Italy

The Kingdom of Italy was declared on March 17th 1861. Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia used Italian nationalism that he been brewing for decades to launch a two year campaign of political wrangling and war which saw Sardinia annex the Unified Provinces of Central Italy, conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and much of the Papal States. The Kingdom of Italy originally joined the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, this alliance was defensive in nature and Italy was not obligated to join in an offensive war. The allied powers of the Entente would eventually entice Italy to join the war on their side with promises of Austrian territory.

Post-War
Italy was on the winning side in the Great War, but from the post-war climate in the country, it would have been hard to tell. Popular sentiment had turned heavily against the war due to the heavy losses Italy suffered, for no clear purpose as far as most people could see. This anger over the war, and Italy’s largely incompetent leadership, was only exacerbated by the the allies refusal to honor the Treaty of London during the Brussels Peace Conference. Italy had suffered great losses and privations and gained very little.

Lateran Treaty
The country continued to destabilize as a succession of weak governments tried to suppress repeated strikes and riots around the country. In 1920 revolution appeared imminent as a socialist general strike shut down virtually the entire Piedmont region. In a desperate measure to try and shore up the government the King and Prime Minister Giolitti concluded the Lateran Treaty with the Catholic Church. The Lateran Treaty restored some lands to the Holy See, essentially reconstituting the Papal States in much reduced form. Vatican City was created as the capital of the Papal territories and Rome was retained as the Capital of Italy. It was hoped that this would sway the large Catholic Party to support the government in the face of socialist revolution.

The Lateran Treaty was, as one might have expected, a mixed bag. It gained support among many Catholics, but it infuriated both Nationalists, who saw it as undoing the Risorgimento, and the rabidly anti-clerical Socialists. In the end the leadership of the country would simply prove too weak to bring the country back from the brink. Socialist agitators staged strikes, demonstrations, and riots. When the government did not step in to restore order, the Fascists took to the streets with violence to suppress the Socialists. The country descended into what amounted to a civil war in all but name.

Fascist Regime
In October of 1922 Benito Mussolini led a Fascist March on Rome. The government dissolved and Rome fell to the Fascists without a shot being fired.

The new fascist government initially took a conciliatory stance towards the Church and included a number of Catholics in the government, but also demanded that the Holy See renegotiate the Lateran Treaty and that the Catholic youth movement be subsumed into the national Fascist youth movement. The Pope refused on both counts. Mussolini became increasingly rancorous towards the Church and sought to apply pressure to force compliance with his demands.

The issue came to a head in 1923 when the Fascists began to suppress all youth gatherings except state sponsored gatherings of the Fascist youth, as a direct attack on the Catholic Youth Action Network. Pope Pius XI responded by promulgating the Feast of Christ the King with the encyclical Christum Regem Esse. The encyclical explicitly condemned the idolatry of the state as a new form of paganism and was clearly meant, and perceived as an attack on the Fascist Regime.

In addition the Pope countermanded Mussolini’s ban on non-fascist youth meetings in the Papal territories granted under the Lateran Treaty. Mussolini responded by ordering Fascist military forces to occupy the Papal territories and enforce the government decree. At the same time fascist paramilitary forces attempted to storm the Vatican and seize the Pope. The Swiss Guard stopped the first assault and routed the attackers. They then evacuated the Pope from the Vatican. Subsequent waves of Blackshirts broke into the Vatican, vandalizing and looting the papal properties.

As events unfolded after the fact, it would appear that the government had never ordered the attack on the Vatican. Rather, overzealous Blackshirts assumed that since the government had moved to occupy the Papal territories, a move to take the Vatican and seize the Pope himself was the next logical step.

Austro-Italian War
The attack on the pope and looting of the Vatican caused an immediate uproar and social unrest throughout Italy. Internationally, Mussolini’s government was soundly condemned by most nations. The French Syndicalist condemned Italy out of necessity to pander to their large Catholic population. In private the Syndicalist government was conflicted half wanting to support Mussolini because they were also anti-clerical secularists, and half wanting to destroy him because he was a hated fascist. Britain, America, and Germany predictably condemned Mussolini’s actions but would take no action other than stern diplomatic disapproval.

Spain was embroiled in the Rif war and with their military on the point of mutiny over the pointless losses being suffered. As a result the Spanish crown could do nothing to support the pope. The Austrian Empire, on the other hand, would not just stand by. The House of Habsburg would come to the aid of the Pope, and in July of 1923, Austria declared war on Italy.

The Austro-Italian war was slow to kick off due to the slow mobilization of Austrian forces. The Pope, now in exile, called for volunteers and formed the International Catholic Volunteer Corp. The resulting body of troops included many French monarchists, Irish, and Bavarian German volunteers, as well as Poles and Hungarians.

The ambling pace of Austria’s mobilization gave the Italian Fascists time to organize and intrench, as a result the early phases of the war were rough going for the Austrian and Papal forces. Italian resistance was fierce. After suffering a series of setbacks in the summer and fall of 1925 things began to unravel for the Fascist Italian regime. The southern Italians had never been particularly happy with  the Risorgimento in the first place and rising anger over being plunged into another war pushed them over the edge into open revolt.

War materials began to run short for the fascist army in the north, and there were not enough troops to spare to put down the revolt in the south. In short order the Austrians began to overrun the defenses in the north and the fascist government lost control of the south. In May 1926 Pope Pius XI returned to Rome in victory at the head of the Catholic Volunteer Corp and supporting Austrian forces.

The fascist government dissolved as most of the ministers fled to avoid prosecution and reprisals. This left King Victor Emmanuel III to sign the armistice with the Austrians and attempt to collect the broken pieces of Italy.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Rome southern Italy would be granted independence and the population would vote on whether to form a Republic or restore a Monarchy. The Papal States would be restored in central Italy. Trentino would be restored to Austria and the Republic of Venice would be established. Albania was liberated from Italian control. This left Victor Emmanuel in control of northern Italy, essentially the territories of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia.

The throne of Victor Emmanuel would not last long, however. Prior to the fascist coup, the Piedmont region had widespread socialist support. The weakness of the monarchist government once again invited uprising. By 1926 Piedmont was once again embroiled in a general strike and violence began to break out in the streets.

Local syndicalists supported by the French established a provisional government and declared the Syndicalist Union of Piedmont in February of 1927. Victor Emmanuel abdicated shortly after and the provisional Syndicalist government was recognized as legitimate. The S.U.P. remains independent but has close ties to Syndicalist France and is considered by many to be a satellite or client state.

Rather than reclaim the territories that had been lost to Italy in the Treaty of Brussels, Austria opted to endorse the creation of the Republic of Venice. Emperor Karl V believed that this would be less controversial and avoid becoming embroiled in further conflicts.