Italy

Italy is a democratic republic in southern Europe on the Mediterranean Sea.

Italy has been the home of many European cultures, such as the Etruscans and the Romans, and later was the birthplace of the University, the Renaissance, modern science and astronomy, heliocentrism and Opera. Italy's capital, Rome, was for centuries the center of Western civilization. Italy possessed a colonial empire from the second half of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century.

In the 1920s, Italy birthed Fascism, arguably a backlash against all that Italy had produced in the centuries before. It entered World War II as a founding member of the Axis, and was defeated.

In the years following the war, Italy voted to end its status as a monarchy, and officially became a republic.

Italy in Agent of Byzantium
In the Fifth century, Constans II succeeded in regaining Italia from the Lombards including the holy city of Rome and replacing the Bishop of Rome with one of his choosing.

Italy in The Disunited States of America
Italy was one of the world's great powers.

Italy in The Gladiator
In the late 20th century, popular fronts in Italy brought country under the sway of the Soviet Union and Communism, which re-established it as the Italian People's Republic. Although the Security Police operated in Italy and the country was set up along Soviet lines, the Italians didn't take Communism as seriously as the Russians and tended to mock the Russians whenever they could get away with it.

Crosstime Traffic chose Italy as the location for two gaming shops designed to quietly introduce ideas of capitalism into Italy in the year 2097. While they were detected, and had to close down the gaming shops, they did eventually return with new fronts.

Italy in In High Places
Italy fell under Muslim rule in the wake of the Great Black Deaths. In Naples there was a major slave market where Christian captives from far away ended up being sold.

Italy in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Italy was allied with Germany in the Axis during World War II. They assisted the Reich in defeating British and Commonwealth forces in North Africa. When the Axis emerged victorious at the end of the war, Italy controlled an empire that was centered on the Mediterranean Sea, and included parts of the Middle East. It also retained its colonies in Africa and expanded its African empire. Italy was still ruled by the Duce and the Fascist Party. The monarch, King Umberto, wielded only symbolic power.

Italy's colonial possessions were annexed during World War II. These included Albania, Greece, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Eritrea and Libya, as well as parts of the Middle East.

Germany compelled the Italian government to perpetrate large-scale massacres of Arabs in their Middle East empire, much as they had enacted anti-Jewish race laws in 1938, which were not part of Mussolini's original Fascist program.

Italy had an excellent football team, and was dependent on revenue from matches against visiting teams. Italian tourists also visited the Reich's capital of Berlin.

Despite the alliance between the Italian Empire and the Reich, there were disputes between the two nations sometimes. Italian fans rioted after the German team Leipzig won a football match against Italy in Milan because the hometeam's goal was blocked on an offside call. The German Federation of Sport reacted by demanding an apology from their Italian counterparts and withdrew from competition with teams from the Italian Empire until the issue was resolved.

King Umberto and the Duce supported the SS' attempted putsch against reformist Führer Heinz Buckliger.

Italy in "Ready for the Fatherland"
Italy and its ally, Nazi Germany, fought off the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943. Britain retained control of Sicily after World War II ended.

Italy in Southern Victory
Italy was a founding member of the Central Powers alliance system with Germany, Austria-Hungary and the United States. However, when Austria-Hungary invoked this alliance in 1914 in preparation for a war against Russia (which developed into the Great War), Italy refused to participate, claiming the war was not a defensive war on Vienna's part.

Italy remained neutral throughout the war, much to the frustration of the Germans and Austro-Hungarians who wanted access to its strategic locations. Italy was briefly courted by the Entente, but remained neutral.

Despite its neutrality, Italy granted full diplomatic recognition to the Republic of Quebec upon that nation's inception in 1917.

During the interwar years, Italy faced many of the same economic problems the rest of the world did. Benito Mussolini ran a failed bid for office on the promise that he would make the trains run on time.

Italy remained neutral when the Second Great War erupted in 1941.

Italy in The Two Georges
Soon after the fall of the Roman Empire, 'Italy broke up into numerous principalities and independent city states which often went to war with each other, a situation which remained unchanged a milleinum and half later, and persisted throughout the Twentieth Century. While some intellectuals might argue that all Italians shared a common cultural heritage and spoke essentially the same languague (though with a great multitude of dialects) there was little chance of their ever uniting politically into a single state. Not only was there a great deal of mutual hositity and jelaousy among the various Italian mini-states, but any project of Italian unification would run directly against the intrsets of Austria - which, though a second-rate power on the global scale, was still far more powerful than any Italian state or combination thereof.

Italy in The War That Came Early
Although the Fascist government of Italy had supported Marshal José Sanjurjo's Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, Benito Mussolini was hesitant to follow Adolf Hitler and Germany into a wider European war. Nonetheless, when the Munich Conference ended in 1938 with a German declaration of war against Czechoslovakia, Italy sided with Germany and officially went to war against France, Britain, and the Soviet Union.

However, Italy did very little in the first year of the war. It did not participate in the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the The Low Countries, France, Poland, Denmark, or Norway. When Germany saw setbacks on all fronts, Italy did not come to its supposed ally.

Italy did continue to support Sanjuro's forces, contributing troops and tanks to the attack on Gibraltar. Even amongst the Nationalists, Italian troops were viewed with disdain, with a reputation for fighting half-heartedly and fleeing when the opportunity arose. As the wider war continued, Germany's support of the Nationalists dwindled, and Italy followed suit.

Thus, by December, 1939, Italy was no longer actively involved in the war on any front.

Italy in Worldwar
Under Benito Mussolini, Italy was allied with Germany in the Axis in 1942. During World War II, it fought British forces in North Africa and had also contributed troops to Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.

When the Race's Conquest Fleet landed in 1942, it quickly conquered Italy, and Mussolini was overthrown. He was imprisoned, but was later freed in a raid by Otto Skorzeny and eventually found himself in the United States. During the fighting, the Italian government, with imput from Pope Pius XII grew very cooperative with the occupying Race, a state of affairs that angered most Italian citizens. Rioting began in 1943.

The Race used Italy as one of several points from which to launch an invasion of Germany. The Germans retaliated by destroying the city of Rome with an atomic bomb smuggled into the city by submarine.

At the Peace of Cairo Conference, German representative Joachim von Ribbentrop demanded that the Race cede Italy to Germany, and Italy was annexed to the Greater German Reich.