The Mare Nostrum doctrine: an alternate Italian Empire

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum I: The Italian Peninsula in 1836

Italy was unified by Rome in the third century BC. For 700 years, it was a de facto territorial extension of the capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, and for a long time experienced a privileged status but was not converted into a province.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and later disputed between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire, the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor. However, the emperor was an absentee German-speaking foreigner who had little concern for the governance of Italy as a state; as a result, Italy gradually developed into a system of city-states. Southern Italy, however, was governed by the long-lasting Kingdom of Sicily or Kingdom of Naples, which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the Pope as a temporal kingdom known as the Papal States.

This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the early modern period. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the major powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire (including Austria), Spain, and France.

Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League, in 1454, and the 15th-century foreign policy of Cosimo De Medici and Lorenzo De Medici. Leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli and Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the "ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead" in Italia Mia. Machiavelli later quoted four verses from Italia Mia in The Prince, which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy "to free her from the barbarians".

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty, another branch of which provided the Emperors, continued to rule most of Italy down to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14).

A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in Gian Rinaldo Carli's Della Patria degli Italiani, written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a café in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. "'Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian,' he explained."

The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with the campaigns of the French Revolutionaries in 1792–97, when a series of client republics were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last emperor, Francis II, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. The Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars destroyed the old structures of feudalism in Italy and introduced modern ideas and efficient legal authority; it provided much of the intellectual force and social capital that fueled unification movements for decades after it collapsed in 1814. The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The reaction against any outside control challenged Napoleon Bonaparte's choice of rulers. As Napoleon's reign began to fail, the rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones (among them Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, and Joachim Murat, king of Naples) further feeding nationalistic sentiments. Beauharnais tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to the new Kingdom of Italy, and on 30 March 1815, Murat issued the Rimini Proclamation, which called on Italians to revolt against their Austrian occupiers.

After Napoleon fell, the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs, as they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of Italy and were, together, the most powerful force against unification.

An important figure of this period was Francesco Melzi d'Eril, serving as vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic (1802–1805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to the Italian Risorgimento shortly after his death. Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; Vittorio Alfieri, Francesco Lomonaco and Niccolò Tommaseo are generally considered three great literary precursors of Italian nationalism, but the most famous of proto-nationalist works was Alessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), widely read as a thinly veiled allegorical critique of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years, the 1840 version of I Promessi Sposi used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect, a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it.

Exiles dreamed of unification. Three ideals of unification appeared. Vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under leadership of the Pope in his 1842 book Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians. Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism.

Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic, which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo (1789–1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont.

Italy in 1836

One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carboneria, a secret political discussion group formed in Southern Italy early in the 19th century; the members were called Carbonari. After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections. A void was left that the Carboneria filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle-class professionals and businessmen and some intellectuals. The Carboneria disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals, and were strongly anticlerical. The Carboneria movement spread across Italy.

Conservative governments feared the Carboneria, imposing stiff penalties on men discovered to be members. Nevertheless, the movement survived and continued to be a source of political turmoil in Italy from 1820 until after unification. The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III (who, as a young man, had fought on their side) to death for failing to unite Italy. Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time or other members of this organization. The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and to establish constitutional government. Though contributing some service to the cause of Italian unity, historians such as Cornelia Shiver doubt that their achievements were proportional to their pretensions.

The first meeting between Garibaldi and Mazzini at the headquarters of Young Italy in 1833

Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic, two of the most prominent being Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could − and therefore should − be unified, and he formulated a program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital. Following his release in 1831, he went to Marseille in France, where he organized a new political society called La Giovine Italia (Young Italy), whose motto was "Dio e Popolo" (God and People), which sought the unification of Italy.

Garibaldi, a native of Nice (then part of Piedmont), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834 and was sentenced to death. He escaped to South America, though, spending fourteen years in exile, taking part in several wars, and learning the art of guerrilla warfare before his return to Italy in 1848.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum II: The Moroccan Wars, the First Moroccan War

The nation destined to unify the Italian peninsula and gain dominance over the Mediterranean and the Red Seas was the Kingdom of Sardinia, or Sardinia-Piedmont. After obtaining their independence from France in the Congress of Vienna, they took control of the Republic of Genoa. However, the young kingdom had bigger aims in Lombardy, which was controlled by the Austrian Empire. Out of pure interests in the region, the Italian state aimed to rally the Italians against their Habsbourg competitors . It first step was was with an official alliance with the Duchy of Lucca on on January 25, 1836. Carlo Ludovico, Duke of Parma, visited the capital of the Kingdom of Sardina for the occasion, and hoped to establish deep relations with the Sardinian king, Carlo Alberto of Savoy. Supported by the Sardinians, Lucca abolished feudalism, and developed various of its cities and ports. So far, both Lucca and Sardinia were focused on the "homefront", which was the Italian Peninsula.

However, a serie of incidents would expand the two monarchies outside of the peninsula, and would cause the Kingdom of Sardina to develop the so called "Mare Nostrum Doctrine".

The Alaouite dynasty Morocco had become a nation poorly supported by the international community because of the action of piracy against western nations. The Kingdom of Sardinia was hurt as well. On March 09 1836, in particular, a Sardinian ship was attacked by Berber pirates, and the crew and passengers were believed to had been sold into slavery. Attacks by Moroccan pirates increased in the aftermath of March 20, 1836 gold rush in the Argentiera della Nurra, near Sassari, in Sardinia. On July 10, 1836 the Kingdom of Sardina, after receiving confirmations of foreign powers neutrality in the matter, demanded Morocco to makre preventive moves to stop piracy in the Mediterranean. However, despite sultan Abd al-Rahman best intentions to prevent war with the European countries, he told the Sardinians that his hands were tied on the matter.

Believing this to be some sort of insult, the Kingdom of Sardinia, followed by the Duchy of Lucca on July 21, 1836 , declared war on Morocco on July 17. On September 05, 1836 the first Sardinian and Lucchese soldiers landed near the city of Ajdir, taking it by storm. After an initial beachhead was gained, the Sardinian-Lucchese forces focused on expanding in the area to expand the beachhead. They met relatively stiff resistance from the native Waryagher tribe, but managed to hold their position until the rest of the Sardinian and Lucchese armies arrived to expand into the interior of Morocco. The initial army was under overall command of Eusebio Bava. By December 14, 1836, the Sardinian and Lucchese forces controlled a territory that went as deep as Midar in the south, further east to Al Aaroui and as west as Targuist. The combined Sardinian and Lucchese armies continued to raid further west, but could not launch major offensives without risking to be intercepted by more numerous Moroccan armies. Alessandro La Marmora arrived with reinforcements for further expansions in the Rif region on March 07 1837. With his arrival, the Sardinian and Lucchese armies raided the interior of Morocco and continued their advance in the Rif region. They managed to expand further west, and placed Tangiers under siege. However the control of the Western territories was still limited to the coast, while the interior was still in Moroccan hands.

The Sardinian-Lucchese expeditionary force to the west was composed of 16,000 men, 65 pieces of artillery, and 41 ships. General Eusebio Bava personally took charge of the expedition. The objective of the Sardinian-Lucchese forces was to defend the Western Territories which connected the Sadinian-Lucchese territories to the further west territories in order to continue the Tangiers siege. On June 30 1837 Bava troops took Chefchaouen. On 01 July, Bava captured Derdara. Then on 03 July Bab Berred was taken. On 11 July 1837, Bava advanced towards Issaguen, and all Moroccan activities in the region seemed to stop.

Battle of Chefchaouen, June 30 1837

On the night of 18 July 1837, Sardinian and Lucchese forces took controll of Aknoul. The Moroccans responded with cavalry and several outdated, but still deadly, cannons, completely repelling the Sardinian and Lucchese assault.

On 26 July, Sardinian and Lucchese forces again reached Aknoul, meeting stiff resistance from what were reported to be "tribal Moroccan forces". Both the Sardinians and Lucchese made gains, but were once again repulsed by cannon fire. However, they did not entirely abandon their efforts, and the city remained contested.

On 29 July, further to control controll of Aknoul occurred between the combined Sardinian and Lucchese forces against the Moroccan ones. This time, 10.600 Sardinian and Lucchese forces succeeded in capturing the city and hoisted their flags. After these victories against the Moroccan armies, Alessandro La Martora moved to Tangiers to complete the siege.

On 3 P.M. of 04 September 1837 Bava moved to take Larache, and on 05 September he begun the attack. In the morning hours the rains stopped the operations but finally Bava begun his attack. His troops had to move in the muddy terrain of the Oued Loukos under enemy fire, taking high casualties advanging against the Moroccan trenches. Meanwhile, on the 19th of September, Tangiers fell to the Sardinians and the Lucchese.

One of the cannons used by the Moroccan armies

After some other minor raids against the Moroccans along the Atlantic coast, Abd al-Rahman sued for peace against the Sardinians and Lucchese governments. The Sardinian-Moroccan War, or as it would later be known, the First Sardinian-Moroccan War, was over.

Map showing the Sardinian and Lucchese armies movements, with 1)major operations from June 30-July 11 1937, 2) July 18-July 29 major operations and 3) September 06-September 19 major operations

On Tangiers, harsh treaties were forced on the Moroccans for not being able to stop the piracy. The Sardinian and Lucchese people were to be grant trading privileges in the entirety of the Rif and Aš-šarq, while the Riffian cities of Nador, Tangiers, Tétouan and Al Hoceima, while Lucca would gain Ajdir. Morocco would also pay a large sum of money for compensation of both Sardinian and Lucchese losses, and would increase its efforts agains piracy.

Morocco after the Tangier treaty, showing areas which were to have Sardinian and Lucchese privileges

Many believed that the treaty was too harsh for the Moroccans, and that the Sardinians and Lucchese were essentially trying to turn the African nation into a colony, however both Italian nations assured the major powers that their intentions were to prevent further events of piracy and raids. Spain, having ended the Carlist War and with the rise of Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain as King of Spain believed the Sardinians and Lucchese rivals regarding the colonization of Morocco.

However on that moment, the Kingdom of Sardinia realized that it would not be in any way safe if foreign powers ruled the Mediterranean. While aims of Italian unifications were still a priority, a new mission appeared for Sardinia. The Mediterranean sea was to become an Italian lake in one way or the other. Only then Sardinia may be able to survive these harsh times.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum III: The Moroccan Wars, the Second Moroccan War

Now that the kingdom of Sardinia and the Duchy of Lucca had the dominance of the Mediterranean as their common aim, they intended to spred their influence in the sea even further. On February 02 1838 the kingdom of Sardinia claimed that Abdelkader soldiers had passed through Morocco and begun attacking Sardinian and Lucchese concessions. However, on 27 February the Kingdom of France sent a message to Sardinia, demanding that all plans of invasions of Algeria were to be nullified, as the region was under the French sphere. Sardinia decided to comply: they could take on poorly organized countries such as Morocco, but they had no chance to fight a world power like France. However the French king, Louis Philippe I, found great admiration in the daring actions of the Kingdom of Sardinia, calling Carlo Alberto di Savoia "The daring devil of the Mediterranean". The two monarchs would meet on May 11 1843, and an alliance between the two states was born. The Duchy of Lucca too become aligned with the French, while the Papal States had become Sardinian allies on April 16 1839. The French soon saw the house of Savoy as a contigency plan against the Austrian Hapsbourg, with a stench anti-Austrian royal house slowly but steadily spreading into the Italian peninsula as either an ally or a puppet. Both French and Papal agencies and industries were welcomed in the Sardinian and Lucchese concessions in the Rif region of Morocco. And they were badly needed.

Despite the fact that Morocco promised to stop piracy in the Mediterranean, not only now the Moroccan government often intentionally looked the other way in several pirate attacks, but also supported raids against the Sardinian and Lucchese possessions. The Spanish ones were largely left alone, as Carlos María Isidro of Spain had struck a deal with Abd al-Rahman of Morocco, in which Spain would enter any sort of war effort against Sardinia and Lucca in any sort of war against the two Italian nations. The Moroccans heavily supported rebels in the Tangier regions, and it was not until March 13 1841 that the region was pacified. However, on November 20 1841, a major Berber raid, supported by Morocco, hit the concession in Tangiers, and was barely repulsed. Despite having the right to settle in the Rif and Aš-šarq regions, the very few who did were constantly harassed by the natives, with the Moroccans doing very little to stop them. On January 07 1843 Sardinia decided that it was time to act. After another major skimmerish between Moroccan and Sardinian forces, and the establishment of the alliance with France, Sardinia declared war against Morocco on May 11 1843. The Papal States joined too in the war, with Pope Gregory XVI calling the war a crusade, not necessarily against Muslim, but against the uncivilized nation of Morocco, and to protect the Christian communities against the Moroccans. Serbia, who had become a close patner of Sardinia on October 05 1837, also sent volunteers in the region as a mean to gain military experience and as a possibility of gaining recognition from the Italian states and France.

General Eusebio Bava troops begun their advance to the capital of Morocco, Fez, with 18.000 troops, while Alessandro La Martora and his 15.000 troops advanced from Al Hoceima.

On June 04 1843, Sardinian forces assaulted Wazzan but were met with fierce resistance by Moroccan soldiers. Their advances were initially slow but eventually they overwhelmed Tawfiq al-Qubiai's men, taking the town of Wazzan before swiftly capturing Jorf El Melha. On 07 June, Moroccan forces began shelling the Sardinian positions in an attempt to recapture them, though no casualties were reported.

On 10 June, Moroccan forces re-captured Jorf El Melha after a swift advance in which they pushed the Sardinians back over Wazzan. Later during the day, the Sardinian attempted a counter-attack. Heavy fighting continued into the night, with Sardinian apparently massing for a renewed attack against the more numerous Moroccans.

By 11 June, the situation turned into a meat grinder. By 14 June, however, the Sardinian army was victorious, being more organized and having caused 12.000 Moroccan casualties.

On June 16, Carlist Spain declared war against Sardinia and its allies in defence of Morocco, hoping for French neutrality. Instead, the French intervened against the Spanish government, and quickly begun operations.

While that happened, Sardinian troops under Bava took Fez on August 12 1843, advancing then north to encircle several Moroccan elements who threatened La Martora's army. On September 08, La Martora's army was already at the outskirt of Casablanca. While that occurred, the French army advanced in the Rif region, defeating several Moroccan armies and then marched on the Spanish concession on Ceuta. As a matter of fact, the French army even landed on the Spanish Gibraltar peninsula and conquered the city of Jerez, while the rest of the army focused on the Pyrenee front. Other elements of the French army reached the city of Khouribga. La Marmora army then advanced on the Moroccan city of Meknes, while Bava's army marched on Casablanca. By this point the Moroccan army was essentially gone, and all that the Sardinian armies did was march on various major Moroccan cities, occupying them and declaring them part of a Moroccan protectorate.

Second Sardinian-Moroccan war army movements, with 1) being the battle of Wazzan, light blue being Sardinian/Lucchese/Papal/Serbian army movements, and darker blue being French army movements

Iberian front during the Second Sardinian-Moroccan war, in light blue are French occupied areas, while in light yellow are Spanish occupied areas

After Morocco was fully conquered by the Sardinian alliance, Spain realized it had little to no hope of winning against this new alliance, and decided to submit in order to not be too harshly punished. Indeed in the treaty of Fez, Spain was forced to simply cede Melilla and Ceuta to the new Sardinian protectorate over Morocco, but would not have to cede anything in the Iberian peninsula, nor it had to pay reparations. On top of that, while having been occupied in Catalonia and in Southern Andalusia, Spain came out not too much devastated, without any major losses with the exception of a naval loss in the Biscay sea shortly after their entrance in the war to the French.

Morocco, on the other hand, was not so lucky. It become a protectorate, with France gaining everything south of the Atlas mountains, while Sardinia gained everything else. Lucca concession increased in size and reached the Oued Ghis river in the south.

The Moroccan protectorate, 11 September 1844

The British did not particurally enjoy this new turn of events, with Sardinia slowly gaining major influences in North Africa. Some historians claimed that this was the beginning of the rivality between Britain and Italy for dominance over the Mediterranean sea.

As for all various Sardinian allies, all gained major advantages. France for example could now launch further incursions into Algeria and the Sahara desert, while the Papal State begun sending missionaries in Morocco. Louis Philippe I esteem for the Sardinians grew even further, and the French went as fas as to say that they would had supported their effort in the Italian unifications. However, Carlo Alberto of Savoy dreamed even bigger. He saw the Mediterranean as a future Italian lake, and realized that the French were the best way to get it. So he made an audacious proposal to Louis Philippe I. "You help me rule the Mare Nostrum [Mediterranean sea], and you shall rule it as well.". Sardinia was shaping to become one of France best allies not only for further influence in the Italian peninsula, but also for further influence in the Mediterranean sea. And considering the rivality between both the French and the British, it didn't seem like a bad deal.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum IV: The Greek Wars: The First Greek War, part 1

While the Sardinians continued their efforts against the Moroccans, in the Eastern Mediterranean problems continued to arise with the young kingdom of Greece. Back on April 30 1839 the Ottomans and the Sardinians signed a treaty of non aggression, as the Ottomans had little to no intention to start any sort of conflict with the "little tiger of the Mediterranean", as Sardinia was nicknamed at the time. While the Ottomans had no fear of the Sardinians themselves, they feared that the French might intervene in case incidents with the Sardinian navy ever occurred. This sat poorly with some extremist organizations within Greece. However, the biggest clashes between the Sardinians and the Greeks did not occur with the Greeks themselves, but rather with their Cretan brothers. The Christian Cretans had risen up together with the rest of Greece in the Greek Revolution of 1821, but despite successes in the countryside, the Ottomans held out in the four fortified towns of the northern coast (Chania, Rethymno, Irakleio and Agios Nikolaos) and the island was eventually reconquered by 1828, becoming an Egyptian province (Muhammad Ali's Egypt was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, but a powerful and semi-independent one with its own military). Various Cretan rebel cells had begun to develop, harassing Ottoman and Egyptian ships with the support of Greece, but on September 02 1843 the ship targeted by these Crete nationalists was not Ottoman, nor Egyptian. It was a Sardinian ship.

The Sardinians at first demanded the Ottomans reparations, threatening to cancel the non aggression pact of 1839, but soon realized that the Ottomans did not practice piracy on the same scale as the Moroccans. As relations with the Ottomans resumed, the Sardinians accused the Greeks of the attack and demanded reparations. The British, who had strong interests in the Mediterranean and were wary of Sardinian expansion and alliance with France, promised to defend Greece, which decided to refuse the Sardinian demands.

British Punch magazine potrayed the Sardinian declaration of war against greece as an analogue of an Eritrean fable, in which a leopard cub (the Sardinian ship) is killed by a herd of elephants (the Ottoman empire), but when the cub father (the kingdom of Sardinia) demanded to know who the killer was, and when he was told that it was the elephants, he instead called the goats (Greece) guilty of the murder. In reality, Sardinia was more than willingly to bring the war with the Ottomans, something that the French themselves were interested in and were keen in entering the conflict with Sardinia. None the less, on September 10 1844, after Morocco was fully conquered by France and Sardinia, the Italian kingdom and its allies declared war against Greece, accusing them of supporting dangerous cells that could threaten the stability of the Mediterranean.

While the war was technically declared on September 10 1844, the Sardinian population remained unaware of the situation until November 22 1844, when Britain entered the war against Sardinia and her allies. Sardinia guaranteed France that the sole purpose of the French in the conflict was to contain the British navy as best as possible, in order for the Sardinians to land on Greece. While France would do most of the naval work, Sardinia main mission was to conquer Greece as fast as possible. However, before this plan could be placed in action, the British managed to launch a daring raid on Savona and Nice, resulting in the occupation of the two cities. After that, Britain proceeded to consolidate her position near the coast, and advanced inland. However, the British army greately underestimated the Sardinian one.

Near Cairo Montenotte, the Sardinian Army faced a smaller foe, and their cavalry on the left flank outflanked the British as the British and Sardinians infantry set up firing lines in a wooded area in the center of the battlefield. The British army was destroyed, with 363 British troops and 87 Sardinian troops being killed during the battle.

Sardinian cavalry charge at Cairo Montenotte

In the Mediterranean, active naval collaboration took place between France and Sardinia to fight against British forces. The French forces, led by Patrice de MacMahon, and the Sardinian forces, led by Maurizio Gerbaix de Sonnaz, launched an attack on British occupied Niece. Macmahon had already attempted to make a surprise attack on Nice once, but had been repulsed by British forces.

A fleet of 110 french ships under François d'Orléans left from Marseille against the British. d'Orléans arrived with his fleet, accompanied by the Sardinian Ambassador. As almost nothing had been prepared on the Sardinian side to assist the French fleet, Carlo Alberto attempted to scramble a fleet to support the French. Meanwhile, d'Orléans went to the harbour of Genoa on 20 December where he was received with honours. The combined fleet sailed out of Genoa on the 13th of January.

The French force first landed at Monaco. The French and Sardinian forces then collaborated to attack the city of Nice on 14 January 1845. The Franco-Sardinians were confronted by a stiff resistance, culminating with a major battle on 23 January, but the British garrinson surrendered on 26 January.

Cannons used by the British in their defense during the siege of Nice

Despite their victories, Carlo Alberto was afraid that, unless the Sardinian army finally landed on Greece, there would be a revolution at home. There had been too many wars by now, and the local population was growing unhappy. In order to have at least the government on his side, he accepted the creation of the Senato Subalpino, the Sardinian parliament. On February 16 1845, Carlo Alberto renounced his absolute powers and decided to partially limit his powers, with Sardinia becoming a semi-constitutional monarchy. On February 19 1845, the first elections occurred in Sardinia.

The news of the proclamation of the Sardinian parliament were not the only good news for the kingdom of Sardinia. On 27 February 1845, the Sardinian forces attacked the last British forces in Savona. During February 31 and March 01 in the initial Sardinian attack, nearly 1,500 British prisoners were taken after fierce fighting. The Britishmanaged to evaquate the majority of their forces none the less.

Army movements during the Piemontese campaign, with 1) being the battle of Cairo Montenotte, and 2) being the siege of Nice

Areas occupied by Britain at their maximum extent before Sardinian and French counterattacks

After the British were kicked out of Piedmont, the Sardinians finally begun their attack against Greece. While the majority of the naval battles were fought by France during the war, there was one battle, at the Strait of Messina, which resulted in a Sardinian victory, and while small compared to other battles during the war, it was the beginning of Italian experience in the Mediterranean sea.

The Greek navy supported however possible the British in bombarding the island of Sardinia for their anticipated invasion of the island, but one Greek ship quickly found herself isolated in the Strait of Messina after the British went to attack what they believed to be a Sardinian or French ship. While the Greek ship was returning to Greece, it was attacked by 13 Sardinian ships and sunk.

With no one to oppose the fleet, the Sardinians finally landed in Greece on April 10 1845, near Kyparissia. The Sardinians advanced inland, taking Mouriatada without much of a fight. As this occurred, the British landed in Sardinia, taking Cagliari easily. While the British slowly but steadily moved inland in Sardinia, the Sardinians themselves took Calamata in Greece. The Sardinian army, under Gantano Sofilari, advanced north, taking Patrasso.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum V: Sardinian Morocco

The Sardinian Protectorate in Morocco (Italian: Protettorato Sardo del Marocco; Arabic: محمية سردينيا بالمغرب, romanized: Mahmiat Srdynya Bialmaghrib), also known as Sardinian Morocco (Italian: Marocco Sardo), was a colonial regime imposed by Sardinia in the Sherifian Empire. The protectorate was officially established September 10, 1844, when Sultan Abd al-Rahman of Morocco signed the Treaty of Fes, though the Sardinian military occupation of Morocco had begun with the First Moroccan War in 1837.

The Sardinian Protectorate shared territory with the French protectorate, established the same year; its borders consisted of the area of Morocco south of the Atlas mountains.

Various farmer's banks formed in the region, with many bankers coming from the Aosta region. Some of them previously had rebelled against the central Sardinian government, refusing to work with non-French individuals. The government largely ignored this question, and it paid off as the banks slowly but steadily opened their fronteers to Morocco.

Tangiers was the preferred sector for Sardinian colonization, while Fès-Meknès and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra were still largely under the controll of Moroccan guerrilla who opposed Sardinian rule over Morocco. Tangiers become the center of Sardinian trade outside of the Mediterranean, and the most developed city in the protectorate. All cities acquired during the First Moroccan-Sardinian war were handed over the protectorate government. Various Sardinian companies were invited on Morocco to develop the region, and competition was somewhat intense. Colonial progress was promoted as best as possible, with Sardinian welcoming not only Sardinians in the new protectorate, but also other Italians.

It also become a site of frequent alchol consumption. After Sardinia decided to limitate the use of alchol in its country on September 04 1837, Morocco had become a site of Lasse Faire policy regarding alcohol consumption, as it was used as a method to further invite colonists in the region.

While right from the bat Sardinia welcomed various colonists in the Moroccan protectorate, it would not be until May 02 1845 that Moroccan citizens could enter Sardinian soil freely. And, while welcoming many Italian companies in the region, it did not allow for foreign companies to enter the protectorate, in fear that the great powers could gain a monopoly of their own protectorate. Only the French were welcomed outside of their portion of the protectorate. The government had also a strong saying in the economy of the region, as it was quite inverventionist regarding the economy.

The agriculture sector was improved, in order to turn Morocco in some sort of granary. Chaouia, Gharb, and Hawz become site of major cereal plantations, despite the fact that the regions were often affected by droughts and were barely controlled by the Sardinians. Many Moroccan couldn't compete with Sardinian privileged farmers, and many went to the cities searching for jobs.

The Ufficio di Estrazione del Fosforo (UEF) was created in 1852 to mine phosphates out of Khouribga, which was connected to the Port of Casablanca by a direct rail line. In 1853, 39,000 tons of phosphate were extracted, while almost 2 million tons were extracted in 1862. The Moroccan laborers working in the mines benefited from no social protections, were forbidden from unionizing, and earned a tiny fraction of what Europeans earned.

Industry during the early period of the protectorate on focused food processing for local consumption: there were canneries, a sugar refinery, a brewing company and flourmills. Manufacturing and heavy industry, however, were not embraced as they were desperately needed in Sardinia and Piedmont.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum VI: Sardinia's ideological evolution, Part 1

Territories were not the sole thing that increased during the kingdom of Sardinia's attempt to expand into the Mediterranean and unite Italy. Various ideological thoughts developed in this period, mostly from refugees that wanted to escape their oppressive Hapsbourg dominated territories. We shall look at these that developed from 1836 to 1845:

-Positivism: Positivism is a philosophical theory which states that "genuine" knowledge (knowledge of anything which is not true by definition) is exclusively derived from experience of natural phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from sensory experience, as interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain knowledge. Positivism therefore holds that all genuine knowledge is a posteriori knowledge. Verified data (positive facts) received from the senses are known as empirical evidence; thus positivism is based on empiricism.

Positivism also holds that society, like the physical world, operates according to general laws. Introspective and intuitive knowledge is rejected, as are metaphysics and theology because metaphysical and theological claims cannot be verified by sense experience. Although the positivist approach has been a recurrent theme in the history of western thought, the modern approach was formulated by the philosopher Auguste Comte in the early 19th century. Comte argued that, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other absolute laws, so does society.

Positivism asserts that all authentic knowledge allows verification and that all authentic knowledge assumes that the only valid knowledge is scientific. Thinkers such as Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825), Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827) and Auguste Comte (1798–1857) believed the scientific method, the circular dependence of theory and observation, must replace metaphysics in the history of thought.[citation needed] Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) reformulated sociological positivism as a foundation of social research.

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911), in contrast, fought strenuously against the assumption that only explanations derived from science are valid. He reprised the argument, already found in Vico, that scientific explanations do not reach the inner nature of phenomena and it is humanistic knowledge that gives us insight into thoughts, feelings and desires. Dilthey was in part influenced by the historicism of Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886).

A connection between modernity and positivism developed in Sardinia with its first philosopher, Carlo Cattaneo.

Born in Milan, son of Melchiorre, a goldsmith who came from Val Brembana, and of Maria Antonia Sangiorgio, Carlo spent most of his childhood dividing himself between Milanese city life and long and frequent stays in Casorate, where he was often a guest of old relatives. It was during these stays that, taking advantage of the library of his great-uncle Giacomo Antonio, a country priest, Cattaneo became passionate about reading, especially the classics.

His love for classical literature led him to undertake studies in the seminaries of Lecco first and then Monza, which should have led him to an ecclesiastical career, but already at the age of seventeen, he left the seminary to continue his training at the Sant 'Alessandro in Milan and later at the high school of Porta Nuova where he graduated in 1820. His cultural and intellectual training was shaped, during his higher studies, by masters such as Giambattista De Cristoforis and Giovanni Gherardini, who opened the doors of the world to him Milanese intellectual. Thanks to these new opportunities, in addition to his passion for classical studies, Cattaneo began to nurture interests of a scientific and historical nature.

Carlo Cattaneo in his younger years

During this period the readings at the Brera Library and the contact with his paternal cousin Gaetano Cattaneo were fundamental for his intellectual formation, who, in addition to being director of the numismatic cabinet, was also an important exponent of the early Milanese intellectual world. century. Another key point for the formative path of Cattaneo's interests was the assiduous attendance of the Ambrosiana Library, thanks to his maternal kinship with the prefect Pietro Cighera, and the personal library of his paternal uncle Antonio Cattaneo, pharmacist and chemistry scholar.

In December 1820, the Municipal Congregation of Milan hired him as a teacher of Latin grammar and then of human sciences in the municipal gymnasium of Santa Marta where he remained for fifteen years. In this same period he began to deepen his acquaintances with the Milanese intellectuals, becoming part of the circle of Vincenzo Monti and his daughter Costanza, of these same years are his friendships with Stefano Franscini and Giuseppe Montani. After starting to attend the law lessons held by Gian Domenico Romagnosi in his private school, he soon became a friend and pupil. In 1824 he graduated in Law from the University of Pavia with full marks.

Its first publication, given to the press and appeared in the Anthology, dates back to 1822, it is a review of Romagnosi's First Assumption of the Science of Natural Law. Between 1823 and 1824 he was absent numerous times from his teaching post due to illness, probably due to severe rheumatism. Between 1824 and 1826 he published his translations from German of popular historical and geographical works, the result of a government commission. During this period he collaborated with his friend Stefano Franscini for the translation of Heinrich Zschokke's History of Switzerland for the Swiss People, but which was only published in 1829.

In 1825 his father died and his elder brother Filippo, the eldest son, succeeded him in the goldsmith's shop. In this same year Cattaneo meets Anna Woodcock, a young Anglo-Saxon with whom he will begin to establish an ever deeper relationship.

On July 08 1838, because of possible Austrian suspects of Cattaneo's collaboration with the Carboneria, he was forced to move into Sardinia, where he become the father of positivism not only in Sardinia, but also in Italy.

-Functionalism: Functional psychology or functionalism refers to a psychological school of thought that was a direct outgrowth of Darwinian thinking which focuses attention on the utility and purpose of behavior that has been modified over years of human existence. Functionalism denies the principle of introspection, which tends to investigate the inner workings of human thinking rather than understanding the biological processes of the human consciousness.

While functionalism eventually became its own formal school, it built on structuralism's concern for the anatomy of the mind and led to greater concern over the functions of the mind and later to the psychological approach of behaviorism.

This movement has misterious origins in Sardinia, but is believed to have reached the small kingdom on 08 September 1841

-Idealism: In philosophy, idealism is a diverse group of metaphysical views which all assert that "reality" is in some way indistinguishable or inseparable from human perception and/or understanding, that it is in some sense mentally constituted, or that it is otherwise closely connected to ideas. In contemporary scholarship, traditional idealist views are generally divided into two groups. Subjective idealism takes as its starting point that objects only exist to the extent that they are perceived by someone. Objective idealism posits the existence of an objective consciousness which exists before and, in some sense, independently of human consciousness, thereby bringing about the existence of objects independently of human minds. In the early modern period, George Berkeley was often considered the paradigmatic idealist, as he asserted that the essence of objects is to be perceived. By contrast, Immanuel Kant, a pioneer of modern idealist thought, held that his version of idealism does “not concern the existence of things”, but asserts only that our “modes of representation” of them, above all space and time, are not “determinations that belong to things in themselves” but essential features of our own minds. Kant called this position “transcendental idealism” (or sometimes “critical idealism"), holding that the objects of experience relied for their existence on the mind, and that the way that things in themselves are outside of our experience cannot be thought without applying the categories which structure all of our experiences. However, since Kant's view affirms the existence of some things independently of experience (namely, "things in themselves"), it is very different from the more traditional idealism of Berkeley.

Epistemologically, idealism is accompanied by skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing. In its ontological commitments, idealism goes further, asserting that all entities rely for their existence on the mind. Ontological idealism thus rejects both physicalist and dualist views as failing to ascribe ontological priority to the mind. In contrast to materialism, idealism asserts the primacy of consciousness as the origin and prerequisite of phenomena. Idealism holds consciousness or mind to be the "origin" of the material world – in the sense that it is a necessary condition for our positing of a material world – and it aims to explain the existing world according to these principles. The earliest extant arguments that the world of experience is grounded in the mental derive from India and Greece. The Hindu idealists in India and the Greek neoplatonists gave panentheistic arguments for an all-pervading consciousness as the ground or true nature of reality. In contrast, the Yogācāra school, which arose within Mahayana Buddhism in India in the 4th century CE, based its "mind-only" idealism to a greater extent on phenomenological analyses of personal experience. This turn toward the subjective anticipated empiricists such as George Berkeley, who revived idealism in 18th-century Europe by employing skeptical arguments against materialism. Beginning with Immanuel Kant, German idealists such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, and Arthur Schopenhauer dominated 19th-century philosophy. This tradition, which emphasized the mental or "ideal" character of all phenomena, gave birth to idealistic and subjectivist schools ranging from British idealism to phenomenalism to existentialism.

Phenomenology, an influential strain of philosophy since the beginning of the 20th century, also draws on the lessons of idealism. In his Being and Time, Martin Heidegger famously states: "If the term idealism amounts to the recognition that being can never be explained through beings, but, on the contrary, always is the transcendental in its relation to any beings, then the only right possibility of philosophical problematics lies with idealism. In that case, Aristotle was no less an idealist than Kant. If idealism means a reduction of all beings to a subject or a consciousness, distinguished by staying undetermined in its own being, and ultimately is characterised negatively as 'non-thingly', then this idealism is no less methodically naive than the most coarse-grained realism." Idealism as a philosophy came under heavy attack in the West at the turn of the 20th century. The most influential critics of both epistemological and ontological idealism were G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell, but its critics also included the new realists. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the attacks by Moore and Russell were so influential that even more than 100 years later "any acknowledgment of idealistic tendencies is viewed in the English-speaking world with reservation". However, many aspects and paradigms of idealism did still have a large influence on subsequent philosophy.

Sardinian idealism was a branch of the Italian Idealism, born from interest in the German one and particularly in Hegelian doctrine. Representative of this doctrine were Augusto Vera, Francesco de Sanctis and Bertrando Spaventa.

August Vera was born in Amelia in the province of Terni. He was educated in Rome and Paris, and, after teaching classics for some years in Geneva, held chairs of philosophy in various colleges in France. He was a philosophy teacher at the Lycée Victor-Duruy (Mont-de-Marsan) and subsequently was professor in Strasbourg and in Paris. Then he moved to Piedmont in Sardinia, meeting with other members of the ideological thought.

Francesco de Sanctis was born in the southern Italian town of Morra Irpina (renamed Morra De Sanctis in his honor in 1937) to a family of middle-class landowners. His father was a doctor in law and his two paternal uncles, one a priest and the other a medic, were exiled for having participated in the Carbonari Uprisings of 1820-1821. After completing his high school studies in nearby Naples, he was educated at the Italian language institute in Naples founded by Marquis Basilio Puoti (1782-1847). Because of his "correlation" with the Carbonari, he was forced to move into Sardinia, where he was the first to call the small kingdom the "little tiger of the Mediterranea (La piccola tigre del Mediterraneo)".

Bertrando Spaventa
Elder brother of Italian patriot Silvio Spaventa, Bertrando was born into a middle-class family in financial difficulty. His mother, Maria Anna Croce, was the great-aunt of philosopher Benedetto Croce.

He was educated at the Diocesan Seminary in Chieti and ordained there. In 1838 he moved, along with his brother, to Montecassino to take up the post of teacher of mathematics and rhetoric at the local seminary. In 1840 he went to Naples to continue his education. By learning German and English, he became one of the first Italian thinkers of the period to read the works of foreign philosophers in the original. He moved in liberal circles and became close to thinkers like Ottavio Colecchi (in Italian) and Antonio Tari (in Italian), set up his own philosophy school and also helped edit Il Nazionale, the newspaper founded and edited by his brother, Silvio. Due to the oppressive Sicilian regime, he too was forced to move into the relatively more liberal Kingdom of Sardinia.

-Rationalism: In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification". More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive".

In an old controversy, rationalism was opposed to empiricism, where the rationalists believed that reality has an intrinsically logical structure. Because of this, the rationalists argued that certain truths exist and that the intellect can directly grasp these truths. That is to say, rationalists asserted that certain rational principles exist in logic, mathematics, ethics, and metaphysics that are so fundamentally true that denying them causes one to fall into contradiction. The rationalists had such a high confidence in reason that empirical proof and physical evidence were regarded as unnecessary to ascertain certain truths – in other words, "there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience".

Different degrees of emphasis on this method or theory lead to a range of rationalist standpoints, from the moderate position "that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge" to the more extreme position that reason is "the unique path to knowledge". Given a pre-modern understanding of reason, rationalism is identical to philosophy, the Socratic life of inquiry, or the zetetic (skeptical) clear interpretation of authority (open to the underlying or essential cause of things as they appear to our sense of certainty). In recent decades, Leo Strauss sought to revive "Classical Political Rationalism" as a discipline that understands the task of reasoning, not as foundational, but as maieutic.

In the 17th-century Dutch Republic, the rise of early modern rationalism – as a highly systematic school of philosophy in its own right for the first time in history – exerted an immense and profound influence on modern Western thought in general, with the birth of two influential rationalistic philosophical systems of Descartes (who spent most of his adult life and wrote all his major work in the United Provinces of the Netherlands) and Spinoza–namely Cartesianism and Spinozism. It was the 17th-century arch-rationalists like Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz who have given the "Age of Reason" its name and place in history.

In politics, rationalism, since the Enlightenment, historically emphasized a "politics of reason" centered upon rational choice, utilitarianism, secularism, and irreligion – the latter aspect's antitheism was later softened by the adoption of pluralistic reasoning methods practicable regardless of religious or irreligious ideology. In this regard, the philosopher John Cottingham noted how rationalism, a methodology, became socially conflated with atheism, a worldview:

In the past, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the term 'rationalist' was often used to refer to free thinkers of an anti-clerical and anti-religious outlook, and for a time the word acquired a distinctly pejorative force (thus in 1670 Sanderson spoke disparagingly of 'a mere rationalist, that is to say in plain English an atheist of the late edition...'). The use of the label 'rationalist' to characterize a world outlook which has no place for the supernatural is becoming less popular today; terms like 'humanist' or 'materialist' seem largely to have taken its place. But the old usage still survives. Rationalism origins in Sardinia are largely unknown, but it played an important role further on, becoming even an architure style.

-Neo-Kantianism: In late modern continental philosophy, neo-Kantianism (German: Neukantianismus) was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. More specifically, it was influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer's critique of the Kantian philosophy in his work The World as Will and Representation (1818), as well as by other post-Kantian philosophers such as Jakob Friedrich Fries and Johann Friedrich Herbart. Having originated in Germany, it managed to creep into several of the Italian states, including Sardinia.

-Civil religion: Civil religion, also referred to as a civic religion, is the implicit religious values of a nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols (such as the national flag), and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places (such as monuments, battlefields, or national cemeteries). It is distinct from churches, although church officials and ceremonies are sometimes incorporated into the practice of civil religion. It begun to develop in Sardinia in 1845, when Britain was still a threat to the small kingdom of Sardinia and during the creation of the Senato Subalpino.

-Secularization: In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis expresses the idea that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religious authority diminishes in all aspects of social life and governance. As a second meaning, the term "secularization" may also occur in the context of the lifting of monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.

Secularization, in the main, sociological meaning of the term, involves the historical process in which religion loses social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.

Secularization has many levels of meaning, both as a theory and as a historical process. Social theorists such as Karl Marx (1818–1883), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Max Weber (1864–1920), and Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) postulated that the modernization of society would include a decline in levels of religiosity. Study of this process seeks to determine the manner in which, or extent to which religious creeds, practices and institutions are losing social significance. Some theorists argue that the secularization of modern civilization partly results from our inability to adapt broad ethical and spiritual needs of mankind to the increasingly fast advance of the physical sciences.

In contrast to the "modernization" thesis, Christian Smith and others argue that intellectual and cultural élites promote secularization to enhance their own status and influence. Smith believes that intellectuals have an inherent tendency to be hostile to their native cultures, causing them to embrace secularism.

The term "secularization" also has additional meanings, primarily historical and religious. Applied to church property, historically it refers to the seizure of church lands and buildings, such as Henry VIII's 16th-century dissolution of the monasteries in England and the later acts during the 18th-century French Revolution, as well as by various anti-clerical enlightened absolutist European governments during the 18th and 19th centuries, which resulted in the expulsion and suppression of the religious communities which occupied them. The 19th-century Kulturkampf in Germany and Switzerland and similar events in many other countries also were expressions of secularization.

Still another form of secularization refers to the act of Prince-Bishops or holders of a position in a Monastic or Military Order - holding a combined religious and secular authority under the Catholic Church - who broke away and made themselves into completely secular (typically, Protestant) hereditary rulers. For example, Gotthard Kettler (1517–1587), the last Master of the Livonian Order, converted to Lutheranism, secularised (and took to himself) the lands of Semigallia and Courland which he had held on behalf of the order - which enabled him to marry and leave to his descendants the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. At the moment still weak in Sardinia, the King himself partially supported it in order to limit the power of the church.

While these new ideologies would shape Sardinia as the dominant power of the Mediterranean and the "motherland" of Italy, it also caused an increase of liberal activities in the small kingdom, with some arguing why a king was needed in the first place. Their wonders would not be satisfied, because to this day, the monarchy hasn't fallen yet.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum VII Sardina and the Finns

During the Sardinian-Greek war, the main supporter of Greece was the United Kingdom, which was starting to tolerate poorly the little tiger of the Mediterranean. Many British naval bases were based there, including Gibraltar and Malta. However, there was also another big supporter of the Greek cause, the Russian empire. Russia had always played the role of a third Rome, while also promoting orthodoxy, while also defending it. It was also their way to expand, and Greece could easily be a way to have a client state in the Mediterranean. Russia sent equipment and supplies to the Greeks during the conflicts, with the Sardinians being powerless to react.

France herself was concerned regarding this move, as it feared that the British and Russians may ally again, and the French did not forget the Russian winter. However, while a direct action could possibly backfire, Carlo Alberto made a proposal to Louis Philippe I: doing the same thing the Russians were doing. Which meant supporting various rebel groups within the empire. France decided to support further Polish uprisings, while Sardina contacted Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was making a name for himself in South America, requesting him to move to the Grand Duchy of Finland and support rebel groups in the region.

The Grand Duchy of Finland (Finnish: Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; Swedish: Storfurstendömet Finland; Russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, Velikoye knyazhestvo Finlyandskoye; literally meaning Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor state of modern Finland.

An extended Southwest Finland was made a titular grand principality in 1581, when King Johan III of Sweden, who as a prince had been the Duke of Finland (1556–1561/63), extended the list of subsidiary titles of the Kings of Sweden considerably. The new title Grand Prince of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, as Finland was an integrated part of the Kingdom of Sweden with full parliamentary representation for its counties. During the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johan's successors on the throne, but not all. Usually, it was just a subsidiary title of the King, used only on very formal occasions. However, in 1802, as an indication of his resolve to keep Finland within Sweden in the face of increased Russian pressure, King Gustav IV Adolf gave the title to his new-born son, Prince Carl Gustaf, who died three years later.

During the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia, the four Estates of occupied Finland were assembled at the Diet of Porvoo on 29 March 1809 to pledge allegiance to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who in return guaranteed that the area's laws and liberties, as well as religion, would be left unchanged. Following the Swedish defeat in the war and the signing of the Treaty of Fredrikshamn on 17 September 1809, Finland became a true autonomous grand principality within the autocratic Russian Empire; but the usual balance of power between monarch and diet resting on taxation was not in place, since the Emperor could rely on the rest of his vast Empire. The title "Grand Prince of Finland" was added to the long list of titles of the Russian Tsar.

After his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian Emperor. Armfelt was instrumental in securing the Grand Principality as an entity with relatively greater autonomy within the Russian realm, and restoring the so-called Old Finland that had been lost to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721.

The formation of the Grand Principality, often known in English as the Grand Duchy, stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Emperor Napoléon I of the French. The treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoléon's remaining threats: the United Kingdom and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February 1808, claimed as an effort to impose military sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest, and that Russia decided to only temporarily control Finland. Collectively, the Finnish were predominately Anti-Russian, and Finnish guerillas and peasant uprisings were a large obstacles for the Russians, forcing Russia to use various tactics to quash armed Finnish rebellion. Thus, in the beginning of the war, General roda Voysk Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Buxhoeveden, with permission of the Tsar, issued an oath of fealty on Finland, in which Russia would honour Finland's Lutheran faith, the Finnish Diet, and the Finnish estates as long as the Finns would remain loyal to the Russian Imperial Crown. The oath also dubbed anyone person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel.

The Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, and was never mentioned in the manifesto published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, and promised the Diet would shortly be summoned. By 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, giving it autonomy.

The earlier years of the Grand Principality can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland, known as the Viipuri Province, was returned to Finland after being annexed by Russia in the Great Northern War and the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743). This surprising action by the Tsar was met with anger from certain parts of the Russian government and aristocracy, who wished to either return to the previous border or annex the communities west of St. Petersburg. The gesture can be seen as Alexander's concern for Finland and his attempts of appeasement of the Finns, in attempts to gain their loyalty which would come from passive appeasement, compared to the vigorous Russification later in the nineteenth-century. Moreover, Alexander moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, a small fortified town protected by Suomenlinna. Finland's main university also transferred to Helsinki after a fire broke out in Turku, destroying most of the building.

Despite promises of a Finnish Diet, the Diet was not called to meet until 1863 and many new laws going through the legislature were laws that would have required the approval of the Diet while under Swedish rule. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, which organised in 1818. The house was designed to register all noble families in Finland so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish Diet. As for Sweden, the majority did not think too much about Finland's conquest, as Sweden itself annexed Norway from Denmark in 1814 and entered a personal union with the nation. Whether or not Alexander purposely ignored the existence of the Diet is debatable, with notable factors such as the fall of Napoléon and the creation of the Holy Alliance, newfound religious mysticism of the Russian crown, and the negative experience with the Polish Sejm. Despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia.

Central Helsinki in 1820

In 1823, Count Arseny Zakrevsky was made Governor-General of Finland and quickly became unpopular among both Finns and Swedes alike. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Russian Emperor, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State. Two years later, Alexander I died ( 1 December [O.S. 19 November] 1825). Zakrevsky seized the opportunity to require Finland to swear an oath of fealty which would refer to the Emperor as the absolute ruler of Finland - expecting that Emperor would be Constantine, Alexander's next-eldest brother. However, Nicholas, younger brother of Constantine and Alexander, became Emperor despite the Decembrist revolt against him in December 1825. Nicholas assured Finland's secretary of state, Robert Henrik Rehbinder, that he (Nicholas) would continue to uphold Alexander's liberal policies regarding Finland.

In 1830 Europe became a hotbed of revolution and reform as a result of the July Revolution in France. Poland, another Russian client state, saw a massive uprising against Saint Petersburg during the November Uprising of 1830-1831. Finland made no such move, as Russia had already won over Finnish loyalty. Thus, Russia continued its policies respecting Finnish autonomy and the quiet assimilation of the Finns into the empire. Zakrevsky died in 1831; Knyaz Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov succeeded him as Governor-General of Finland and continued Finnish appeasement. The appeasement of the Finns could be seen as a prototype of the later Russification, as educated Finns moved to Russia in mass, seeking jobs within the Imperial Court to rise within Russian imperial society. The Russian language was studied excitedly as well, with more Finns seeking to learn Russian language, politics, culture, and to assimilate into Russian society. Even though Nicholas had no intentions on doing this, his inner office, specifically Nicholas's Interior Minister, Lev Perovski (in office: 1841-1852), advocated for Count Zakrevsky's ideas and further pushed the ideas of subtle Russification during the 1840s.

However, Finland did experience a nationalistic revolution in the 1830s - one based around literature. This marked the beginning of the Fennoman movement, a nationalistic movement that would operate in Finland until its independence. In 1831, the Finnish Literary Society was founded, which formed on the basis of appreciation of the Finnish language. Finnish was not represented as language of the scholarly elite, as most printed academic works, novels, and poetry was written in either Swedish or Russian. Copying the German reading rage, Lesewut, and subsequent Swedish mania, Finland entered the reading craze by the 1830s. This fad peaked in 1835 with the publication of The Kalevala, the Finnish epic. The Kalevala's influence on Finland was massive, and strengthened Finnish nationalism and unity, despite the epic being poetry or stories about Finnish folklore. The quest for literature expanded into the 1840s and 1850s and caught the eye of the Finnish church and the Russian crown. Finnish newspapers, such as Maamiehen Ystävä (The Farmer's Friend), began publication in both urban and rural areas of Finland. However, the Swedish academic elite, the church, and the Russian government opposed Finland's literature movement.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, an hero in South America, was invited by the Sardinian government to operate similat tactics he performed in the Uruguayan Civil War in Finland, as it seemed like Russia was beginning to perform oppressive measures in Finland. In exchange, he would be welcomed back in Sardinia and all of her allies, no question asked, and could even become a general in the Sardinian army. Carlo Alberto himself was secretely preparing for a war against the Austrians, but he just needed time. Garibaldi accepted, and believed that his idea of an united and democratic Italy was in his grasp. He arrived in Genoa first, gained some volunteers, then moved in secret to Finland, with the support of some French ships. Some French voluteers joined his ranks. His next moves of operations were to gain support by the local Finnish population, then he was to move on the attack.

In 1846, the Finns in Helsinki, incited by Garibaldi and his men, launched an anti-Russian campaign as early as 1 January. On New Year's Day the Finns started to boycott various Russian products. The boycott culminated in a bloody street battle on 3 January, when Russian soldiers, in batches of three, were being insulted and pelted with stones by an angry crowd. The soldiers then gathered together in groups of a dozen and charged the crowd with swords and bayonets, killing five and wounding another 59. Alexander Menshikov confined his troops to barracks for five days. On 18 March 1846, the population of Helsinki launched an uprising which, guided by the expert Italian general, managed to conquer a major part of the city, and a provisional government was formed in the region. Various other regions in Finland rised against the Russians, but they had far less success and, now isolated, Garibaldi was forced to retreat alongside a good chunck of his redshirts. Helsinki was recaptured by the Russians, Finland autonomy was reduced, but at the same time the various actions of Garibaldi had forced the Russians to wirdraw their support to Greece. It was also the beginning of Italy friendly relations with the Finns. In the aftermath of the Great War, years later, Italy herself made it clear that Finland was to gain independence from the Russians as part of the peace treaty.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum VIII: Sardinia's ideological evolution, Part 2

As Sardinia continued to evolve as a nation, various other ideologies arrived in what some considered at the time the most liberal nation in the Italian peninsula.

-Absolute Idealism: Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy chiefly associated with G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both of whom were German idealist philosophers in the 19th century. The label has also been attached to others such as Josiah Royce, an American philosopher who was greatly influenced by Hegel's work, and the British idealists. A form of idealism, absolute idealism is Hegel's account of how being is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive whole (das Absolute). Hegel asserted that in order for the thinking subject (human reason or consciousness) to be able to know its object (the world) at all, there must be in some sense an identity of thought and being. Otherwise, the subject would never have access to the object and we would have no certainty about any of our knowledge of the world. To account for the differences between thought and being, however, as well as the richness and diversity of each, the unity of thought and being cannot be expressed as the abstract identity "A=A". Absolute idealism is the attempt to demonstrate this unity using a new "speculative" philosophical method, which requires new concepts and rules of logic. According to Hegel, the absolute ground of being is essentially a dynamic, historical process of necessity that unfolds by itself in the form of increasingly complex forms of being and of consciousness, ultimately giving rise to all the diversity in the world and in the concepts with which we think and make sense of the world.[citation needed]

The absolute idealist position dominated philosophy in nineteenth-century England and Germany, while exerting significantly less influence in the United States. The absolute idealist position should be distinguished from the subjective idealism of Berkeley, the transcendental idealism of Kant, or the post-Kantian transcendental idealism (also known as critical idealism) of Fichte and of the early Schelling. It arrived in Sardina on November 1845.

-Existentialism: Existentialism (/ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃəlɪzəm/ or /ˌɛksəˈstɛntʃəˌlɪzəm/) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on the lived experience of the thinking, feeling, acting individual. In the view of the existentialist, the individual's starting point has been called "the existential angst" (or, variably, existential attitude, dread, etc.), or a sense of disorientation, confusion, or anxiety in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world.

Existentialism is associated with several 19th- and 20th-century European philosophers who shared an emphasis on the human subject, despite profound doctrinal differences. Many existentialists regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience. A primary virtue in existentialist thought is authenticity.[10] Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher, though he did not use the term existentialism. He proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or "authentically". It arrived in Sardinia on April 1846.

-Collectivism: Collectivism is a value that is characterized by emphasis on cohesiveness among individuals and prioritization of the group over the self. Individuals or groups that subscribe to a collectivist worldview tend to find common values and goals as particularly salient and demonstrate greater orientation toward in-group than toward out-group. The term "in-group" is thought to be more diffusely defined for collectivist individuals to include societal units ranging from the nuclear family to a religious or racial/ethnic group. It developed in Sardinia on October 1846, at a time when social justice was born in the small kingdom.

-Traditionalism: Tradizionalism, also referred to as classical conservatism, traditional conservatism or traditionalism, is a political and social philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of a transcendent moral order, manifested through certain natural laws to which society ought to conform in a prudent manner. Overlapping with Toryism, traditionalist conservatism is a conservatism based on the political philosophies of Aristotle and Edmund Burke. Traditionalists emphasize the bonds of social order and the defense of ancestral institutions over what it considers excessive individualism.

Traditionalist conservatism places a strong emphasis on the notions of custom, convention and tradition. Theoretical reason is derided over and is considered against practical reason. The state is also seen as a communal enterprise with spiritual and organic qualities. Traditionalists believe that any change is not the result of intentional reasoned thought but flows naturally out of the traditions of the community. Leadership, authority and hierarchy are seen as natural products. Traditionalism developed throughout 18th-century Europe, particularly as a response to the disorder of the English Civil War and the radicalism of the French Revolution. In the middle of the 20th century, traditionalist conservatism started to organize itself in earnest as an intellectual and political force. It reached Sardinia on June 1847.

-Social conciousness: It is the psycho-social sphere of life and of the historical process which includes moral, religious, legal, economic, political, aesthetic, art, science, social intentions, customs, traditions, etc. Social consciousness goes hand in hand with the processes of inter-individual communication, which arise from the development of interaction and reciprocal influences between human beings.

In its complex structure, the generational level and the action of large social groups and micro-groups should be emphasized. Social consciousness has a complex relationship with culture, and acquires tribal, local, national, regional and international characteristics. His way of expressing himself is different in the vertical and horizontal structures.

The forms of social conscience concern morality, religion, art, science, philosophy, legal and political conscience. One of the cases of expression of social conscience is social or public opinion. The humanist attitude is a historical form of social conscience which is developing in different cultures and which manifests itself clearly in a specific humanist moment. It reached Sardinia on July 1848.

-Religious Separatism: The term religious separatism indicates a modality of relationship between State and religion which provides for the non-recognition of religious confessions by the State even if they remain legal systems and cannot be governed in any way; confessions have no juridical power over citizens.

In this case, the ecclesiastical authorities cannot issue acts in a civil system (as in the case of a canonical marriage that produces civil effects if transcribed or in the case of a sentence of an ecclesiastical court). It developed in Sardinia on October 1853.

-Egalitarianism: Egalitarianism (from French égal 'equal'), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or moral status. Egalitarianism is the doctrine that all citizens of a state should be accorded exactly equal rights.

The term egalitarianism has two distinct definitions in modern English, either as a political doctrine that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social and civil rights, or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic inequalities among people, economic egalitarianism, or the decentralization of power. Some sources define egalitarianism as equality reflecting the natural state of humanity. It reached Sardinia on November 1853.

-Political Science: Political science, occasionally called politology, is a discipline of social science which deals with systems of governance, and the analysis of political activities, political thoughts, associated constitutions and political behavior.

Political science comprises numerous subfields, including comparative politics, political economy, international relations, political theory, public administration, public policy, and political methodology. Furthermore, political science is related to, and draws upon, the fields of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, human geography, journalism, political anthropology, and social policy.

Comparative politics is the science of comparison and teaching of different types of constitutions, political actors, legislature and associated fields, all of them from an intrastate perspective. International relations deals with the interaction between nation-states as well as intergovernmental and transnational organizations. Political theory is more concerned with contributions of various classical and contemporary thinkers and philosophers.

Political science is methodologically diverse and appropriates many methods originating in psychology, social research and cognitive neuroscience. Approaches include positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behaviouralism, structuralism, post-structuralism, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources, such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research, and model building. It reached Sardinia on September 1854.

-Romanticism: Romanticism (also known as the Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature—all components of modernity. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education, chess, social sciences, and the natural sciences. It had a significant and complex effect on politics, with romantic thinkers influencing liberalism, radicalism, conservatism, and nationalism.

The movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and beauty of nature. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, but also spontaneity as a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu). In contrast to the Rationalism and Classicism of the Enlightenment, Romanticism revived medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived as authentically medieval in an attempt to escape population growth, early urban sprawl, and industrialism.

Although the movement was rooted in the German Sturm und Drang movement, which preferred intuition and emotion to the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the events and ideologies of the French Revolution were also proximate factors. Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of "heroic" individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism. The decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. It arrived in Sardinia on July 1855, and it's best represented by Alessandro Manzoni.

Portrait of Alessandro Manzoni by Francesco Hayez

Manzoni was born in Milan, Italy, on 7 March 1785. Pietro, his father, aged about fifty, belonged to an old family of Lecco, originally feudal lords of Barzio, in the Valsassina. The poet's maternal grandfather, Cesare Beccaria, was a well-known author and philosopher, and his mother Giulia had literary talent as well. The young Alessandro spent his first two years in cascina Costa in Galbiate and he was wet-nursed by Caterina Panzeri, as attested by a memorial tablet affixed in the place. In 1792 his parents broke their marriage and his mother began a relationship with the writer Carlo Imbonati, moving to England and later to Paris. For this reason, Alessandro was brought up in several religious institutes.

Manzoni was a slow developer, and at the various colleges he attended he was considered a dunce. At fifteen, however, he developed a passion for poetry and wrote two sonnets of considerable merit. Upon the death of his father in 1807, he joined the freethinking household of his mother at Auteuil, and spent two years mixing with the literary set of the so-called "ideologues", philosophers of the 18th-century school, among whom he made many friends, notably Claude Charles Fauriel. There too he imbibed the anti-Catholic creed of Voltairianism.

In 1806–1807, while at Auteuil, he first appeared before the public as a poet, with two works, one entitled Urania, in the classical style, of which he became later the most conspicuous adversary, the other an elegy in blank verse, on the death of Count Carlo Imbonati, from whom, through his mother, he inherited considerable property, including the villa of Brusuglio, thenceforward his principal residence.

In 1808, Manzoni married Henriette Blondel, daughter of a Genevese banker. She came from a Calvinist family, but in 1810 she became a Roman Catholic. Her conversion profoundly influenced her husband. That same year he experienced a religious crisis which led him from Jansenism to an austere form of Catholicism. Manzoni's marriage proved a happy one, and he led for many years a retired domestic life, divided between literature and the picturesque husbandry of Lombardy.

His intellectual energy in this period of his life was devoted to the composition of the Inni sacri, a series of sacred lyrics, and of a treatise on Catholic morality, Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica, a task undertaken under religious guidance, in reparation for his early lapse from faith. In 1818 he had to sell his paternal inheritance, as his money had been lost to a dishonest agent. His characteristic generosity was shown at this time in his dealings with his peasants, who were heavily indebted to him. He not only cancelled on the spot the record of all sums owed to him, but bade them keep for themselves the whole of the coming maize harvest.

In 1819, Manzoni published his first tragedy, Il Conte di Carmagnola, which, boldly violating all classical conventions, excited a lively controversy. It was severely criticized in a Quarterly Review article to which Goethe replied in its defence, "one genius," as Count de Gubernatis remarks, "having divined the other." The death of Napoleon in 1821 inspired Manzoni's powerful stanzas Il Cinque maggio (The Fifth of May), one of the most popular lyrics in the Italian language. The political events of that year, and the imprisonment of many of his friends, weighed much on Manzoni's mind, and the historical studies in which he sought distraction during his subsequent retirement at Brusuglio suggested his great work.

Frontispiece of The Betrothed in the second definitive edition of 1840–1842

Round the episode of the Innominato, historically identified with Bernardino Visconti, the first manuscript of the novel The Betrothed (in Italian I promessi sposi) began to grow into shape, and was completed in September 1823. The work was published, after being deeply reshaped by the author and revised by friends in 1825–1827, at the rate of a volume a year; it at once raised its author to the first rank of literary fame. It is generally agreed to be his greatest work, and the paradigm of modern Italian language. The Penguin Companion to European Literature notes that 'the book's real greatness lies in its delineation of character...in the heroine, Lucia, in Padre Cristoforo, the Capuchin friar, and the saintly cardinal of Milan, he has created three living examples of that pure and wholehearted Christianity which is his ideal. But his psychological penetration extends also to those who fall short of this standard, whether through weakness or perversity, and the novel is rich in pictures of ordinary men and women, seen with a delightful irony and disenchantment which always stops short of cynicism, and which provides a perfect balance for the evangelical fervour of his ideal'. In 1822, Manzoni published his second tragedy, Adelchi, turning on the overthrow by Charlemagne of the Lombard domination in Italy, and containing many veiled allusions to the existing Austrian rule. With these works Manzoni's literary career was practically closed. But he laboriously revised The Betrothed in Tuscan-Italian, and in 1840 republished it in that form, with a historical essay, Storia della colonna infame, on details of the 17th-century plague in Milan so important in the novel. He also wrote a small treatise on the Italian language.

The death of Manzoni's wife in 1833 was preceded and followed by those of several of his children, and of his mother. In the mid-1830s he attended the "Salotto Maffei", a salon in Milan hosted by Clara Maffei, and in 1837 he married again, to Teresa Borri, widow of Count Stampa. Teresa also died before him, while of nine children born to him in his two marriages all but two pre-deceased him. During a time of bloody Austrian repression, he moved to Sardinia and become a Senator, who aimed to Italian unification under the Savoy dinasty.

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Capitulum IX: The First Greek War Part 2

While the British continued to advance in the island of Sardinia, the Sardinians themselves advanced through the Peloponnese, facing Greek troops at Kalamata. The Greeks fought bravely, but could not compete against the French supported Sardinians. Some claim that this was the sole battle of the entire war, although the Sardinians in reality fought various other campaigns, taking the Peloponnese. Joining the campaign on January 14 1846 was Lucca, which hoped to gain some minor territories from the war. While the Sardinians did not gave the Lucchese any land, they granted them concessions as a compensation. Some Lucchese citizens enlisted into the Sardinian army, as the two nations become closer and closer.

Meanwhile, British troops engages Sardinian colonial troops in Tangiers, but there weren't many battles in the region. In Greece, after putting Athens through a siege on February 12 1846, the Sardinians continued to march inland. On August 20 1846, the British army landed in Corsica, which didn't have many French soldiers in it. The majority of the French army was in France itself, while its navy engaged the British in the Channel. However, some French colonial troops managed to push the British out of Morocco. However, with the possession of Gibraltar, the British navy could still support operations in the Mediterranean.

Finally, on January 21 1847, the Sardinian-Greek war was finally over. However, the British would not peace out until March 10 1847.

Army movements during the Sardinian-Greek War, showing with an X the location of the battle of Kalamata, the biggest battle in the Greek campaign.

In the treaty of Kalamata, Sardinia only requested Greece's islands, and promised to leave the rest of the mainland untouched unless provoked. In exchange, the British would have to retreat from Sardinia and Corsica. The treaty was accepted both by France and Britain, who saw no reason to continue the fight.

Greece after the First Sardinian-Greek War

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Capitulum X: The Sardinian liberal revolution

While Sardinia was working toward becoming a constitutional monarchy, with the power of the monarch far more reduced than its Italian neighbours, several individuals were unsatisfied with the current government, and the ongoing war against Greece did not make things better. From December 15 1845 to October 29 1848, Sardinia was struck with several liberal movements, in what is considered today the Sardinian liberal revolution. Unlike many other revolutions, the Sardinian one was mainly peaceful, and was marked by a lack of violence.

The first signs of this revolution was when liberal author Francesco Ferrara, born in Palermo but having moved to Sardinia to escape persecution, wrote several books criticizing the Sardinian government. One was on December 15 1845 and then another on May 29 1847. In both cases, he criticized the government as too authocratic, with the parliament not having nearly enough power to contrast the king. In both cases, the Sardinian government attempted to censor these books, in order to avoid a possible revolution. Sardinia had not forgot the revolution of 1821, and while the Sardinian government was attempting democracy, it had no intention to end up in the same situation. Various Chartist societies, inspired by the events of Britain, supported this liberal author and demanded an expansion of voting rights, which the Sardinian government accepted.

In the Senato Subalpino, Sardinia's parliament, the alliance between the conservatives and the reactionaries continued to dominate over the liberals, with a total of 59,18 % of composition compared to the liberals 40,81 %. As it seemed like the government would not become more liberal on its own, several secret societies begun to boom in Sardinia, including the Carbonari, more common in Southern Italy and in Lombardy-Venetia, but who still managed to creep in in Sardinian society. Despite their obvious presence, the Sardinian government took very little action against these individuals.

Trade Unions were also heavily controlled by the state, and it wasn't until June 15 1846 that they managed to gain somewhat of an independence. On January 21 1847 the government expanded the Trade Union freedom to other groups as long as they weren't of any socialist or liberal ideology, but it would not be until August 07 1847 that Trade Unions were completely freed by the government and put under the care of the people.

And then were the marches on Turin. There were two, the one of June 15 1846, and the one of February 24 1847. In both cases, the Sardinian government called the police and attempted to resist the protestants, but ultimately speaking the Sardinian government had to listen to some of the complains of the protestants. On May 20 1847, a better coordination between the government and the king started, alongside the "Fusione Perfetta" between the island of Sardinia and Sardinia's mainland territories, abolishing its administrative differences in a similar fashion to the Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in 1800. Meanwhile, on June 16 1847, the spring of nations begun, especially in Austria. In Sardinia, there were also clashes between the aristocracy and the believers of meritocracy, which claimed that economic goods and/or political power were to be vested in individual people on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class, and there were also those who criticized clericism.

The Sardinian press was also somewhat heavily censored by the government, and only on February 27 1848 part of the censorship was lifted, and only on September 15 1848 the press was finally free of censorship.

Finally, on October 29 1848, the Sardinian liberal revolution was over, with no real winners. The Sardinian government remained conservative, but allowed for more freedom for its people. The Sardinians would not gain the liberal government they desired, but their living conditions would improve, with the exception of some agricultural areas, as during July 13 1848 a small famine occurred in Sardinia.

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Capitulum XI: Sardinia in the Kingdom of Sardinia

On January 23 1846, historian Pasquale Tola wrote "The Story of Sardinia", an history book about Sardinia, mostly Sassari. While ignored at first, the Sardinian government attempted to limit its expansion, fearing for a separatist revolution to hit the island to seccede from the kingdom.

Pasquale Tola

This should not come as a surprise, given the difficult relation between Piedmont, the mainland region of the kingdom of Sardinia, where the capital was located, and the island itself. On October 29, 1846, Carlo Alberto di Savoia had granted liberal reforms to the "mainland Sardinian states", which included measures such as the easing of censorship and limitations on police power. Upon hearing the news, in November processions were called in the main centers of the island, such as Cagliari, Sassari, Alghero, Oristano and Nuoro, to request the extension of those reforms also to Sardinia. The reforms were in fact perceived, on the island, as an instrument through which a crisis caused by the bad harvests that occurred in recent years could be overcome.

Nevertheless, these uprisings had as their outlet an objective towards which the popular orientation was quite contrary: the merger with the continental states and the consequent renunciation of the subjectivity of that Regnum Sardiniae that the Savoy rulers, until now, had formally respected.

In the following months there were two distinct embassies to the Turin court that presented the request for an extension of the reforms. On November 30, 1846, Carlo Alberto instead approved the merger, announced by the last viceroy Claudio Gabriele de Launay with the following prayer: "... the King Our Lord deigned to show us that his paternal heart was deeply moved by the feelings of gratitude expressed by these beloved subjects in feeling called to form a single family with the other subjects of the Continent ». The viceregal office, together with all the other institutions of the island kingdom, was finally abolished on 20 May 1847.

Carlo Alberto rewarded the Sardinians for their loyalty to the king and promised that, in return for the renunciation of their autonomy, they could export, without paying customs, oil and wine to Piedmont from that moment on.


In Sardinia, the extension of liberal reforms was advocated by the student segment and, in particular, by the bourgeoisie of Cagliari and Sassari; through the inclusion in the Italian Customs League, to which the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Sardinian states and the Papal State had joined in November 1846, Sardinian entrepreneurs would have enjoyed facilitations in the export of agricultural goods and in the import of manufactured goods from the continent.

The more radical "Fusione Perfetta" was, on the other hand, supported by the ex-feudal nobility: from the preservation of Sardinian autonomy these notables, now converted into rentiers without any political weight, did not derive any advantage; through its abolition, however, the nobility would have been able to enter more advantageous political and bureaucratic careers which, with the merger, would have merged into continental ones; according to Pietro Martini, the objective of the unionist movement was the "transplantation in Sardinia, without reservations and obstacles, of continental civilization and culture, the formation of a single civil family under a single Father better than King, the Great Carlo Alberto "

In the general enthusiasm for reforms, the latter position finally prevailed, which, among other things, enjoyed royal favor ; there was no lack of opposing voices in this regard, albeit in a clear minority , such as that of Federico Fenu and Giovanni Battista Tuveri, and the repentants of this work were not slow to present themselves, including the proponent Giovanni Siotto Pintor himself, who he spoke about "collective madness" and said, in retrospect, "we were all wrong". Siotto Pintor himself initially had difficulty in being recognized as a senator by the porter guarding the subalpine parliament, while Pasquale Tola complained in the classroom of the absence of the emblem of Sardinia, in the face of the presence of those of the other divisions of the kingdom.

For centuries the rulers of the Kingdom of Sardinia had officially referred to the territory and the people of the island as the "Sardinian nation" and in every public act prior to 1846 the adjective "national" was always and only referred to persons or things belonging to Sardinia. In those years there was a rapid semantic shift towards the meaning of the nation "Italy" and the national "Italian" . The fiscal, political and administrative equalization also determined a renewed marginalization of the island with respect to the Mainland, whose territories were in the process of progressive expansion. The loss of state subjectivity of Sardinia, from then on inserted in the context of a large unitary state, did not determine any significant improvement in the conditions of the Sardinian ruling class, which had to deal with student unrest and a popular resumption of banditry and delinquent activities against the central authority

The Fusione brought about the end of all the institutions, statutes and laws that were still in force in the ancient Kingdom of Sardinia (a process that the Savoy had actually started in the previous decades, with the abolition of the Carta de Logu, replaced by the Code Feliciano). On the island, the Codes already in force in the continental states, such as the Civil Code, the Military Code and the Criminal Code, entered into force, and in the following years it participated in the elections for the Subalpine Parliament.

The union led to a series of consequences including the disappearance of the centuries-old institutions of state autonomy such as the ancient Sardinian Parliament and the Real Udienza, guaranteed by international treaties when the crown was handed over to the Dukes of Savoy. The "mainland states", which had already experienced substantial centralization and administrative uniformity for some time, formally merged into the Sardinian state.

In Sardinia, the merger represented a significant turning point for the history of the local linguistic repertoire, since "the 'language of the Sardinian nation' lost its value as an instrument of ethnic identification of a people and its culture, to be codified and enhanced, to become one of the many regional dialects subordinate to the national language " that is Italian, which was officially introduced for the first time on the island in 1760 .

With the "Fusione Perfetta" the Kingdom of Sardinia, which became a "composite" state with the passage of the crown to the Savoy in 1720, became "unitary "and characterized, in the intention of the rulers, by" a single people, a single public power, a single territory ", no longer pluralist like the previous one, but centralist on the French model, maintaining the same denomination.

One of the effects of the merger was the extension to Sardinia of the new mining law of the kingdom, enacted in Turin on March 20, 1836, with characteristics appropriate to its time, which separated the rights of exploitation of the subsoil from those deriving from land ownership. This new legislative system allowed the birth of new mining companies with not only local capital, such as the Montevecchio mine in concession from 1847 to Giovanni Antonio Sanna from Sassari, but also Ligurian, Piedmontese and European multinationals, with the development of plants for the mining and treatment of minerals up to the birth of mining villages.

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Capitulum XII: the Third Sardinian-Moroccan War

While Sardinia continued to expand its little empire to all sides of the Mediterranean, Morocco still proved to be harder to manage than predicted. On December 23 1847 the Sardinian government had allowed trading companies several privileges in Morocco in order to expand the development of the protectorate. That being said, regions such as Fès-Meknès and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra were still only under nominal Sardinian controll, while in reality they were controlled by anti-western guerrilla which intended to free Morocco from Sardinia and France. Other regions such as Marrakesh and Safi were still not fully controlled by the Sardinians. Up to this point, with Sardinia being contempt with the regions it truly controlled, and busy with the war against Greece first and the political situation back home, no true actions were really taken, and the regions were under the controll of a de-facto separated Moroccan state, often nicknamed the Barghawata republic.

Everything changed, however, on March 05 1850, when Sardinian colonists were attacked on March 05 1850 by some of these rebel Moroccans. The Barghawata republic attempted to expand eastward toward the Emirate of Abdelkader, which was interested in giving aid to the Moroccan rebels in order to weaken French and Sardinian positions in the region. This forced a Sardinian military intervention in the region, which begun its operation with the pacification of Marrakesh. The rebel forces which controlled the city attempted to hold their ground against the Sardinians, but it was an unequal fight.

On August 21 1852 Sardinia sent even more soldiers in Morocco to pacify the region, alongside some Serbian and Montenegran volunteers out of all people, due to the Serbian ratification of its alliance in March 10 1847 and Montenegro alliance with Sardinia on January 20 1850. On December 26 1852 Abdekjaderian forces begun to harass the Sardinian border, and it seemed very likely that they would enter the conflict alongside the Moroccan rebels eventually. And, on February 17 1853, Abdejhaderian forces launched a major raid on Sardinian territories, alongside the Moroccan rebels, almost splitting Sardinian forces in two. As a result of the Abdekjaderian attack, Sardinia declared war on the Emirate on June 06 1853. Sardinia first military action during this attack, however, was the recapture of the city of Fez after a short but brutal fight. The Sardinian plan was to put down the Moroccan rebellion first and taking out the Abdekjaderian forces later.

That being said, the Abdekjaderians were moving relatively fast within the territory, securing the south of the Atlas mountains as a military base for further incursions. This however also forced the French to enter the conflict in support of Sardinia, with the French immediately sending help in the coast alongside Rabat. In an attempt to support the rebellion, Adbekjaderian forces attempted to capture the city of Fez, but were quickly defeated by the Sardinians on April 05 1854. With Fez, the Abdekjaderian assault had lost steam, with the last note worthy battle being the battle of Ajdir. On June 14 1854 Sardinian forces attempted to pacify the Ajdir region, but met heavy fire from Abdekjaderian remaining forces and pro-rebel Moroccans. The second attack came two days later, with Sardinian forces being more successfull, and recapturing the region. With the fall of Safi on September 08 1854, the remaining rebels surrendered to the Sardinian government, and on 20 September 1854 Abdekjaderian forces wirdrew from Morocco, now busy in further fights against the French.

Army movements during the Third Sardinian Moroccan war

With the fall of the "Barghawata republic", all hopes for an independent Morocci fell to the ground. The new protectorate swore loyalty to the Sardinian government, and the French continued their campaign in Algeria. This war is largely ignored in Italian history, or history in generals, and some claim that it wasn't a war at all, but a simple rebellion. None the less, it allowed for Sardinian colonists to march West without the fear of guerrilla lurking in the mountains.

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XIII: Sardinia and the world

As Sardinia shaped up to become a respectful power in the Mediterranean, we also cannot forget several events occurring in the rest of the world, on top of several other meetings between members of the Sardinian government and other nations. Here, we will see a few events and wars outside of Italy, some being fairely minor, while others had some consequences in Sardinia.

On February 19 1848, several Sardinian trade companies representatives arrived in Egypt to sign a treaty of cooperation between the two countries. Egypt was defeated by the Ottomans during the first Oriental Crisis, but had maintained its independence from the Ottomans. Egypt had attempted to regain some of its lost territories in the Second Oriental Crisis, and Sardinia partially supported Egypt out of economic interest and spite towards the Ottoman empire. The Ottomans controlled Tunisia (thanks to a vassal), Tripolitania, the Levant and Anatolia, causing much tension for Sardinia, fearding that its possessions and itself were essentially besieged by this Dying Empire, still capable to put a strong fight. The Second Oriental Crisis lasted from October 29 1852 to 24 November 1853. The Ottomans won, but gained nothing from Egypt, strongly defended by both Sardinia and France in the peace conference.

On April 15 1848, much closer to the home front, the Hungarian revolution begun in full strenght. The Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1850 (Hungarian: 1848–50-es polgári forradalom és szabadságharc, "1848–50 Revolution and War of independence") was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. It is one of the most determinative events in Hungary's modern history, forming a cornerstone of modern Hungarian national identity. Italian forces, under the name of Italian Legions under Alessandro Monti fought bravely alongside the determined Hungarians, gaining a good momentum in 1849. However by 1850 the Revolution was lost, with Austria managing to regain controll of its empire, and the Hungarian revolution would last until March 04 1850, only to be subjected to a brutal martial law.

Outside of Italy and in the new world, the Federal Republic of Central America felt into chaos, with several regions essentially being controlled by warlords rather than nations. Only Honduras had managed to retain some level of organization on October 23 1849, with the rise of Juan Lindo to power. They would be the main Central American trade members alongside Sardinia, with several contacts in Tangiers, in the Sardinian Moroccan Protectorate.

Back in Europe, a new political form developed, Anarcho Liberals, from Denmark. Leader of the Venstre party, the strongest Anarcho Liberal Party in Denmark, was Christen Berg, which funded the party on July 09 1850. Very soon, the Sardinian Anarcho Liberal Party begun to develop in Sardinia, but would never 1 % of the votes in the Senato Subalpino. In Denmark itself the party was weak, despite liberalism becoming a dominant political thought in Denmark in the 1840's.

A much bigger event occurred on September 16 1852. Sardinia, to support its ally France, declared war on the North German Confederation. The North German Confederation was funded a year prior, and was considered the second most powerful country in the world. It was de facto controlled by Prussia, and already from the start it faced significant problems. The Austrians did not agree for the presence of a major German state, as it was attempting to be the strongest German state itself. France itself also was fearful of an united Germany, alongside Russia. An alliance between France, Austria and Russia was formed to crush down the Confederation before it become too strong to handle. Sardinia honored its alliance with France, but few Sardinians ever saw actions. Too busy in Morocco, seeing too many similarities with themselves and with no intentions to support Austria, no more than a 100 volunteers fought in the war. The three major powers assumed that the Confederations would fell in a short time thanks to their numbers and the fact that the Germans in the Confederations did not agree to be part of an united Germany. Or so they thought. Instead, the war simply united the Germans, who managed to stop the French to cross the Rhine, the Russians to enter Prussia or Austria from doing anything by entering in Bohemia. In the end, the Germans had no hope to win, but with their performance they managed to gain a white peace on August 28 1853, forcing the three major powers to recognize the Confederation. Sardinia lost nothing from the war: many didn't even know it occurred, or at least that Sardinia was involved. Many Sardinians begun to believe that Germany was the answer for Italian unification rather than France. After all, why share the Mediterranean with France in exchange of unification when you can have Germany working on the same goal? Only time could tell. In the meantime, Sardinia managed to ally itself with a Germany, a small one for that fact: Neuchatel.

Meanwhile, in the Italian Peninsula, meetings between Sardinia and the Two Sicilies were giving its initial fruits: both nations were farely more autonomous compared to the other Italian States, and some considered the Two Sicilies one of the strongests Italian States. It was obvious that if unity was desired, cooperation with the two nations had to occurr. Several meetings between Vittorio Emanuele II and Ferdinando II, on January 13, February 03 and 22 1855 allowed for free trade between the two countries, permission of Sicilian colonists to Morocco and the Greek islands and a non-aggression pact. Meanwhile, as this occurred, Vittorio Emanuele assured the Swiss that the dreams of Italian unifications would not harm the Swiss confederacy, with Sardinia and Switzerland signing a treaty of friendship on March 01 1855.

Other minor events with little to no consequence to Sardinia:

November 11 1853: United States and United Kingdom divide Oregon on the 49th parallel.

October 29 1852-February 02 1854: Mexican-American War, American Victory, America gains huge ammounts of lands, mostly Mexican Alta California

November 11 1852: Beginning of the British-Fadhli War

December 18 1853-October 10 1854: Taiping Rebellion, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom defeated by Qing China

October 10 1854-January 13 1855: Panthay rebellion, Qing China Victory

October 10 1854-January 13 1855: Ecuador-Peru war, Peruvian victory, majority of the Paztaza regions goes to Peru

January 13 1855-February 18 1855: British-Sikkim war, British victory, Sikkim is integrated into the Raj

January 13 1855: Beginning of the Polish Revolution

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XIV: The evolution of the economy

As Sardinia grew in size and continued its road of modernization, it soon came to the terms that it needed to modernize its economy in order to match all foreign powers that surrounded her. The road for the modernization of the economy begun on July 31 1848 with the expansion of the market securities in Sardinia. Economy also become important for voting, as in May 19 1849, wealth heavily influenced voting; it would not be until April 06 1854 that also wealthy immigrants could vote. The first oligopolies arrived in Sardinia on May 29 1849, and generally speaking controlled trade with the Sardinian Moroccan Protectorate and the Cyclades region, controlled by Sardinia. This came rather helpful after the April 12 1852 blight in Sardinia.

On August 18 1849 new elections occurred in Sardinia, and in September 05 of the same year, the first stock echange markets arrived. The elections would end on 19 February 1850 as a total conservative and reactionary victory. Around this time, the government opted for a slow interventionalism regarding the economy. Exportation and imports were regulated in support of local products. With these new policies, Sardinia was able to pay its debt with France on August 14 1850. By May 04 1851 several financial systems floaded the evergrowing kingdom of Sardinia, and Stock Exchange regulations arrived on February 04 1852. And, on June 04 1852, the first insurance companies arrived in Sardinia.

As new elections occurred on February 20 1854, so came new problems to solve: one of these was wherever immigrants had the same rights as the natives. This problem raised from the Sardinian expansion in Morocco and the Cyclades, but in the end, sadly, the government did not allow for equality for Greeks and Moroccans entering Sardinia or Piedmont. Only in their native soil they would have equality, and even then there would be some discrimination.

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XV: Camillo Benso

As Sardinia evolved as a nation, so did the conflicts between several classes. The dominant classes of Sardinia clashed more frequently with the remaining working classes, and the new ethnic groups within Sardinia, the Moroccans and the Greeks, continued to struggle to obtain equality in Sardinia. It did not help that in 1854 it was established that immigrants did not have the same rights as Sardinians, and that the Sardinian government favoured Italians over other groups. This stimulated a sense of national brotherhood more and more hard to contain for the Sardinian government, which also aimed to expand its sphere of influence not only over Italy, but over the Mediterranean itself. Someone strong was needed in these hard times. And that man would be Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour.

Camillo Benso was born in Turin during Napoleonic rule, into a family that had gained a fair amount of land during the French occupation. He was the second of two sons of Michele Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Benso, 4th Marquess of Cavour and Count of Isolabella and Leri, Lord of Corveglia, Dusino, Mondonio, Ottiglio and Ponticelli, Co-Lord of Castagnole, Cellarengo and Menabi, Cereaglio, Chieri, San Salvatore Monferrato, Santena and Valfenera, 1st Baron of the French Empire (1781–1850) and his wife (1805) Adélaïde (Adèle) Suzanne, Marchioness of Sellon (1780–1846), herself of French origin. His godparents were Napoleon's sister Pauline, and her husband, Prince Camillo Borghese, after whom Camillo was named.

Camillo and his older brother Gustavo were initially educated at home. He was sent to the Turin Military Academy when he was only ten years old. In July 1824 he was named a page to Carlo Alberto, the king of Piedmont (1831–1849). Cavour frequently ran afoul of the authorities in the academy, as he was too headstrong to deal with the rigid military discipline. He was once forced to live three days on bread and water because he had been caught with books that the academy had banned. He was found to be apt at the mathematical disciplines, and was therefore enlisted in the Engineer Corps in the Piedmontese-Sardinian army in 1827. While in the army, he studied the English language as well as the works of Jeremy Bentham and Benjamin Constant, developing liberal tendencies which made him suspect to police forces at the time. He resigned his commission in the army in November 1831, both because of boredom with military life and because of his dislike of the reactionary policies of King Carlo Alberto. He administered the family estate at Grinzane, some forty kilometers outside the capital, serving as mayor there from 1832 to the revolutionary upheaval of 1848.

Coat of arms of the Count of Cavour: Argent on a chief gules three scallop shells or

Cavour then lived for a time in Switzerland, with his Protestant relatives in Geneva. He grew acquainted with Calvinist teachings, and for a short while he converted from a form of unorthodox Catholicism, only to go back later. A Reformed pastor, Alexandre Vinet, impressed upon Cavour the need for the separation of church and state, a doctrine Cavour followed for the remainder of his life. He then traveled to Paris where he was impressed by parliamentary debates, especially those of François Guizot and Adolphe Thiers, confirming his devotion to a political career. He next went to London, where he was much more disappointed by British politics, and toured the country, visiting Oxford, Liverpool, Birmingham, Chester, Nottingham, and Manchester. A quick tour through the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland (the German part and the Lake Geneva area) eventually landed him back in Turin.

Cavour believed that economic progress had to precede political change, and stressed the advantages of railroad construction in the peninsula. He was a strong supporter of transportation by steam engine, sponsoring the building of many railroads and canals. Between 1838 and 1842 Cavour began several initiatives in attempts to solve economic problems in his area. He experimented with different agricultural techniques on his estate, such as growing sugar beets, and was one of the first Italian landowners to use chemical fertilizers. He also founded the Piedmontese Agricultural Society. In his spare time, he again traveled extensively, mostly in France and the United Kingdom.

An early portrait of Cavour

The first apparently "liberal" moves of Pope Pius IX and the political upheavals of 1848 spawned a new movement of Italian liberalism, allowing Cavour to enter the political arena, no longer in fear of the police. He then gave a speech in front of numerous journalists in favor of a constitution for Piedmont, which was eventually granted. Cavour, unlike several other political thinkers, was not at first offered a position in the new Chamber of Deputies, as he was still a somewhat suspicious character to the nation.

Cavour was then brought back into Parliament by the voters, where he was much more successful. His knowledge of European markets and modern economics earned him the positions of Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Commerce, and Minister of the Navy in 1850. Cavour soon came to dominate the cabinet of Prime Minister Massimo d'Azeglio. Cavour united the Right Center and the Left Center in the chamber to show dominance there as well. In 1851, Cavour gained a Cabinet promotion to Minister of Finance by working against his colleague from inside the Cabinet in a somewhat disreputable takeover, although this was to Piedmont's advantage because of his many economic reforms.

Official portrait of Camillo Benso in 1852

Cavour formed a coalition with Urbano Rattazzi known as the Connubio ("union"), uniting the moderate men of the Right and of the Left, and brought about the fall of the d'Azeglio cabinet in March 1852. The King reluctantly accepted Cavour as prime minister, the most conservative possible choice, but their relationship was never an easy one.

Cavour was generally liberal and believed in free trade, freedom of opinion, and secular rule, but he was an enemy of republicans and revolutionaries, whom he feared as disorganized radicals who would upset the social order. Cavour dominated debate in Parliament but is criticized for the controversial methods he used while Prime Minister, including excessive use of emergency powers, employing friends, bribing some newspapers while suppressing others, and rigging elections, though these were fairly common practices for the time. The national debt soared by a factor of six because of his heavy spending on modernizing projects, especially railways, and building up the army and the Royal Sardinian Navy.

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XVI: Italian Islands of the Aegean

The Italian Islands of the Aegean (Italian: Isole italiane dell'Egeo; Greek: Ἰταλικαὶ Νῆσοι Αἰγαίου Πελάγους) are a group of 32 major islands (the biggest being Euboea, now Negroponte, the Sporades, the Cyclades and the Saronic Islands) in the Aegean Sea, that — together with the surrounding islets — were ruled by the Kingdom of Sardinia (later on the Kingdom of Italy) from 1847.

Administration of the islands was far from easy, compared to Morocco which, although having problems with the native population, was at least easy to colonize once pacified. On March 31 1850, for example, a typhus epidemic swept the island of Negroponte, in a period nicknamed the plague of Negroponte. Government actions were immediate and ordered a quarantene of the island.

It didn't help the fact that nationalism in the area was strong. On May 29 1850 a Greek nationalist attempted to kill the islands governor Raffaele Rubattino, with no success. He was captured and sent into the newlyfunded prison of Makronisos, in the island of the same name. It did not help that on July 17 1853 and July 02 1854 an anonymous Greek poet begun writing several nationalistic articles and poems, which became popular in the islands. Fearing a possible rebellion, the Sardinian government decided to not intervene, as long as the author didn't write anything that could cause an uprising.

Starting in 1850, civil governors replaced the military commanders. The Italian politics towards the native population was mostly pacific compared to the harsh treatment of the Moroccans. Rubattino delegated land for Sardinian settlers and encouraged intermarriage with local Greeks. In 1856, scholarships at the University of Sassari for Aegean students were promoted to disseminate Sardinian culture and language among the local professional class. Some years before, on October 01 1851, it was decided that streets had to bear Greek language, in favor of the local population.

The only sector where Rubattino was unaccommodating was religion: The Sardinian authorities also tried to limit the power of the Greek Orthodox Church without success by trying to set up an autonomous Aegean church. The Italianization of names was encouraged by the Sardinian authorities. The juridic state of the islands was an intermediate one (possedimento) between a colony and a part of the motherland: due to that, local islanders did not receive full citizenship and were not required to serve in the Sardinian armed forces.

Greek ruins discovered during Sardinian occupation

Efforts to bring Sardinian settlers to the islands were not notably successful at first. By 1863, Sardinians in the Aegean numbered 16,711, most of them living on Negroponte and Naxos. Sardinians of Negroponte and Naxos were farmers involved in setting up new agricultural settlements, while Sardinians of the remaining islands were either fishermen or sailors. Major Sardinian archaeological efforts from the 1860s onward were intended to discover Roman antiquities and thus strengthen the Sardinian claim on the islands. A series of massive public works in the archipelago were undertaken. New roads, monumental buildings and waterworks were constructed, sometimes using forced Greek labor.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess. I would like to introduce you to two of my latest works as for now:

Our Cold War: An Alternate History Interactive Cold War

No one believed that the German empire could rise after the Great War, having barely managed to hold in the West, and basically failing to hold anything east other than Poland. Their ally, Austria-Hungary, risked to collapse from ethnic conflicts, and had to cede vast territories to Serbia and...

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And:

Mark Felton Productions in The elephant, the lynx, the two wolves, the dragon, the eagle, the griffon vulture and the bull

Greeting my friends. To those who don't know who Mark Felton is, he is a British historian with a Youtube channel which covers various largely unknown events of WW1, WW2, the Korean War, the Vietnam war and so on. But what if he existed in my most prolific timeline, The elephant, the lynx, the...

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Mark Felton Productions in The elephant, the lynx, the two wolves, the dragon, the eagle, the griffon vulture and the bull, based on one of my longest timelime so far. What if Mark Felton existed in my timeline?

Mark Felton is a British Youtube Historian which covers various largely unknown events of WW1, WW2, the Korean War, the Vietnam war and so on. Here's his channel:

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History is written by the victors. We all know that. In our world, WW1, at the time know as "The Great War" or "The war that would end all wars", was won by the Entente powers, composed by England, France, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Greece, Guatemala...

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XVII: Art in Sardinia/Italy

As Sardinia and, later on, the North Italian Federation welcomed more and more artists and writers within its country, many begun to influence Sardinian tastes in the arts, such as painting. Here we will see these new styles and artists.

Romanticist art: Romanticist art developed towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century in Germany, and then spread to France, England, Italy and Spain. Romantic art mainly involves painting, although it has given impetus to a new way of conceiving architecture and restoration. Some Sardinian/Italian Romanticist painters include:

Francesco Hayez: Francesco Hayez was from a relatively poor family from Venice. His father, Giovanni, was of French origin while his mother, Chiara Torcella, was from Murano. Francesco was the youngest of five sons. He was brought up by his mother's sister, who had married Giovanni Binasco, a well-off shipowner and art collector. Hayez displayed a predisposition for drawing since childhood. His uncle, having noticed his precocious talent, apprenticed him to an art restorer in Venice. Hayez would later became a pupil of the painter Francesco Maggiotto with whom he continued his studies for three years. He was admitted to the painting course of the New Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1806, where he studied under Teodoro Matteini. In 1809 he won a competition from the Academy of Venice for a one year residency at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He remained in Rome until 1814, then moved to Naples where he was commissioned by Joachim Murat to paint a major work depicting Ulysses at the court of Alcinous. In the mid-1830s he attended the Maffei Salon in Milan, hosted by Clara Maffei. Maffei's husband would later commissioned Hayez a portrait of his wife. In 1850 Hayez was appointed director of the Brera Academy.

Over the course of a long career, Hayez proved to be particularly prolific. His output included historic paintings designed to appeal to the patriotic sensibility of his patrons as well as works reflecting the desire to accompany a Neoclassic style to grand themes, either from biblical or classical literature. He also painted scenes from theatrical presentations. Conspicuously absent from his oeuvre, however, are altarpieces - possibly due to the Napoleonic invasions that deconsecrated many churches and convents in Northern Italy. Art historian Corrado Ricci described Hayez as a classicist who then evolved into a style of emotional tumult.

Francesco Hayez, The Kiss (1855)

Giuseppe Bezzuoli: He studied as a young man under Jean-Baptiste Desmarais at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, and afterward spent some time at Rome between 1813 and 1820. He became a candidate to the professorship of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence after Pietro Benvenuti's death in 1844.

His large picture in the Academy include The Entry of Charles VIII into Florence (1822–1829). Some of his smaller works, such as The Galatea and the small copy of Raphael's School of Athens (1819), in the Galleria Tosio Martinengo at Brescia, give a more favorable idea of his talent. He painted one of the lunettes in the Tribune of Galileo at the Natural History Museum (La Specola Museum) in Florence, and the more important series of scenes from the life of Caesar (1836) in one of the rooms on the ground floor of the Pitti Palace. His Assumption of the Virgin is found in the Museo dell'Opera of the church of Santa Croce.

Other principal works include a Baptism of Clovis and a Madonna in fresco for the Pitti Palace. He painted two ceilings for the Borghese Palace at Rome representing Toilet of Venus, and Venus carrying Ascanius. He died in Florence.

Francesco Podesti: Podesti was born in Ancona to a family of modest means; his father Joseph, was a tailor. He began studies of in Pavia. At twelve, his mother, Teresa, died; his father died three years later, leaving Podesti destitute. His precocious talent gained him a stipend to study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome; this was partly subsidized by the Marquis Bourbon of Monte Santa Maria and by the city of Ancona. In Rome, he became a pupil of Gaspare Landi and Vincenzo Camuccini. The sculptor Canova served as a mentor and also helped him financially. In Rome, he also met Jacques-Louis David.

Thankful for their stipend over the years, in 1824, he donated to the city of Ancona, two paintings of Eteocles and Polynices. It also gained him commissions for two altarpieces in town: an Annunciation for the church of the Vergine Annunziata, and a Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (1825–1827) in Ancona Cathedral (destroyed during World War II and replaced by a copy). The Prince Torlonia purchased from him a large canvas of Tasso che legge la sua Gerusalemme alla Corte di Ferrara. Podesti was to make variants of this painting also for the Prince Galitzin and count Paolo Tosi of Brescia.

In 1826, then traveled through Italy. In Milan, by commission he painted a Raphael paints the Madonna of San Luca in his studio, with la Fornarina as a model, and monsignor Bembo and Bussolante in the studio. Also for the casa Busca, he frescoed casa the Myth of Psyche.

He returned to Rome in 1835–1836 to paint frescoes for Prince Alessandro Torlonia commissioned a series of frescoes for Villa Torlonia. In the first-floor gallery, he painted I fasti denti Dei; in the second floor, The myth of Diana. When the palace was demolished during the restructuring of Piazza Venezia, some frescoes were salvaged. In 1835 he was elected to the Academy of St Luke.

He painted a series of scenes of the Decameron, both original and copies, for patrons including the King of Naples, the Marchese Ala Ponzoni, and the sig. Giacomelli of Treviso. For the same marchese Ponzoni he painted Rape of Persephone and the Rape of Europa: subjects also duplicated for marchese Antonio Busca. For a Milanese banker The Bath of Venus and The Judgement of Paris for an English patron. More copies were made by his pupils. For the Cathedral of Chiari he painted: Santi Faustino e Giovita; for the Academy of Mexico: The Angel of Justice, for King Carlo Alberto he completed the Judgement of Salomon. For this painting, he was awarded the Cross of Civil Merit of Savoy. Podesti later on accepted the offer of a professorship at the Albertina Royal Academy at Turin.

All these painters managed to create several patriotic pieces, who were used greately by the Sardinian government as a propaganda tool to show themselves as the ones destined to unify Italy and kick foreigners out for good. Romanticist literature itself increased in production, and Manzoni continued to be a strong supporter of Italian unification under the semi constitutional house of Savoy, the closests to a democracy in Italy and the most advanced and powerful of the Italian states.

Romanticist music: Romantic music is a stylistic movement in Western orchestral music associated with the period of the nineteenth century commonly referred to as the Romantic era (or Romantic period). It is closely related to the broader concept of Romanticism—the intellectual, artistic and literary movement that became prominent in Europe from approximately 1800 until 1910.

Romantic composers sought to create music that was individualistic, emotional, dramatic and often programmatic; reflecting broader trends within the movements of Romantic literature, poetry, art, and philosophy. Romantic music was often ostensibly inspired by (or else sought to evoke) non-musical stimuli, such as nature, literature, poetry, or the fine arts.

Two of the most famous Sardinian romantic composers were Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi, who were essential in the creation of patriotic pieces of work, alongside various other operas.

But, on August 20 1858 the first examples of realism in Sardinia, by now the North Italian Federation. Realism, sometimes called naturalism, in the arts is generally the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and can be in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. Among Italians, two of them are remembered: Gioacchino Toma and Antonio Rotta

Gioacchino Toma: Toma was born to a well-known doctor from Galatina — subsequently to be orphaned by his father at age six and by his mother at age eight. At age ten, he was entrusted to a paternal uncle and rejected — sent first to a convent and then to the free Hospice of Giovinazzo, a poorhouse. There, Toma learned to draw, making a number still life sketches. He was otherwise self-taught. After leaving the hospice, Toma severed ties with his family at age 18, and fled in 1855 to Naples. There, Toma apprenticed with painter Alessandro Fergola and Domenico Morelli, producing sketches and becoming proficient in ornamental paintwork.

From 1854 to 1855, he worked as an ornamental painter in Naples. In 1857, he was suspected of being an Anti-Bourbon conspirator and was exiled to Sardinia. While there, he first took up painting seriously, producing a portrait of Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia and noted still life works.

Milan or Death!, a commemorative piece of art by Gioacchino Toma celebrating Italy's victory over Austria, showing members of Garibaldi's Red Shirts

Antonio Rotta: Rotta was born on 28 February 1828 in Gorizia in the Kingdom of Illyria. He enrolled at the Accademia Reale di Belle Arti of Venice, where he studied under Ludovico Lipparini. His early genre paintings of Venetian scenes were followed by a number of religious and history paintings, among them Tiziano istruisce Irene di Spilimbergo ("Titian teaching Irene of Spilimberg"). He returned to genre painting, and produced many scenes of Venetian life, often featuring children. One of the best-known of these was Il Ciabattino, "the cobbler".

In the aftermath of the Italian War of Independence against Austria, a wave of anti-Italian sentiments plagued the Austro-Hungarian empire, leading to many Italian painters, writers and intellectuals to be persecuted by the Austrians, believing them to be fifth columnists. As such, Rotta was forced to move from Venice to the North Italian Federation, alongside many other writers and painters.

Even in music realism took a hold of Italian society with Verismo, Italian Realist Music.

I hope you guys like this new update! Be sure to like(if you like it), comment(please comment so I can learn what your opinion is) and.....follow I guess.

 

[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XVIII: The War of Italian Independence

By 1850, both Austria and Britain had begun to partially fear Sardinia, the little tiger of the Mediterranean which had taken controll of Morocco and parts of Greece. It's alliance with France only cementified Britain and Austria's fear. Austria could not allow Sardinia to become an Italian regional power, and Britain had no intention to sacrifice the Mediterranean sea. Lucca was a close ally to the Sardinians, the Papal States were also allied to Sardinia. Parma, Tuscany and Lucca, however, were still under the influence of the Austrians, and the Two Sicilies were neutral. On top of that, Austria had Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg as spheres of influences in Southern Germany as a possible attack point.

As such, on November 06 1855, the Austro-Hungarian empire invaded Sardinia, alongside its puppet states. A few hours later, France entered the war against Austria, with Britain declaring war both against Sardinia and France, although it would see limited combat.

Austrian troops begun the assault by invading Genoa. The surprised Sardinian troops had no time to react against the Austrians, as the majority of the Royal Army was in Savona for training. By December 1955, Sardinia was entering a state of total war against the invaders. Meanwhile, in the French fronteer, the French were busy against the Bavarian army, only giving minimal support to Sardinia and its allies. Lucca fell rather quickly and, by the end of December, the Austrians could focus completely on Sardinia. Turin itself was besieged by the Austrians, and although the Sardinian army had managed to relieve the siege, the Austrians still were close. Novara and Alessandria were both taken.

In the south, the Papal army was faring much better, having taken Grosseto from Tuscany, but having to deal with the Austrians in Ferrara. Meanwhile, the French had recovered from their shock in the French border, and had fully occupied Baden by February 27 1856.

Map showing the initial stages of the Italian War of Independence

By February 1856, the Austrians, initially in a situation of advantage, had begun to lose ground. With Baden, Wuttenbourg and Baden on the verge of collapsing, the French and Sardinians could now focus on the Italian front, liberating various regions which the Austrians had occupied, alongside capturing ground. By April 20 1856, various regions of Lombardia were captured by combined Sardinian and French troops, Lucca had been liberated, Modena, Parma and Tuscany occupied. Bavaria resisted in the North, but could not count on any Austrian reinforcements. Some clashes with the Royal Navy occurred near the island of Erba, but nothing major from the British part. The only major British action done during the war was the occupation of Corsica and the island of Sardinia.

On September 12 1856, Milan was liberated from Austrian controll. On April 05 1857, during the battle of Venice, Sardinian general Eusebio Bava died in battle. It was a sad day for Sardinia; Bava had been considered one of the most skilled generals the Sardinian military had. On November 04, the Austrian government was forced to surrender by the French and Sardinians.

Italy during the latter stages of the Italian War of Independence, 04 November 1857

Britain did not intend to surrender and give Corsica and Sardinia back unless Austrian punishment was limited, so unfortunately both France and Sardinia had to been lean on the Hapsbourg. In the following peace treaty, Sardinia was awarded Lombardia, was returned the island of Sardinia, and could unite with Modena, Lucca and Parma, alongside gain some territories from the Papal States, which in exchange would gain the entirety of Tuscany. France was awarded the region of the Palatine, Nice and Savoy.

Map of Italy on November 09 1857

The War of Italian Independence, from November 06 1855 to November 09 1857, was one of the stepping stones for the unification of the Italian peninsula, and cementified Sardinia, now the North Italian Federation, as a dominant power in the region. Austria's position would be limited simply to the Veneto region, while later on the North Italian Federation would go on to take controll of the Papal States and the Two Sicilies. It is still too early for controll of the Mediterranean, but soon, the Italian unification would unfold.

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XIX: The Evolution of North Italian society

During the War of Italian Independence, many Sardinians which did not hold power begun to question just how much liberal and democratic their kingdom really was. Very few people had the right to vote, and those who could were the ones with money essentially. By December 1855, the first Sardinian Sociologists analized the elements of modern day Sardinian society, and noticed how the richer classes held more power, so much that there wasn't much difference between the aristocrats of Austria and the bourguesie of Sardinia. Conservatives and Reactionaries were still a majority, although far more challenged by the liberals, and even after the war with Austria, political party harassment was still common against the liberals. It did not help that even in 1860 voting was not anonymous.

On January 04 1857, in order to keep the population fighting against the Austrians, the Sardinian government was forced to improve its voting franchine, but it would not be until August 06 that the voting franchise become universal. Many members of the bourguesie, however, still justified that they deserved to be rich, because they were better than the poor. In the future, this concept would be nicknamed Social Darwinism.

All of these problems were addressed in the August 20 1856 elections, the first elections of the North Italian Federation. An increase of military spending was decided, in order to not get caught by surprise in the case of war with any other nations, especially Austria. Industries were nationalized by the government, gaining a bit of ire from the bourguesie but this allowed for better controll of the economy. This would bite the government later on, when the ministry of trade, Quintino Sella, protested against the government essential full controll of the economy, which leaded to the royal government to find for a compromise.. There were some minor religious issues, but they were largely ignored. As Vittorio Emanuele II states, "religion is not a political issue." For trade, the North Italian Federation prederred protectionism, in order to protect its still weak economy from foreign nations. By the end of the elections, however, once again the conservatives and reactionaries won against the liberals. It didn't help that it seemed like the king and the Senato Subalpino established an unfair political advantage for the "Moderati", the alliance between the conservatives and the reactionaries. This was known as "Gerrymandering".

Various intellectuals criticized this system, leading to many of them to be persecuted with "legal methods", with the most notable example being the arrests of November 24 1859, where in the entirety of the North Italian Federation several intellectuals, considered troublesome for the North Italian government, were arrested. Till the very end, Sardinia, now the North Italian Federation, supported prohibitionism and colonization of new areas.

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[Antonio Ferrari]

Capitulum XX: The evolution of the armed forces

As Sardinia, and later on the North Italian Federation, increased in power and prestige, it made many enemies, in particular Austria and Britain. As such, it realized that it must improve its armed forces in order to keep up with the rest of the world.

Here are some of the weapons and tactics developed by the Kingdom of Sardinia and, later on, the North Italian Federation.

-The M1856 Musket:
The Sardinian M1856 Musket was a muzzle-loading firearm invented in 1856 and used by the Sardinian Army. The M1856 was the first standardized long gun utilized by the Sardinian Army and was deployed immediately in August 05 1856, where it saw action against the Austrians in the War of Italian Independence.

Proving typically conventional for the period, the weapon maintained a long service life under the Savoy crown and was deployed to its various frontline forces across the various Sardinian/North Italian holdings.

The M1856 saw some later modifications in 1858 and 1859.

The Model 1856Musket featured design qualities associated with this period of land-based warfare (in general line infantry)—these were long, heavy guns made primarily with a single-piece wooden stock housing the steel barrel and works of the gun lock. As muzzle-loading weapons, they were loaded down the muzzle end of the gun which necessitated use of a ramrod held in a channel in the stock under the barrel. The stock was affixed to the barrel at multiple points, usually two brass barrel bands and a cap [nose cap] at front and which had a ramrod pipe cast to it. The firing mechanism was of the flintlock method requiring a piece of flint to be seated in a vice and cocked rearwards prior to firing. Additional steps included the loading of black powder in the frizzen (pan) as well as gunpowder down the barrel prior to inserting the rest of the ball ammunition consisting of both projectile(s) and cartridge case and which also doubled as wadding. The wooden stock incorporated a straight grip handle that was slightly angled downwards and extended to become the shoulder support (or shoulder stock) which had a butt plate. The Sighting was through fixtures along the top of the weapon. The trigger was set within an oblong ring (trigger guard) under the action as normal.

Sardinian M1856 Musket

-Strategic mobility: Strategic mobility is the ability to move an army to the area of operations. As the Sardinian empire grew in side, turning eventually in the North Italian Federation in November 09 1857, the North Italian army had to learn how to ship soldiers from one place to another quickly in order to avoid getting caught up by surprise like in the Moroccan uprising or the Austrian invasion. These lessons would provide to be useful against the Greeks in August 06 1859. Strategic mobility would improve even further when the first North Italian railroads appeared on December 28 1858.

-Field fortifications: Field fortifications, which are constructed when in contact with an enemy or when contact is imminent, consist of entrenched positions for personnel and crew-served weapons, cleared fields of fire, and obstacles against advancing formations. The North Italian Federations realized that in case of war with the Austrians, at this current stage, it would be the Austrians invading, and not the other way around. In order to prevent a breakthrough, the North Italian army must learn to create fortifications on the spot in order to bleed the Austrians dry and counter attack.

North Italian Field fortifications near the Austrian border

-Carcano Mod. 60: The Carcano mod. 60 was a revolving-sliding needle bolt rifle in 17.5 mm caliber, which was adopted for a few years by the North Italian Royal Army. Rather than a new weapon it was rather an arrangement of the reloading system (known precisely as the Carcano System) to modify the old muzzleloading rifles and equip the armed forces of the newborn kingdom with a rifle that is at the same time modern but inexpensive.
The Carcano mod. 60 was presented as a modernization of the M1856 Musket: the engineer Carcano found himself facing the distrust that the North Italian commanders had towards metal bullets, so he had to fall back on the adoption of a needle system with paper cartridges that had already been adopted by the Chassepot and the Dreyse rifle .

However, the aforementioned systems were unsuitable to be applied on the old muzzle-loading rifles of the North Italian army, unless the breech and the wood of the weapons to be retransformed were completely redesigned. He therefore decided to create a system inspired by the unrecognized Doersch-Baumgarten, similar to the Prussian Dreyse but in need of fewer precautions to be adapted to the breech of weapons.

Carcano Mod. 60

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