to declare war on the offending power.




The three months limit was set because none of the powers wanted to continue the war, and if they had to they would rather be prepared for it. Austria had everyone recognize because it was afraid that with all the revolts, a new government could take over and negotiate a different peace treaty than one deemed ‘reasonable’. Karl Ludwig was recognized because Austria knew that it had upset both sides of the war in the East and that their candidate needed extra support.




But the Treaty was not the only thing discussed in the Conference. Most of the peace terms that would later be entrenched in the Treaty of Vienna were negotiated there. Cavour’s committees were also summoned, and the Prussians agreed that when their work had been completed, they would send over some top military officers to comment on the findings of the Military Committee and help organize the Italian military.

In reality, Italy was in chaos. The local governments were powerless, and the military now controlled everything. The problem was, the military was in shambles, because of the war. The whole idea that a few small states can take on a Great Power was farfetched, and it was only the guile of Cavour, enlisting the Prussians, and indirectly the Russians, that saved Italy. Garibaldi, on the other hand, was a great General, and without him not even Rome would have been conquered. The ‘army’ was now made up of near-mobs and local strongmen who ‘helped keep the peace’.

The Committees had been doing their work, too. The Language and Culture committees had thought up several good ideas to integrate into a common, strong Italian national identity, while preserving the smaller, local cultures and dialects. The Military and Navy Committees had also thought up good ideas of how to structure the armed forces, but the whole plan would be impossible to implement in an Italy without an already existing army. Because of this, the results of these committees were to be presented to Prussian and British officers, respectively. These could help enhance the plans.

A relatively new system of government was also devised, with universal male suffrage electing a lower house, and the rich and noble upper class electing a ‘Senate’ to approve (or disapprove) votes by the lower house. Infrastructure plans were also drawn up, with proposals for huge road systems and large investments to help modernize the poor south regions of Italy. Altogether, the Committees had been a success. Plans for the first years of a United Italy were now drawn up, and the next step was a peace treaty.

The Treaty of Vienna, signed on the 5th of April 1853, merely settled certain details publicly, as the negotiations had taken place for the most part in Munich.

Prussia annexed the remaining Austrian Silesia, and also ‘united’ with the other north German states to form the North German Union, basically all the Prussian governments and institutions projected onto the other states.

Italy formally united into the Kingdom of Italy, gaining Trento, Veneto, Romagna, Trieste, Istria, Fiume, and the Adriatic Islands. The Adriatic, Ionian, and Maltese archipelagos were leased to the British as ‘Governates’, basically glorified de facto British military bases. Vittorio Emmanuele of Savoy took up the throne as King Vittorio I of Italy, and Cavour became the first Prime Minister.

A ‘German Federation’ was set up, including the NGU and the South German League. This was a closer union, being a full economic pact aiming at a single currency by 1860.

Finally, Austria was made to promise huge reforms in the empire, giving each ethnic group full control of its domestic affairs. Prussia also dedicated some troops to pacify any revolts that took place until the reforms were finalized.

And so, Italy was united in a single Kingdom. For now, chaos reigned supreme, but soon the innovative reforms of the Committees would be implemented and Italy would take its seat as a modern European Nation-State. It is brave deeds and noble men who put politicians at the negotiating tables, but ultimately, Italy was united, with a stroke of a pen.
~~~
 
BUMP!!

Hey everyone! Ive been trying to write more of Just One Stroke, but unfortunately I have not had inspiration to write.:(
So I made two maps. One map is of Europe after the Third War of Italian Unification (and estimates of results of the Black sea war). Another is of the War itself, showing maximum extents, major battles, positions at the end, etc.

Here is the War map.

3WoIU.PNG
 
And the European map. Remember that this is just a rough estimate in the respect of Romania. Yes, that is Bessarabia and Dobrujia...:p
It will be better understood when I post about the Black Sea War, in fact, I might write about that to remove my writers block!

europewjusoap.PNG
 
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