The Kingdom of Italy, 1848-1852: Silver Bullet
Excerpt from 'The Great Game: Spycraft and Diplomacy in 19th-Century Europe', written by Eleonora Engels (Amsterdam: 1989)
(...) Amsterdam had a reputation as a city of spies from the 1840s onwards. The shadow wars of French, Italian and British agents wreaked havoc on the strategically placed Kingdom of the Netherlands. Anecdotes from the time claim that one could not find a park bench or quiet alleyway that was not already in use as the location of a discreet meeting or a running battle between foreign operatives. Fresh outrages came with every season. 1846 saw the bombing of the French embassy on De Boelelaan - reported as an anarchist attack but almost certainly the work of Italian saboteurs. The spring of 1847 witnessed the assassination of an up-and-coming politician of the anglophile faction by an 'infernal machine' installed within his carriage. Wintertime followed this up with several aides to the Italian ambassador washing up drowned in an out-of-the-way canal.
These incidents were merely the very visible tip of an iceberg composed of equal parts espionage, diplomacy and investment. Italian industrialists in particular were swaying public and government opinion with their generous investments in Dutch infrastructure and ship industries. This economic cooperation slowly built up in Italy's favor, but France had advantages of its own. Its proximity and long cultural ties naturally helped. The same could be said for the British, but the bumbling amateurs of the British service had little to offer over their counterparts. Dutch nervousness about French ambitions and nationalist desire to reclaim ethnic Dutch territories presently under French rule somewhat undermined French victories, however. The French were, regardless, considerably more persuasive and capable in their operations than the inefficient Italians or the British. The tug-of-war would continue for decades before any clear victor could be made out. (...)
Notations found on the margins of a copy of 'The New Physician's Friend', a 1846 medical textbook
I defy thee, ye wretched mistress of the hospice
Behold the ingenuity of Man!
In time all your wicked designs shall be defeated
The bountiful one guides my hand
Know that your time is at an end
Our children shall cast out death itself!
Excerpts from 'Italy and the World: the Italian Empire in the Modern Period', written by Hugo Fourier (Firenze: 1977)
(...) The Bejan victory in the Spanish War strengthened a friendly power devoted to absolutist principles, weakened what appeared to be a dangerously liberal constitutional monarchy, and forced underground the 'Young Spaniard' movement which had been based mainly in Aragon. Iberia would remain troublesome and turbulent for over a decade, but the worst of it was over. No more were Italian holdings in the region in danger from these nationalists. This victory is generally thought to be the culmination of the Iberian realignment. Beja, the old enemy of the Italians, had now transformed into their foremost ally. (...)
Food shortages in the late 1840s were blamed on the government's regulation and interference in the markets. The violent bread riots caused by high grain prices largely targeted the usual minority scapegoats and held little danger for the state, but the arguments it armed the liberal opposition with was received with embarrassment and alarm. In 1849, the conservative Minister for Trade Lazzaro de Lucca was dismissed and replaced by outspoken liberal economist Luigi Bargnani. Bargnani immediately proposed an ambitious programme of economic reform and liberalization that promptly met the staunch opposition of his cabinet comrades.
After years of debate, soured relations and useless campaigning, the King approved merely one point of Bargnani's many demands - that slavery in all its forms should be abolished in Italy.
This change was less dramatic than it might appear. The profitability of the slave trade had been going down for decades by this point and slaves were rare in Italy, kept mainly as status symbols by some wealthy families. It should not be ignored that the King was personally in favor of the abolitionist cause and had advocated ending slavery privately for years. His marriage to a missionary woman who had worked in West Africa had made him sympathetic to the plight of Italian slaves. Even so, a desire to appease the slave-trading companies had delayed the Abolition Proclamation until now. Many liberal activists entertained hopes that the end of slavery might lead to further liberal reforms in Italy, but they were to be gravely disappointed. The King had no intention of appeasing 'the students and the housewives' any further, as he saw the matter. (...)
In early 1850, King Galeazzo Maria was part of the Western embassy intervening in the 'Tver Crisis' in Russia. A diplomatically isolated Persia was faced by an united front of European great powers who demanded it return the region of Tver to the Kingdom of Vladimir and cease its attempts at converting its Quranist populace. This unlikely adventure united Wallachian, Greek, French, British and Italian representatives in their condemnations of 'Oriental barbarism'. Beneath the surface, the move was likely motivated by the proposed reform of the Majlis parliament in Persia. A new law would have turned this aristocratic, semi-representative assembly into a broader and more powerful legislative institution at the expense of the Shah's authority. This liberalization of Persia was perceived as a threat to the international absolutist system and an embarrassment to Western powers still clinging to rule by decree.
The Persian government failed to call the Europeans' bluff; it acceded to the embassy's demands and withdrew from Tver. This failure of the Persian state to defend itself against diplomatic 'bullying' provoked an immediate counter-reaction at home. Conservative nobility orchestrated a coup that dissolved the Majlis and ended the democratic experiment in Persia before it had a chance to truly begin. The reformer Shah Abbas IV was replaced by his domineering and reactionary brother Ismai'il. The European embassy had effectively achieved its goals without firing a single shot.
The co-operation of the Europeans would not last - except between Galeazzo Maria and the British envoy, Lord Pitcairn. Their personal friendship would pave the way for an Italo-British alliance in July. France's allies-turned-enemies were now growing closer together, united in their desire to contain the ambitions of 'Perfidious Gaul'.
Letter dated 26 October 1851 by an unidentified author to Dutch Minister for War, Alexander Vermeer
Dear Alexander,
I wish you a merry day wherever you are. I have met a charming Austrian scientist to-day by the name of Gregor Mendel, who enlightened me at length on the processes through which Nature passes on certain traits and qualities across the years. While much of what he said astounded and intrigued me greatly, the basic assumption of inheritance and heredity certainly did not. I still see myself in those countless souls of my flesh and blood. Every some generations a spitting image of the long-dead man I was comes forth and bewilders me with their likeness.
But I suppose you have no descendants, for the self-evident reason. I will write instead of the thing you love most. There is war here in the Near East once more. The Arabs have invaded the Sinai and seek to drive the Somali out of Egypt. How much blood has been shed over these sands? Not enough, you would say. I enlisted as an advisor for the Iraqi armies, claiming to be a veteran of Italy's wars. And I certainly am one at that! You will be interested to hear of the treatments and medicines they have crafted in these parts; there is something of the Alchemist in them, though I suspect the mortals begin to outpace even her genius. I send with this letter some elixir they distill from opium into a draught that takes away all pain.
The end result is far fewer men dead, though one wonders if those crippled and dismembered would rather have perished than live on in this manner. But I suppose the Muslims will always have the charity of their pious neighbors to draw upon. My perspective is naturally biased.
You will observe, dear friend, how my writing has improved since my last letter. I have attended a modern Italian school in the Maghreb, where I have relearned my native tongue. Why they keep changing the ways it is written and spoken is beyond me! The locals here care little for any variant of the tongue, though they get by with a pidgin when they have to speak to bureaucrats and the like. I remember your hatred for bureaucrats, and the people here certainly share in your opinion, at least for Italian bureaucrats.
It is quite convenient that your present persona should be so easily reached. Pray write to me of your work and the wars you have planned. I shall visit when I find the time.
Respectfully,
Your Wanderer
P.S: They've come a long way with ale and wine, it must be admitted. I am quite overcome as I write this. No matter. Raise a toast for me, as I now raise one to you!
Excerpts from 'Italy and the World: the Italian Empire in the Modern Period', written by Hugo Fourier (Firenze: 1977)
(...) Italian reluctance for war had faded by 1851. When Polish envoys raised the prospect of war against the Wallachian Empire, King Galeazzo Maria was eager to agree. On December 6, 1851, the Kingdom of Poland declared war upon Wallachia with the aim of reclaiming the ethnic Polish territories western Galicia. Italy raised its banners for war only days later. The mass mobilization put into effect was made far faster and far-reaching by the growing network of railways running through the most populated parts of Italy.
Even with the great host gathering for the invasion, Italian strategists were nervous. Wallachia would not be an easy foe to fell. Or so it was assumed.
(...) When Italian forces crossed into Wallachian territory on the 13th of December, however, they found a nation in flames. The closed Italian border had admitted little in the way of news or travelers for many years. The picture of Wallachian strength had been preserved, but it was now revealed to have been an illusion of such. Wallachia in 1851 existed in a state of civil war, with serf revolts, bickering nobility and nationalist uprisings all working to tear the vitality out of the Empire. The Wallachian armies had been hard-pressed to battle these rebel armies - and now they faced a full-on invasion by their enemies.
Wallachia was joined by their sole ally in Europe, the Republic of Gotland. (...) The war would not be over swiftly. Despite their weakness, the Wallachian Empire was geographically vast and difficult to traverse, and its armies reportedly fought 'like demons themselves'. (...)
When the extent of Wallachian weakness became apparent, Italian diplomats were quick to press further claims against their enemy. The desire to create a buffer state and block Wallachian access to the Adriatic led to a promise to liberate and protect the Serbs in January, laying the foundation for an independent Serbian state. This represented the loss of a vast amount of territory if realized, though less than 4 million people - centuries of brutal royal rule had effectively depopulated the region by the 19th century.
(...) Wallachian fortunes turned from bad to worse in February. The Kingdom of Greece declared the liberation of Crimean Greeks and jumped into the fray, backed up by its French benefactor. Faced with a two-front war, what little resistance Wallachia was able to muster now began to rapidly collapse. Only the sheer size of the Empire and widespread guerilla night attacks - attributed to supernatural monsters for the sheer ferocity and skill of these partisans - now delayed Wallachian capitulation.
(...) The Greek and Italian fronts met in Craova in April, ending the first stage of the war. Battles still raged on in Wallachian Slovakia, where most of the royal armies had been mustered. New regiments of conscripted serfs were raised up and gathered in the east, but these unmotivated and untrained slave-soldiers had little hope of matching professional Greek and Italian forces. Wallachian victories in Trencin and Gyor only provided temporary relief, as their enemies were bringing more and more men to the field every day.
(...) Gotlander forces arrived in northern Poland in June, but these expeditionary corps proved a distraction rather than a reversal for the war. Western Wallachia was under Italian occupation by the end of summer, with the Crimea and the south-east in Greek hands. Now only the great Ukrainean plains held out against the invasion. The Empire was falling. But what of its King? (...)
(...) Amsterdam had a reputation as a city of spies from the 1840s onwards. The shadow wars of French, Italian and British agents wreaked havoc on the strategically placed Kingdom of the Netherlands. Anecdotes from the time claim that one could not find a park bench or quiet alleyway that was not already in use as the location of a discreet meeting or a running battle between foreign operatives. Fresh outrages came with every season. 1846 saw the bombing of the French embassy on De Boelelaan - reported as an anarchist attack but almost certainly the work of Italian saboteurs. The spring of 1847 witnessed the assassination of an up-and-coming politician of the anglophile faction by an 'infernal machine' installed within his carriage. Wintertime followed this up with several aides to the Italian ambassador washing up drowned in an out-of-the-way canal.
These incidents were merely the very visible tip of an iceberg composed of equal parts espionage, diplomacy and investment. Italian industrialists in particular were swaying public and government opinion with their generous investments in Dutch infrastructure and ship industries. This economic cooperation slowly built up in Italy's favor, but France had advantages of its own. Its proximity and long cultural ties naturally helped. The same could be said for the British, but the bumbling amateurs of the British service had little to offer over their counterparts. Dutch nervousness about French ambitions and nationalist desire to reclaim ethnic Dutch territories presently under French rule somewhat undermined French victories, however. The French were, regardless, considerably more persuasive and capable in their operations than the inefficient Italians or the British. The tug-of-war would continue for decades before any clear victor could be made out. (...)
***
Notations found on the margins of a copy of 'The New Physician's Friend', a 1846 medical textbook
I defy thee, ye wretched mistress of the hospice
Behold the ingenuity of Man!
In time all your wicked designs shall be defeated
The bountiful one guides my hand
Know that your time is at an end
Our children shall cast out death itself!
***
Excerpts from 'Italy and the World: the Italian Empire in the Modern Period', written by Hugo Fourier (Firenze: 1977)
(...) The Bejan victory in the Spanish War strengthened a friendly power devoted to absolutist principles, weakened what appeared to be a dangerously liberal constitutional monarchy, and forced underground the 'Young Spaniard' movement which had been based mainly in Aragon. Iberia would remain troublesome and turbulent for over a decade, but the worst of it was over. No more were Italian holdings in the region in danger from these nationalists. This victory is generally thought to be the culmination of the Iberian realignment. Beja, the old enemy of the Italians, had now transformed into their foremost ally. (...)
Food shortages in the late 1840s were blamed on the government's regulation and interference in the markets. The violent bread riots caused by high grain prices largely targeted the usual minority scapegoats and held little danger for the state, but the arguments it armed the liberal opposition with was received with embarrassment and alarm. In 1849, the conservative Minister for Trade Lazzaro de Lucca was dismissed and replaced by outspoken liberal economist Luigi Bargnani. Bargnani immediately proposed an ambitious programme of economic reform and liberalization that promptly met the staunch opposition of his cabinet comrades.
After years of debate, soured relations and useless campaigning, the King approved merely one point of Bargnani's many demands - that slavery in all its forms should be abolished in Italy.
This change was less dramatic than it might appear. The profitability of the slave trade had been going down for decades by this point and slaves were rare in Italy, kept mainly as status symbols by some wealthy families. It should not be ignored that the King was personally in favor of the abolitionist cause and had advocated ending slavery privately for years. His marriage to a missionary woman who had worked in West Africa had made him sympathetic to the plight of Italian slaves. Even so, a desire to appease the slave-trading companies had delayed the Abolition Proclamation until now. Many liberal activists entertained hopes that the end of slavery might lead to further liberal reforms in Italy, but they were to be gravely disappointed. The King had no intention of appeasing 'the students and the housewives' any further, as he saw the matter. (...)
In early 1850, King Galeazzo Maria was part of the Western embassy intervening in the 'Tver Crisis' in Russia. A diplomatically isolated Persia was faced by an united front of European great powers who demanded it return the region of Tver to the Kingdom of Vladimir and cease its attempts at converting its Quranist populace. This unlikely adventure united Wallachian, Greek, French, British and Italian representatives in their condemnations of 'Oriental barbarism'. Beneath the surface, the move was likely motivated by the proposed reform of the Majlis parliament in Persia. A new law would have turned this aristocratic, semi-representative assembly into a broader and more powerful legislative institution at the expense of the Shah's authority. This liberalization of Persia was perceived as a threat to the international absolutist system and an embarrassment to Western powers still clinging to rule by decree.
The Persian government failed to call the Europeans' bluff; it acceded to the embassy's demands and withdrew from Tver. This failure of the Persian state to defend itself against diplomatic 'bullying' provoked an immediate counter-reaction at home. Conservative nobility orchestrated a coup that dissolved the Majlis and ended the democratic experiment in Persia before it had a chance to truly begin. The reformer Shah Abbas IV was replaced by his domineering and reactionary brother Ismai'il. The European embassy had effectively achieved its goals without firing a single shot.
The co-operation of the Europeans would not last - except between Galeazzo Maria and the British envoy, Lord Pitcairn. Their personal friendship would pave the way for an Italo-British alliance in July. France's allies-turned-enemies were now growing closer together, united in their desire to contain the ambitions of 'Perfidious Gaul'.
***
Letter dated 26 October 1851 by an unidentified author to Dutch Minister for War, Alexander Vermeer
Dear Alexander,
I wish you a merry day wherever you are. I have met a charming Austrian scientist to-day by the name of Gregor Mendel, who enlightened me at length on the processes through which Nature passes on certain traits and qualities across the years. While much of what he said astounded and intrigued me greatly, the basic assumption of inheritance and heredity certainly did not. I still see myself in those countless souls of my flesh and blood. Every some generations a spitting image of the long-dead man I was comes forth and bewilders me with their likeness.
But I suppose you have no descendants, for the self-evident reason. I will write instead of the thing you love most. There is war here in the Near East once more. The Arabs have invaded the Sinai and seek to drive the Somali out of Egypt. How much blood has been shed over these sands? Not enough, you would say. I enlisted as an advisor for the Iraqi armies, claiming to be a veteran of Italy's wars. And I certainly am one at that! You will be interested to hear of the treatments and medicines they have crafted in these parts; there is something of the Alchemist in them, though I suspect the mortals begin to outpace even her genius. I send with this letter some elixir they distill from opium into a draught that takes away all pain.
The end result is far fewer men dead, though one wonders if those crippled and dismembered would rather have perished than live on in this manner. But I suppose the Muslims will always have the charity of their pious neighbors to draw upon. My perspective is naturally biased.
You will observe, dear friend, how my writing has improved since my last letter. I have attended a modern Italian school in the Maghreb, where I have relearned my native tongue. Why they keep changing the ways it is written and spoken is beyond me! The locals here care little for any variant of the tongue, though they get by with a pidgin when they have to speak to bureaucrats and the like. I remember your hatred for bureaucrats, and the people here certainly share in your opinion, at least for Italian bureaucrats.
It is quite convenient that your present persona should be so easily reached. Pray write to me of your work and the wars you have planned. I shall visit when I find the time.
Respectfully,
Your Wanderer
P.S: They've come a long way with ale and wine, it must be admitted. I am quite overcome as I write this. No matter. Raise a toast for me, as I now raise one to you!
***
Excerpts from 'Italy and the World: the Italian Empire in the Modern Period', written by Hugo Fourier (Firenze: 1977)
(...) Italian reluctance for war had faded by 1851. When Polish envoys raised the prospect of war against the Wallachian Empire, King Galeazzo Maria was eager to agree. On December 6, 1851, the Kingdom of Poland declared war upon Wallachia with the aim of reclaiming the ethnic Polish territories western Galicia. Italy raised its banners for war only days later. The mass mobilization put into effect was made far faster and far-reaching by the growing network of railways running through the most populated parts of Italy.
Even with the great host gathering for the invasion, Italian strategists were nervous. Wallachia would not be an easy foe to fell. Or so it was assumed.
(...) When Italian forces crossed into Wallachian territory on the 13th of December, however, they found a nation in flames. The closed Italian border had admitted little in the way of news or travelers for many years. The picture of Wallachian strength had been preserved, but it was now revealed to have been an illusion of such. Wallachia in 1851 existed in a state of civil war, with serf revolts, bickering nobility and nationalist uprisings all working to tear the vitality out of the Empire. The Wallachian armies had been hard-pressed to battle these rebel armies - and now they faced a full-on invasion by their enemies.
Wallachia was joined by their sole ally in Europe, the Republic of Gotland. (...) The war would not be over swiftly. Despite their weakness, the Wallachian Empire was geographically vast and difficult to traverse, and its armies reportedly fought 'like demons themselves'. (...)
When the extent of Wallachian weakness became apparent, Italian diplomats were quick to press further claims against their enemy. The desire to create a buffer state and block Wallachian access to the Adriatic led to a promise to liberate and protect the Serbs in January, laying the foundation for an independent Serbian state. This represented the loss of a vast amount of territory if realized, though less than 4 million people - centuries of brutal royal rule had effectively depopulated the region by the 19th century.
(...) Wallachian fortunes turned from bad to worse in February. The Kingdom of Greece declared the liberation of Crimean Greeks and jumped into the fray, backed up by its French benefactor. Faced with a two-front war, what little resistance Wallachia was able to muster now began to rapidly collapse. Only the sheer size of the Empire and widespread guerilla night attacks - attributed to supernatural monsters for the sheer ferocity and skill of these partisans - now delayed Wallachian capitulation.
(...) The Greek and Italian fronts met in Craova in April, ending the first stage of the war. Battles still raged on in Wallachian Slovakia, where most of the royal armies had been mustered. New regiments of conscripted serfs were raised up and gathered in the east, but these unmotivated and untrained slave-soldiers had little hope of matching professional Greek and Italian forces. Wallachian victories in Trencin and Gyor only provided temporary relief, as their enemies were bringing more and more men to the field every day.
(...) Gotlander forces arrived in northern Poland in June, but these expeditionary corps proved a distraction rather than a reversal for the war. Western Wallachia was under Italian occupation by the end of summer, with the Crimea and the south-east in Greek hands. Now only the great Ukrainean plains held out against the invasion. The Empire was falling. But what of its King? (...)
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