The Army of Naples

Would anyone happen to know roughly the size of a Neapolitan Army (the southern half of Italy) had it performed a levée en masse to raise a large army around 1830?

I looked at some statistics and guestimated that the number could potentially be around 200,000- however that could be way off.
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
I suppose 2 questions raise their heads

1. Is there a legal instrument to perform this, and if not would the people respond if ordered to?

2. Could this number be organised and armed, if raised?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Don't worry about number two there, but you do have a great point about numero uno. (Why are you so good???)

We'll say that the levee is legal and that the people are inspired to defend their homeland.
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
Greatly appreciated, finishing up your timeline I saw the other day; I kind of want to do a collaborative.

...it seems to be in Italian, despite being a webpage in English, but if you can read Italian...

Which timeline of mine? intrigued :cool:

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I spent time with an Italian Exchange Student, and have google translate. I'm basically an expert on it.

The smallest possible difference, 1848 one. I'm not tryin to suck up here, I like your work. Your talent combined with my me-ness... I don't know what the fuck would happen. But I think it would be interesting.
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
I spent time with an Italian Exchange Student, and have google translate. I'm basically an expert on it.

The smallest possible difference, 1848 one. I'm not tryin to suck up here, I like your work. Your talent combined with my me-ness... I don't know what the fuck would happen. But I think it would be interesting.

Can you provide a link and I'll remember it!

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Haha oh shiznit, I thought you were Wolf Brother. You both are fantastic writers, and both have wolf in your name! My bad.
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
Haha oh shiznit, I thought you were Wolf Brother. You both are fantastic writers, and both have wolf in your name! My bad.

Ah, no problem, lol. Honestly, I DON'T remember a lot of what I have written over time, so it could well have been that situation!

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Pretty good, enjoying a day off for once, writing up a bit for TSPD between AH.com breaks.

To partially answer your OP, the Neapolitans fielded some rather pitiful armies in the 1860s against Garibaldi; I think the largest they could put together as one force was at Volturnus, and that was only some 24-28k (sources vary). Earlier during the 1848 Revolutions Pepe only took some 14,000 volunteers north to join the war against Austria after being initially promised 40,000 by Ferdinand II, mostly due to politics but also, afaik, because at the time 40k was essentially the entirety of the Neapolitan fighting force and would have left the kingdom desperately defenseless. Hell, when Ferdinand put down the revolution at home by essentially laying siege to his own capital he only had some 12,000 loyal troops at his command. Heck when he reconquered Sicily he only used ten thousand men. So I doubt very much that the Neapolitans could field a conscripted army even anywhere near 200,000. Or at least IOTL even when facing certain extinction of the kingdom, they couldn't.

Now, the one thing Naples did have going for it is that it was filthy rich. Doing research for TPSD I discovered that prior to unification the Neapolitans had some two-thirds of all money in circulation on the peninsula, mostly due to its extensive trade contacts throughout the Mediterranean. So the best bet for the Neapolitans would be to have a small but very modern and professional standing army which would be complemented by mercenaries. This seems to be exactly what the Neapolitans did in fact IOTL, but everything fell apart due to the politics of Italian unification and the extensive corruption and tyranny of the later Bourbon government - the regular army became quite unprofessional, being more used to being used as secret police, and the mercenaries were mostly fighting for Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel by that point.
 
Good!

Aha, well I need to rework some things then. I will use that info you just gave me.

I wanted to do a more in-depth couple of posts in The Last Eagle about the Neapolitan Revolution, but if I cannot get the numbers up I will have to just brush by it.
 
Well, considering the context of your TL, I'd imagine the Neapolitans to have one of the most efficient fighting forces in all of Europe by the time of the Treaty of Istanbul. I mean, even IOTL in the later parts of the Napoleonic Wars the French had abandoned most of the genius tactics that had won them the day in the Revolutionary period and were using pure numbers. So I expect it any scenario where Napoléon is victorious that he and his successors would continue to rely on such tactics - I mean ffs you have Napoléon II leading his troops from the front and nearly dying for it! So fully expect some massive casualties on the Imperial side in any attempt to take Naples, especially when the Brits would likely be (clandestinely) supporting their allies. You don't really need massive numbers for the Neapolitans, in fact in this case I would argue that such would actually weaken them.
 
Those were along the lines I was thinking.

Would you say that around 80,000 or so Neapolitan Troops, and around an equivalent number of 'Foreign Mercenaries' is plausible?
 
Those were along the lines I was thinking.

Would you say that around 80,000 or so Neapolitan Troops, and around an equivalent number of 'Foreign Mercenaries' is plausible?

Double OTL, and then some? ;)

Its certainly plausible, given the amount of time between your POD and the 'now' of your newer updates.
 
Ha! I win!

I was gonna have some 3-post behemoth about the Neapolitan Revolutionary War (as a foil to the French one) but I will have to trim some fat and knock it down to a one post.

Point is, I still get my war!
 

Delvestius

Banned
By the nineteenth century, Naples was poor, dirty, underpopulated and still mainly rural.. It literally took Garibaldi like a month or something to sweep through lol...
 
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