Italian Uprising

Restored version of the rebellion's flag

The Italian Uprising was a rebellion that took place in 114AD on the Italian peninsula against Scottish rule of the region. The rebellion lasted a total of 4 years, ending in 118AD when the Byzantines and Libyans combined to destroy the rebellion from the north and south. It was the first attempt at forming an Italian state. Many of its ideas spread during the rebellion, leading to Italian nationalism even after its downfall. This led to the Italians later breaking away again from their Scottish overlords in 133AD, which was not disputed by them.

## Rebellion History

### Formation

The rebellion had its origins in 113AD when the Pope was killed by the Scottish for suggesting that Rome and it's surrounding regions should become independent and "unite all Italians". Following this, riots broke out across Italy due to the killing. In the early months of 114AD, after the riots worsened and spread, Scottish soldiers began to fight against rioters, which worsened into full-on combat between Italian militias and the Scottish.

Upon the news being spread across the peninsula, Italian revolutionaries in the cities of Italy began to rise up and take control of the land in a quick revolution, before Scotland could send any reinforcements, resulting in Italy falling to the rebellion rather quickly. They vandalized many ships, houses and supplies and wrote on them "Abbasso il re! Abbasso la Scozia!" (Down with the king! Down with Scotland!) and created a modified Scottish flag to serve as their temporary flag. Their temporary flag was a St. Andrew's Cross colored red, surrounded by black.

Due to the Scottish selling off Sicily, they no longer had access to the Italian peninsula. They enlisted the help of the Libyan Empire and Byzantine Empire to remove the rebels from Italy. In the next few years, the rebellion quickly ran out of supplies as they had wasted much of it on parties after their near complete victory against the Scottish, or on the costly and, ultimately fruitless attempts to reach the Scottish mainland. This problem was worsened by the fact that both Libya and Byzantium accepted the offer. The Italians were also unable to trade with anyone outside of the Colonials down south in Sicily.

These problems were worsened when Libya invaded in 117, being paid to do so by Scotland. The rebels were quite unprepared against them, leading to large parts of southern Italy being fought over. The Byzantines also began their own invasion to help out their ally, leading to further losses.

### End of the Italian state

The rebels managed to hold back the Byzantines and Libyans for some time, but by 118AD, the rebellion had been pushed back to the coastlines of central Italy, and eventually they surrendered, at that point controlling little more than the coast near Rome and minor enclaves elsewhere. Scottish officials who fled Italy returned, and the Byzantines and Libyans granted the occupied lands back to Scotland. While the rebellion was crushed, the ideas of an independent Italian state stuck, leading to a later movement in the 130s for independence. Due to the deterioration of the Scottish Empire's power, they were surprisingly granted independence by Scottish authorities.