THE RISORGIMENTO DEFERRED
The League of Italian States coalesced in 1848 in
response to the rising tide of agitation that swept
across Europe. This springtime of nations failed to
dramatically alter the landscape in most of countries
it affected, the Paris Revolution was swiftly put down
by French police, similar uprisings across Europe
were quickly dealt with, and life soon returned to
normal.
In the Italian peninsula things were less brief, and the
shockwaves caused by the Doge's flight from Venice
with a mob at his heels, the short lived but violent
Florentine Commune and Garibaldi's abortive march
on Rome had a profound effect on the established
rulers.
Gathered together at Fiumicino, the various heads of
the Italian States agreed that, in the face of their own
peoples' anger, their only resort was to hang together
or hang separately. In theory, the League of Italian
States was the perfect solution to the political crisis
of the day. In one stroke it tore the rug from under
the feet of radicals calling for Italian unity, silenced
the political right, and gave each ruler access to a far
greater military force to quash the political left.
At first this seemed to work, Lombard soldiers
helped restore the Doge to power in Venice, and
shortly thereafter a Socialist uprising in the south
was crushed by a combined force drawing soldiers
from all the Italian states. With the country secured
from the threat of rebellion, domestic troublemakers
soon found themselves hounded from the country.
Where once they might have escaped one ruler's
displeasure by hiding in the realm another, they were
now pursued across Italy by the men and women of
the new league wide Gendarmerie.
It came as no surprise to many observers that the
period immediately after the foundation of the
League saw mass emigration by Italians to new
and perhaps safer climes. A common destination
for most was America, others went to Britannia or
its dominions. The vast majority of socialists and
communists, meanwhile, travelled to South America
where they would have a great political effect. Many
abandoned the conventional world altogether,
striking instead for the Covenant and the new life
that beckoned on its frosty shores.
The most famous Italian dissident, Giuseppe
Garibaldi, was sent off to fight for Greek
Independence, taking many troublesome nationalists
with him. This Italian Legion had already earned
a reputation in South America, and its abortive
march on Rome in 1848 had in part galvanised
the conservative Italian leaders into action. With
Garibaldi and his redshirts gone, those same leaders
could breathe easier. In time they would come to
know that this safety was illusory.
Soon the Tetrarchy began to realise that their
League had other benefits, the titular heads of the
Italian States became powerbrokers in a far larger
political structure, able to wield influence over their
smaller neighbours to their own benefit. Beyond
Italy's borders too, the League had considerable
power. With a unified foreign policy the League
could theoretically demand far more than each
state could have dared individually, and the military
coordination attendant to the political association
for the first time made possible the long held fantasy
of once again dominating 'mare nostrum', our sea, the
Mediterranean.
KNIVES IN THE DARK
In practice, however, the League was disadvantaged
by its failure to solidify into a nation state. Whilst
some, mainly nationalists who hoped that the
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LEAGUE OF ITALIAN STATES
league would eventually become a united Italy, did
call for the League to adopt a centralized legislative
organization and bureaucracy, such innovations
were sneered at by political leaders afraid of losing
power to the uncertainty of what unity could mean.
All too soon, the vacuum within the League became
a source of opportunity for the Tetrarchy. Sharing
power, but rotating remits within the loose fabric
of the alliance, the various leaders saw a chance to
aggrandise and enrich their realms at the expense of
their fellows; perhaps even turning the League into
an instrument supporting their own policies.
As Lord Marco Santini remarked to the Papal Nuncio
in Turin: 'The Mediterranean will be ours again,
Cardinal. We will have a new empire, even if we cannot
yet divine who will be Caesar…' It was the latter prize
that the Italian leaders were eyeing.
Within a decade of the League's first appearance, the
political infighting within it had become legendary.
More than one of its commissioners was to lose
his life to an assassin's blade; many more lost their
dignity in shocking scandals. Very few members of
the League's rudimentary offices lasted more than a
couple of years, leaving in disgust or purged when a
rival faction gained ascendancy.
Whilst all this was going on, the Tetrarchy was busy
lining its own pockets from central League funds
and using the powers granted them to browbeat the
various smaller states into submission or else entice
them into factional alliances for personal gain. More
than once a single Tetrarch was able to manipulate
events to serve his region, as with the periodic visits
by Covenant scientific missions, who almost always
ended up in the exclusive purview of one realm or
another.
In 1863 the supposedly unified League military was
dramatically rent asunder in a process of reform
initiated by the King of Sicily. Using rumours and
propaganda to fuel a fear in the Leagues’ power
brokers that there was rising vocal discontent
among the people, and arguing that a centralized
armed force was 'inflexible' in dealing with localised
threats, the King of Sicily pushed for a restructuring
of the military that would once again see the major
powers have control of their own forces. Seeing only
the potential that having a muscle to flex would
bring, none of the Tetrarchy opposed this move, and
it was the beginning of the end for the League of
Italian States.
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LEAGUE OF ITALIAN STATES
WORLD WAR
The outbreak of the World War hardly impacted
the skullduggery endemic to the now thoroughly
corrupt League structure. War offers far too many
options for profiteering, and the Italian States made
the most of the opportunity.
The various Flotta Caciattore, or Hunter Fleets, of
the League spread out across the globe, operating
as far East as Japan and China, and as far West as
Cuba. Italian raiders even hit Arkhangelsk-Novy
in Alaska, underscoring the global reach of these
mobile formations.
Unfortunately for their allies, the Italian League's
forces, whilst they fought well, were not immune
to the League's politics. More than once rivalries
between Italian commanders upset potential joint
operations, and shots were even traded between
Italian fleets on several occasions. Orders from home
always placed the state ahead of the League, and the
League ahead of everyone else.
In Italy itself, recriminations and accusations
flew amongst the Tetrarchy, echoed through the
bureaucracy, as each accused the other of doing what
they in fact knew everyone was doing. Prussian gold
meant to expand military preparations mysteriously
vanished; trainloads of supplies destined for one
state ended up in another. A fleet despatched on a
mission might turn up to find its objectives already
met by a fleet from another state that had pipped
them to the post.
More often than not it seemed to the Italians' allies
that the League's members were more interested
in scoring points over each other than achieving
anything approaching a strategic plan. Many
formerly strong allies may have given up on the
League in disgust were it not for the effectiveness of
the Hunter Fleets and the strategic importance of the
League.
CRACKS
Strong armed by the Prussians into making peace
with their Ottoman rivals, the fractious League
continued to play the same old games it always
had, but there were rumblings afoot that had not
previously been apparent.
The average citizen was getting more and more
frustrated with the League's impotence on many key
issues, and discontent was starting to make itself
known. For nationalist elements, the League's major
failing was strategic. The planned acquisition of
a new Roman Empire was dying before their eyes,
killed off by inane bickering and competition.
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LEAGUE OF ITALIAN STATES
For other Italians, the League represented an
unwelcome intrusion into the world war. Each State,
with its own military, was proving more than capable
of extracting benefits from the situation. What
prevented the exploitation of these opportunities,
public opinion believed, was the ruling classes'
obsession with a defunct political entity.
The end for the League came dramatically and
suddenly when news reached the Doge of Venice of
the destruction of one of his prized Hunter Fleets.
When a follow up report revealed that the fleet,
engaged by naval forces of the Indian Raj, had been
within radiograph distance of a Hunter Fleet from
the Two Sicilies; a fleet which had not budged, public
grief turned to outrage.
In a fit of pique the Doge exploded at his fellow
Tetrarchs, fearing for his own position in Venice
more than for the sailors who had lost their lives.
The League’s response was lukewarm disinterest the
Doge stormed out, vowing never to attend a meeting
of the Tetrarchs again. This vow he found easy to
keep as he was promptly removed from office by
irate Venetians, who proceeded to elect a new Doge
and repudiate both League and World War.
Such a dramatic withdrawal left an already shaky
edifice shakier still, and political pressure, already
centrifugal began inexorably pulling the League
apart. Anxious efforts by Prussian and French
ambassadors were to no avail as the remaining
Tetrarchs fell to bickering about who was ultimately
responsible for Venice's withdrawal. The paper that
had covered the cracks in the League was no longer
enough, and heated divisions flared.
The next big event, everyone conceded, would make
or break the League…
THE MAVERICK
Hearing of the League's precarious position a
few months after, nestled as he was in the Greek
hinterland, the romantic and cavalier Giuseppe
Garibaldi decided that, at last, his homeland was
ready to be united.
yearning for strong national government and a
leader of substance.
Embarking with a cadre of his redshirts, leaving
the rest to continue the supposedly ended fight for
Greek Independence, Garibaldi travelled to Italy.
Landing in Taranto, he received a hero's welcome,
and quite by accident ended up toppling the local
rulers; which he replaced with National Committees.
With redshirts in tow, Garibaldi advanced on Naples,
thinking to rouse the garrison before announcing his
presence to the rest of Italy.
Alas, his plans backfired. Naples met him with barred
gates and manned defences, the citizens jeering at
his attempts to sway them to his cause. Forced to
backtrack, Garibaldi went ahead with a planned
announcement and demanded a meeting with the
Tetrarchs.
To his surprise a meeting was granted, but when
he arrived in Rome he quickly realized that he had
arrived too late, and perhaps had even hastened
the downfall of Italy's first and only attempt at
unification.
Only two of the Tetrarchs, where once there had been
four, were present that day. Venice had already left,
whilst the Kingdom of Two Sicilies had withdrawn
in response to Garibaldi's 'invasion' of its territory.
Lombardy and Sardinia alone remained.
The meeting was as frustrating as it was pointless.
Neither kingdom would commit to any action on
behalf of a unified Italy, much less one commanded
by Garibaldi. Sardinia was fearful of its position
against Britannia, Lombardy worried about the
French. Neither was willing, even with the support
of Garibaldi's legion, to jeopardize their own security
for the supposed benefit of the many.
Garibaldi withdrew, despondent, where once he
had seen the hope for a new nation unified by will
and not force, he saw now the decrepitude that
corruption and self-interest had wrought.
The League gasped its last as the two remaining
powers agreed to an indefinite adjournment...
With the League disintegrating he believed, perhaps
naively, that the average Italian would now be
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Dystopian Wars League of Italian States
LEAGUE OF ITALIAN STATES
A LAND DIVIDED
Italy remains home to fractious political factions
and grasping regional leaders, but no longer is that
activity confined to the flawed structures of the
League. Unlike the split in the Ottoman polity, Italy's
break is not clean, and war between the component
parts probable, and in some cases already underway.
Lombardy drifts ever closer to the Grand Coalition,
fearing reprisals from their larger French and
Prussian neighbours whilst Sardinia draws in the
exact opposite direction from its exposed island
location. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies strikes out
on its own, confident in its power and engaging in
a grandiose scheme to rule the Mediterranean from
Naples.
Venice, the Republic, has withdrawn, content to
wield maritime influence and to run its military like
an incorporated mercenary fleet. In fact, many of the
Hunter Fleets have taken a similar route, indulging
in warfare against other nations and each other for
profit. Particularly fierce clashes between the fleets
of Venice and the Two Sicilies have escalated...bad
blood still in firm evidence.
With little reason to be so far afield, the Hunter
Fleets have been cut loose to reap as many rewards
as they can, swelling the coffers of the States they
represent at the expense of whomever cannot afford
their exorbitant fees. Even the Covenant has taken
an interest in hiring what are effectively some of the
best surgical strike sea raiders afloat.
Despite all this, in Italy's southern corner, Garibaldi
and a few loyal regions hold out against the rising
tide, dreaming still of a united Italy and how that
might be achieved.... However faint that dream may
now be.
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Dystopian Wars League of Italian States