Chapter 55 Italian Unification
"Blessed are the children of Italy. For today we become one. Deus Vult!"- Pope Pius IX 1853
"And Britain thought it would be a good idea for me to join her in Crimea. I think I'll stick with my Italian gains thank you very much. Now about that expedition to Indochina."- Emperor Napoleon III 1855
"With France to the west, Italy to the South, and Russia to the east, it is not simple enough for us to ally with Britain. We need to forge new relationships abroad in order to protect the Fatherland. I hear Japan is looking for some guidance."- Foreign Minister Otto von Bismarck 1861
When the Christmas Conference began it soon amounted to a meeting that was less about dealing directly with Sardinia, but rather mostly deciding who gets what from the nation, Italy or France. While it is true that Napoleon had just gained himself a very good ally in Pius, the French Emperor wanted more than just a promise of friendship to compensate for the French lives lost. Alliances always come and go as Napoleon said, but land stays forever, at least for a few decades that is. France's open demands when they went to the conference were the gaining of Savoy, Nice, and Sardinia. While Savoy and Nice were somewhat understandable with the fairly large French population and Frankish history there, Sardinia was unquestionable to the Italians as it had been apart of Pisa for centuries and thus belonged to Italy, while France had never once held direct control of it. Napoleon pointed out that Sardinia had a fairly large Corsican population, since the House of Bonaparte originated from Corsica then it was his sacred duty to protect their rights. Napoleon then went on about "protecting" the rights of other unique ethnicities, especially the Sardinians, and that how in actuality Spain had more of a legitimate claim than the Italians did. The Italian committee shot back that Sardinia had been settled by the Byzantines and it had been given to Pisa by the Pope, therefore giving Pius the right to decide. The French were headstrong on this matter the entire time as they would not allow such a precious geopolitical location in the Mediterranean to go away. Pius had been contemplating the matter and to him there were few options to defy the French, Pius could not excommunicate Napoleon like he did with Charles Albert as that could lead to a possible schism in the Church, and France had proven that it could occupy Rome in the past and control the Papacy. If a new war were to be continued with France, then the Italians would surely lose as they did not have the superior training or technology like the French. So Pius relented to a possible compromise that gave into the French demands, though Italy and by extension the Papal States would get its own due. Beyond that the rest of the terms were merely those by the Confederation which set about to limiting Sardinian influence and power in Italy. These are the following terms:
- Sardinia-Piedmont is to pay $1,875,000 reparations to all the Italian states and will take full responsibility for the war. Distribution of the reparations is to be divided based off participation and need for recovery.
- Lombardy and South Tyrol in its entirety will be transferred directly to the sovereignty of the Papal States.
- The Counties of Nice, Savoy, and the island of Sardinia are to hold referendums on February 14th on whether or not they will stay as members of the Confederation, or become part of the Second French Empire. The option to stay in the Confederation will allow the first to to stay as part of the new Principality of Savoy, but the latter will become independent and if in a monarchy, shall not allow a member of the House of Savoy on the throne.
- The Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont is to become the Principality of Savoy. Any old claims outside of those of the Savoy Dynasty are null and void.
- The Italian referendum would be pushed forward to March 17th in order to prevent further issues of Unification in the future.
After the signing of the Treaty of Turin on January 3rd, Pius also made sure to lift the excommunication of the remaining members of the House of Savoy so that peace would move forward. Pius also used his role as Pope further by stating that while fighting for the side of Sardinia was unjust and highly heretical, all soldiers who had been in the opposing army were now forgiven in the light of Christ and the souls of the dead could enter heaven, something that severely overjoyed the religious in Sardinia-Piedmont. The new Prince Victor Emmanuel while not at all in favor of these terms, and mostly ignored during the conference, relented so that his family could preserve its legacy and right to Savoy. There were already talks of establishing a Republic in the new Principality and doing anything to further inflame the people was not something that Victor could afford to do. Napoleon found these terms to be acceptable as he already had received private word from Pius that a unified Italy was more than willing to enter into a future alliance. And while the referendums may not have been able to become rigged like the French ones, Napoleon had high hopes that he would succeed. A month had passed and the results of Savoy's referendums came. Shockingly to the Italian Nationalist movement, all three of the regions had voted to become part of France. Nice and Savoy had been an overwhelming majority with a 83% and 77% respective favor in yes. The Sardinian vote was very close with a 53% vote in favor of annexation. Historians have found that the reason for being so was due to the feelings of animosity of the Sardinians towards Italy, while French agents promised overwhelming autonomy to the ethnic Sardinians if they became apart of France. So unfortunately, Italy had to part with these territories and watch them turnover to France. The issue of Italian irredentionism would not die though despite positive future relations, and the issue would continue well into the 20th century. On the brightside, when the time came for the Italian referendum, all over Italy the results had shown in favor of Unification with an overwhelming 91% vote in favor across the peninsula. It was time for Italy to become a nation.
Aftermath of the Treaty of Turin. French gains in Black, Papal Gains in White.
In the summer of 1853, the Italian Confederate Parliament was called together for one last session in order to discuss the issue of creating a constitution and the framework of Italy. This was a rather special occasion as the city of Rome soon became flooded with millions of Italians who wished to observe the process of the creation of their new country. Special speakers and delegates were also invited from across Italy and outside the nation, to take part in the process. Foreign signatories also took part in the observation with Hungarian President Lajos Kossuth being invited to give advice with his experience on the matter of nationalism. Overall the matter of creating a constitution was not so terrible of an issue as all of the Italian states had similar constitutions with differences mostly residing in division of power and voting rights. Rather, the main question on everyone's minds was who would be the leader of Italy and how would power be divided. Granted Pius was the obvious frontrunner and he could've easily obtained total control of Italy through the will of the people, but the high opposition of nobles and conservatives over the sovereignty of their states was brought up time and time again. Even many of the nationalists while wishing for a unified Italy, still had a deep connection and pride in their home state. Another fact was that the Italian states had contributed so much to the Confederation individually, and Rome would not have been saved from invasion were it not for the actions of King Ferdinand. Thankfully Pius was no Alexander VI as he had no desire to become an all powerful autocrat. He still had a duty to the Catholic Church first and that could not be done if he had to micromanage Italy at the same time. Coming before the parliament again, Pius stated that while he would gladly take the mantle of leadership, he had no desire to obstruct the rights and sovereignty of the monarchs, nor eliminate the unique regional culture of Italy solely for the sake of Unification. He proposed for Italy to be united into a Federal type of government where each state would retain a great deal of autonomy and their rulers would be able to control most of the affairs of their respective states. The central government in Rome would decide Italy's foreign affairs, military matters, economy, and transportation in order to protect Italy and promote its national welfare. Each state would elect a representative to the national legislative branch and anything that wasn't said in the Constitution or passed in Rome, would be decided by the states. This was able to calm the fears of the conservatives and the constitutional process was able to pick up great speed. With the final outcome decided on September 8th.
What came out of the process was the birth of the Italian Federation, or as it would be known in the colonial era, the Holy Roman Empire. The Constitution was merely a continuation of the Roman Constitution as it provided the same basic rights for its people in similarity to the American one. The matter of the government would be divided into three departments. The executive office would be held by the Pope as Head of State, the role as head of state would be held by the Papacy no matter what national origin of the pontiff, and the Pope would nominate a Prime Minister in order to head the legislative branch, the Prime Minister would be approved by the Italian Parliament and would act to lead the cabinet and command the majority of Parliament in government, though the Pope would have executive veto on a law. The legislative branch would be filled with representatives that would be decided based on population of the states. In order to satisfy equality, Pius would give freedom to Lombardy and Venice within Italy, which would be divided into two seperate Republics. A Supreme Court would be created that would uphold the legality of the law within Italy, 1/3rd of the membership would derive from members of the Church in order to make sure that the morality of the laws would be intact and stay Christian. Universal Male suffrage was given to all Italian citizens. The monarchs of the individual member states would retain their powers within the borders of their states based on the individual constitution of each state, the highest honor going to Ferdinand who was made King In the Two Sicilies. Federal departments would be formed with the goal of overseeing implementation of Italian policies and cooperation between the States. Italian would be come the recognized national language of Italy while Latin would hold a position of honor as a de jure language for government documents and procedures.The economy would be a free market one that would implement the Christian Capitalist ideals spearheaded by Pius and would create a Federal Council of Corporations which would protect worker's rights and promote the greater welfare and prosperity of the Italian citizen in the national economy. Each state would have their own self-defense force that would at most make up a corps. A volunteer army would be established that would draw citizens from across the Federation to form the Holy Italian Military. In terms of religion Catholicism was the state religion of all of Italy and Rome would remain a Catholic City with no religious buildings of any other denomination or religious group. Freedom of Religion would be guaranteed though and greater rights were given across the nation with Jews now being able to become elected to office. Finally, the Vatican would maintain a seperate sphere of sovereignty under the Church as represented by the Holy See. When the Constitution was finally signed, all of Italy would rejoice as they had whethered through the trials of nationalism and had finally unified into one country. Special elections would be held by the end of the year in order to elect members to the new Italian Parliament, while Guiseppe Garibaldi was nominated as the first Prime Minister, a position he would retain for many years. For the first time since the downfall of Rome in 476 A.D, Italy was unified as one state, one which would be lead by the Italian people under the protection of the Catholic Church and God. Today the Italian Federation has remained as one of the world's great powers and is a shining beacon of progress in Europe and the greater Christian world.
"Romae renascitur" Rome is reborn.
Flag of the Italian Federation (Right) Pope Pius IX announcing the Italian Federation inside the Roman Colosseum (Left)
A/N: A formal Map of the Italian Federation will be posted tomorrow. Vive Italia!
