Tuscany

## Grand Duchy of Tuscany

### Known Previous Leaders

Politophile [Former Official], Italian\_Dictator [Pro Tempore], Singer82 [Former Official]

## History

Tuscany has always been a nation of trade and prosperity. The Tuscan nation has long been peaceful, since the end of the Dark Ages, the Renaissance was always centered in Florence, the Tuscan capital. Birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, the city has had many magnificent structures built, under da Vinci's eye. After da Vinci's passing, Tuscany continued to trade, but began to decline. Eventually, Tuscany became a Habsburg puppet, and became nothing more than a vacation spot for the rich nobels of Europe.

This order was quickly disturbed by the coming of the Englightment, which brought back many classical ideas, among them the most dangerous of all for the status quo: Republicanism. In universities, young scholars and lawyers began plotting to overthrow the government. Eventually, devised a genious plan to allow themselves to slip away from under the thumb of the Habsburgs without being invaded by them. Following a particularly nasty downturn in Tuscany at the turn of the decade, combined with the local Recession of 1771, gave these plotters the perfect time to strike. With that, in November of 1771, the scholars poured out of the universities to create an angry mob and quickly stormed the local armory. With this, they attacked the Ducal Villa, where a yet untested but seemingly progressive Habsburg Grand Duke, Leopold II, resided. His guard tried to protect him, but they failed, and they quickly captured him and threw him into a jail cell. The rebels quickly proclaimed Giovanni [Self-styled "de'Medici"] as the new Granduca di Toscana, who picked Marzio Gozzadini as his head diplomat. The successful revolution was quickly named the Golden Revolution, for which the Arch of Liberty was built in Florence. However, the scholarly ruse hadn't been fully put into place yet. The people were quickly promised a new Constitution, as well as a more humane option to the death penalty, which would plant the seed that would eventually sprout and become the Marettina, [the in RP equivalent of the Guillotine] and the former Granduca and his family were put onto house arrest. A new rank was given to him, 'Duce di Toscana', which was nothing more than a rubber stamp to the current government. However, with him still technically remaining in power the Habsburgs did not feel threatened and even remained friendly to the reformed government of Tuscany. After the Golden Revolution, Tuscany experienced what is colloquially known as the "Second Tuscan Renaissance", which made the country was once again resemble that of da Vinci. During this time Tuscany flourished, and once again became important in local policies, quickly aligning itself with the friendly neighbor of Genoa.

Soon after the Golden Revolution, the leaders of Lucca and the Republic of Venice approached the new official Tuscan Granduca, seeing here a successful grassroots republican movement [As both of these nations were at the time also republics] and offered them to join to the new North Italian Republic that was being planned. These nations were forming as the Kingdom of Naples had somehow been ordained by the Pope and was now entering a crusade to unify Italy by any means necessary, and this threatened the sovereingty of Tuscany and all the other Italian City-States. Tuscany, after much deliberation, decided [Quite correctly] that any North Italian Republic would be doomed from conception and just give Italy an excuse to conquer them. As it were, the North Italian Republic turned out to be too weak to defend itself against the corrupt joint Franco-Italian Coalition, despite the direct military help from the Habsburgs and the financial suport of Tuscany. Mazio Gozzadini was there to witness the final & Second Battle of Milan, and reported that it was the bloodiest fighting that the human mind could ever concieve. With that, as the government withrew from Venice, the city was burnt.

With the loss of their Northern Italian friends, Tuscany joined together with Genoa and Ragusa to protect themselves, as the smaller nations left in the world. Tuscany also expressed concern with the idea that Greece should be allowed to join as they were not really a small nation. This alliance was put to the test pretty soon after its formation as Croatia seeked to take over Ragusa. Tuscany immediately fulfilled its commitments with Ragusa and said that they were considering joining their war, but said that they would definitely give financial aid as well as buy mercenaries for the nation. Ragusa, however, quickly fell apart and the Croatians came in to occupy them to stop the city-state from descending into total anarchy. At this point, Tuscany decided to stick together with Genoa.

With the rise of Corsica, Tuscany decided to also attach itself to them, believing that this would be enough to protect them against foreign imperialist objectives in Tuscany. Surpirsingly enough, it was, and this allowed for an artistic resurgence in Tuscany and a feeling of general unity with the nations of northwestern Italy. It was in this atmosphere that Marzio Gozzadini felt confident enough to do a small "March on Florence", demanding the Prime Minister be elected and given equal powers to that of the Granduca, and technically also equal to those of the Duce. This made Tuscany de facto a Semi-Parlimanetary Diarchy while being de jure a Semi-Parliamentary triarchy.

Tensions in the Penisola continued to rise, and eventually Corsica decided to end the Italian behemoth once and for all. During this time, Marzio Gozzadini wrote an essay intellectually challenging the very idea of a "Kingdom of Italy" and condemning them to just be a warmongering-Pope [alledgedly bullied]-ordained Kingdom of Naples. It was in this essay that Marzio Gozzadini coined the term "King of Peace", mocking the idea that Italy was a force for peace in the world, a now official alias of Alexandros Numerius.

It was soon after this point, as the war stalemated, that Tuscany became inactive, the "Second Renaissance" came to an end and the new leaders of Tuscany began to fall into the same decadence as the Habsburg puppets they had so long ago claimed to hate.

Eventually, a new youth managed to gather support and oust the Second Medici regime after over 30 years of governance. This youth, named Marcellio de Toutilini, quickly consolidated powers around himself killed many of the originial republican and democratic ideals on which the Reformed Tuscan Grand Duchy was founded, turning it into more of a dictatorship. Toutilini was originially a promising leader, ushering in a second revival. Toutilini also set his foot down on Italy, considering for the first time Tuscany's history a military option, and he began building defences along the border. However, he Toutilini regime quickly fell into inactivity and instability and eventually faced total collapse. It was at this point that the reginal leaders of Tuscany appointed a new figurehead dictator, a 'Duce', in which no real power resided. Tuscany reverted back to a more feudalist state, and with that, the First Tuscan Period of Upheaval ended, putting Tuscany in only a slightly better position than on which it began.

It was during this time that a now extremely old Marzio Gozzadini tried to once again take over the nation and form a Republic, The former Granduca and his former friend and ally, Giovanni de' Medici quickly tried to do the same, but instead he was trying to make himself 'Duce'. The power struggle continued behind the scenes, filled with interpersonal drama, that eventually ended with a worried Gozzadini trying to beg forgiveness in Rome. After writing his last letter, Marzio looked out his small window as men knocked down his door. He was quickly choked to death, and his rival and frenemy, Giovanni de' Medici was declared the winner. However, by now Givanni was eighty-three years old [Marzio was 90] and he was declared 'unfit' to return to any type of governance. Giovanni died just over a year later, a broken man, and leaving behind him, a broken country. Tuscany remains decently industrialized but inactive till this day.

## Notable Residents

Marcellio de Toutilini (Singer82)

Matteo Marinetti (Creator of the Marettina, the alternate Guillotine)

Marzio Gozzadini (Italian\_Dictator)

Giovanni de Medici (Politophile)

Leopold von Habsburg (NebuchadnezzarI)

## Notable Landmarks

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Cathedral of Florence

Museum of the North Italian Republic (Torn down by the Toutilini regime)

Great Farm of Tuscany (One of the largest farms every created back in its hayday; now dwarfed by larger farms.)

Great Tree Wall of Lucca

Fiume Ombrone (Built artificially by Italian\_Dictator)