Italian Empire

Flag of Italy

The Italian Empire is a great power and a nation who is the second least powerful nation in the world. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866 and received the region of Veneto following their victory. Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, thereby ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, following strong disagreements with France about the respective colonial expansions. However, even if relations with Berlin became very friendly, the alliance with Vienna remained purely formal as the Italians were keen to acquire Trentino and Trieste, corners of Austria-Hungary populated by Italians.

Italy had joined the side of Germany as it invaded France with Germany and Spain and even acquired Tunsia, Egypt, French Chad, The Arabian Peninsula and much more territories. After the war the revolts by the Syndicalists of Italy with aid from Soviet Russia caused the rise of the Fascist Party of Italy under Benito Mussolini led a coup against President of the Privy Council Giovanni Giolitti and his Prime Minister Luigi Facta who were unpopular for not handling the Syndicalist riots which was successful with Mussolini becoming President of the Privy Council and Prime Minister in which he merged the two titles into the title of *Duce* (Leader).

## History

### Unification

The creation of the Kingdom of Italy was the result of concerted efforts of Italian nationalists and monarchists loyal to the House of Savoy to establish a united kingdom encompassing the entire Italian Peninsula.

After the Revolutions of 1848, the apparent leader of the Italian unification movement was Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, renowned for his extremely loyal followers. Garibaldi led the Italian republican drive for unification in Southern Italy, but the Northern Italy monarchy of the House of Savoy in the Kingdom of Sardinia, a state with an important Italian population, whose government was led by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, also had ambitions of establishing a united Italian state. Though the Kingdom had no physical connection to Rome (seen by all as the natural capital of Italy, but still capital of the Papal States), the Kingdom had successfully challenged Austria in the Second Italian War of Independence, liberating Lombardy-Venetia from Austrian rule. The Kingdom also had established important alliances which helped it improve the possibility of Italian unification, such as with the United Kingdom and France in the Crimean War. Sardinia was dependent on French protection and in 1860 Sardinia was forced to cede territory to France to maintain relations, including Garibaldi's birthplace, Nizza.

Cavour moved to challenge republican unification efforts by Garibaldi by organizing popular revolts in the Papal States and used these revolts as a pretext to invade the country, even though the invasion angered the Roman Catholics, whom he told that the invasion was an effort to protect the Roman Catholic Church from the anti-clerical secularist nationalist republicans of Garibaldi. Only a small portion of the Papal States around Rome remained in the control of Pope Pius IX. Despite their differences, Cavour agreed to include Garibaldi's Southern Italy allowing it to join the union with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. Subsequently, the Parliament declared the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on 18 February 1861 (officially proclaiming it on 17 March 1861) composed of both Northern Italy and Southern Italy. King Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy was then declared King of Italy, though he did not renumber himself with the assumption of the new title. This title had been out of use since the abdication of Napoleon I of France on 6 April 1814.

Following the unification of most of Italy, tensions between the royalists and republicans erupted. In April 1861, Garibaldi entered the Italian parliament and challenged Cavour's leadership of the government, accusing him of dividing Italy and spoke of the threat of civil war between the Kingdom in the North and Garibaldi's forces in the South. On 6 June 1861, the Kingdom's strongman Cavour died. During the ensuing political instability, Garibaldi and the republicans became increasingly revolutionary in tone. Garibaldi's arrest in 1862 set off worldwide controversy.

In 1866, Otto von Bismarck, Minister President of Prussia, offered Victor Emmanuel II an alliance with the Kingdom of Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War. In exchange, Prussia would allow Italy to annex Austrian-controlled Veneto. King Emmanuel agreed to the alliance and the Third Italian War of Independence began. Italy fared poorly in the war with a badly-organized military against Austria, but Prussia's victory allowed Italy to annex Veneto. At this point, one major obstacle to Italian unity remained: Rome.

In 1870, Prussia went to war with France, igniting the Franco-Prussian War. To keep the large Prussian Army at bay, France abandoned its positions in Rome – which protected the remnants of the Papal States and Pius IX – in order to fight the Prussians. Italy benefited from Prussia's victory against France by being able to take over the Papal States from French authority. Rome was captured by the Kingdom of Italy after several battles and guerrilla-like warfare by Papal Zouaves and official troops of the Holy See against the Italian invaders. Italian unification was completed and shortly afterward Italy's capital was moved to Rome. Economic conditions in the united Italy were poor. There were no industry or transportation facilities, extreme poverty (especially in the *"Mezzogiorno"*), high illiteracy and only a small percent of wealthy Italians had the right to vote. The unification movement had largely been dependent on the support of foreign powers and remained so afterwards.

Following the capture of Rome in 1870 from French forces of Napoleon III, Papal troops and Zouaves, relations between Italy and the Vatican remained sour for the next sixty years with the Popes declaring themselves to be prisoners in the Vatican. The Roman Catholic Church frequently protested the actions of the secular and anticlerical-influenced Italian governments, refused to meet with envoys from the King and urged Roman Catholics not to vote in Italian elections. It would not be until 1929 that positive relations would be restored between the Kingdom of Italy and the Vatican after the signing of the Lateran Pacts.

### Liberal Era Politics

After unification, Italy's politics favored liberalism: the liberal-conservative right (*destra storica* or Historical Right) was regionally fragmented and liberal-conservative Prime Minister Marco Minghetti only held on to power by enacting revolutionary and left-leaning policies (such as the nationalization of railways) to appease the opposition.

### Colonialism

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Italy emulated the Great Powers in acquiring colonies, especially in the scramble to take control of Africa that took place in the 1870s. Italy was weak in military and economic resources in comparison with Britain, France and Germany, but it proved difficult due to popular resistance and it was unprofitable due to heavy military costs and the lesser economic value of spheres of influence remaining when Italy began to colonize. Britain was eager to block French influence and assisted Italy in gaining territory of the Red Sea.

A number of colonial projects were undertaken by the government. These were done to gain support of Italian nationalists and imperialists, who wanted to rebuild a Roman Empire. Italy had already large settlements in Alexandria, Cairo and Tunis. Italy first attempted to gain colonies through negotiations with other world powers to make colonial concessions, but these negotiations failed. Italy also sent missionaries to uncolonized lands to investigate the potential for Italian colonization. The most promising and realistic of these were parts of Africa. Italian missionaries had already established a foothold at Massawa (in present-day Eritrea) in the 1830s and had entered deep into the Ethiopian Empire.

The beginning of colonialism came in 1885, shortly after the fall of Egyptian rule in Khartoum, when Italy landed soldiers at Massawa in East Africa. In 1888, Italy annexed Massawa by force, creating the colony of Italian Eritrea. The Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab handled trade with Italy and Ethiopia. The trade was promoted by the low duties paid on Italian trade. Italy exported manufactured products and imported coffee, beeswax and hides. At the same time, Italy occupied territory on the south side of the horn of Africa, forming what would become Italian Somaliland.

The Treaty of Wuchale, signed in 1889, stated in the Italian language version that Ethiopia was to become an Italian protectorate, while the Ethiopian Amharic language version stated that the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II could go through Italy to conduct foreign affairs. This happened presumably due to the mistranslation of a verb, which formed a permissive clause in Amharic and a mandatory one in Italian. When the differences in the versions came to light, in 1895 Menelik II abrogated the treaty and abandoned the agreement to follow Italian foreign policy; Italy used this renunciation as a reason to invade Ethiopia. Ethiopia gained the help of the Russian Empire, whose own interests in East Africa led the government of Nicholas II of Russia to send large amounts of modern weaponry to the Ethiopians to hold back an Italian invasion. In response, Britain decided to back the Italians to challenge Russian influence in Africa and declared that all of Ethiopia was within the sphere of Italian interest. On the verge of war, Italian militarism and nationalism reached a peak, with Italians flocking to the Royal Italian Army, hoping to take part in the upcoming war.

The Italian army failed on the battlefield and was overwhelmed by a huge Ethiopian army at the Battle of Adwa. At that point, the Italian invasion force was forced to retreat into Eritrea. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Addis Ababa in 1896, which abrogated the Treaty of Wuchale recognizing Ethiopia as an independent country. The failed Ethiopian campaign was one of the few military victories scored by the Africans against an imperial power at this time.

From 2 November 1899 to 7 September 1901, Italy participated as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance forces during the Boxer Rebellion in China. On 7 September 1901, a concession in Tientsin was ceded to the Italy by the Qing Dynasty. On 7 June 1902, the concession was taken into Italian possession and administered by an Italian consul.

In 1911, Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire and invaded Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. These provinces together formed what became known as Libya. The war ended only one year later, but the occupation resulted in acts of discrimination against Libyans such as the forced deportation of Libyans to the Tremiti Islands in October 1911. By 1912, one third of these Libyan refugees had died from a lack of food and shelter. The annexation of Libya led nationalists to advocate Italian domination of the Mediterranean Sea by occupying Greece and the Adriatic Sea coastal region of Dalmazia.

### Giovanni Giolitti

In 1892, Giovanni Giolitti became Prime Minister of Italy for his first term. Although his first government quickly collapsed one year later, Giolitti returned in 1903 to lead Italy's government during a fragmented period that lasted until 1914. Giolitti had spent his earlier life as a civil servant and then took positions within the cabinets of Crispi. Giolitti was the first long-term Italian Prime Minister in many years because he mastered the political concept of *trasformismo* by manipulating, coercing and bribing officials to his side. In elections during Giolitti's government voting fraud was common and Giolitti helped improve voting only in well-off, more supportive areas, while attempting to isolate and intimidate poor areas where opposition was strong. Southern Italy was in terrible shape prior to and during Giolitti's tenure as Prime Minister: four-fifths of southern Italians were illiterate and the dire situation there ranged from problems of large numbers of absentee landlords to rebellion and even starvation. Corruption was such a large problem that Giolitti himself admitted that there were places "where the law does not operate at all".

In 1911, Giolitti's government sent forces to occupy Libya. While the success of the Libyan War improved the status of the nationalists, it did not help Giolitti's administration as a whole. The government attempted to discourage criticism by speaking about Italy's strategic achievements and inventiveness of their military in the war: Italy was the first country to use the airship for military purposes and undertook aerial bombing on the Ottoman forces. The war radicalized the Italian Socialist Party: anti-war revolutionaries led by future-Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini called for violence to bring down the government. Giolitti returned as Prime Minister only briefly in 1920, but the era of liberalism was effectively over in Italy.

The 1913 and 1919 elections saw gains made by Socialist, Catholic and nationalist parties at the expense of the traditionally dominant Liberals and Radicals, who were increasingly fractured and weakened as a result. Giolitti had then become President of the Privy Council with a troupe of Prime Ministers under his command of the Liberals and Radicals.

### World War I

Italy had joined the side of Germany after it declared war on France so it can get Algeria and France's colonies to create a more worthy colony for Italy to have and one for Italy to easily maintain control of due to Italy not having good contact with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland which could be annexed as Ethiopian territories The Ottomans declared war on Italy to get Libya back. Italy invaded Southeast France and Corsica to replace South Tyroll which Italy thought it would never get back. Italy has conquered Tunisia, Egypt. Gaza, Palestine, North Sudan, and the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories by aiding rebels against the Ottomans and British. Greece had aided the allies which pissed of Italy to the point that it invaded Greece and turned the monarchy into a Puppet State and partitioned Greece and created new Puppet States in the Greek lands as it made Montenegro, Monaco and Islands near Greece into Puppet States as a way to help Germany in it's effort to take over the Eastern Front and save Bulgaria from getting conquered by the allies or becoming a Soviet Satellite.

### After WWI

Later on Giovanni Giolitti's regime with Luigi Facta as Prime Minister was overthrown by Fascist Warlord Benito Mussolini who had taken both of their titles and merged them into the title of Duce (Leader). The President of the Privy Council Position was seized by the Church as the Pope wanted to uphold his control in Rome and keep an eye on the Italian government due to Mussolini's sinister habits of being friends with the Germans.

## Government

The Kingdom of Italy is theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belongs to the monarch, who exercises his power through appointed ministers. The legislative branch was a bicameral Parliament comprising an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdom's constitution is the Statuto Albertino, the former governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers are solely responsible to the king. However, by this time it is impossible for a king to appoint a government entirely of his own choosing or keep it in office, against the express will of Parliament.

Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting and of 25% of all enrolled voters to be elected on the first round of balloting. If not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies.

After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, multi-seat electoral constituencies was introduced after World War I. Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian populists and classical liberals. Elections took place in 1919, 1921 and 1924: in this last occasion, Mussolini abolished proportional representation, replacing it with the Acerbo Law, by which the party that won the largest share of the votes got two-thirds of the seats, which gave the Fascist Party an absolute majority of the Chamber seats.

After 1925, Italy had become a fascist dictatorship.

#### **Imperial Parliamentary Administration**

* **King:** Victor Emmanuel III
* **Pope:** Pius XI
* **President of the Privy Council/Prime Minister:** Benito Mussolini
* **Foreign Minister:** Gian Galeazzo Ciano
* **Armament Minister:** Alberto Pariani
* **Minister of Defense:** Guido Buffarini-Guidi
* **Minister of Intelligence:** Cesare Amé
* **Chief of Staff:** Pietro Badoglio
* **Chief of Army:** Rodolfo Graziani
* **Chief of Navy:** Domenico Cavagnari
* **Chief of Air Force:** Rino Corso Fougier
* **Chief of Military Police:** Junio Borghese

## Military

Italy's military is large for the vast Colonial Empire it controls, yet not enough to defend itself. It will need to rely on their allies in case of war. These are because of poor leadership and bad resources.

### Army

The Army is a large army with four main brigades, 1 the Main Italian Brigade which consists of Italian ethnic infantry divisions with 120 Artillery Guns, 100 Motorbikes, 96 Gun Cars and 88 Tanks. The second Brigade consists of Armies of Vassal States such as Monaco, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Samos, Morea and Crete and the colony of Cyprus, it is under command of Royal Italian Veterans who answer to the the Vassal Monarchies and top Generals, 100 Artillery Guns, 96 Motorbikes, 88 Gun Cars and 88 Tanks. The third brigade is known as the Arab brigade, this consists of Infantry divisions from the vassal states of Tunsia, Libya, Cyrenaica, Egypt, Jordan, Mesopotamia, Syria, Jabal Shammar and Saudi Arabia with Colonial Arab Armies such as those from the United Southern Arabian Sultanates, Gaza and Palestine and it is armed with 200 Artillery Guns, 190 Motorbikes, 140 Gun Cars and 120 Tanks which makes it larger than the first brigade. The Fourth Brigade consists of Africans from Italy Sudan, the colony that consists of Infantry Divisions from the Italian Vassals known as the Kingdom of Baguirmi, the Bornu Empire, the Ouaddai Empire and the Ubangi Sultanates. It has 100 Artillery Guns, 88 Motorbikes, 76 Gun Cars and 61 Tanks.

### Navy

The Italian Navy consists of 1,000 Submarines, 1,000 Destroyers, 1,000 Battleships and 120 Aircraft Carriers. All of the Ships except for the Aircraft Carriers are sadly outdated and are only used to defend Italy and it's empire from invaders like pirates.

### Air Force

The Italian Airforce only has a force of 500 fighters, integrated into the army command structure.

## Foreign Relations

Italy is friends with the German Empire and the Spanish Empire.

## Economy

The economy is heavily biased towards coal exports, chiefly to Germany and Spain. New mines are opened every year within the colonies, and tensions rise between navtives and local miners. Much of the heavy industry of Italy is owned by the Fascist Party in which it is only to profit off of celebrations of honoring the Roman Empire.

## Culture

The Culture of Italy is diverse and divided between the North and South parts of Italy. The North is wealthier, more advanced and the people are snobbish and more addicted to politics as the South is less advanced, less wealthy, more traditional and has no addictions to politics, unless it is necessary to do so. The official Religion is the Roman Catholic Church.