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THE BANKER’S WORLD.

 

The following AH timeline is rather ambitious on my behalf. Working from the premise of Spain’s global empire of the later 16th and 17th centuries, I tried to imagine a different way the Empire could go. This was originally inspired by a comment a historian (and one of my personal heroes) Indro Montanelli put in one of his books, commenting on the state of Italy in this period: Italy was part of the Spanish Empire, a province that rose as the empire rose and declined as the Empire decline. Any attempt to invert this decline would have to address the problems in Spain. Therefore I created an AH where one enlightened politician, a Milanese banker called Galeazzo Cazzaniga, enters service in the Spanish government and has a profound impact. 

Of course, one event in one place has repercussions all over, with the end result that I found myself writing a History of the World that is highly entertaining, for me, but also time consuming and of course, easily open to corrections, comment and criticism. Hopefully the readers will be tolerant of my errors and glaring omissions. Still I hope I’ll have entertained you.

This is chapter one, going from 1599 to the early 1700s. Chapter two will go from that date to the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars (yes there is a Napoleon; sue me) in 1810. Chapter three will cover the 19th century until either 1848 circa or the American Civil War. After that I’m projecting a chapter that would led up to and include the Great War (with apologies to master Turtledove) of 1881 and one follow up chapter reaching the Second Great War of 1920.

 

A brief History of Europe from 1599 onwards

 

(a paper prepared for the Imperial Accademy of Costantinople and his most serene Majesty, Emperor Franz Constantine the 2nd, 18th of March 1999)

 

Spain and Europe at the end of the Seventeenth Century.

 

            By the end of the sixteenth century, Spain was the mightiest nation on Earth, but was a giant with extremely brittle clay feet. A series of major wars in Europe had depleted its manpower. Peasantry and commoners were taxed into serfdom. The Counter-Reformation that had gripped the Catholic world ran rampant, obliterating any independent or non-conformist thought. And above all, the massive deflation, triggered by the input of Latin American gold into the European economy was destroying the banking systems and industries of what had been once the most advanced capitalist areas of the world, Italy and the Flanders. Land lied fallow and unproductive in Spain and Italy while the rabble flocked to the cities to live off the scraps of the aristocracy’s table.

            At this time, Spain counted on the largest empire in the world. Naples, Sicily and Milan were Spanish colonies. Portugal and Belgium were likewise Spanish provinces. The entirety of the South American continent and a good chunk of the Northern were under the crown of Madrid. Spain had the resources and the chance to become a timeless power. And it was all going wrong. Cultural bigotry, economic mismanagement and religious fanaticism were going to ruin it all, was SUPPOSED to ruin it all.

            Until a Milanese banker one day shook his head and said: “This will never do.”

            His name was Galeazzo Cazzaniga, head of a small but active banking house in Milan. While other firms were closing and the families moving to become landed nobility, Cazzaniga had insisted on continuing his “dynasty’s” traditions. Defying dogma and law, he also maintained intense commercial relations with the Protestant north. He had his hand on the pulse of European economy but was too small to affect it any.

 

The Rise of Cazzaniga

 

            That was until, under a series of circumstances involving the nephew of the Spanish minister Duke Lerma and a letter of recommendation from a Cardinal to a Protestant pastor, Cazzaniga managed to broker a loan of some two million escudos to the Spanish crown from a group of Calvinist investors, on terms that were beneficial for both parties. So impressed was Lerma by Cazzaniga’s skill that he offered him the opportunity to act as his Minister for the Purse. Cazzaniga had seen the economic chaos of Spanish rule and had some ideas as to how to deal with it. The chance to serve in Madrid was also an opportunity to put them in practise. Therefore on March the 5th 1599, a date long remembered by historians afterwards, Cazzaniga took service under his majesty King Philip IIIrd of Spain. Philip was indifferent to Cazzaniga: the Spanish monarch cared only for the wars in the North-east and was interested in the Italian only inasmuch as he would provide provender for his campaigns. The Duke of Lerma was an ineffectual statesman and the Spanish government was in the hands of noble factions.

 

Cazzaniga’s administration

 

Cazzaniga set out to restore prices and calm the monetary tempest. He managed to sustain prices, reduce the amount of gold in circulation by building up considerable reserves  (that would later be of priceless worth) and reduce taxation over a period of five years. He had a series of advanced economic ideas that would later serve as the foundation for modern economic thought. He introduced public bonds, centralised banking and government subsidies.

Once the cost of living had levelled, he was able to rationalise public expenditure: he understood that the royal budget would always have to factor two, if not more, major field armies at any given time and proceeded to set up an office equivalent to that of the Quartermaster General that would take care of military provisions and co-ordinate supply logistics. The Spanish nobles were more then happy to let him deal with these matters, as it freed them to devote time to consider strategies and tactics, the real concern of officers, hardly something as plebeian as logistics!

The restored monetary situation allowed the merchant houses of Italy, Portugal and Belgium to emerge from obscurity and once again begin to involve themselves in European affairs. Cazzaniga nourished and protected these houses for they would be the backbone for the next stage in the great restoration of the Spanish Empire. For one thing, the reformed and revolutionised Ministry of War required provisions and these contracts were awarded to Italian, Portuguese and Belgian entrepreneurs. The military expenditure of the Spanish government therefore allowed the growth and development of an arms industry, as well as industries devoted to the equipment of soldiers, from boots to tents. Already, by the end of the 1610s, many a commentator would remark on the overall excellence of Spanish equipment and provisions. Indeed had the Spanish army officers as good at its quartermasters, it would be master of Europe. Industry in Europe was still at a small artisan level, but the sheer volume of the orders involved had a repercussion on the industrial technology of the time, with a crude but effective division of labour and the creation of Empire-wide standards in length and weight that would acquire importance in later years. It wasn’t the true Industrial Revolution, but it was a beginning.

As industry began to flourish once more in the European part of the Spanish Empire, agriculture was a major concern. Land lay fallow in Spain and Italy and a goodly portion was under the so-called “death-grip” of the Church and its ecclesiastical orders. Cazzaniga managed to rise to the challenge once more, with a ruthless policy of deportations. He conscripted colonists from Italy and Belgium and settled them in mainland Spain. Numerous little towns with Italian and Flemish names sprung up throughout the country. He also modernised agricultural methods, by sending bright young students to observe cultivation methods in France and the Netherlands. He likewise introduced a fiscal policy that taxed all landowners an average of 5% of the nominal worth of their lands. Therefore landowners were forced to develop their properties to obtain a return equal at least to pay their taxes. It gave mixed results: in lands such as northern Italy, the Flanders and Portugal, where a sprit of enterprise was re-emerging, this brought about the creation of a class of agricultural capitalists, careful to study land and technology and improve the quality of their farms and plantations. IN other parts of the Empire, Spain and southern Italy, that part of the aristocracy that wasn’t exempt of the tax, simply increased their exploitation of their serfs and peasants. Ecclesiastical lands, fully one fifth of all land, were likewise exempt from the tax and maintained their primitive agricultural ways. Still, if very slowly, the new entrepreneurial spirit would spread throughout the Empire.

Cazzaniga built a corps of able-minded bureaucrats to assist him: second sons of minor nobles, children of the upper middle classes and the scions of the bankers and merchants filled the ranks of the various offices he created. Cazzaniga created a school of administration, economics and agriculture. Spain began to develop a government structure, and ironically almost a clandestine one. The Duke of Lerma still believed himself to be Prime Minister but even the members of his personal cabinet were either men formed by Cazzaniga’s school or men who relied on them. The king hadn’t the slightest knowledge of how his government worked. Only that it did, and quite well. Lerma got all the praise, but Cazzaniga had done all the work.

In 1610 Cazzaniga showed Lerma just who was calling the shots when he managed to overturn the minister’s decision of expelling the Moriscos from Spain. As it happened, due to intense pressure from the Church, some were removed, but Cazzaniga had them settle in Sicily, just as he settled the deported Marranos in Lombardy.

 

The Settlement of South America

 

Where Cazzaniga felt the Spanish Empire would be made or broke, was South America. A strategy for the settling and exploitation of this continent had to be worked out and implemented. Cazzaniga saw South America as a source of foods and raw materials and goods and wanted this vision to become reality. He began another policy of forced settlements, using Italians, Belgians, Portuguese and anyone else he could find: Jews persecuted in Spain and Italy were granted safe haven in the Americas. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago would become Jewish strongholds for centuries to come. In South America he was able to use pre-existing Native Americans’ cities and natural ports for locations. A settlement would build its dwellings, a church and official buildings: unlike English and Dutch exploitation of the Northern continent, which had a haphazard, individualistic nature to it, in South America colonisation was managed by the Crown, with the intent of setting permanent roots.

The Spanish nobility didn’t notice this change in attitude at first. All South America was for them was a cash cow to strip of gold and anything of worth and let rot. Even the highest levels of the “official” Spanish government didn’t take particular notice of this: once again, conceited nobles only cared for war, hunting and glory, and not a bit for the hard work that went into all of this.

Latin America, as it began to be called, was divided into administrative provinces: Mexico (including California and Texas), Cuba (comprising all the Caribbean islands); Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Argentina. Every province would have a governor appointed by Madrid. The provinces were broken down into Regions and the Regions into constituent cities and shires, the latter awarded to Spanish officers who became landed nobility.

 

The Introduction of Slavery in Latin America

 

While the colonies flourished, Cazzaniga felt they were developing too slowly: more manpower was required to open up the Southern continent especially. The Spanish nobility had already turned the native indios into serfs. But Cazzaniga began to import African slaves into Southern America, at ever increasing numbers. What would emerge as the Latin American landscape for some time to come, was a class of landed nobility with Indios serfs in the countryside; cities, either belonging exclusively to one ethnic group (Italians, Belgians, Portuguese, Spanish), or a combination; and the outlying countryside where plantations, usually owned by Europeans, would produce thanks to the slave labour of the Africans. This social structure saw the Negroes at the bottom, the Indios above them, a largish middle class formed by the European colonists and the Spanish nobility on top.

It was some twenty years after Cazzaniga had first been summoned the Cortes, and the time was right for the Milanese banker to stage his “velvet coup” in Madrid.

 

The Velvet Coup

 

In 1619 Philip the 3rd died and was succeeded by his young son, Philip the 4th, who was fourteen at the time. Clearly regency was needed and a quiet battle began amongst Spanish nobility for that prestigious position. Cazzaniga threw the weight of his government structure and his nascent espionage network behind an unlikely candidate, Count Olivares, in whom Cazzaniga saw great potential.

A clever and acute mind, Olivares had a clear view of the dangers Spain faced, internal as well as external. He had already been collaborating with Cazzaniga’s bureaucracy in many an occasion and was prominent enough so that his name wasn’t a complete surprise as a candidate for the Regency. His only problem was that he wasn’t a “pure” Castillian, he had Arab blood on his grandmother’s side. Many nobles felt that this alone would eliminate him from any serious consideration. Cazzaniga instead found in this perceived weakness the key with which he could forge his alliance with Olivares: Cazzaniga wanted to institute sweeping reforms in Spain and a shift in the Empire’s global strategy but lacked sufficient backing in the Cortes. Olivares could build that support but would always be vulnerable to his “impurity”. Together however, the two could build a solid enough power base from which to hold off both aristocratic and ecclesiastical pressure.

In the short months following Philip’s death, Cazzaniga showed Olivares just how powerful the government machine he had built could be: all other noble pretenders to the Regency were either blackmailed into submission or taxed into poverty. Olivares on the other hand, benefited by certain lines of credit that allowed him the funds with which to buy the support he needed. By January of 1620, Olivares was Regent and Cazzaniga was Primado of Spain.

 

Olivares’ Regency

 

The shift in Spain’s global policy, as intended by Cazzaniga and Olivares, was to consolidate and deepen Spain’s holdings world-wide and follow a foreign policy more in line with the Empire’s interests rather then the abstract goals of Protector of Christianity (i.e. Catholicism). Under this mantle, Spain had entered a long series of wars with Protestant powers for no other reason then because they were Protestant. From now on, Spain had to think in terms of geo-political advantage. The first clear sign of this was the 1621 Treaty of Utrecht in which Spain formally recognised the independence of the Protestant Dutch-speaking Netherlands. The two nations ceased all hostilities and the Dutch were granted a series of concessions to Spanish trading routes and ports. Far from subduing the Dutch, Cazzaniga and Olivares wanted to use them in a greater strategy against England and France, who were perceived as long-term threats. By tying the Dutch economy with the Spanish, they would present a unified block against the British, and encourage Anglo-Dutch competition. This strategy required time and patience but would eventually bear fruits.

The internal repercussions of this treaty were the first real test of Cazzaniga and Olivares’ regime: the nobles were furious at the concession of independence to the rebel provinces and the clergy were outraged at Catholic Spain dealing with “heretics”. One noble, Don Rodrigo de la Pena, went so far as to muster a group of nobles and members of the Royal family in a conspiracy, which was unmasked and denounced by, of all people, young king Philip himself. The monarch had spent the last two years almost constantly in the presence and under the wing of Olivares and Cazzaniga and, during the course of this education, had changed considerably. His outlook, although somewhat bigoted and Hispanic-centric was nevertheless far broader then before, and would change even more. Cazzaniga and Olivares emerged from these trials far stronger then before.

 

France and Europe: the Thirty Years War and the First War of the Pyrenees

 

The shift in politics also dealt with the immediate threat to Spain’s role as pre-eminent power in Europe: France. Under the Bourbon dynasty, France had begun to reorganise its government and State in order to better compete with its neighbours in Europe. After the death of Charles, the regency of Richelieu, the rule of Louis the XIIIth, the regency of Mazzarino, and finally the long reign of Louis the XIVth later, turned France into a political and military juggernaut. France eyed Spain’s possessions in the north, such as the Flanders and France Comte: she wanted to eliminate all Spanish territory north of the Pyrenees. Spain very much disagreed.

IN 1618 what is referred to as the Thirty Years War began. Spain saw central Europe erupt into religious and political wars of such magnitude as to lay waste to the continent. Cazzaniga and Olivares agreed on a policy of cautious engagement: they strengthened the strong points and garrisons in France and Flanders and would offer limited, mostly logistical, support to Hapsburg allies in Germany. Indeed, as Cazzaniga pointed out, a clear steering in the wars could put Spain on top by simple virtue of stability.

Pressure within the Spanish court to enter the war was intense. Spanish culture was suffused with a warlike ethic and an exaltation of conflict that made participation to such battles almost mandatory. However Cazzaniga and Olivares both feared any intervention in Germany would strengthen the power of the Church (that was invoking a great anti-Protestant crusade) and the more reactionary elements of the Court and endanger the delicate openings with the Dutch that they had initiated. The attempted counter-coup by De le Pena in 1622 was also inspired by this frustration at perceived inaction and weakness. Still, once Phillip the 4th had exposed the plot and the co-conspirators, Cazzaniga and Olivares were able to keep Spain out of the war. Some of the more fiery nobles were allowed to serve under the Austrian Hapsburgs and were allowed to spend part of their gold reserves to recruit and outfit an army (the government saw nothing wrong in making some profit out of the hotheads war-lust). The Charles Emanuel of Savoy was given command of an army in Franche Comte, with an eye on Germany and France both and remained there unitl events called him back in Italy. The bulk of Spanish forces however were kept in reserve against the inevitable French attack.

Cardinal Richelieu, arguably one of the greatest French statesmen of all times, didn’t really want a war. He felt, with some reason, that with the continent erupting in all out warfare, France’s interests were best served by avoiding any extensive conflict. This was a fair assessment, and mirrored by Cazzaniga and Olivares. However, as war raged all the more furiously to the east and streams of refugees reached French territories west of the Rhine, more and more French potentates felt that “something had to be done”, especially against the one nation perceived, erroneously, as the cause of all these wars, and, correctly, as France’s greatest enemy: Spain. Many French nobles proclaimed the Rhine France’s natural eastern border and invoked a war to eliminate any power between them and this river, Spain once again. There was, in many circles, the mistaken perception that Spain was preoccupied with Germany and would be unable to resist French aggression.

What prevailed in France was the impression of being boxed in by the Spanish, and this was a recurring theme in popular literature and politics. Spain was felt to be an insufferable halter to France’s manifest destiny of domination and this anti-Spanish sentiment would run high for centuries to come. Richelieu faced therefore greater and greater pressure to intervene against the Spanish and knew his very political career depended on how to deal with the “Hawkish” factions of the French court. Therefore, quite against his better judgement, he massed the French forces for war.

The French attack took the Spanish by surprise: seeing that the Flanders and France Comte were ready for a fight, in 1625 the French decided to lead a major force across the Pyrenees and a secondary force south into Italy. With northern Spain invaded, the Spanish forces had to rally at Bilbao and slowly began the hard job of reclaiming their country. The force into Italy met with initial success: Piedmont was unable to stand single-handedly against France, but the Duke of Savoy was pragmatic enough to acknowledge this fact. He withdrew his forces eastwards while the other powers formed a coalition, which included Spanish troops, some Austrian forces and Swiss mercenaries. However the bulk of this army, quite by surprise, was formed by Italian troops from the various states, all afraid of a return to the Franco-Hispanic wars of conquest of the previous two centuries which had ravaged the peninsula.

This sudden appearance of a proto-Italian army wasn’t a total surprise. By now a generation of Italians had been raised in the prosperity and relative peace of the Cazzaniga era. Cazzaniga had included more and more of them in the government of Imperial Spain and a perception of the merits of this empire had spread into the Italian aristocracy and re-merging bourgeoisie. Many a local duke and potentate saw a vested interest in maintaining a functioning status-quo in Italy and, inspired by the Spanish example, were prepared to defend these interests. This wasn’t a national sentiment, as poets would later decant, every member of the Italian contingent was defending his local interests and would have stared blankly at any mention of an Italian nation. But it was the first time something like a military back-bone was emerged from the bustling lands of the Italian peninsula.

France therefore managed, briefly, to unite Italy, if only against herself. Charles Emanuel of Savoy was a veteran of many a campaign under the Spanish crown and took the disparate forces of the coalition and turned them into an effective, if fractious army. The French were defeated at Cuneo (8th of July 1626) and driven out of Italy and Savoy. The French invasion would have long-reaching repercussions in Italy. By the end of September 1626, the French were driven out of Northern Spain but managed to seize and keep Rousillion, Burgundy and Charlerois. This situation was ratified by the Treaty of Artois of February 1627. So ended that which historians call the First War of the Pyrenees, a misleading name and/or numbering, but one which would stick especially to enumerate the successive (repeated) wars between Spain and France.

 

The English Civil War

 

As the war in Germany raged on, between ups and downs, and France and Spain temporarily deposed their arms, England fell into civil war between the Catholic royalists and the Protestant Parliamentarians. Although the root causes of this war were different to some extent from the events in Germany, nevertheless the dates of the war 1637-1645 put the English Civil War smack in the second half of the Thirty Years War.

Such a turn of events had been a long time brewing. England was one of the kingdoms that had found in its Germanic, feudalistic origins and institutions a workable system that in many ways limited the power of the monarchs. However the diffusion of Roman law, with its centralistic and absolutist implications had the favour of the Stuart dynasty. The Stuarts also felt the need to simplify the countless local liberties and prerogatives and customs, uniforming the entire realm to one law, a law that the king would impose over a powerless Parliament.

Whereas the growing mercantile classes could appreciate the need for administrative clarity and legal certainty, deep religious and economic reasons put them in opposition to the king’s plans. Economically, as long as Parliament had the power of the purse, the gentry and landed classes could avoid the danger of fiscal vexation and harassment. Also they could steer English policies in directions more closer to their economic needs. Likewise the wide spread of Puritanism caused many a man to openly question the source and foundation of any authority other then God’s: this was a mindset clearly in opposition with the “divine right” principle of most monarchies.

Conflict was political initially: Charles the 1st was deeply involved in Scottish affairs. However when his requests for money to levy armies began to be regularly rejected by Parliament, he decided to bypass Westminster and begin raising taxes directly. As opposition and refusal to pay lead to arbitrary arrests and violence, the gentry of the land began to form in two factions, one in favour of the King and one against. Finally, in 1642, when Charles tried to ignore Habeas Corpus and arrest five members of Parliament, the situation became irreparable. The divide also began to take on religious overtones, with Catholics siding with the king, Puritans with Protestants and Anglicans divided.

As the armies formed and skirmishing began, Charles was so overcome with rage that he forgot himself and his country and accepted the offer of aid from Spain. Cazzaniga, who had so carefully kept Spain out of the bulk of the fighting in Central Europe, saw in th English Civil War a chance to render the isle a Spanish vassal. If one also considers that England was encroaching on some Spanish possessions in the new world and that the English kings had traditionally backed the notorious privateers that had greatly harassed Spanish shipping routes, an intervention in English affairs was an advisable path. If anything, it would through this “rogue state” into internal chaos for a few years and allow Spain to bolster her fleets.

The Stuart-Spanish Alliance immediately fragmented the loyalist camp. Aversion to Spain was a constant in English politics and was felt by all parties, even some Catholics. The moment Charles accepted Spanish aid the Civil War became a nationalist war of liberation. The Parliamentarians’ Army, under Oliver Crowell would swell with Anglicans and other sects while Charles would be abandoned by many of his loyalists. The two armies met at Turnham Green and the Spanish army was defeated. As Charles fled to the South, the Parliamentarians reconvened in London and voted the deposition of Charles the 1st as King of England and tried him in absentia, condemning him to death for treason.

Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and lead the reformed army south, with the intention of rooting out the Spaniards. At New Milton, in Hampshire, in 1645, the second Spanish expeditionary force was defeated, but at great cost. Charles was captured and killed on the fields and the Spanish were repealed once and for all.

Cromwell remained Lord Protector until his death in 1665, at which point, after some debate, the Stuarts were allowed back on the throne. Charles the 2nd swore to uphold Parliament’s prerogatives but dreamed of avenging his father.

 

The End of the Thirty Years War

 

As for the rest of the War in Germany, Gustav Adolph of Sweden, after having avoided a fatal injury at Lutzen, succeeded in uniting the northern Protestant princes of Germany and Scandinavia into a Evangelical Confederation of the North, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Prussia and Saxony (amongst others) in 1639. The peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648 and recognised the formal dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire (not that the Holy Roman Empire had never been united to begin with). While Southern Germany would become a theatre for political intrigue between France and the Hapsburgs, Northern Germany would flourish and prosper under a stable and productive political system.

 

Europe after the Thirty Years War

 

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the creation of the Evangelical Confederation in the north were in many ways the final conclusion of the schism that Martin Luther had began over a century before with his 104 Arguments. After the fall of the ancient Roman Empire, the Catholic Church had maintained an idea of “Romanitas”, of the Empire as a “Res Publica Christiana”, the natural community of all Christians. It was with idea of a universal community that the Church had moved, had converted the barbarians, had defended the Classic Culture and had, with the Renaissance, aided European culture to flourish. As long as the Empire existed, especially in its Holy Roman form, the Church could still nurture the idea of reuniting all the people of Europe under her spiritual authority. The fracture in Christian Unity that Martin Luther had caused (successfully when other heresies such as Huss’ had failed) was the first ending of this universal ambition and ideal. With the end of the Empire, the last pillar of an imagined universal Catholic Christianity also ended.

 

Spain after the Thirty Years War

 

Spain emerged from the Thirty Years War still the first power in Europe, but France was now a very close second. Austria was distracted with the settling of her lands after the War. England, who had sat most of the war out, saw the Northern Confederation as a potential threat to her long-term goals and to her control of the northern seas. Holland would become the theatre for much intrigue. After the War, Sweden, England, France and Spain would try to win the loyalties of the Provinces (who took the bribes and did what they pleased).

Spain also emerged without Cazzaniga. The Milanese banker died at the age of eighty-nine in 1648, having spent the last fifty years patiently reforming the Spanish economy and empire. His death was a day of national mourning throughout the Empire (although many a Castillian noble secretly toasted to his demise). Philip and Olivares continued on his policies of consolidation and growth, aided by Cazzaniga’s youngest son, Matteo, who, at forty, had learned much from his father and would become as priceless a minister to the crown as his father was.

 

Italy after the Thirty Years War: the Rise of the Italian Entete

 

As a result of the French invasion, the situation was changing in Italy as well. Piedmont realised that if she wanted to keep her freedom from the French crown, she needed to be able to put up a decent resistance. The Savoy began a process of modernisation of the army that became one of the first conscription armies in modern Europe. The economy of this region was also developed with a mercantile, Colbertian approach, the State creating the industries necessary to equip the new army. Piedmont would later be called the “Southern Prussia”, although such a label is misleading in that the Savoy had started policies of militarisation before the Hohenzollern.

In this policy, Piedmont received the aid of Tuscany, Genoa and Venice. These independent Italian states for the first time had awareness of a common Italian identity, of shared interests and above all, of the potential fragility of Spanish protection. Piedmont would receive funds from Venetian and Florentine bankers and officers and soldiers from all Italy would serve in the Piedmontese army. While a watchdog against France, Piedmont would engage in border skirmishes with the Swiss, flexing her newfound muscles and trying to lure the southern, Catholic cantons away from the Calvinists in the north. This would succeed towards the end of the seventeenth century when Piedmont would claim the French-speaking Valais and the Italian-speaking Ticino cantons from Switzerland (1691). The French Invasion of 1625 therefore was the initial cause for the birth of what historians call the Italian Entete, that is a coalition of three Italian states, Venice, Florence and Piedmont, in order to protect their realms and limit further foreign interference into Italy (although with half the nation under Spanish rule such a goal was perhaps lofty).

 

The Spanish Empire after Olivares

 

The next twenty years would see Spain recover from the War, as would the rest of Europe. Olivares continued to act as Primado until his death in 1659. Philip ruled with energy and intelligence: much of Cazzaniga the Older and Olivares had rubbed off on him, not least the understanding of a king’s duties: he sired some six children from his Polish Sobieski wife, of which four sons. France underwent the happy regency of Mazarin, waiting for Louis the XIVth to achieve his majority. Italy was increasing in prosperity and wealth, although the peninsula never again would be the centre of European capitalism it once was. The Flanders, with their Atlantic access grew at a faster rate. Italian merchants and bankers invested heavily in this area, where they’d import workers. Portugal was also more and more integrated into mainland Spain. In 1653 the Braganza family attempted a popular rebellion that was quickly crushed. From that date onwards, no further significant nationalistic rebellion would occur in Portugal, which ceased to exist as a separate political entity. The constituent realms of Spain, Castille, Catalonia, Aragona, the Basque lands, etc. all found their place and space in the regime and order of the empire. Settlement in Spanish America continued.

 

 

Spanish Expansionism: Northern Africa

 

Spain however got “itchy feet”. Although the country had never been so prosperous, Spanish nobility craved action, war, conquest. The Americas were carved up and offered no further room for development, unless one wanted to engage in the hard pioneer and settler work necessary, something most Spanish nobles would avoid like the plague. Matteo Cazzaniga saw an opportunity to the south. IN 1660, under the pretext of piracy (true enough), Spain invaded Morocco. The Hashemite dynasty was powerless to resist the modern Spanish army. Casablanca and Rabat fell within a couple of years. Not satisfied with this victory, the Spanish pushed eastwards, conquering Algiers (1664) and Tunis (1666).

Administration of these lands would prove to be a new challenge for the Spanish Crown. Old king Philip found himself master over lands where Christianity was a minority and the prevailing culture wouldn’t easily be overwhelmed as the Native Americans. Islam was old, and had deep roots. The Catholic clergy wanted to initiate a violent inquisition and forced conversion of the population, but Philip and Matteo both knew this was a recipe for disaster and constant revolt. Ironically, the key to administrate the Islamic lands was given them by Islam itself: they applied the Arab practices of taxing Muslims and Jews extra fees for their faith (under Islamic rule it was the Christians who were taxed extra). As many a city had resisted the Spanish invasion, they used this as a pretext to invoke the precedent of Sha’ria and convert the larger mosques to Christian churches. Soon the calls of the Imams would be drowned out by the bells of the cathedrals. Spain also added the Northern Africans to her pool of manpower for the Americas. Muslim communities were created in South America, Chile and Ecuador getting the bulk of them. Still the Arab lands would be a source of periodical revolts for the next few decades. Ironically, only the French-influenced reforms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries would give the Arabs in the Spanish Empire the opportunity to feel like full citizens.

 

France under Louis the XIVth: the Second War of the Pyrenees

 

In 1661 Louis the XIVth began his decades long reign. Phillip died in 1668, having reigned for 51 years. He was succeeded by Charles the 2nd. Charles was still young and although Matteo Cazzaniga was a capable Primado, Louis saw the situation in Spain as the chance for major expansion in Europe. He started the Second War of the Pyrenees (1670) and attacked Franche Comte’ and Artois. The Spanish armies managed to block him in the north and east but had to evacuate Navarre after a few months of skirmishes. Louis also started the “Afternoon War” in which a French army attacked Savoy once again. This time however, the Piedmontese put up a strong enough resistance that the French had to pause: they had the numbers to crush Piedmont, certainly, but with the bulk of their forces committed in the other campaigns, they didn’t want to open yet another front (a very rare demonstration of caution on behalf of Louis). The name Afternoon War comes from the fact that only one battle was fought between French and Piedmontese (with a convincing Italian victory) one afternoon in May. War raged across the Pyrenees and north-eastern France for a couple of years but ultimately the Second Treaty of Artois of 1673 sanctioned the French occupation of Navarre.

 

Repercussions in the Spanish Empire

 

With this peace, Spain began a slow yet sure process of withdrawal from northern Europe, a process that would end with the Napoleonic wars. At the time, the rage for the defeat at Navarre was tempered with the occupation of Tripoli in 1673. Still Matteo Cazzaniga had a difficult time keeping his position. The truth was that despite the sweeping reforms of the previous decades, Spain still had a series of congenital limitations that hampered the monarchy’s global aspirations. Still some twenty percent of arable and productive land was in the Church’s death-grip and contributed nothing to the national economy. The upper classes in Spain still had antiquated and archaic values and a disregard for enterprise and labour. The thousands of Italian, Flemish, Portuguese and even Arabic colonists (great irony there) who were settled in Spain had revitalised the land but still the Spaniards themselves were in many ways unproductive, or swept up in unproductive activities, such as wars of various kinds. Spain didn’t have a blossoming middle class like France, England, Holland and the other nations of Europe, at least not on the mainland. Such classes had to be imported from the provinces and thus considered foreign, alien. They would come either from Italy, Belgium and Portugal.

The Spanish Empire in America over the years flourished. The constant stream of settlers from Europe (and slaves and servants from Africa) gave the land the manpower it required. Spanish government in Latin America was surprisingly efficient and productive. Certain colonies in particular were modern success stories: Brazil and Argentina were beginning to approach GNPs similar to those of some of the medium European states. Cuba and the islands as well were thriving economies.

The less-developed areas were ironically Mexico and Peru, where there had been pre-existing evolved civilisations. Here Spanish had come as conquerors rather then settlers. The lords effectively imported a feudal organisation of society to these lands, and an extremely reactionary one at that. As most of the lands in question had previously been developed to a certain level of prosperity (by the Azteks and the Incas), there wasn’t the need for enterprise and settling in the way the other parts of Latin America required. So while initial conquest and colonisation was easy, these lands and their new masters had less incentive to grow or adapt. This disparity in development would be apparent all the more in the eighteenth century and the colonial wars that would follow.

Ironically, the opportunities in America ended up draining mainland Spain of some of the more ambitious and energetic native citizens who would rather start a new life in America then live under the old constraints in Europe.

 

Europe: the Fall of the Ottoman Empire

 

After the Second War of the Pyrenees, France began to cautiously manoeuvre in Europe. Spain was still a check on Louis’ ambitions and with Artois and Franche Comte still maintained their strong points. Western Europe would stay in a delicate balance and major changes would come from the east, where Austria was about to crush the Ottoman Empire once and for all.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, the Ottomans were overwhelming all of the lesser Balkan kingdoms. Rumania and Hungary both were falling to the advancing Turk. Such an advance was expensive, in financial and manpower terms but was so far successful. Finally, after a series of engagements, in 1682 the Ottomans lay siege to Vienna. The Hapsburgs called on their allies in Germany, but many of them were living in fear of France and wouldn’t spare any forces. The Northern Confederation might have helped but was blocked by internal squabbling: Prussia wanted to with-hold any forces until after the fall of Vienna, so as to eliminate what she perceived as her main rival in central and Eastern Europe.

It fell therefore on Poland and her current king-elect Stanislav Sobieski, to ride to Austria’s defence and lift the siege in 1683. The rallying Austrian-Polish army, lead by Stansilav and Leopold of Austria and soon aided by Bavarian and Venetian forces, began a series of counter-strikes deep into Ottoman territory. What surprised the Christians was just how tenuous the Ottoman hinterland actually was: the Turks had overextended their supply lines and the bulk of their forces and had difficulty both co-ordinating the various armies and keeping them supplied. A series of quick wars suddenly opened up the entirety of Hungary. Buda and Pest were taken in 1685. From there onwards, the Austrian armies began the so-called “March of Liberation”: province after province of the Ottomans’ Balkan holdings fell to the Austrians: Belgrade, Sarajevo, Bucarest were all taken by 1690, the Hapsburgs were on the Danube by 1691.

At this point a meeting was held by the Hapsburgs and all their allies to “think the unthinkable”: the fall of Costantinople, the “liberation” of the ancient Eastern Roman empire. Plans were laid out: the participating powers would be Austria and Poland from the north and Spain, Piedmont, Venice and Genoa from the south. The Pope gave his blessing and a few companies of Swiss guards.

In 1692 a Venetian-Genoese fleet of some five hundred galleys transported a sizeable Spanish army to the coasts of Greece. The landing army wasn’t met with cheering crowds (old memories of the last Western invasions were still there) but not even with total hostility. The Greeks sat this fight out. Athens was attacked and liberated in 1693. The Italo-Spanish army marched into northern Greece, causing panic amongst the Ottomans and caution amongst the Greeks. Meanwhile the Italian fleets effectively blocked the Dardanelles, isolating the capital from outside aid. When Sophia fell to the Austrians in 1694, the two armies met up amidst great celebrations. The siege of Costantinople began in 1695.

There is something to the ancient walls and streets of Costantinople, to the accumulated centuries of history in that city, that seems to bring out the best of the sovereigns who sit there: just as Constantine the Paleologist stood his ground against the Turks in 1453, so too did the Sultan stand against the Hapsburgs, and with much the same result. The Hapsburg armies aimed their cannons and their muskets at the ancient walls and these fell. On July the 4th, 1695, after a four-month siege, Constantinople fell to the invading Christians, putting an end to two hundred and fifty years of Muslim rule in Europe. The Sultan was slain defending his Imperial palaces.

With the fall of Constantinople, great enthusiasm exploded throughout the Christian world. For the first time in decades, Catholics and Protestants could find a common cause of celebration. The liberation of the ancient Roman capital also inspired the Pope of Rome to perform the greatest propaganda coup in the history of the modern world. He sailed to Constantinople, carrying two crowns and two Edicts. Within the halls of Haga Sophia, once more a Christian church, he proclaimed king Charles of Spain Emperor of the West and Leopold of Austria Emperor of the East. The Two Roman empires were now once more on Earth.

 

The Conquest of the Middle East

 

The first dilemma which faced the new emperors was whether or not to continue the campaign in the East. Leopold might have preferred waiting some time to consolidate the Balkans and pacify the potentially dangerous new subjects. Charles however pushed for further campaigning: the Ottomans were in disarray after the death of the sultan Ali Pasha: his four surviving sons were tearing down what was left of the empire in civil war. Now was the time to strike and eliminate the Muslim threat once and for all. Finally Leopold gave way. As “Roman” troops, as they liked to call themselves, landed in Anatolia, revolts erupted both amongst the Kurds and the Armenians. The Ottoman army was ambushed and bushwhacked repeatedly before actually managing to confront the Westerners at Alexandreta. It was to no avail however, and the Ottomans were crushed in 1698. After that battle the Ottomans were unable to field a serious army against the Romans. One by one, all the major Eastern cities fell: Damascus in 1701, Antioch in 1703, Bayreuth in 1704 and Amman in 1705. When the Romans reached Palestine however, command of the expedition and later administration of the Holy Land was given to the Pope of Rome and his generals. One of them, the halfway-competent Count Farnese managed to lead his troops into Jerusalem after moderate losses. In 1708, Palestine was once again under Christian rule, after over four hundred years.

 

Venice and Egypt

 

Just as Palestine was given to Rome, so was Egypt “given” to Venice. The Venetian Doge wanted no monetary compensation for Venice’s role in this new great Crusade: he wanted land and insisted on Egypt, and on the Sinai in particular. Somewhat reluctantly, Austria and Spain acquiesced. IN 1708 A first Venetian-Piedmontese-Tuscan force stormed Alexandria. It would take the Italian forces some five years but by 1713 all of Egypt was under the rule of the Serenissima. Why Venice insisted on Egypt would be made clear two years later, once work began on the Canal of St. Catherine. Therefore, by 1715, autonomous political Islamic presence in the Mediterranean was gone. For the first time in over one thousand years, the Mediterranean was a Christian sea once again. In the distribution of lands and isles, Venice managed to snatch Malta, Genoa was given Sardinia (which she didn’t want) and Crete and Spain claimed Cyprus.

 

Austrian Administration of the Middle East

 

Administration of the Muslim lands would prove an interesting challenge for the new masters of the East, as would administration of the Orthodox territories. The Orthodox lands were put in the position of having to make a series of unpalatable decisions. Austria was devoutly catholic and had no intention of hiding this. Leopold had himself crowned Avtokrator of the East following Byzantine ritual, but it was the Pope of Rome who anointed him. The eastern patriarchs were therefore forced to accept the supremacy of the Patriarch of Rome, something they had long contested. Likewise, theological concessions had to be made to the catholic rite, which however would be recited in Greek and according to Greek liturgy. This process was by no means peaceful or quick and would take decades before some semblance of compromise would be reached. Many an Orthodox soon missed the rule of the sultans who were heathens but at least left the Christians alone. On the other hand, the pressure from the West, not just military but also political and cultural, demanded adaptations. There were areas in the Balkans that conformed to Catholicism quickly, such as Rumania and Bulgaria. Others, such as Serbia and Greece, would stay true to Orthodoxy. It’s perhaps ironic that the catholic Leopold’s solution would be suggested by a Protestant ruler, Elisabeth of England. Leopold ended up imitating much of the English queen’s legislation by which she pacified the sects and schisms in England during her reign. Only Catholics were allowed full access to government positions, but in local authorities the Emperor wouldn’t look too closely at the candidates’ personal beliefs. All major government officials were expected to attend Sunday Mass at the Catholic church or cathedral but other then that weren’t too closely scrutinised. This gradual assimilation would be the policy followed by the other European powers in the former Ottoman Empire, with the exception of Rome in Palestine.

The Muslim inhabitants underwent the same treatment the Spanish reserved them in Africa: a surtax on their faith and the forced conversion of some of their larger mosques into churches. This domination wasn’t easily accepted and revolts would occur but the efficient administration of the Hapsburgs would go a very long way to pacify the more moderate elements of the Muslim population. The Jews underwent a similar treatment.

 

The Return of Persia

 

Roman forces advanced eastwards towards Mesopotamia, and here they met their first and final stop: Persia. With the collapse of the Ottoman empire and the end of Islam as a political (though not religious or cultural force) in the Mediterranean, Persia suddenly saw an opportunity to move to the west, reclaim Mesopotamia and re-enter the European milieu. More will be said of Persia later on. Let it be said now that contact with Europe would lead to profound changes in Persia, who would rise the crescent banner and become a rallying point for all Muslims throughout the world.

 

Italian Rule in Egypt

 

The Venetian occupation of Egypt was more complex, if only because Egypt outnumbered Venice in terms of population. Outright exploitation of the land would therefore be impractical. Venice hadn’t taken the land alone either. She had acted in concert with Piedmont and Tuscany and had used their own strengths to complement her own. The Piedmontese by now had the best army in Italy (which wasn’t saying much) but also one of the best in Europe, if a touch small. Italians had flocked to Turin from the other independent states and bolstered its numbers. The campaigns in Egypt were a welcome opportunity to flex its muscles in ways the European context wouldn’t allow. Tuscany had been developing a reputation for good administration, which was very much deserved. As Piedmontese soldiers and Venetian merchants cleared the way, Florentine officials and administrators worked to ensure that the Italian presence in Egypt would not be transitory. The Venetians split the Egyptian population into factions. The Coptic Christians were on top (and the patriarch of Alexandria was able to maintain a certain independence from Rome). Next followed the city inhabitants and the middle classes. Last were the rural inhabitants. All of these could, however, look down at the Negro who was enslaved (although it must be said the slave trade ceased under Venetian rule: no new slaves were imported).

 Ultimately however, the occupation of Egypt was a necessary step in Venice’s real plan: the digging of a canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, thus allowing a direct maritime route to India and Asia. Venetian engineers had argued the case for such a canal before the Great Council itself, in a series of secret meetings that were of strategic importance for Venice’s future. With that Canal, made possible thanks to gunpowder and improved technology, Venice could once again claim a central role in world-wide commerce. Work on the Canal of St. Catherine began in 1714 and progressed far faster then Venice had dared hope. By 1720 the canal had been dug. In 1721, Venetian ships docked at Lahore. Venice took the opportunity to modernise her efficient but antiquated fleet. The Frigates and galleys she hadn’t built for the Atlantic, she built for the Indian Ocean. With possession of the Canal, Venice reclaimed her position as a major economic and commercial player in world-wide finance. Suddenly Italy was important once again and this importance would be felt in the later decades.

 

The Reaction of Louis the XIVth: the Third War of the Pyrenees

 

To say that Louis the 14th was unhappy with the developments in the east would be an euphemism. With Spain and Austria suddenly claiming imperial status, Louis wanted a similar title for himself. IN 1709, he massed his armies and marched them towards the Rhine, this time with the intent of smashing Hapsburg resistance.

Invasions into the north and south-east were checked but Louis did manage to smash the Spanish forces in Alsace, which he claimed as his own. However the Hapsburg coalition of nations managed to halt any further conquests. After the battle of Thionville in 1710, the old and tired Louis the XIVth accepted the Treaty of Luxembourg which essentially ratified French control of Alsace but little else. It was clear that any French empire would have to be claimed elsewhere. Louis died, bitter and disappointed in 1715.

 

Europe after Louis the XIVth: Spain

 

Charles the 2nd passed away in 1716 and was succeeded by Philip the 5th. Matteo Cazzaniga had died in 1691, at the ripe age of eighty two, but not before preparing his successor, his son-in-law Adelfio Della Rocca, husband of Matteo’s youngest daughter Vanessa. Della Rocca was an accomplished financier and economist (such a profession was now legitimate after almost a century of Cazzaniga’s governmental reforms) and had caught Matteo’s eye in a series of political manoeuvres in the Cortes and in the Milanese Senate. Della Rocca picked up the mantle that Matteo’s death had let fall. It should be said however that by now, the relationship between the monarch and the Primado had altered. Far from the war-obsessed, detached rule of the first few Philips, all the kings since Philip the 3rd had undergone a deep and rigorous training and intensive studies. The reigns of Philip the 4rd, Charles the 2nd and now Philip the 5th would see energetic kings, who were capable statesmen and administrators as well as valiant men-at-arms. The Primados, more and more, were executors of the king’s commands rather then initiators of policy themselves. At Cazzaniga’s behest, the king had never dissolved the Cortes but kept them active, if mostly powerless. This parliament would offer various nobles and dignitaries the forum to vent their objections, fears and positions, and allow the rulers a clear understanding of the mood of the still powerful and influent aristocracy. Spain prospered, but was still slowly losing ground to the new powers in the north.

 

England between the XVIIth and XVIIIth century

 

In England, after the Dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, the Stuarts were recalled to the throne. They showed, however, to have scarce learned the lesson of the Civil War and within a few short years were conspiring against the Parliament. Finally, the parliamentarians could stand it no more and deposed King Charles and the House of Stuart from the royal throne forevermore. Instead, Parliament resolved to call a Protestant lord to the throne and after a few months of debate (in which candidates such as the Duke William of Orange, a minor Dutch noble, were vetted and rejected) finally the choice fell on the cadet line of the ruling House of Sweden. Oswald of Trondheim-Vasa landed in England in 1689 with a small but tough Swedish expedition, and, flanked by cheering crowds, marched into London where he took an oath to respect and obey Parliament’s prerogatives and defend the Faith (he converted from strict Lutheranism to Anglicanism: “London is worth a mass” he said, paraphrasing a French king). Such was the Glorious Revolution. England would emerge from the wars of the seventeenth century as arguably the most democratic of European governments. Power was now clearly in the hands of the landed gentry and the merchant houses. Such power was used to step up British exploration of the world and colonisation. IN 1701 England bought the Bahamas from Spain. In 1705, with the Act of Union, Scotland and England were united into one nation.

 

Holland

 

Holland continued her mission of exploration and exploitation. A few short wars with the English had clearly shown this nation the difficulties of competing with larger countries. By the end of the seventeenth century, Holland had lost most if not all her possessions in the New World. Instead, cautiously, carefully, Holland established even closer ties with Spain: the two economies were complementary. In 1698, William of Orange successfully negotiated a series of Dutch free-ports and settlements in Latin America: these ports would have exclusive rights to ship goods from Latin America to Holland in exchange for a tax. The settlements would administer themselves according to Dutch law and remain steadfastly Protestant but its citizens would be expected to defend the Empire from any external threat. Dutch settlements were placed in Central America and Peru, with the intent of revitalising the economy of these regions. It came therefore as no surprise that, following the Venetian example, in 1735 the Dutch gathered funds to begin the digging of a canal in Panama that would link the Atlantic to the Pacific. Such a project immediately caused strains in her relationship with Spain (who had simply never thought to dig the canal herself): the Dutch were expecting exclusive rights to passage through the canal. Spain would have none of it. Della Rocca and the Duke of Zealand negotiated a compromise by which the Dutch would administer the canal, charging a passage to all ships, and only Spanish, Dutch or allied nations could use it. Spain would supply manpower to the project.

 

The Flanders

 

The Catholic Netherlands, or Belgium, was thriving as part of the Spanish economic system. The Flanders had been one of the economic centres of Europe and after Spanish domination had followed the same fate of the empire, declining as Spain declined and rising as Spain rose. Having access to the Atlantic, and being in direct contact with the more vibrant northern European economies, however, meant that Belgium, unlike Italy, would be more fully aware of economic trends and more capable of adapting to them. Many Italian banks would open offices in Antwerp and Brussels and compete with the pre-existing Belgian houses. Italy and Belgium would see their economies growing closer, despite their geographical distance. Belgium would supply many administrators and colonists to the Empire and to Latin America.

 

The Northern Confederation

 

The Northern Confederation, founded by Gustav Adolph of Sweden back in 1632, was undergoing its own vicissitudes. The member states had benefited from the decades of relative peace: Louis the 14th’s wars had hardly reached the northern lands. The Hanseatic League prospered and entered the Atlantic trade. The Confederation however soon found that peace bred devils of its own. For starters, the Protestant league was divided between Calvinists (who won over Denmark and Saxony) and strict Lutheranism, prevailing in Sweden and Prussia. The other member states were divided along similar lines. Protestants are no more tolerant then Catholics and relations between the member states were strained. Also Prussia was beginning to grow and develop under the House of Hohenzollern, who received the title of Kings in 1701. Prussia was aggressive, militaristic and expansionist.  Prussia’s area of expansion could only be eastwards and this brought her into conflict with Poland. Prussia wanted an eastern outlet and Poland wanted a northern port. The two nations’ strategic objectives were in conflict.

 

Poland and Russia

 

Sobieski’s rescue of Vienna had come with a price tag. He wanted Hapsburg support in his bid to eliminate the elective-monarchy system and replace it with a dynastic monarchic rule. With more and more of the Austrians’ attention focused to the south-east, Soibeski’s wish was granted and the Haspburgs backed the “White Coup” in Leopolis in 1693, where Sobieski gathered the Diet and proclaimed himself and his dynasty kings of Poland in perpetuity. Most nobles rebelled against this claim but Sobieski could count of support from Austria and Sweden (against Prussian and French interests). His forces met and shattered a rebel army outside Krakow in 1696 and after that, backed by the aid of the Jesuits, Sobieski could consolidate his reign. Ironically, the heavy-handed way in which the Papacy had involved itself in Polish politics caused an initial fracture between the Polish people and the Church: in later decades, Poland would become a hotbed of anti-clericalism.

By the first decades of the eighteenth century, Poland was facing pressure from the east where the Principality of Moscow had forged the empire of Russia and was now marching westwards. The Russians wanted access to the warm waters of the Mediterranean but these objectives conflicted with Austria and her newborn Eastern Roman Empire. Russia would try to weaken Austria’s hold by fomenting religious revolts, Russia maintaining herself resolutely Orthodox and serving as an external source of pressure on the Hapsburg empire. Indeed the Russians refused to recognise the Austrian claim to the title of Eastern emperor, something the Czars had claimed from themselves since Ivan the Terrible had wed the last daughter of Constantine the Paleologist back in 1467.

Russia faced an enemy to the north-west. Sweden had Finland tight in her hands and was now advancing eastwards into Karelia. After their victory at Poltava, the Swedes seemed to be masters of the north-east, although the Russians put up a fierce resistance further south. Peter the Great had to withdraw the capital from St Petersburg to Moscow but funnelled troops into Ukraine. Prussia would naturally seek to split Poland between her and Russia while the Swedes would be natural allies of the Poles and the Austrians. Prussia also saw Austria as a competitor in the southern German states. All this would lead to friction between the member states of the Northern Confederation, with Sweden and Prussia butting heads in the Council of Princes. Amidst this tension, the other northern German states would look to Prussia more and more while Denmark would find itself crushed (politically and culturally) between the two contenders.

Southern Catholic Germany, after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, was a hodgepodge of little states, some no larger then two thousand inhabitants. France and Austria would contend for influence and leadership amidst these states. One of them, the Kingdom of Bavaria, would rise to prominence and begin absorbing many of its neighbours. However, its development would be curtailed by the intense control of the two powers to her east and west.

 

Italy

 

Italy was undergoing a period of deep economic growth. As a fully integrated part of the Spanish economic system, Italy benefited from the Empire’s economic rise. However she was still geographically condemned to being a backwater, or would have been if not for the fall of the Ottoman empire and opening of St. Catherine’s Canal. With this man-made waterway, Venice, and Italy, suddenly became the cross-roads between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean and most maritime trade between North Europe and Asia would have to go through her. This situation also lead to the consolidation of the Entete between Venice, Piedmont and Tuscany. One of their victims would be Genoa, who saw her own ambitions frustrated by this small concert of states. The rest of the peninsula was divided between the small city states of central Italy, the Spanish dominations in Milan, Naples and Sicily and the Papal States. Milan prospered as an important economical centre for Italy and central Europe. Spanish control of the region wasn’t as stringent as it had been decades before and the governor was usually an Italian. Naples and Sicily tended to be more backwards. Cut off from any major industry and commerce, this part of Italy was good at supplying manpower for the colonies in Latin America. Cazzaniga had guessed this when he began enrolling colonists from this part of the peninsula. Between 1609 and 1710 some 40% of the population of Naples and Sicily was settled in Latin America. As a result, what was one of the oldest inhabited areas of the Mediterranean was now in many parts uninhabited.

 

Persia

 

A new and old power in the European milieu was Persia. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the empire, ruled by the Safavid dynasty, was once more directly in contact with the West. After the fall of Arabia to Venice in the mid eighteenth century, Persia would become the only independant Muslim state north of the Sahara and west of the Ganges. As a result, Muslims from throughout the world flocked to this nation. The years between 1715 (battle of Bagdhad) and 1735 are called the Years of Reconstruction, in which the Persians, under the dynamic reign of the Safavids, underwent a series of forced modernizations of the military, the bureaucracy and the economy, the all to better compete with the Europeans. Persia’s re-occupation of Mesopotamia wasn’t smooth as could be hoped: the Sunnite majority feared the rule from their Shi’ite neighbours but the Emperors managed to temper the zeal of the more intransigent imams. IN 1733, Bagdhad, the ancient Ctestiphon, was proclaimed capital of the empire once more. The years that followed would see Persia exert pressure on Austria and Venice alike, her goal the liberation of all the lands of Islam and access to the Mediterranean. Over the next few years, contact would be made with France and Russia, both of whom were perceived as allies in Persia’s schemes.

 

End of Chapter One

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