History of Italy (Cromwell the Great)

Italy, or more properly the Italian Peninsula, during and after the Revolutionary Wars changed its political makeup in the establishment and merge of new states. As in Germany French revolutionary armies deeply change the social and political landscape. Bringing with them the revolution they were equally happily cheered or sorrowfully regretted.

Although, its political effects were more lukewarm and uncertain in its political and social dimensions. One certainty is that the Peninsula was divided in two halves, one republican and the other the monachical old regime, with the Papal States serving as a neutral buffer state between these two worlds. At the end several peace treaties organized the territory of the Peninsula and the boundaries of each republic and monarchy. Victory was not assured as most states had internal dissention that in time could lead to revolutions. Arbitration not taken in fully enthusiasm by the French and British. Fluid alliances and royalties made uncertain longstanding alliances within and outside Italy, even in members of the same camp.

Italian unity, one of the main goals of Italian republicans and revolutionaries and radical French was frustrated by peace and the lack of enthusiasm from both France and Britannia. This despite, or because of, being the region one of the main land and naval war theatres between the two great powers of Europe. For example Britain gained Malta, becoming an important naval enclave in the Mediterranean Sea and France neutralized possible territorial gains of Austrian Habsburg and Spanish Bourbon, and gained a foothold in the Balkans thru the Illyrian republic and a permanent grateful ally, the Corsican Republic.