Italy

**Italy**, or officially the **Kingdom of Italy**, is a powerful Southern European Mediterranean nation, boasting a small but important empire, with Mediterranean and African colonies.

**WIP, history will change with the emergence of French content.**

## History

### Emergence and Italian Nationalism

Italy, similarly to Germany in the 1800s had begun to experience nationalism like it never did for centuries beforehand. Due to major events such as the French Revolution and subsequent Pacification of the Italian peninsula by Napoleon’s empire, many Italians began dreaming of a unified state, against invaders. As the 1820s-1830s began, nationalist insurrections hit the peninsula and by the year 1848 the first Italian Independence War began. But this war would set the precursor for the second and even third Italian Independence wars, stretching from 1848-1870. The price was paid with many human lives but ultimately, Italy would become unified and the nationalist dream was almost fully realized.

As the age of colonialism was in full swing, the Italians began longing for a new Italian empire looking back on their Roman past. In the 1880s to the 1890s, the Italians began annexing East African lands, such as in Eritrea and Somalia. They tried to subdue Abyssinia in the Italo-Ethiopian war from 1894-1896 but failed miserably. The Italians saw the turmoil the Ottomans were in and took advantage. After the Treaty of Baku, Ottoman Tripolitania gained independence as Libya and the Italians saw an opportunity and quickly, without a declaration of war, invaded the fledging country. The Libyans were not able to defend against the Italians, but after the French and British joined in the war, the Italians were forced to partition Libya with them, but the Italians retained Tripoli. With this, the Italian would begin to lay claim to Austro-Hungarian lands, mostly the Dalmatian islands but their presence in the Great War would greatly expand Italy.

### Italian Expansion, 1915-1921

The Italians, at first, stayed neutral during the Great War but, lured by France and Britain, joined the Entente in 1915. That same year the Central Powers were already in trouble. Austria, being very poorly prepared for the Entente, failed in any offensives against the Entente as they moved into Bosnia and Transylvania through Serbia and Romania. Because of this the Austrians were not prepared for an Italian offensive. By 1916 the stalemate at the Italo-Austrian border was finally broken by the Italians who marched into the Austrian heartland. To keep what they gained the Italians made slow gains along the Dalmatian coast.. By 1917 the Italians had fully broken into the heart of the Empire which caused a full capitulation of Austria-Hungary. This collapse would become the catalyst for the downfall of the Central Powers as Austria-Hungary descended into civil war. In the concluding peace treaties, because Italy had already occupied most of the Dalmatian coast, the Entente fully recognized Italian claims and occupation of the land. Italy, however, would force itself in another conflict just 2 years later.

Italian irredentism was at its height and many politicians resented Britain for annexing parts of Libya and the fact that the Italians had to bow to the whim of the British since their Empire controlled the Mediterranean. When the Suez Canal fell in the Cairo War, Victor Emmanuel still felt staunchly neutral about the conflict but the matter was taken out of his hands as he eventually fell the the pressure of numerous Italian politicians and declared war on Britain. Due to the panic that Britain was experiencing, the Italians invaded and occupied Cyprus, boosting their war effort. Rome then began to invade Malta in September and it was taken the same month, but thanks to a surprising stalemate in British Somalia, the Italians successfully pushed Abyssinia to declare war on Britain as well. After Spain joined and the Gibraltar Rock fell, the Italians didn’t experience much fighting for the remainder of the war.

**WIP**

### Italian Isolation

Italy was in a unique situation, contrasted with Britain or France, who’s empires were in decline, Italy’s empire had greatly expanded. Not to mention, while France and Britain in their colonies were plagued by African uprisings and guerrilla forces, the Italians were able to supply their garrisons and keep resistance at a minimum. Italy also had boomed from trade after the war. No longer were they under the boot of the British, but instead as with the Treaty of Valletta special trade relations were given to all participants against the British in the Cairo War. The situation more or less flipped as Italy became dominant in trading in the Mediterranean. Britain however still retained trading relations with the Italians, mostly for India and British East Africa.

**WIP**

### Tensions in the Mediterranean

1932 saw the year where Italy and Serbia jointly created the defensive alliance known as the “Pact of Rome” to strengthen them to each other. Many in Serbia were not happy, obviously because Italy has no other interest in Serbia than keeping Croatia at bay. Since 1928, Serbia had slowly become more economically dependent on Italy, after that Serbia unofficially became an Italian client state.

#### Intervention in the French Civil War

With the outbreak of the French Civil War, the government in Rome was alarmed and understandably petrified by the sudden collapse of what was Italy's greatest ally. As socialist forces began moving down south, and threatened to expel the Republicans from the mainland entirely, Rome struggled with what to do. Various anti-socialist leaning nations, such as Spain, the United Kingdom and Russia also began to panic and worry, and soon saw Italy as the main bulwark against French socialism. In March of '35, a few days after the Fourth Republic was declared, Italian diplomats consulted with British and Spanish delegates in Naples to discuss, if the war was to be victorious for the Communards, how to limit French influence in the Mediterranean. What was especially concerning was that the Fourth Republic was more than capable of securing its colonies and possibly spread socialist ideals to Africa, directly threatening Italian colonies.

With the Communards rapidly taking control of the mainland, and with Spanish and British backing, the Italians moved swiftly, dubbing this Operation Avalanche alongside the Spanish. With the matter of three days, the Italians invaded and occupied Corsica, Tunisia, Nice and Savoy, unintentionally fulfilling Italian Irredentism. Both the 3rd and 4th Republics were outraged by this behavior, but as the Republicans were busy fighting the socialists, and with the Communards not having reached the Mediterranean yet, there was little anyone could do.

Italy going into 1936 is seeing its empire become more and more vulnerable. No longer receiving support from France has left its somewhat powerful nation in an open position. As Abyssinia begins to mobilize for war to retake Italian colonies, as Egypt correlates with anti-Italian resistance, and as Croatia conspires to annex Dalmatia, Italian claims have been pressed further, with many hoping to economically exploit the Middle East, Greece and Spain for further control of the Mediterranean. If they are not careful however, the decades of progress made for the Empire could falter at best and at worst, collapse.