V2 Beta AAR: A Papal Dilemma

[Wyvern]

A Papal Dilemma
- Chapter One -

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Warning - this is a Beta AAR based on an early build. Bug fixes, balancing and AI behaviour have all been tweaked since this was written

Papal States in 1836​

I write this for you, old friend. I sit here and think back to all that has happened. Did you know it would end this way? I think you did. Oh I’m sure if I’d asked you then you would have truthfully confessed that such was not your intention – we are not always rational when our heart is on fire and your heart burned brightly that night when you came to my office those many years ago and laid out to me what we had to do if the Papacy was to survive the growing nationalism sweeping Italy.

I was not convinced but you bought me off with your sweet discussions of Ideology that would end in the waking hours when all rational thought has fled. Even then you knew my weaknesses too well.

The Papacy chooses first to dabble in Ideology before Industry​

1836, yes that was the year the Papal States shook off their cloistered existence and stepped boldly onto the world stage with a daring act that even now causes me to wipe away beads of sweat that are forming on my brow. I expected Austria to intervene, I was sure of it, yet somehow you persuaded me they would not, that they would be mindful of the prestige of our office and perhaps more importantly mindful of the protection France still gave us, a shield of military might held over our ancient dominion. We were going in as liberators to restore the morals of a decadent state, so we said. No, we were going in to secure the iron and lumber that your newly planned factories needed to drive our growth and attract the labourers and craftsmen to work in our cities.

Modena is added to Papal control in August ‘36​

I was aghast when it was done. I threw myself down on this alter of mine and wept real tears. I prayed to God for guidance and for forgiveness yet instead he gave me you. I had formed in my mind the orders I would give, freeing the people of Modena once more, but before I could utter them you came again and showed me the profits our factories were now making, profits which you said should rightly be given back to the poor of our nation, including the poor of Modena. The former rulers of that state never treated them so well; you had all the figures, the weekly wages, the deaths from malnourishment. The beatings, the oppression, you had it all, and I, yes I could be their saviour through an act so simple it beggared belief, a signature on a piece of paper that would set the poor tax at a measly 34%, the lowest in Europe. Was it really the lowest? I had no way to tell. You said it was and I believed you. We could save the poor and make a small surplus for future good causes. I beseech you, how could I say no?

 

[Wyvern]

There's a discussion thread in the main forum if you'd like to comment on the AAR or ask any questions here.

 

[Wyvern]

Chapter Two
- Glory and Prestige -
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Factories sprang up around the outskirts of Rome producing luxury clothes for the markets of Europe, and our profits doubled overnight. We installed a liberal legislature, for you were right, only they could build and maintain the factories and railroads we required. We were priests and bishops, not leaders of industry. What did we know about managing factories, of planning a railroad line and everything else that goes with it? I knelt before the altar and prayed for guidance. We were doing God’s work were we not?

You were a sly one. I should have foreseen your plans but instead I saw only the good we were doing, and yes, I freely admit it, I too basked in the glory and prestige we were bringing once more to our Papal lands. Our factories were not the most advanced in the world yet they were profitable and whilst they remained so you promised me we would funnel that excess wealth into projects for the Church. We would restore the splendour of Rome, her art and her chapels. We would bring back the prestige of the old days when our law was iron and all monarchs bowed before us. The peoples of Europe would look upon us once more and know that the glory of God shone from our shores!

And somehow, over the next fifteen years we achieved that vision. Let Austria, France, Britain and Russia rattle their sabres; we after those first bloody days in Modena would reach our ends through Gods peaceful teachings. I vowed it would be so and you did not gainsay me.

A Great Power – the Papacy achieves her glory through researching prestige projects - industry tech can wait!​

Our factories were no longer profitable yet our prestige was such that our opinion was sought by any who mattered. We were a power once more in Europe, not in military might of which we had none, but in something more important. In the hearts and minds of men! Even then, with our factories going into the red you engaged the Church in philosophical debate, claiming that we had to secure ourselves in the minds of all men, lest they forget, and then you set about that second goal – uniting all Italy under our Papal banner. We were a great power now and our influence strong. We would wrestle the states of Italy out from under French and Austrian hegemony one by one, and when the time was right, we would unite this land! Or that was the plan at least. Little did we know the troubles that still lay before us.

The Papacy secures her position amongst the elite. Prestige has been her tool of office.

Should one of our neighbours sneeze we could be in trouble ​

 

[Wyvern]

Chapter Three
- Those Damn Liberals -

Norway has declared her independence and rebels run riot across Sweden and Ireland ​

As I write this so another page turns in my long lament. We sat there on the cusp of history, the blessed Italian peninsula now a hotbed of intrigue as we bent our will towards bringing it under our sway. Austria, once such a powerhouse in Europe was a waning political force whilst Prussia’s rising star shone brightly. She too dreamed of uniting a splintered people. In America a war most uncivil was fought between brothers. Surely the South could not prevail?

Austria’s demotion to a secondary power opens up Italy to Papal hegemony.
Only Sardinia-Piedmont is under French influence ​

That was when I should have reined you in. Others saw it but I was blind, blind to ambition and the hope for a better future. Where I had been cautious when we began now I saw only our goal – a united peninsula with the Papacy at its helm. I say our goal – your goal was different was it not? So strange that we knew each other for so long and yet I never guessed. Whilst I concentrated on uniting the peninsula, slowly and surely our appointed representatives in the upper house were edging closer and closer towards wanting real political change.

At 50%, liberal votes will allow for real political government reform ​

On the streets unrest also began to foment. The open shots in a war I didn’t even know we were fighting. The liberals began to agitate openly for reform, our factories were losing money and our reserves of cash spent, and then revolts began to break out in all our major cities. I had no choice but to call out the National Guard to put them down.

Where once we were rich, now we had a mounting debt problem ​

And so I turned to you once more. What should we do? You told me to modernise our factories and tax once more the poor. A temporary measure to be sure whilst we restored the nation’s prosperity. As for the rioters, they could be appeased by a few gradual reforms over the next few years, such as a free press and the loosening of political party suppression. And if this wasn’t enough to satisfy the rioters, then there was always the butt end of a rifle much though it would pain us both.

And you were right once more. Our railroads were upgraded, our factory efficiencies improved and within a couple of years we were in the black once more. The riots continued still, an ever present worry, yet even these too died down when the people saw our political reforms were real.

The liberals were satisfied for now, but at what price to the Papal States?​

 

[Wyvern]

Chapter Four
- Unity or Bust -

That’s quite a challenge – some Italian cores happen to be owned by Austria!​

And so we come to the crux. Whilst I spent my efforts bringing The Two Sicilies, Tuscany, Lucca and Modena under our sway, you plotted revolution. In Austria my agents fought off Russian, Prussian and French influence eventually banning each of their embassies and then bringing Austria into our sphere, yet my greatest challenge still lay in Sardinia-Piedmont where the French had been entrenched for decades. Without Piedmont we could never unify Italy, yet France protected her with a steel glove and had ordered her government to ban our embassy on numerous occasions in the past. Now though I needed to push out the French once and for all before the other Great Powers again began intriguing against us in Austria – time was everything! I directed every last scrap of my being to this one goal. I ignored your clandestine meetings with the now liberal majority in our upper house. I turned a blind eye to all the reforms you were enacting in the name of the Church. I was on Gods mission and I would brook no distraction.

The Papal States edge towards Democracy – the liberals hold absolute power now in the Upperhouse ​

Our coffers were filling once more with hard currency and I reduced our taxes as I’d promised to do. You had upgraded the railroads, developed mechanical production, market structures and a myriad of other wealth generating ideas that I don’t pretend to understand, yet you betrayed us all in 1860.

The Pope is reduced to little more than a figure head ​

I could not sit by and let such things stand. I had to act and the Swiss Guard were ever loyal.

Parliament has not won yet! ​

And so we fought, you and I. The government loyal to you, and I with a dwindling power base. And still I did not let such events distract me from my work in Sardinia-Piedmont where I was finally winning my diplomatic war with France!

Nothing could stop Italian Unification now, could it? ​

In early 1862 my mission from God was accomplished. Italy would be united, and I would lead my new flock of sheep to Gods everlasting glory!

Italy unites under the Papacy! ​

 

[Wyvern]

Epilogue
- The last words of a Pope -
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So you think you have won my old friend? That you can lock me in a cell and throw away the key? Or perhaps your guards come even now to silence my voice forever. Let me tell you this - my name will be remembered long after you are but dust upon the wind. And if some future history should deem you worthy of a foot-note, it shall be to name you for what you are - a modern Judas who extinguished the last light of Gods true servants.

Glory in your victory. Guide our reunited brethren on the world stage if you can. Yes, I know you see the footsteps of Rome marching across Europe and Africa, I know you are recruiting men in their thousands from the north to the southern tip of Sicily, but we are not Rome reborn and you are no Emperor.

You govern a fractured people now not the closely knit group of liberal revolutionaries who hoodwinked an aging Pope. Try and change your new subjects if you can, fill them with the ideals of freedom and liberty that you purport to cherish, or fail and be replaced by another hot head, too impatient to see Gods will be done here on earth.

I sign off here, my life's work is done. With you I failed but with Italy I believe I achieved something greater. She shall survive now despite, rather than because of you!

Authors Note: At this point we got a new beta patch to play with which caused me to have to abandon my fledgling Italy at this juncture. Let me just say that upon unifying Italy my 65% liberal majority that I'd worked so hard for went down to around 30% as the staunch conservatives from the rest of Italy took over, so the Popes liberal revolutionary *friend* would have had his work cut out!