[RFC-DoC] Bella Italia

[Lone Wolf]

RFC-DoC, my own 1.10 modmod, Monarch, Marathon, Italy. Going for the UHV.

By 1168, the cities of Northern Italy had long been subject to the Holy Roman Empire since it conquered the cities of Northern Italy from the Langobards. The Papal State was protected by the Kingdom of France, whereas the empire at Constantinople retained control of the peninsula's southern part.

The social processes going on in the northern cities, however, meant that interesting things would happen there soon. The local merchant city-based elite, in a series of power struggles, defeated and subjugated the large-scale aristocratic landholders and started to reassert itself against the Emperor up north.

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The city of Florence, or Fiorenza, was the center of the new political power. Ironically, the Pope and the King of France seemed to have minded its rise more then the German emperor, primarily because the Emperor had long neglected the Italian part of his crown, concentrating on the lands near the Rhine.

A military confrontation soon started between Florence and the Pope, supported by the kingdom of France.

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<Yeah, I drastically increased the starting Italian army. Otherwise, Italy, no matter human or AI, was consistently conquered shortly after spawn, and RFC Italy is a bit underpowered in either case>.

As the Florentine army broke the walls of Rome, France sent excursions towards the Po river valley.

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A clever and somewhat sinister Venetian named Enrico Dandolo distinguished himself in the siege of Rome by suggesting the tactics the Florentines used to conquer the city. Under his leadership, the French were pushed back from the Po valley.

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Dandolo's political machinations ensured that Venice itself abandoned the protection of the German Emperor and joined the Florentine League. The Emperor himself, it was said, was too busy feeding his peacocks to send a punitive expedition, although the historicity of this legend is in doubt, considering the parallels to no less fictitious legend about the 5th century Roman emperor Honorius. It's even possible that this rumour was deliberately spread by cunning Dandolo in order to discredit the Emperor's authority among the Italians.

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The Florentines pushed forward, annexing Provence. The merchants of Provence weren't particularly distressed by the conquest, although the landholders were more difficult for the Florentine League to deal with.

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Detachments of Italian crossbowmen raided as far as Aquitaine, although it was clear to the Florentines that any further conquest of French territory would be impossible.

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Nevertheless, the French king was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty with the Italian cities.

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[Pliped]

A Lone Wolf story?

Subbed

 

[Matthias I]

Subbed.

 

[GreekAnalyzer]

Yay a LW story.

 

[Manuss]

My patriotism tells me to subscribe.

 

[Lone Wolf]

My patriotism tells me to subscribe.

Pity that the map isn't large enough to include Genoa in any reasonable way... Still, the most un-enlarged European area on the map is the Balkans.
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If Florence was the leader of all Italian cities, the trading port of Venice was the most cosmopolitain of them all, with large Christian Orthodox merchant and monastic communities. The Orthodox tradition of hesychasm greatly influenced the spirituality in the region in general.

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The new League of Italian Republics quickly came to accord with the Pope, with Dandolo agreeing to sponsor a massive program of church-building in Italy and Provence. Restoration of war-devastated Provence was exceedingly important.

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Italy prospered, with growing trade and cultivation. The semi-independent judges of Sardinia and Corsica were admitted as full members of the League.

But the League's prosperity was the envy of European monarchs. Shortly after Supreme Consul Dandolo's death, Castillian dignitaries, citing their ancient rights to Provence, demanded a compensation from the Italian cities. They were denied.

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All Christendom expressed alarm at the reports of strange, wild horsemen from the East invading the formerly Byzantine Hungary. However, it soon became clear that the Empire of the Great Khan experiences rapid fragmentation and that their further advancement is unlikely.

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The Castillian monarchs, after biding their time, started to raid Italian Provence since 1231.

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This likely explains Dante Alighieri placing the Spanish monarch in the second-to-last circle of Hell in his epic poem penned in Florence.

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At first, Italians conducted counter-raids as far as Madrid, capturing large amounts of Spanish wool.

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But the Spanish aristocratic cabalieros soon went on the offensive, routing the Italian foot army sieging Barcelona, while the Spanish fleet blockaded Corsica.

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The Italian fleet had some initial success in battling the Spaniards at sea.

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By the middle of the 13th century, the repeated raids on Provence had exchausted the Italian league, and the Spanish managed to pull off a decisive supremacy at sea. The cities of Provence itself, including its capital, Marsiglia, or Marsellies, remained relatively well-fortified.

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The League was forced to pay tribute to Spain in order to end the war. But the League was not forced to cede any territory. This, and the decisive victory dealt to the invading Mongols by the Constantinopolitan emperor, was a cause of celebration in Italy.

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[CaterpillarKing]

Nice Subbed

 

[mrrandomplayer]

My patriotism tells me to subscribe.

Agreed.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

I'm officially a lurker I looked at your member card and it said you were replying to this and then I clicked on this thread and I then found your reply

 

[Alexius08]

Did you flip Venice?

 

[Lone Wolf]

Yeah, Italy flips Venice soon after spawn.
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When the Holy Roman Empire finally made an attempt to bring the Italian Republics back into the fold, its effort was half-hearted at best. The Emperor had assumed that newly-introduced cannons will easily break the Italian resistance, but Italian foot soldiers proved to be tougher then the aristocrats in Frankfurt thought.

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Regardless, the Germans' attention was soon consumed by the collapse of another empire that claimed the Roman mantle for itself. After the Turk horsemen invaded Thrace, the Germans looked forward to incorporating Hungary and Serbia, which formerly were under Byzantine suzerainty.

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The Italian League also got in the game, defeating the remnants of Byzantine armies in South Italy, and accepting Naples as one of the republics constituting the League.

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The Italian cities were rich with merchants and trading goods from all the world. Even merchants from West Africa visited Italy, travelling though the Berber states of North Africa, which formed after the collapse of the Caliphate.

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The Spanish continued to snub their noses at Italians and to make arrogant demands. Empowered by the prosperity of their cities, the Italians, in turn, snubbed their noses at the Spanish.

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But the richest circles of Italian merchants wanted more. They dreamt of a major Mediterranean trading empire, whose glory spreads far beyond Italy and Provence.

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The Republic of Venice sponsored military operations in Dalmatia, conquering the independent trading town of Split.

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The Reformation had only a mild impact on Italy, although it led to much bigger events in Poland, which caused many Catholic nations in Europe to attempt a subjugation of this West Slavic kingdom.

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The San Marco Basilica in Rome was considered one of the wonders of the Italian League. Rome always was different from other large Italian cities, being the residence of the Papacy, and some members of the Republics' Higher Council were muttering that the basilica would be better off being constructed in Venice, rather then in some backwater like Rome.

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The Turks were clearly in Europe to stay for long. Worried about Dalmatia, the Italians agreed to pay the Turks tribute, especially since Turkish demands were far less than the Spanish once.

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[CaterpillarKing]

Very nice. Why does it look like that though? That doesn't look like normal RFC DOC

 

[Lone Wolf]

Land terrain is from Chuggi's Improved Graphics for Civ. Sea terrain is a combination of Chuggi's (or Blue Marble, I forgot which) color and RFC's waves.

 

[Dumanios]

OK, time to sub to this.

 

[Lone Wolf]

The Berber ports were a continuous blight on the Christian Mediterranean. Taking control of them would being many benefits to the Free Italian Republics. The Doges and Councillors of all cities funded a great expedition to North Africa.

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Italians sweated under the hot desert sun. But Italian siege machinery crushed the old mounts and walls of Berber cities.

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Thomas Aquinas, born two centuries later than in our timeline, was nevertheless still important as a religious thinker whose logical and ethical investigations were a major contribution to the Christian thought.

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The Italians advanced further east in North Africa, annexing the whole coastal Libya.

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Italian advance to Egypt, however, was interrupted by the Ottoman Empire, who had conquered the cradle of civilization on the Nile.

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[Manuss]

Nice update! Can you please change Tunis to Tunisi, and Tarabulus to Tripoli? It's a shame that most of African cities don't have italian city names.

 

[Lone Wolf]

The game, unfortunately, is already finished. I write my stories after I complete or almost complete a game.

It's strange that Benghazi does change on conquest, though.

 

[CaterpillarKing]

Manuss, you can post that in the RFC DOC forums for Leoreth to hopefully see. Or maybe there is already a thread concerning city names on conquest.

 

[trexeric]

The game, unfortunately, is already finished. I write my stories after I complete or almost complete a game.

It's strange that Benghazi does change on conquest, though.

Ooh, so how does it end?

 

[CaterpillarKing]

I'm going to make a prediction. The UHV will be reached but there will be an incredible war in between.