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European diplomatic ties allied Europe through an elaborate scheme of defensive pacts since the Treaty of Hispalis (1717), which formalized a firm Spanish-Italian alliance. Emperor Nicolescu’s War un-stabilized the balance of power that Europe took great lengths to maintain, the result was complex political and military alliances through Europe since the Heves Pact following the war. The Heves Pact established a French-Hungarian mutual defense agreement in hopes it would avert German or Italian aggression and what they both perceived as untrustworthy, deceitful monarchies. The 1757 Heves Pact unbalanced the power balance and directly caused Germany and Aquitaine to reply with a defensive pact of their own. While the German-Aquitaine defensive pact was from legitimate fear of French or Spanish incursion and annexation by Aquitaine, the Germans wanted to draw French concerns over a two-front defensive war of their own as well as justified pretext to enter a just military conflict; a just military conflict that militaristic Germany could legitimize their “hegemony over Europe” that was dampened by their loss in the North Sea War. While the English extended their long measurement of steps to remain neutral and isolated from continental European affairs with the signing of the “Trinity Alliance” (Sweden, England, and the Netherlands, 1759) at the Whiteladder Conference, they still gave into the naval arms race created by the Argento Plan and escalated by French involvement. The Italian Navy, reformed and revolutionized by Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento, was thrown into rivalry with the British and French navies for world naval supremacy after the Argento Plan; the Italian government made use of the abundant industrial resources in Australia and the quantities of factories in Italy to devote resources and finances to naval build up.
Emperor Nicolescu III of Hungary’s regime sought out domestic policy reform in the 1790s to strengthen Hungarian nationalism. The most controversial and influential policy created was the Etnikai Àthelyezése Policy adoption in 1794. Etnikai Àthelyezése ‘relocated’ ethnic minorities, most notably Czechs, Poles, Slovenians, and Germans, towards Hungary’s borders, ghettos, and often forcing emigration. The constitutional republic of Slovenia was in uproar with lines of forced ethnic-Slovenians immigrants crossing borders into their isolationist neutral nation. Slovenian Parliament elected to declare a close-border policy against the Hungarian Empire on 17 November; roads, rivers, and railroads between Hungary and Slovenia were closed in protests of Etnikai Àthelyezése and to halt the flow of foreigners in a xenophobic self-minded Slovenia.
Emperor Nicolescu condemned the closing of Slovenian borders to Hungary; Slovenia was vital to the Hungarian Empire’s western empire with access to the port of Castelchio and thereby Adriatic Sea. As the economic effects began to take toll on the Hungarian economy, Emperor Nicolescu lobbied to European leaders to meet at the Hungarian capital Heves to discuss the possibility of establishing free rail passage between all European states. King Giovanni I of Italy discouraged foreign leaders from attending the conference and claimed rail liberalization would loosen the length of French, German, English, and Italian industrial advantages to less-industrialized economies. In fact, King Giovanni was openly supportive of the Slovenian closed-door policy. When the Italian Chancellor Vittorio Bosco signed the Castelchio-Coal agreement in January 1795, promising lower rates for coal in Slovenian markets as long as Slovenia remained with its closed borders to Hungary, Emperor Nicolescu received the act as a major offense against the Hungarian Empire and its interests both domestic and abraod. Italy was indeed endeavoring to weaken the growingly-powerful Hungarian Empire and utilized the Slovenian Crisis opportunity given. With this offensive hostility against Hungarian interest by Italy and tensions rising, Emperor Nicolescu III of Hungary ordered his generals to prepare for the strong possibility of near military conflict.
King Giovanni, the longest reigning monarch in Italian history, died on 3 February from natural causes while travelling through Regalis via train. The previously declared heir of “King Giovanni I the Ironside”, his first born child Princess Sofia, died of typhus just three weeks prior to Giovanni’s death. It was clear who laid second and third in line of succession to the throne but debate waged in Parliament over who should succeed the ceremonial position. Giovanni’s second born and eldest surviving child Princess Rhea was 48 years old and childless. Had Rhea been crowned queen, she already failed to produce any heirs and deadlock in succession would only occur again with more distance successors. While Rhea was most likely infertile, she also held a reputation for ‘unladylike’ behavior including profanity and spitting, at 48 years old, her people barely knew her other than her unladylike reputation and simply wasn’t attractively youthful anymore to obtain the attention of contending bachelors from abroad. The third in line to the throne was Giovanni’s grandson Leopold, the son of Giovanni’s eldest son. Leopold was 24 years old, energetic and experienced in serving the Italian Navy. However, Leopold was born on Spanish soil and was technically 2nd in line of succession the throne with the death of Princess Sofia. The Italian government and public argued between the rightful and best successor in what came to be known as the “hundred-and-one days” of government deadlock over choosing the successor.
Hungarian Emperor Nicolescu III realized the state of vulnerability Italy laid in with political deadlock, weakness in military command, and eventually an ‘unprepared successor’ rising to the Italian throne. Hence on April 28th, Hungarian soldiers invaded the hills of Slovenia to re-access Hungarian economic trade into the Adriatic Sea, expand Hungarian leverage against Italian and German interests, expand and annex new territory, and gain a more direct access to seas without imperial Greko-Turkish regulation. The aggression was greatly necessary to protect Hungarian economic trade, protect its interests, maintain dominance against foreign rivalries in central Europe, and achieve its own “door to the Mediterranean and window to the Atlantic”. The Hungarian incursion into Slovenia went without significant resistance; Slovenia possessed unsubstantial military technology and Hungarian forces dwarfed Slovenia’s in quantity.
The Hundred-And-One Days of political deadlock came to an end on May 15th with the coronation of Giovanni’s grandson Leopold di Bianco as the 20th monarch of Italy. Debate most likely would have continued if the Patriotic Party had not taken plurality within the legislature. That, and Parliament was persuaded by Leopold’s military experience and youthfulness which were two traits not only valued for a ceremonial position but requisite during a period of political and military tension in Europe.
“Leopold I, House of Bianco” was eager to prove himself as a strong leader willing to take strong efforts to protect Italian interests as well as assuming the cult of personality status Italy experienced under his grandfather King Giovanni I. Together, King Leopold and Chancellor Vittorio Bosco declared open war against Hungary on May 18th 1795 with the “Balcony Speech” at Montalcini Square in Trivoli. At the Balcony Speech, King Leopold justified the formal declaration of war on the Hungarian aggressors, reasoning with his deep, assertive voice that the Hungarian invasion of a neutral nation “defied civilized moral manners”, Hungarian aggression in the East must finally put to a halt, prevent “foreign dominance of Italian seas and coasts”, to maintain long term peace and balance throughout Europe, and to “maintain the Italian peoples status as thee world power!”
The French government was obligated by the Heves Pact to join the Italiano-Hungarian War; France formally joined Hungary in the conflict with Declaration of War on Italy on 20 May. Within the day following telegrams of the French adoption of open war against Italy, Spain backs their Italian allies (required by the Treaty of Hispalis, 1717 regardless) and declares a state of war with the Hungarian Empire and France. Aquitaine and the United Kingdom quickly remind Europe of their neutrality.
Shots are exchanged on the Italian – Occupied Slovenia border with Hungarian cavalry entering Italian soil. The skirmish impacts little due to temporarily mass mobilization of troops by Italy but mark the opening gun shots of the First World War.
Italian Chief of Staff Aldo Rocchelli organizes a plan which emphasizes a strong and swift defeat of France, utilizing the outnumbering of French by Spain and Italy. A fast victory in the west could allow application of Italy’s full resources and attention towards the East against the Hungarian Empire. Therefore, the Italian military must engrave defenses between the Italian region of Castelchio and Hungarian-occupied Slovenia temporarily while Spain and Italy use numerical advantage to defeat the French. Rocchelli’s plan would prevent fighting a long term two front war which is universally accepted to be unfavorable.
23-26 May: Italian troops, led by cavalry, invade France through the lower-elevated south-western Alps. French soldiers launch counter offenses but are caught off-guard by Italian mobile artillery. Spanish soldiers pour into the French south-western border. The outbreak of the first world war undoubtedly came as a relief from months of diplomatic-political stalemate (the Hundred-And-One days of uncertain regnal succession and Hungarian incursion into Slovenia) and yearlong tensions (from the introduction of the Etnikai Àthelyezése policy and Slovenian closing its Hungarian borders). A wave of Italian national pride, optimism, and support for King Leopold I suddenly appeared to override political and social divisions. Italian workers, whom were under the least progressive working conditions by far compared to equally industrialized nations at the time, shared the wave of optimistic patriotism and dropped their demonstrations for legal unions, regulated wages, outlaw of monopolies, and safety regulations from the promised-wealth soon to flow into factories for war industrialization. Chancellor Bosco was determined that Italian communists and socialists viewed Hungary as the prime aggressor, which prevented massive strikes from occurring as well as verifying that the Italian Socialist Party voted towards special war credits.
Spanish and Italian navies assault French Mediterranean ports, destroying military and commercial vessels to prevent colonial contact and assuring the protection of Italian/Spanish coasts. Meanwhile, Italian squadrons of soldiers exercise Grand General Aldo Rocchelli’s plan. Italian armies marched around the Alps before turning north to encircle French forces in a pincer attack through near the Italian border. Much like the Wars of German Succession, Italian military commanders lay their eyes upon capturing Chapiteaux but must defeat French armies quickly as possible. Spain’s armies meet an extremely well-fortified Franco-Spanish border.
On 26 May, Hungarian generals order their soldiers to break Italian defenses near Slovenia. Their assault ultimately achieved limited success opposed to the powerful “Liris Machine Gun” the Italian army equipped their fortifications with. 450 rounds of 7.7×56mm Rimmed cartridges a minute repelled the Hungarian attack decisively. The early Hungarian attack surprised Italian Grand General Rocchelli that Hungarian generals would risk soldiers at the Italian fortifications and in such a large number. Rocchelli realized more units must be diverted in the East to maintain the defensive line and responded accordingly.
Naval skirmishes between Germany and Spain appear in the Caribbean. Torpedo boats are used for the first time in a major conflict; the European conflict in close waters draws concerns and attention from Valentia whom announces neutrality on 27 May officially.
Spain is only able to capture the Jeanmont Fortress, the strong fortified and mounted line between the Mediterranean Sea and Aquitaine restricts Spain from advancing that’s necessary to meet Italian demands for joint-incursion into deep France, capture the capital Chapiteux, and end the western front swiftly. By 1 June the Spanish hadn’t reached more north than 43°35’ N. Trivoli sought out Spanish improvement to expedite their western front plans.
Aquitaine underwent “the Telegram Crisis” starting on 3 June with Spanish request for free escort through Aquitaine to invade France. Aquitaine panicked and scrambled for options to protect their neutrality to avoid the neighboring destruction to indulge their peaceful land. The Aquitaine government in Vermere informed the French government of Spain’s solicits via telegram. Appalled and fearful of Spanish breaking the stabilizing Franco-Spanish lines, Chapiteaux replied any open borders and allowed passage for Spain would cause justification for war with Aquitaine for “violating neutrality and aiding the enemy”. Hence, Aquitaine denied Spanish appeals for conveyance.
For Spain and Italy to win the war they agreed France must be dealt with quickly before her industries and populace pick up war effort and both could divert their full energy onto Hungary in the east without fighting a two front war. Spanish endeavors to break French defensive lines failed and Trivoli kept pressuring for their lusted swift victory. Spain possessed no other option than to invade through Aquitaine on 6 June, curving through the Aquitaine farm country and around the French armies along Franco-Spanish lines.
Germany signed a safeguard of Aquitaine’s neutrality in an event of invasion in 1758 (oddly both parties believed a French incursion was considerably more likely). The Spanish transit through Aquitaine compelled Karl II of Germany to proclaim war against the Mediterranean Powers on 8 June. Aquitaine’s defense capabilities were weak and minimal, allowing Spanish-occupation proving elementary and a puppet government eventually set up following in two months.
Spain’s soldiers bypassed the French concentrated lines through their Aquitaine passage and successfully flanked France at the Battle of Norte-Pyrenees (8 June – 15 June). The French collapse permitted gradual retreat from Italy and Spain until assistance from newly arrived German armies halted Mediterranean forces at the Battle of Les Rouges (29 June – 12 July). The Battle of Les Rouges pushed the Italian-Spanish armies back from their deep penetration into France by 30 miles until a stalemate was finally reached on 12 July. The Italians and Spanish, who were defeated in the Battle of Les Rouges, conducted a hasty retreat then dug in. The French couldn’t force either enemy out of position so also dug in. The mobile war ended and a long, enduring war of attrition begun.
Hundreds of miles of intricate trenches emerged; barbed wire was a significant hindrance to massed infantry advances. Artillery coupled with machine guns made crossing open ground extremely difficult and thus little advancement was made in the west by any side.
While the Italian Chief of Staff on the French frontlines Aldo Rocchelli fell under the stress of a stagnant war of attrition, Italian Chief of Staff on the Eastern front Raffaello Capello marched his armies into occupied Slovenia. However, Capello was halted at the border where three battles took place over four mouths (11 August – 4 December). The fighting was extremely bloody and mounted more than 300,000 casualties on both sides.
Meanwhile in Africa, Italian Ethiopia and Sudan quickly fell under assault from French forces. The forts of Djibouti fought valiantly but ultimately collapsed from the significantly my numerous French colonial soldiers in the August of 1795. Trivoli realized more soldiers must be applied into Africa to protect Italy’s oil well of Libya and breadbasket of Egypt. The demand for manpower was needed everywhere, but Italian manpower in Africa was noticeably less than her opposition.
Italy was the most populated participant thus far in World War 1 with 71 million souls; France and Germany each possessing 40 million; Hungary estimated at 39 million; Spain containing 35 million. Trivoli’s parliament authorized a military draft in August and implementing it on National Day (21 August). Manpower was also sought from colonial Australia, whom held 6 million citizens in their 1790 census, which was already providing Italy with massive amounts of coal and ship construction. A major problem to transportation between Italy and Australia was French naval blockades in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea (both between the Arabian Peninsula and African continent). Accordingly, Grand Admiral of the Italian Navy Niccolo Argento conducted a series of annihilation battles and night attacks on French vessels through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in the autumn and winter of 1795. Volunteers for the war was scarce in Spain and Germany but more nationalistic France, Italy, and Hungary were able to enlist hundreds of thousands of more volunteers without even drafting than Spain and Germany. The Italian draft was massive, enlisting young men from ages 16 to 30. France drafted its population with equally high rates in national emergency. Europe’s war was getting out of hand.
Hungary’s newly recruited and trained armies commenced a massive one-million man invasion in December 1795. Italian biplanes warned Chief of Staff Raffaello Capello of mounting Hungarian soldiers but after Hungarian soldiers were able to overwhelm a much-less numerous region of Italy’s fortifications and therefore allow its large invading army to bypass the rest of the lines, the Eastern defense was all but lost. The risky Hungarian incursion costs the empire immense deaths and injuries. But with a hole in Italian defenses forced, Hungarian soldiers pushed frontlines considerably. Capello halted Hungarian advanced around the populated city of Favilla after losing the industrial wealthy port and city of Castelchio but 160,000 Italians were being bombarded by artillery and machine gun fire into retreating south in the Istria peninsula. With Capello’s troops halting advancement around the Isonzo river, which could then be turned into a flanking narrow corridor where Hungary’s numerous advantage would prove redundant and Italy prevailing, the Hungarian Empire moved one hundred thousand soldiers from the Istria peninsula pressuring Italians south and applied them near Favilla to defeat Capello quickly before a strong defense or counter attack is established. The greatly reduced pressure on the Istria peninsula allowed Italian leverage to eventually bully a halt, leaving Italy an unexpected opportunity to evacuate their prior-rapidly losing 160,000 soldiers starting on 18 December.
On 19 December, the evacuation was announced to the Italian public, and many privately owned boats started arriving at Sigillo, the largest port unoccupied and out of reach from Hungarian artillery, to ferry the troops to safety. This flotilla of small vessels travelled 80+ mile distances from Torchello, Austiae, Favilla, and even Bisagno via the Cervari Canal. The significant contribution these civilian vessels made to the Sigillo evacuation gave rise to an Italian rally together in the face of adversity. From 19 – 28 December, 138,000 Italian soldiers’ lives were rescued to the Italian homeland peninsula.
At the start of the war, the Italian Navy had cruisers scattered across the oceans, many of which were subsequently used to attack French and German merchant shipping. The French systematically hunted these ships down but did experience embarrassments to prevent the destruction of considerable French shipping. At the outbreak of hostilities, Italy began a Mediterranean and Red Sea naval blockade of French. This strategy proved effective, cutting off vital military and civilian supplies from Africa. The French Navy initiated sea mines off the coasts of Spain, Morocco, and near Atlantic-ocean waters in the winter of 1795-96. The Atlantic-ocean mines were in international waters, violating accepted international law codified by several international agreements over the previous twelve decades.
While the land war in France continued a stalemate, rising casualties, and no advancement made by either opposition, the Italian-Hungarian frontlines stabilized near Favilla (a city turning into ruins) after Istria’s complete subjugation under Hungary’s control, the war in the skies consisted of no borders. Fighters were developed to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Borghi Company constructed engines for the Italian Aviation Corps with the first synchronization gears, so that mounted guns can fire through the arc of its spinning propeller without bullets striking the blades. This concept prevented mounted guns from shooting off a plane’s own propellers. One of Borghi’s monoplanes in the Italian Aviation Corps crashed over France in late 1795, French soldiers recovered the planes, and French aircraft manufacturers copied the synchronization design.
By late 1795, France commandeered commercial rigid ships – zeppelins – and used them to patrol enemy territories. These zeppelins were used for reconnaissance, to track Italian ship movements over the Mediterranean in process of reinforcing Spanish and Italian fronts, and later to bomb supplies coming to the frontlines from Africa and Trivoli itself. Bombing with the use of zeppelins proved little success for the French; originally artillery shells were dropped before effective bombs designed for aviation was created. France launched an air raid upon Trivoli on 11 February. There, a zeppelin did indeed kill 11 people with bombs missing Montalcini Palace just by a few hundred yards, but the zeppelin raid achieved little material success. The zeppelin raids did capture French, as well as Italian, public’s imagination. Later bombing raids were carried out by airplanes and fear of these raids did somewhat impact industrial production.
That same February in 1795, another war broke out after Greko-Turkish Emperor Theodoros X closed the Dardanelles to Russian vessels and revoked the Kastamonu Conference (1772) in retaliation for Russian buildup of its Back Sea’s fleet. Passage through the Dardanelles was vital for trade throughout all Russian Black Sea ports and the export of resources and manufacturing in southern Russia with Mediterranean markets. The Kastamonu Conference exempted Russian vessels from paying tolls at Maltepez and, in exchange, Turkish merchants were exempted from tariffs at Russian ports. Greko-Turkey, on the other hand, openly expressed concerns over Russia’s black fleet expansion that threatened the balance of Naval Power in the Black Sea. Greko-Turkey was obliged to exert retaliation to maintain peace but in February 1795, Russia was obliged to declare war to maintain power. A state of war between Greko-Turkey and Russia now existed while the death toll continued to rise in west Europe.
Achieving no more material success in the land two fronts of the war of attrition, Italy turned to strangling the “Northern Powers” economic resource markets, colonial resourcefulness, imperial contact and communications by adopting a policy of “unrestricted warfare”. Italian Grand Admiral of Navy Niccolo Argento urged Chancellor Vittorio Bosco to agree to this policy since the war’s beginnings. Chancellor Bosco feared adopting unrestricted warfare would bring international condemnation of Italy’s war effort and strike considerable outcries. But because the French had violated multiple international treaties by laying sea mines off the coasts of Spain, Morocco, and near Atlantic-ocean waters in the winter of 1795-96 and violated the Congo Congress under the texts: “Should come a conflict on the European continent between the signing powers, open-war in Africa mustn’t be implied on signing this agreement for the assured protection of all European investments.” Even with these pivotal treaty violations, little international reaction was received. Chancellor Bosco agreed to Grand Admiral Argento’s advocated unrestricted submarine warfare for two central reasons. The first being retaliation for France’s ultimate treaty betrayals seen with sea mines and African conflict; second reason being that because little reaction was received when France violated these essential treaties and Bosco hoped to receive the same limited reaction if this policy was adopted. Hence, Parliament authorizes unrestricted submarine warfare to Admiral Niccolo Argento on 29 March, 1796.
A group of selected German soldiers, titled the “Ohne Abdrücke” Squadron, arranged the assassination of the heir to the Spanish throne Prince Juan-Carlos de Montero in the Spanish major city Matriz on 14 April. The Germans’ assassination was successful but their goal was a failure. The Germans hoped to discourage Spanish morale from fighting “Italy’s War”. The result of Juan-Carlos’ assassination was the opposite, the faction of the domestic Spanish population lost their prized heir and now had their own just and cause for war effort other than backing their grand ally. The Spanish home front rallied and Spanish King Sebastian IV de Montero sought revenge against the German monarchy – personally.
Timoteo Armati and his infamous Viol Violento
By mid-1796 the Italians achieved air superiority, restricting Northern access to the strategically essential intelligence that continuous aerial reconnaissance provided. Continual aerial reconnaissance was significantly more dangerous to achieve for the Northern Powers. The first Italian “ace” pilots begun their careers. Trench warfare left the World War in Europe stagnant frontlines and efforts to move these lines was only possible through strategically vital aerial reconnaissance. The most notable Italian fighter ace was Timoteo Armati, who achieved 103 kills in his purple fight plane Viola Violento by the end of the war, and went on to a famous political career in the 1710s. Armati emphasized the use of blind spots to achieve air victories. “If you can’t reach an angle of your enemy’s aircraft to achieve a blind spot’s disguise, angle your own aircraft to approach from the sun and create your blind spot with glare.”
Italian submarines became an increasingly havoc on France and in the late summer of 1796, the French begun to counter Italian submarine activity in French coastal waters with air patrols. On western French coasts on 27 July, vaguely the Bay of Biscay, a French seaplane carried out the first successful torpedo attack on a ship. Mastermind of the Italian Navy, Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento, realized the increasing threat of air superiority in naval warfare well before any other naval power in the world ‘by a long shot’. Grand Admiral Argento desired an aircraft carrier that could fly off wheeled aircraft and land them aboard. Existing carriers had the ability to launch wheeled aircraft but not the ability to recovered them without the possession of flight decks. Argento contracted Orizzonti (company founded as a steam ship manufacturer and operated by plutocrat Michele Mercutio which emerged as Italy’s largest commercial luxury liner in the 1760s) to create an aircraft carrier to act as a sea-capable mobile airport. Orizzonti converted an ocean liner that was in the middle of construction in Laconio when the war (which was referred to as the “Mediterranean War” by France, Germany, and Hungary) broke out. The ocean liner they converted, the Signora, was completed with the first example of a standard aircraft carrier to the world with a full-length flight deck allowing wheeled aircraft to take off and land. The ITS Signora officially began its service after King Leopold christened the ship at Laconio with the breaking of a champagne bottle against its bow on 12 May, 1797.
The autumn and winter of 1796-97 was the second coldest of the 18th century which froze and halted production in a multitude of French and German factories in the north. Food supplies for soldiers in the trenches became sparse with frozen-over harvest resulting in the French government introducing rations on foods to its civilian population in November, 1796. France’s economy was already being strangled from Italy’s unrestricted submarine warfare blockading the French empire from her colonies. However devastating the harsh winter was to Germany and France (along with the rest of North Sea nations), trenches were so stubborn and impossible to cross (artillery, barbed fences, and machine gun fire almost assured soldiers their deaths if an attempt to cross was made) that frontlines did not change more than 10 kilometers from September 1796 to March 1797.
When France and Germany suffered from the “North Sea Winter of ’96-‘97”, Brazil profited. While claimed to be a neutral power, Brazil sold tons of cereals, fruits, sugars, coffee, and grains to France and Germany which weren’t sold to Spain or Italy. Brazil experienced multiple conflicts with Spain and her South American colonies through the century; the Failed Brazilian invasion of (Spanish) Venezuela in 1718, Brazilian-Spanish Maritime Conflicts of the 1730s, Reborgo Crisis of 1759, sinking of SNS Caballo (1784) off the coast of Celega, and support for colonial independence of Spanish South American colonies since Brazil’s own independence. Tensions between Italy and Brazil carry even deeper roots from even before Italy’s financial and military support for revolutionary General Gaspari in the Brazilian Revolution (1688-1694). With strong records of a negative history between Italy and Spain, Brazil restricted its trade in the World War to the Northern Powers of France, Germany, and Hungary. The agricultural deficits in France and German from the North Sea Winter of ’96-’97 brought the economic opportunity for Brazil to intervene in the Europe markets and profit from the high demands. For the remained for the World War, Germany and moreso France were economically dependent on Brazil to fill their agricultural needs. Brazilian trade over the Atlantic Ocean and Italian unrestricted warfare conflicting was inevitable and happened throughout the war.
Brilliant monarch of Russian, Czarina Katerina I, epitomized her brilliance with the Gorzano Talks that began with Russian ambassadors’ arrival to Trivoli in the April of 1797 from a long, time-consuming circumnavigation of the war’s conflicts. Chancellor Vittorio Bosco invited the Russian diplomats to Gorzano, just outside of Trivoli, where the Chancellery had set up government away from the war’s chaos and where the enemy “would know where to find us [the Chancellery]”. Czarina Katerina authorized her ambassadors to negotiate an allying treaty with Italy. Basically, Russia was already in the midst of planning a land invasion of Greko-Turkey but couldn’t launch such an attack necessary for their war’s victory on the case of two reasons: Russian lacked any direct land access to Greko-Turkey; naval transportation through the Black Sea was logistically suicide for Russia’s army, both nations were already engaged in massive amounts of naval conflict in the Black Sea. With Hungary’s army almost completely in the west, fighting a seemingly endless war against Italy, and thus its Eastern Empire near defenseless and largely vulnerable: Czarina Katerina and her advisors decided to reach Greko-Turkey by invading through eastern Hungary. Instead of simply invading Hungary and opening war against a new enemy, Katerina wished to further exploit Hungary and Italy’s war involvement with the Gorzano Talks. There, Russian ambassadors (knowing their leaders were planning to open war on Hungary regardless of a deal with Italy) attempted to negotiate Italian assistance against Greko-Turkey. The ambassadors pretended as if Russia would only open up a second front for the Hungarian Empire in accordance that Italy joined the war on the Greko-Turkish Empire. Russia proposed this: that Russia would open up an eastern warfront offensive upon Hungary have Italy begin a naval campaign to blockade Greko-Turkish trade and vessels in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas (this would more than damage their economy considering Greko-Turkey wasn’t heavily industrialized, it lacked the rail transportation for massive mobilization and supply routes which it relied on its navy for instead). Chancellor Vittorio Bosco didn’t question a single word from the Russian ambassadors whether it be truth or not, the deal was considerably mutual beneficial. Hungary would be forced to divert massive amounts of its land troops from its Italian frontlines to the east, greatly easing up Italian land efforts, and Turkey would be forced to divert multitudes of vessels out of the Black Sea to engage against a much more threatening Italian Navy and thereby freeing up the Black Sea for Russian supply trade and naval campaigns. Consequently, on 30 April, 1797, the Italian and Russian governments signed the Gorzano Treaty: promising an Italian-Russian alliance against the Greko-Turkish and Hungarian empires. Through quick use of the telegram and the telephone, both nations declared war on the agreed adversaries on the same day of the Gorzano Treaty’s signing.
Millions of Russian soldiers deluged the Hungarian countryside – regionally the Rumanian countryside – carefully confiscating railroads to rush soldiers to their distant goal of capturing the Turkish capital of Maltapez which effectively win the Russians their war over the Black Sea. Hungarian command fell into panic over the surprise Russian incursion; more than nine-tenths of Hungarian men-at-arms were positioned near their western, Italian frontlines and thereby leaving its eastern empire vulnerable. Emperor Nicolescu I of Hungary is recorded to have stated “A leak is more comfortable than a flood”, the metaphor is the perfect exposition of the emperor’s concern over the surprised (unprovoked) invasion and the Hungarian military’s reaction. A substantial quantity of Hungarian soldiers was swiftly loaded onto freight trains towards the east to prevent further Russian acquisition of Hungarian Rumania and propel the invading forces back to Russia.
By the end of May 1796, Hungary’s frontline reduction of troops along the Favilla Frontlines was palpable and Italian military leaders debated whether to:
A. Use the reduced pressure from the Hungarian frontlines to divert soldiers towards the large western front’s colossal demand for any new leverage.
B. Use weakened Hungarian trench defenses to shove enemy lines east and regain control over Favilla and Castelchio, possibility to gain opportunity for Slovenian liberation.
C. Amplified version of Plan B; use weakened Hungarian trench lines to launch a vast invasion in the East, regain the lost major cities of Favilla and Castelchio, liberate Slovenia, invade the Hungarian homeland and consequently force a Hungarian peace treaty. This required diverting manpower from the west front but would reward the west war effort in a long run with full attention being able to applied onto France without an eastern front.
Italian Chief of Staff (Eastern Campaign) Raffaello Capello claimed Course A would drag the war longer. Capello continued to argue that missing any opportunity to exploit any of Italy’s enemies’ defenses would mean Europe’s war would only “last as long as a man’s hunger”. Western campaign’s Chief of Staff Aldo Rocchelli refused to loosen manpower in France where the stagnant conflict couldn’t afford reducing areas that were already in gigantic demand. Thus Course C was considered too risky. Trivoli agreed to put Course B into action on 3 June. Capello began organizing offensive strategies that could finally force out progress in the eastern front.
While Hungary was rapidly mobilizing on railroad, Greko-Turkey was mobilizing on sea. Italian submarines dominated the Aegean Sea. Every Turkish ship transporting over the Aegean Sea, whether mercantile or naval, was destroyed by Argento’s Navy. This blockade of Greko-Turkish waters affected the empire greatly on the basis that the Greko-Turkish Empire lagged behind its European rivals in terms of industrialization; Greko-Turkey lacked railroads and historically been heavily dependent on transportation via the Aegean Sea. As Russia hoped the Gorzano Treaty would induce, the Greko-Turkish Empire was obliged to retreat its navy from the Black Sea, through Maltapez and the Dardanelles, and into the Aegean to combat the greatly trade-disturbing Italian Navy.
Italian Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento’s commanding vessel; Argento lived and commanded his fleet from the largest battleship of the Italian Navy during its existence; the ITS Vechino.
The Greko-Turkey Empire may have lacked internal industrialization, but its competition and escalation in a naval race against the Russians in the Black Sea provided Greko-Turkey with a fairly sized navy comprising notably of four dreadnaughts and eleven pre-dreadnaughts among others. The mightier Italian Navy diminished Greko-Turkish confrontations throughout the summer of 1796. Greko-Turkey attempted to achieve a major victory with the bulk of its navy finally in August. They hoped such a major victory would prove decisive. A major naval battle finally came in August with the Battle of Icaria. Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento commanded the Italian fleet from the ITS Vechino. An Italian reconnaissance submarine (ITS Sotto-38) identified the Greko-Turkish fleet following Argento’s fleet by twenty-five kilometers. Sotto-38 voyaged away from the chasing Greko-Turkish fleet so it could safely ascend its antenna into the surface and radio Admiral Argento. The Italian fleet could only travel as fast as its heaviest (and most powerful) vessels; the lighter Greko-Turkish fleet was clearly going to catch up to the Italians’. Admiral Argento turned his vessels to starboard in a specific sequence in effort and result to preserve the sequence of his battle line. This maneuver allowed his fleet to confront Greko-Turkey with his most effective and armored ships in front, with the flagship ITS Vechino remaining in lead. If Argento turned all his ships simultaneously, the order of ships would’ve been reversed and the less-armored ships could be vulnerable to open fire while some of the smaller Italian ships unable to return opening fire due to their shorter range. Italian torpedoes aggressively propelled against the Greko-Turkish from all directions, without stopping, hesitating, or conserving for a safe returning voyage. Argento’s submarines continued their torpedo fire as Italian cruisers and dreadnaughts turned the Greko-Turkish ships’ broad sides east. This allowed Argento’s submarines to fire upon the enemy ships farthest from its surface fleet and the sinking of the Greko-Turkish fleet’s largest, powerful vessels. The bulk of the Greko-Turkish fleet flashed explosions one-by-one. The Greko-Turkey fleet was tactically out-maneuvered, even with its previously held greater numerical advantage, and Greko-Turkish flag officer Nikodemos Aerleous ordered the raising of white flags to indicate surrender. Northern Powers hoped the Greko-Turkish Empire could seize the Suez Canal and thereby eliminate Italian connections to coal-rich Australia.
Italian submarines expanded their trans-Atlantic trade blockades by directly sinking French vessels stationed at port in French North American colonial possessions. The Atlantic Coast of French North America (Referred to as the Hudson Territories) was the cradle of the French navy similar to that of Australia’s value to Italy. The coal and oil the Hudson Territories provided and its industrialized eastern labor supply made the region superb for naval vessel construction. The French utilizes their North American colonies with their distance from mainland Europe, assuming their ports were out of reach from Spain or Italy. Italian Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento orchestrated an attack for the purpose of removing French confidence in North American security, sabotage French construction progress, and possibly to forge doubt in Hudson Territories’ attitude towards its European leadership. This action was under the order “Operazione Ricci di Mare”, or ‘Operation Sea Urchins”.
While Niccolo Argento theorized the operation’s strategy, procedure and tactics for months after he received approval from Chancellor Bosco in September. 17 Italian submarines, under the leadership of Argento’s own nephew Basilio Argento, left Trivoli on November 9, 1797 to Lipari (10 Nov) where six additional submarines joined Fleet Commander Basilio Argento. The fleet descended deeply into the Atlantic after exiting the Mediterranean Sea to avoid detection by French destroyers. The fleet reached North American coast around the night of November 28th/29th. Under nightfall, while civilian and military workers slept, the Italian submarines entered Chesapeake Bay and began firing torpedoes at the docked French ships. The booms from striking explosions awoke and alerted the French; naval ships and large commercial ships were both targeted by the Italian attackers. Three transport vessels were struck, dumping metals and coal into the Chesapeake Bay. As a result of French ships tied to port, mostly unattended, the Italian submarines could pick of the vessels like “sitting ducks”. Three battleships were damaged and another three sunk. Not a single vessel in repair or construction was struck, hiding safe near the uploading ports compared to the considerably more vulnerable cruisers, battleships, and destroyers. As instructed by Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento, once a submarine had fired more than three-fourths of its torpedoes, it retreated from the bay to safely await regrouping and return to the mainland. Seven Italian submarines conducted this order; once French sailors began dropping depth charges aimlessly into the dark, nighttime Chesapeake Bay, the Italian fleet accepted its achieved damages, discontinued its successful assault, and headed south to the bay’s entrance. The regrouped fleet voyaged across the Atlantic proudly and successfully, a few submarines experiencing damages from depth charges but zero casualties, and refueled in the Canary Islands.
Operation Sea Urchin’s Aftermath:
Full comprehension of the Italian assault didn’t yield to the French until dawn. The French lost an estimated 900 sailors and civilians from Operazione Ricci di Mare in the region France previously considered completely safe and out of Spanish or Italian reach. The Hudson Territories’ newspapers panicked that their population was:
“Just as vulnerable to the inevitable casualties of war as the bakers in Chapiteaux”
Popular indigenous newspaper ‘Tremblaiville Daily’ stated:
“This war truly holds no bounds, for this isn’t simply another European conflict. This is a world war.”
The Tremblaiville Daily goes on to elaborate:
“The desperate crowns of Europe currently will any length or action to be made for leverage in their gridlock power struggle. The war isn’t limited to land. The war isn’t limited to Europe. The war isn’t limited to politics. There is conflict in the skies and high seas, Africa and America, economies and civilians. The unjust Attack on Chesapeake clearly writes, ‘C'est la guerre totale.’”
The Italian assault encouraged the Valentian public of their neutrality. As result of “The Attack on Chesapeake”, the French removed any submarine construction in the bay and laid deep sea mines within the Chesapeake and Tremblaiville harbors to prevent a repeat of the Italian submarine attacks. The French positioned more destroyers to patrol Hudson Territory coasts and now were obliged to divert attention towards North American defenses. The resources Argento’s attack cost Italy was insignificant to that of the French expenditure to repair the Chesapeake fleet and to markedly upgrade North American defensive measures. In the war of attrition, Operazione Ricci di Mare was charitable to Italy’s cause.
Multiple attempts to utilized out-numbered Hungarian defenses failed until a final successful breakthrough by Italian soldiers through the eastern front trench lines on December 2nd. The ‘Audace Offensive’ brought staggering Italian losses; Chief of Staff Raffaello Capello ordered his soldiers to simply overwhelm the enemy numerously. As one could imagine, the first soldiers to run towards heavy machine gun fire suffered, being either killed or injured. Soon enough, the Hungarian defenders couldn’t reload their heavy machine guns fast enough. Once Italian soldiers jumped into the enemy trenches, most of the machine gun fire turned from no-man’s-land and towards the protection of the Hungarian’s “lefts and rights”. Hungarian ranks fell quickly; they were trapped in their own defenses. The Audace Offensive produced the complete liberation of Favilla on 3 December and Castelchio on 5 December. Hungarian enemy lines receded.
Italian soldiers marched into occupied Slovenia on 9 December. The Italians were moving fast and the Hungarian Empire was falling down like a house with too much weight on its roof, not enough support. France and Germany did not comprehend the success of Italian forces against an overwhelmed Hungary until the Liberation of Villach (Slovenian cultural and political capital) on 19 December. If the Northern Allies wished to continue a two-front war against the Italians, actions would have to be made.
German command mobilized its own soldiers to assist Hungarian defenses in the east. Germany’s prime concern was a peace treaty from being negotiated from Hungary with Italy, have the rapidly advancing Italian soldiers storm the western Hungarian countryside. The Russian Sack of Festiti (21 December) and Calasari (24 December) caused uproar over the Hungarian Empire’s military leaders. The economic consequences of Russia’s incursion were staggering without enough Hungarian footholds in its eastern regions.
Hungary’s environment on New Years’ Eve, 1797
German reinforcements was noticeable but not considerate. Germany spared the few soldiers it could, but even by its arrival into liberated Slovenia: Italy had claimed region superiority. General Capello’s army was unstoppable. Through the rest of December, January, and February, Hungary lost three things: 213,000 lives, homeland territory stretching from its western borders with Slovenia to thirty miles outside is own capital, and the war.
Hungarian Emperor Nicolescu I knew a one-front war with only Italy or with only Russia was now a gamble itself. The Empire’s two front defensive war was costly and decimating. Fearing he’d be overthrown if Italian troops reach the capital of Heves, Emperor Nicolescu offered a cease fire on 27 February, 1798. Chief of Staff Capello accepted this offer and awaited diplomats from Trivoli to negotiate a peace treaty. The Treaty of Blanco-Karpati ended the Hungarian Empire’s participation in war against Spain, and Italy; recognized the independence of Slovenia; ceded ten billion õzbak to Italy in reparations. From the Hungarian perspective, Hungary was under pressure from Russian and Italian advancement and obligated to spark a minimal of significant endeavor to turn its luck. Hungary and Spain-Italy were now under a state of peace.
The Brazilian government’s December elections took its effect the February of 1798, transferring control of Brazil’s congress to the National Party and electing Philbert Bulgarelli (former Monte Lisabetta Governor, National Party) to the Presidency. After twenty-eight years of maintaining congressional power, the Merit Party of Brazil lost majority rule in Brazil’s legislative body. The Nationalist Party refuted the Merit Party’s pacifist platform and after the Italian torpedo assault on Chesapeake Bay in November, the Brazilian population greatly expanded fears over Italy’s capability to launch attacks on North American coastlines undetected. While both parties condemned Italy’s unrestricted warfare, the National Party demanded measures to protect inter-Atlantic trade. Bulgarelli himself stated Brazil needed to immediately build up strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption was that the Brazilians would fight sooner or later. The Brazilian preparedness movement, immensely escalated by the Chesapeake Attacks, included many of Brazil’s most prominent bankers, industrialists, right-wing politicians, lawyers, and prominent families. Among the Nationalists, economic strength and military might was more decisive than idealistic endeavors for ‘silly causes’ like democracy, liberalism, progressivism, and national self-determination. The Merit Party dug itself in when it attempted to slash the military budget in 1796; the Nationalist Party cried for a massive buildup of the Brazilian Navy (most notably, a build-up of destroyers to counteract or prevent Italian submarine warfare). President Bulgarelli introduced new, pre-emptive war measures and policies while Brazil, de facto, remained neutral.
War raged on in France, trenches bombarded with artillery shells and helmets luring bullets daily. French innovators showed the world the very first tank on 16 March, “Le Gros Lézard”. Searching for ways to maneuver over trenches, cross no man’s land, and break through barbwire.
Both the Germans and the Italians feared a large German-Italian conflict breaking near Slovenia, resources struggling to maintain firm competition in France as it is. After German soldiers receded the Eastern front after the lost Hungarian fight, the Italians followed. Italian Chief of Staff Capello ordered the destruction of all bridges along the Danube River on the 19th Meridian East and 47th Parallel North to delay enemy advancement towards Slovenia and Italy have the Germans decide to re-open up the eastern front. The destroyed bridges infuriated the already-downhearted Hungarians, it divided their nation politically and economically; Germany and France condemned the destructions with citations that the Treaty of Blanco-Karpati did not permit these actions and the two countries (Italy and Hungary) were now signed into cease-fire peace.
Propaganda posters such as this one appeared in both Slovenian and Italian neighborhoods, this poster stating “Your Liberator, Leopold I of Italy. For the self-determination of each nation”
Italian-liberated Slovenia under Italian occupation, barely into its reconstruction and political reorganization, is formed into an Italian puppet state. The decision to create a puppet state of Slovenia was underwent by Chancellor Bosco in the attempt to legitimize its military occupation amongst the Slovenian people, followed by pro-Italian propaganda sent to Slovenian inhabitants by 1799. Italy’s King Leopold designated his younger sister Caterina di Blanco as the new monarch of Slovenia; Chief of Staff Raffaello Capello became Queen Caterina’s Chief Minister and the de facto ruler of Slovenia. Under Capello’s control, by literally definition: dictatorship, the Slovenian railways were nationalized and industrialists open for cheap investment through the removal of safety and union laws. Two-thirds of Slovenia’s reconstruction was either towards defensive fortifications/measures or military resource manufacturing, many Slovenians were found subjects to force labor, food rationing, and the confiscation of private property. Caterina I’s first action as Queen of Slovenia declared her nation neutral to all foreign conflicts, preventing any Jus ad bellum German invasion. Via politics, Slovenia proved a profitable military defense for Italy.
No spring offenses were attempted in France in 1798, but with eased resources the Italian army expanded its East African involvement. Italy recaptured its colonies of Sudan and Eretria by summer; the success of Italy can be owed to three factors: proliferate arms and ammunition abundant for Italian soldiers, the incorporation of Libyan and Egyptian colonists into the armed corps, and dogs. Dogs made excellent scouts with their powerful senses easily detecting enemies, stealthily carrying messages from the frontlines to headquarters and locating wounded soldiers for medics.
On the Italian homefront, factories worked around the clock. At the Torchello Maiellis Factory on 27 May, 1798, 150 tons of trinitrotoluene exploded, causing the injuries of over 300 civilians and 128 deaths. Another explosion, similar to the Maiellis Factory Incident, occurred in Stagna just two weeks late on 10 June 1798 when a gunpowder plant in Stagna exploded during the dead of the night and killed 71 civilians. While the Italian government prohibited publication of the incidents, it was clear that Italian factories were exhausted and overworked to Chancellor Bosco. The Hungarian Empire’s conflict in Slovenia wrecked its economy beyond belief, delaying its manufacturing contributions until sufficient necessities were reconstructed (among these necessities included water and power in some areas). Australia proved vital to Italy’s manufacturers and coal-based navy but its labor contributions were just as exhausted. North African Italian colonies lacked the immediate industrialization needed for war-effort manufacturing (yet North African Mediterranean coasts and the Nile River furnished generously to Italy’s pantries and stomachs with foods like olives, fish, dates, citrus fruits, and wheat). Bellatora laid 138 kilometers, 76% of its entire 181 kilometer border, with Italy. Bellatora partook on Northern Italy’s rapid industrialization periods in the 18th century while not politically within the borders and administration of the Italian government. Many Italian leaders greatly desired to get their hands on this little country for centuries. Bosco’s government lusted to annex the city-state to introduce additional war-effort factories (such as arms manufacturing, which the Italian army would only take from Italian makers), nationalize manufacturing plants for materials like artillery shells and gunpowder to maximize efficiency, remove Bellatoran unions that entitled their members to more fair wages and consequently cost owners more (driving up product prices and diverting expenses to fewer workers, less productivity), and remove the city’s safety regulations that “limited productivity potential”. The World War heightened a period of Italian nationalism which patently expanded into Bellatora due to its shared culture and language. The city’s rich industrialist formed the Bellatora City-State into an oligarchy republic by the 1760s. On July 2nd, ten thousand soldiers were temporarily removed from the larger Slovenian defense armies and situated around Bellatora. Italy indirectly threatened the Bellatora City-State with extremely graduated tariffs “to all independent states” on 13 July. Bellatora completely relied upon its Italian neighbors for trade and economic interactions; tariffs would cost Bellatora’s industrialist plentiful. The Italian government paid Bellatoran representative Alfanso Pescatore to introduce the Referendum Ultimatum on 27 July with his own Tuscan estate. Bellatora was under military and economic intimidation, the oligarchical city-state controlled by industrialists and plutocrats voted towards appealing to Italy for annexation (“unification”) on 7 August. Chancellor Bosco’s parliament accepted Bellatora’s appeal while the Bellatoran civilian population protested, fearing their own sons would “sent to the coffins they call trenches”.
What the Germans referred to as the “Confiscation of Bellatora”, the industrialist of Bellatora referred to as a profit. The military industrial war machine and removed tariffs quadrupled the stocks of Bellatoran corporations by 1799 and provided further war materials for Italy’s war effort.
The first use of chemical warfare occurred in October by French troops, firing chlorine-filled artillery shells towards the Spanish trench lines in Aquitaine. Chlorine attacks damaged tissue in the lung and were often worsened if its victims moved under its presence. The fatality of chlorine gas wasn’t as effective as the French hoped but psychologically terrorized the Spanish and Italians. Orders for gas marks quickly followed October’s chemical warfare introduction.
Over the course of October 1798 to February 1799, six Brazilian cross-Atlantic conveys were sunk by Italian submarines. All of which were between the Hudson Territories and France. Italy’s unrestricted submarine warfare policy brought such a large amount of criticism and attention from the Brazilian population that President Philbert Bulgarelli seized the issue for political gain by drafting the Bulgarelli Ultimatum. This coercive attempt meant to weaken the Italian war effort which threatened Brazilian global interests as well as Brazil’s control over the Atlantic. Bulgarelli already drove fair momentum off of his world power naval arms ‘catch-up’ which brought his campaign slogan: “pace attraverso la forza”. The Bulgarelli Ultimatum attempted to either prove that Brazil was a global superpower, achieving its interests simply through threat and intimidation while maintaining peace, or use as pretext to rally Brazilian nationalism which would favor Bulgarelli and his conservative-right party. The Ultimatum’s requires that, have Italy fail to achieve, Brazil would fall under obligation to “protect its interests against aggressors through force have peaceful, civilized methods fail.”
1801: Brazil’s Ultimatum:
- Remove all Italian naval submarines from the Atlantic Ocean and end its unrestricted submarine warfare with it.
- End military occupation and political subjugation of Slovenia
- End military occupation and political subjugation of Bellatora
- Arrest Italian Ambassador to Brazil Benvenuto Crocetti for antagonizing Brazilian interests and refusing to ‘work with the Brazilian government’. Replace Crocetti with a more sympathetic, compromising and appealing ambassador.
- Return French colonial possession that the capturing of violates the Congo Congress.
- Provide “explanations” for Italian hostilities towards the Brazilian democracy.
Brazil telegrammed the Bulgarelli Ultimatum on February 11th 1799. Trivoli did not take the message serious at first glance, but after the realization and confirmation of the telegram, Chancellor Bosco claimed it was no more than a Brazilian attempt to enter Europe’s war justly and gain political advantage at home. Bosco promised Italy would restrict submarine warfare to the coasts of France and the Hudson Colonies; the Italian Ambassador to Brazil was replaced (but not fired) with Juliette Adessi. A third requirement of the ultimatum was met eight weeks after the issuing of the February 11th telegram; the Bulgarelli Ultimatum forced a three month expiration date (May 11th, 1799). The third requirement met, the explanation for Italian hostilities, was explained as a “struggle for order and stability among Italian-speaking peoples”. Two months into the Ultimatum, only half of the demands were received. On April 29th the Italian government issued claims that the Bulgarelli Requirement’s to “Return French colonial possessions in Africa and end military occupation and political subjugation of Bellatora and Slovenia” intervened in Europe’s own war and that “Brazil isn’t the police officer of any hemisphere”. Only after Brazil refuted the Italian excuse and pled to “meet half-way” it was clear to King Leopold I and Chancellor Bosco: Brazilian entry into the war was inevitable.
Failing to meet political demands against the more liberal and pro-democratic opponent would appeal internationally that Italy is the more corrupt or aggressive nation. Chancellor Bosco used the sinking of two Italians submarines (96 dead Italian sailors) off the coast of Seno del Mare by Brazilian destroyers on May 4th as justification to declared “open and total war upon the federation of Brazil”. Bosco’s government argued that the unavoidable war with Brazil beginning through this formal declaration – in retaliation for the sinking of 96 Italian sailors –internationally appeared to make Italy out as the victim of the tensions.
Some might suggest that Brazil’s interest in involvement into Europe’s war was brought by Hungary’s surrender (Treaty of Blanco-Karpati) which removed Brazilian reluctance to parade a war of “liberalism and democracy” to the public while fighting along the side of a European emperor. The Brazilian population reacted to the news of open war with surprise. Brazil’s domestic front wasn’t surprised by their entry into the World War, they had been expecting war after the Bulgarelli Ultimatum expired throughout April (Italy’s failure to meet all the requirements) but instead surprised that Italy was the nation to declare open war. Brazil replied with declaration of war on Brazil on 6 May.
Brazil’s congress swiftly passed a – suspiciously already drafted – national draft act on May 11th. Brazil mobilized economically and militarily. Brazilian battleships emerged in the Atlantic so abundantly that the power-threatened Italian navy retreated its attention out of the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean in August. The re-opened access to African (but not Asian as the Italians found themselves blockading inter-Indian Ocean trade) colonies allowed the French to deploy massive quantities of relief to its forces in Africa. Resources from coal to ammunition picked up French African crops morale and successful endeavors.
By November 1799, Brazilian soldiers arrived to the French frontlines at rates up to 15,000 daily. War-weary French and German soldiers enthusiastically welcomed the fresh Brazilian boots with great solace. Italy possessed a higher percentage of enlisted citizens than any other power but even with that Italy was unable to replace their losses as the energetic, fresh Brazilian troops poured into the trench lines. In the winter of 1799 and 1800, the Italian warfront began to deteriorate.
Brazil’s inexperienced navy foolishly attempted to exert an offensive in the Mediterranean Sea with the bulk of its navy, hoping to open the Mediterranean to its own blockade and economic strangle. (Female) Brazilian Admiral Daniela Aringheri was appointed fleet admiral to carry out this mission in the elsewhere frozen Mediterranean winter. The Mediterranean recorded to exist as the only large warm waters in 1800’s winter. The Brazilian January assault was infamously titled the “Flotta Supremo” – or, “Paramount Fleet”. President Philbert Bulgarelli confidentially assured his military strategists that a Brazilian fleet major naval victory inside the Italian-held Mediterranean under opposing Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento’s commands would prove Brazilian naval sovereignty and the internationally recognize Brazil as the world’s prime naval power quietly. Italy was indeed the most powerful and reputational naval adversary globally of the era and any naval victory against Argento within the Mediterranean would signify a new, irrefutable world Great Power.
Argento innovatively utilized torpedo bombers for the first time on a large scale during the naval battle, the bombers being launched from the Signora aircraft carrier
Aringheri’s fleet passed the Straits of Gibraltar on 10 January comprising of 21 battleships, 8 armored cruisers, 17 battle cruisers, 31 light cruisers, 3 auxiliary ships, and 50 destroyers. The Flotta Supremo was massive, too large to be picked off by numerous little battles. Just as Brazil had intended, a major battle was the only path to defeat this intruding giant. The Gibraltar passing alerted the Spanish, whom contacted Trivoli at 11 pm on January 10th, 1800. Niccolo Argento collected the vessels available – 15 battleships, 6 pre-dreadnought battleships, 27 battle cruisers, 19 light cruisers, 46 fleet torpedo boats, and Italy’s only operating aircraft carrier (Signora). The two opposing fleets spotted each other roughly 80 kilometers from Mallorca during the dawn of January 12th. Brazilian fleet admiral Daniela Aringheri approached the enemy Italian fleet in one single line of battle, maneuvering her fleets’ broadsides parallel to the Italian fleet for maximum efficiency of her battle guns. Admiral Argento’s approach was to deliberately cut the Brazilian line in three; with his aircraft carrier remaining placed in a safe distance, his fleet approached in two columns. The two parallel columns propelled towards the Brazilian intruders perpendicular, one towards the rear of the single-column linear Brazilian fleet and another just fractions of the fleet in front of Aringheri’s flagship. By cutting Brazil’s fleet just in front the flagship, the isolated Brazilian ships in front of the fleet could not be able to see the flagship’s signals. This action took the entire third of the Brazilian fleet out of the battle temporarily while they reformed. The columns’ break of Aringheri’s line caused a multitude of individual one-on-one ship actions. Niccolo Argento trusted that his sailors’ superior seamanship, quicker gunnery and exceptional morale would provide greater luck with ship-on-ship conflicts to defeat the Brazilians “by the strength of the sailor instead of the strength of the fleet”. The decisive concentration on the rear of the Brazilian fleet by the second Italian column forced the central Brazilian ships to reverse their direction to support the rear’s defense. The central vessels’ reversal to assist the butt of the fleet cost valuable time and temporally removed these ships from firing on the Italians. Five Brazilian battleships fell victims to Argento’s torpedo bombers alone, costing the Brazilians the bulk of their fleet. As the battle raged on, falling heavily (and to the Brazilians: surprisingly) in the Italian Navy’s favor, aircraft launching from the ITS Signora (carrier) dazed Brazilian vessels. Brazil had never encountered air units through naval conflict before and Italy itself only a few attempts before. ITS Signora’s only ace, Tenente “Maurizio Alfrero”, suffered gunshots from Brazilian gunfire, bleeding out in his cockpit, and while piloting his aircraft he maneuvered his plane to fly into the funnel (smokestack) of the Brazilian destroyer BNS Sequoia. Alfrero knew he flew on the gates of death and made his last action alive purposely crashing his plane into a Brazilian war vessel. The destroyer’s internal engines exploded from the suicide crashing by Tenente Aflrero; the ace’s sacrifice, bravery, endless endeavor, and resourcefulness earned him the place as an Italian national hero both in 1800 and the years following. Grand Admiral Niccolo Argento decisively defeated Brazil’s Fleet Commander Aringheri, officially when her flagship raised white flags in surrender. A day after the battle, the remaining 48 Brazilian ships afloat were refueled and commandeered into the Italian Navy.
Brazil’s humiliating defeat at the “Infamous Battle of the Mediterranean”, marking the second largest naval battle to ever be recorded in all of history, infuriated the Brazilian public. Consequently, the number of war bonds bought in Brazil spiked eight-fold in the January of 1800, Brazil’s annual March-budget talks enlarged Brazilian military expenditure vastly, and strategist attention turned full-scale towards achieving progress on land.
In March 1800, the Russians endurance paid off with the capture of Maltepez on the 17th. Even the three month long siege couldn’t encourage the city’s military leaders to surrender. But the softened defenses and starved soldiers provided the Russians with ease when they stormed the city on March 16th, 1800. Similar to the Spanish and Italian objective of capturing Chapiteaux, the Russians believed capturing the Greko-Turkish Empire capital Maltepez would force their opponents to the negotiating table. No negotiations were able to take place due to the rapid political deterioration and collapse of the Greko-Turkish Empire that followed. The humiliated Greko-Turkish Emperor Theodoros X abdicated after failures to control Greece in rebellion. The Greeks lost their economic ties with the eastern half of the empire since the Italian blockade in the Spring of 1797 (most trade and communications in the empire was done via Aegean Sea crossing). The war was universally unpopular throughout the Greko-Turkish Empire and many blamed the war on Emperor Theodoros provoking it from antagonizing the Russians. Central command militarily, economically, and politically collapsed since the siege of the empire’s capital began. The Greek rebellions was not a nationalist movement but one with desires for an end to the economically devastating war that “stole our sons and brothers like common thieves”. The military draft enforced cites as a significant cause. Unable to control the Greeks breaking from the empire, humiliated by failed leadership, stressed from critical and antagonizing nobility, Emperor Theodoros X abdicated his throne. The depressed, self-hating miserable emperor retreated himself to the Greko-Turkish island of Cyprus and eventually decided to take his own life on 30 April. With centralized political command and sovereignty in disarray, no single individual in troubled Turkey validated powers to negotiation any peace treaty. Grand-General Mustafa Sadik continued fighting the Russians with his de facto Turkish army; Sadik fortified military defense just east of Maltepez. There, the Turkish army’s shorter numbers would serve no disadvantage against the invading and numerous Russian army. 212,000 Sadik soldiers defended against three massive waves of Russian attacks from 28 March to 23 April. The Russian offensives failed with each attempt, mounting ~540,000 Russian casualties accumulated. Russia executed Generals Anastasiy Markovic and Georgy Kuznetsov for their failed tactics.
Grand-General Mustafa Sadik’s charismatic and decisive leadership, which arguably saved the remaining loyal Turkish nobles, earned him appointment as Türkiye'nin makam or “Authority of Turkey”. By late June, Sadik’s armies divided Russian and Turkish lines at the Bosphorus Strait, cutting the city of Maltepez in half as well. The only three bridges that crossed the Bosphorus Strait were demolished to prevent strait-crossing; the rubble left from the destroyed bridges prevented any Russian or Turkish vessels from navigating the strait. Their stagnant struggles left the Russians and Turkish in their own war of attrition. Russia turned its territorial expansion to the exhausted Hungarians whom remained weak since its conflicts with Italy in Slovenia.
French cavalry passing a captured Spanish trench.
The “allies”, a term applied since Brazil’s addition to the Northern Powers, launched the Straight Offensive on 3 July. The offensive sought to divide the Spanish and Italian forces with a series of feints and advances south towards the Mediterranean coasts. The first week of the offensive, which concentrated its soldiers on an outward curve of Italian-Spanish trench lines in France, witnessed catastrophic losses from Italian artillery fire. From east to west on 10 July, French, German, and Brazilian artillery shells bombarded Spanish-Italian troops for six straight hours simultaneously. The allies charged across the trench lines, some French and German legions with armored tanks, and exploited the softened Spanish-Italians. Ally leaders ordered no withdrawing, keeping their rare exploitation a success and preventing mounting casualties to have died in vain. The Straight Offensive cost the allies nearly 300,000 soldiers but by August 10th, 1800, the allies reached the Mediterranean coast.
European frontlines by August, 1800 in Southern France.
Italian luck diminished in Africa as well. Resupplied and accompanied with reinforcements, French African corps played a chase-and-run game with receding Italian squadrons. Sudan was a conquered French possession by the time the allies reached the Mediterranean in early August, dividing Spanish and Italian frontlines. The warfare of attrition was over in Europe, offensives favored the replenished allies driving to victories from their new, additional ally Brazil.
Admiral Niccolo Argento travelled to Libya in September, 1800, to oversee the training of Italian-Libya colonists into the Italian Navy. At 11:00 PM on 19 September, a Turkish submarine (far out of traditional Turkish naval range) fired three torpedoes at Argento’s infamous flagship, the ITS Vechino. Argento sunk with his prized ship, and thus the death of the great naval architect, tactician, and admiral who ever lived. The morale impact on the Italian Navy was devastating. The Brazilian and Turkish navies picked up a wave of enthusiasm, Brazilian sailors chanted the death was “the Creators’ revenge for the Chesapeake and Mediterranean (battles)”.
The southward expansion in Europe engendered French General Jean de Montrereau to draft the Rapide Leste Plan, which specified widening the Straight Offensive’s liberation south westward. Invading Spanish-held territory would be easier by approaching from the east, the Garonne River was unfortified and much more shallow there. Then the plains of Aquitaine could provide rapid territory advancement with ease, flank Spanish trenches, and encircle Spanish the large, strong Spanish occupation of the major city Vermere. The Rapide Leste Plan took effect when the allies launched the Garonne Offensive (10 October – 27 December). By its end, 83,000 Spanish soldiers found themselves surrounded by ally artillery regiments by land and French battlecruisers by sea in the city of Vermere. Their bombardment began on December 26th, 1800; with artillery positioned outside of machine gun range the Spanish soldiers were unable to retort gunfire. Over the nights of December 27th and December 28th, the ally commanders agreed to continue their bombardments so that the defending Spanish soldiers could not make any repairs in the night. While the commanding Spanish officer at Vermere, Jorge Delgado, promised his soldiers they “wouldn’t perish without a fight” on a December 27th speech, the city hadn’t received supplies in 8 weeks due to the Aquitaine Offensive’s cutoff of transportation routes to the Spanish homeland. Before the siege even began, food and ammunition storage was running low. Hypothetically, if the storages at Vermere were filled then Delgado undoubtedly would continue towards a last stand despite his tactical vulnerability. But by December 29th, supplies were spares; citizens and soldiers shared a starvation prompting the “Munity of Delgado”. Starved Aquitanians, many of which recently experienced the loss of loved ones, were accompanied by Spanish officers in a violent protest in the Aquitaine Parliament Palace (where Delgado and other commander’s office laid). Delgado died by the knives of his own soldiers, whom lacked the ammunition to fire upon their commander. Lieutenant Eduardo Teófilo, ascending to the position of the city’s defense commander, agreed to surrender to the allies in exchange for his life. A triumvirate of Spanish cavalry galloped out of the city’s defenses with white flags shouting for a cease fire. All of the 59,000 surviving Spanish soldiers occupying the city were now prisoners of war; Spain’s army faced a humiliating defeat and the Aquitaine capital Vermere was liberated at last.
Spain and Italy’s war efforts continued in downward spiral through winter. The allies propelled Italy’s soldiers into the Alps. Italian Chief of Staff Aldo Rocchelli realized he had neither the resources nor quantity of soldiers to conduct any kind of counter-attack. Rocchelli ordered every mountain pass to be destroyed in hopes Italy could reduce their defensive war to the Iberian Peninsula. At the Augustus Mountain Pass, Italian saboteurs found themselves alarmed that marching Brazilian arrived to the pass before the saboteurs. Thousands of Brazilian troops crossed the pass; the Italian saboteurs disturbed the accumulated snow along the pass. An avalanche crashed down the hills onto the passing Brazilians. Approximately 250,000 tons of snow, rock, and ice plunged down directly onto the roads. The bodies of some victims wouldn’t be found until the following spring and Brazil’s leadership estimated a loss between 10,000 and 12,500 of their soldiers.
Ally troops stumbled upon the major mountain pass Rossis surprised, the pass was still intact and not destroyed by Rocchelli’s forces. Through Rossis Pass the allies poured out of the Alps and into the Italian homeland. The Battle of Gorizia (26-30 January) lost one of the great Italian industrial centers. With the loss of one of Italy’s own cities, it was clear that the upcoming months would prove decisive for the war’s outcome. Rocchelli illustrated the Piedmont Offensive to his commanders for a last-resort, final offensive. Beginning on 6 February, the Piedmont Offensive launched 25 Italian divisions, comprising of 512,500 soldiers (a sixth of these soldiers being citizens rushed into enlistment past training) to recapture Gorizia and repel the allies out of Italy into an eventual stalemate without passage through the Alps.
On the individual troop level, the Piedmont Offensive’s soldier was either one inexperienced and trained, simply citizens forced to bear arms in uniform without training, or one of exhausted veterans defeated from earlier campaigns. Rocchelli’s Piedmont Offensive (6 February to 1 March) was the biggest military disaster the Italian forces witnessed during the entire war. The Italian army was already worn out at this point, only one-fourth of their motor vehicles still function, infantry divisions at one-third to one-half strength, and logistic issues prevented the full equipment of rifles to the Italian army. Rocchelli’s offensive involved such a vast quantity of soldiers that, to remain organized, Rocchelli decided to march the majority of his infantry along the three major roads towards Gorizia. The large number of soldiers on roads found themselves vulnerable when German and Brazilian divisions surprised attacked the marching Italians from both sides of the Veni and Monticini roads. Overall the Piedmont Offensive failed to conquer any objectives, to capture Gorizia, repel any ally advancement, and more casualties were inflicted on the own Italian forces than on the allies.
Spain’s military command collapsed from rapid pinch and flank attacks through the Pyrenees and into the Iberian Peninsula. It seemed the entire northeast Spanish countryside stormed with ally infantry. Unable to defend against the invading allies in the Spring of 1801, Spanish King Sebastian IV sought a cease-fire on July 2nd. Chancellor Bosco in Italy didn’t sympathize with the same strategy; even with the collapse of his Spanish ally, Bosco hypothesized digging new trench lines from the Adriatic Sea. The more advancement made by the allies in Italy’s northern industrialized regions came more desperation by Trivoli’s command. Civilians were put to labor to construct this 200 kilometer trench line in early July, soldiers referred to as the “Bosco Line”.
The red line maps the Bosco Line
French zeppelins realized the trench efforts underwent by Italy; allies’ military commanders rushed for an incursion of the Italian peninsula before an entire, coast-to-coast, trench line could be completed. The Italian Chief of Staff, General Aldo Rocchelli, repeatedly argued to Chancellor Bosco and his cabinet that the trench line only assured an Italian defeat. The Bosco Line cut off access to Italy’s most industrialized regions needed to continue the war effort; Rocchelli claimed continuing war manufacturing with just the Sicilian and Australian manufacturing bases was insufficient towards maintaining defense. The increasing number of Brazilian and French vessels in the Mediterranean would most definitely lead to a full scale blockade by 1801, removing Australian iron, steel, and lead unable to reach Italy past the Suez Canal. A war of attrition could not be reapplied with a Bosco Line, Italy could no longer starve and the allies greatly benefited from the Brazilian entry into the war. Roccelli’s argument concluded the Bosco line eliminated any sort of Italian victory whereas a successful counter-attack against the allies could lead to a potential stalemate and truce. Digging Italy into two would prevent Italian capability to launch any sort of counterattack.
Italy’s war effort collapse finally became self-ware in result of the July Riots. The first riot emerged in Lipari on 19 July, led by the young socialist Salvatore Gambino. Originally the Lipari Revolt was a protest by nationalized weapon factory workers who hadn’t received their promised paychecks in five weeks. Other factory workers joined to after Chancellor Bosco’s government began regulating war material prices to combat inflation and mounting war debts, which forced free market industrialists to cut their workers’ wages in reply to regulated profits. Sicily’s laborers revolted throughout Lipari, Silvana, and Saracco on the week 19-26 July. Northern Italy’s heavily industrialized region inevitably would be captured and controlled by the allies, had the Bosco Line be completed it blocked access to the valuable region. The increasing Brazilian presence in the Mediterranean signified the Suez Canal would so be blockaded or apprehended, thereby removing access to Australian steel, coal, and iron. With Italy’s Sicilian manufacturing base in revolt, economic continuation of the war was anything but feasible. The Italian government under Chancellor Bosco and King Leopold I finally accepted their incontrovertible defeat and ventured for an armistice on 3 August.
August 3’s “Armistice at Torchello” concluded the cessation of hostilities, exchange of prisoners of war, promises for reparations, disposition of Italian warships and submarines, demilitarization of Slovenia, withdrawal of Italian soldiers in French colonial possessions in Africa (preservation of these colonial infrastructure as well), and the agreed conditions if Trivoli violated the agreement. Negotiations for a conclusive peace treaty began on 11 August in Bachburg; the Treaty of Bachburg’s ratification prolonged to January, 1802.
While delegates from Aquitaine, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain debated in Bachburg through August and Winter, France mobilized its soldiers east to rescue their traditional Hungarian allies from Russia. French leaders contained major concerns of a collapse of the Hungarian Empire, a close ally they had invested so much into. The developed relationship, both diplomatically and militarily, between Germany and France during their struggles against Spain and Italy caused the German government to join French intervention east to continue Franco-German partnership after the fall of Spain and Italy.
German and French action in Hungary decisively propelled Russian troops out of former Greko-Turkey and eastern Hungarian Empire. The Russian army’s technological disadvantage and outdated military tactics compared to the recently very experienced western Europeans cost them their significant military gains quickly. Reconnaissance provided from airplanes, defensive-line penetrating tanks, large surplus of artillery shells leftover from the western front, and greater equipped soldiers (ammunition, grenades, protective steel helmets, revolver side arms have primary weapon malfunction), all provided French and German soldiers significant advantage against Russian ones. By February, Hungary-France-Germany’s troops were invading the pre-war Russian homeland. Consequently, Russia surrendered all conquered territory, prisoners of war, transfer of Crimea to a Hungarian-Turkish joint- administration, and reparations to Hungary, Greece, and Turkey, all of this agreed to at the Treaty of Velekov.
The ratification of the Treaty of Bachburg in Germany, 1802.
The Treaty of Velekov (1802) humiliated Russia, deteriorating Russian patriotism among its citizens. The treaty came just five weeks after negotiations in Germany finally came to a conclusion when the Treaty of Bachburg was ratified by seven participants on 12 January 1802. Italy was stripped of its colonies on a global scale. Australia was an obvious region to remove from homeland Italy’s hands, the amount of iron and coal it produced was extremely vital and strategically valuable for any war. German delegates assumed that with Australia removed, Italy couldn’t fight a future conflict during the new era of industrialized warfare. Yet the French and Brazilians worried if Italy kept territories across the planet, a global network of naval bases could be established (much like the English and French do) and to launch submarine hostile endeavors. Thus every overseas island outside of the Mediterranean Sea (Fiji, Samoa, Nauru, Mauritius, St Helena, and Comoros) was stripped from Trivoli’s control and Italy was banned from future colonization without the Collective European Security Council’s (CESC) approval. The CESC’s establishment with the Treaty of Bachburg included Aquitaine, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain as its founding members with intention to legislate peace and international cooperation to avoid conflict. Any legislation required a two-thirds majority and with two-thirds of the original members being from the allies, the allies were de facto in power of the Coalition. The Treaty of Bachburg established reparation costs for Spain and Italy, as well as set up preparations to reestablish free states in Bellatora and Slovenia. To much vexation from the French, the allies agreed to let Italy keep Libya as a result of French violation of the Congo Congress. Italian delegates constantly brought up the Congo Congress’ violation, which earned them negotiating room throughout the talks. Egypt, however, was deemed too valuable (resources ranging many, from honey to iron ore) and access through the Suez Canal was seen as the most valuable passage on the entire planet. Northern Africa was divided by giving ceding Sudan, Eritrea, and Egypt from Italy to France; Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, and Senegal to Germany. Spain was allowed to keep Morocco and Italy allowed to keep Libya-Tunisia. An “open door policy” would be established from foreign bankers to invest in the reconstruction of Italy. Interest rate minimums be set and regulated by the Collective European Security Council. Brazilian delegates, under pressure from Philbert Bulgarelli, pushed for new constitutions for Spain and Italy that did not continue their monarchies. Thus an end to the Italian and Spanish monarchies, forcing King Leopold of Italy and Sebastian IV of Spain to abdicate the day of the Bachburg Treaty’s ratification in 1802. The allies saw Italy as the aggressors of the war; the French viewed Italian efforts to defend Slovenia against their ally Hungary as open hostility against French-Hungarian allies and Italian submarines in the Atlantic was deemed too aggressive by the Brazilians throughout the European conflict. The Treaty of Bellatora sought to break Italian nationalism into shambles, contain Italian global influence and power throughout the globe if Italy was to ever threaten other European powers again, exploit Italian markets by ceding colonial resources and opening up new markets.
World War 1 brought immense destruction upon Europe that left 15 million military soldiers dead total. Italy’s military endeavors measured 2.5 million deaths, the most of any nation. 23 million soldiers returned home wounded and 2.6 million civilians died from situations like ethnic cleansing in Hungary and Slovenia, winter starvation in northern France and Germany, or warfare’s turmoil in Aquitaine, France, Slovenia, Italy, Hungary, Greko-Turkey, and Russia. Tolling over 40 million deaths, World War 1 was the most catastrophic, loss of life, bringer of destruction, largest war in history – at the time. Politically, the monarchies in Italy, Spain, Greko-Turkey, and Slovenia were abolished (Aquitaine’s monarchy restored), the Collective European Security Council at last established an international political organization in hopes of achieving peaceful methods, Brazilian politics became increasingly involved in Europe. Economically, the world war greatly expanded mass production and the use of machinery to perform previously human labor task, in the 1801-1810 decade, post-war time production turned to automobiles, airplanes, and radios. Northern Italy, Southern France, most of Hungary, Aquitaine, and the Turkish capital of Maltepez suffered devastating losses of physical property, landscapes, and finances. The social impacts included three million more women of ‘marriageable age’ (that being the middle two-thirds of the population, in this analysis ages 15-60) than men in Italy’s 1803 consensus. Consequently, the average age of marriage dropped as parents encouraged their daughters to secure husbands at earlier ages. In Italy, women who were desperate for husbands and moved to Italian-speaking nations like Valentia and Brazil became known as “Magaris” (Magari roughly translating to ‘let’s hope’ or ‘I wish’). Though earlier marriage rates meant earlier birthing rates among the Italian population, the economic hardships and reduced male population meant the overall number of births sharply fell in the World War 1’s aftermath. However, the World War’s effects didn’t last an interim but forever shaped history’s followed events.
