Fortza Paris! ("Forward Together!") | |||||||
| Anthem | "Sardigna Patria Amada" | ||||||
| Capital | Oristano | ||||||
| Largest city | Oristano | ||||||
| Other cities | Olbia, Nuoro, Tortolì, Carbonia | ||||||
| Language | Italian, Sardinian | ||||||
| Religion | Catholicism | ||||||
| Demonym | Sardinians | ||||||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary republic | ||||||
| Legislature | Stamento | ||||||
| President of the Republic | Antonello Cabras | ||||||
| Prime Minister | Christian Solinas | ||||||
| Area | 24,100 sq. km km² | ||||||
| Independence | from Sicily | ||||||
| declared | 28th April 2011 | ||||||
| Currency | Medi (Ɱ) | ||||||
| Organizations |  Italian Federation
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Sardinia is an island in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Fomerly part of Italy, it was later occupied by the Sicilian Republic and gained independence at the end of the Second Sicily War. In 2022 it became a constituent state of the Italian Federation.
History[]
Sardinia is one of the most geologically ancient bodies of land in Europe. Evidence of human visits date from the Palaeolithic period, but permanent settlements appear only late in the Neolithic age, around 6000 BC. By 1000 BC the Phoenicians were visiting Sardinia, eventually bringing the island under the rule of Carthage. In 238 BC the Carthaginians lost the First Punic War and surrendered Sardinia to Rome. Roman domination lasted 694 years; in the collapse of the western empire, the island became part of the Vandal kingdom.
In 533 Sardinia came back under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. After about 650, Byzantine central authority waned and local Byzantine legates ruled the island autonomously. Eventually, the island was divided in four parts, each ruled by a Judex (Judge), and Sardinia spent much of the Middle Ages under the independent rule of these four judges. The island was occupied piecemeal by Pisa, Genoa, and finally Aragon, which conquered the last judgedom in the early 15th century. The island passed to the Kingdom of Spain in 1479.
In 1720, Sardinia was ceded to the Duchy of Savoy, allowing the duke to take the title King of Sardinia. In 1861 it became part of a united Italy. Sardinia's people distinguished themselves in the First World War. The Fascist period was marked by severe repression, investment into infrastructure, and the arrival of colonists from the mainland. Sardinia became an autonomous region in 1948. Over the next few decades, the island's economy was realigned around tourism and the military. NATO built major bases on its north and south shores.
Doomsday[]
Sardinia, a strategically-located island with a large military presence, was hit heavily by nuclear missiles on Doomsday. Two warheads struck the Decimomannu Air Base northwest of Cagliari, home to Italian, American, British and German air forces. Another destroyed Salto di Quirra, a rocket launch site in southeastern Sardinia. In the northeast, more warheads destroyed naval bases on the offshore islands of La Maddelena and Santo Stefano, created in 1973 at the request of the US government. Finally, a large warhead detonated over Cagliari in order to deprive the surviving NATO fleet of this key port.
Many died in the blasts, and extensive fallout killed many more, as did the harsh conditions that confronted the survivors. In the end, more than two thirds the population of the island would perish - out of a population of around 1.6 million on the entire island, only around 400,000 people are believed to have survived those first few months.
Rise and fall of the Gladio state[]
Operation Gladio was a secret stay-behind network that the Italian Republic created to resist a future Soviet invasion. In the late 1960s and 70s, Gladio turned its attention to domestic left-wing militants, cooperating at times with far-right groups and even the mafia of Cosa Nostra in order to root out the communist threat. Its main headquarters was a secret base at Capo Marrargiu, south of Alghero in Sardinia, which was also a center for American CIA activity in Italy.
Paolo Inzerilli, the head of Gladio, made an emergency broadcast in the name of the Republic as soon as the first cities and bases were destroyed. He promised that Italy would continue to fight for survival. Recordings of the broadcast continued for days as operatives and units activated around the country, reporting to secure sites that held caches of weapons and equipment to wage the expected guerrilla war. In Sardinia, Inzerilli took steps to personally take over the island. Helicopter flights over Cagliari confirmed that little remained of the city; so Inzerilli designated the nearby town of Carbonia, the nearest provincial administrative center, to be the provisional capital of the island.
The operatives, both Italian and American, had no intention of remaining on Sardinia, so isolated from the Italian mainland and the unfolding war. However, the peninsula itself seemed to offer no secure base of operations. In the aftermath of Doomsday, it was Sicily that seemed to offer the best hope as a point from which Gladio could reorganize the nation and mount a counterattack. Sicily, unlike Sardinia, had a regional government and some modestly-sized bases that had been spared nuclear attack. Inzerilli did what he could to send messages to his operatives to congregate in Sicily; he himself crossed the Tyrrhenian Sea to Palermo in early October. He left behind a skeleton crew to manage Sardinia.
This small group of counterintelligence operatives were of little value as a regional government. They had trained to fight communists, not govern a population. The emphasis on war over survival led to some disastrous moves that only worsened conditions on the island. The emergency government ordered that the waterfronts of every provincial town be evacuated in anticipation of naval attacks by the Warsaw Pact. In that atmosphere of crisis, the town governments complied without question, despite the protests of the people. These actions accomplished little besides increase the numbers of displaced persons in all parts of the island. Supplies began to run out; law and order broke down in the towns. Chaos soon reigned in many areas. Displaced survivors put pressure on the remaining parts of the island. Only in the far northwest and center did any pockets of authority remain.
By the middle of 1984, the Gladio administration could no longer either wage a war or govern all of Sardinia. The operatives in Carbonia were still the recognized authority on the island and had a few deputies in the main towns, but Sardinia already had ceased to function as anything like a modern state.
Sassari resettlement[]
In the northwest, government authorities in the Province of Sassari, dealing with a large amount of refugees and radiation from blasts to the north and south, proved themselves more resilient than most. In the end, the provincial government was unable to withstand the pressure and cracked in late October. However, the more socialistic city government proved itself more capable of withstanding the same pressures. Under its leadership - along with that of surviving soldiers and vehicles from armored regiments in the area - a resettlement of the area was organized. As the urban population in the area was becoming quickly unsustainable due to the refugees and ever-increasing amounts of fallout - especially with winter coming - the government decided to move as much of the population as possible southwards, and inland.
On November 11th, many of the people of the city, carrying as many of their belongings as they could, with the leadership and those less capable in vehicles, left for the trek southwards, where they hoped to find a area safer from radiation. Many stayed behind, not wanting to leave their homes. Most of those who remained had perished by 1985, when people ventured back into the area.
There would be deaths on the journey, both from exposure, and in some cases hunger. Many would, however, live. After passing by a few ruined towns, as well as few that refused to deal with them, they began to scatter into the countryside, settling in a zone centered on the small city of Ghilarza. The core of the convoy reached Ghilarza on December 3rd, where locals agreed to help them as much as they could manage without starving themselves. Rumors would circulate for years that they had been forced to do so - and that the convoy itself had destroyed the towns on its way. The survivors of the convoy put up shelters from the cold. Many would die that winter, but thousands of displaced people were saved.
Survivors[]
The next spring, the Ghilarza settlements began to turn into a hub for the middle part of the island. Strained local civil authorities began to exchange information and supplies. With time, the informal network centered on Ghilarza came to rival the Gladio government in Carbonia. In the summer of 1984, Ghilarza was in regular contact with other surviving towns and cities in the middle of the island, from Oristano in the west to Nuoro in the east. The following year, its reach extended as far as Olbia and Tortolì.
When the expected Warsaw Pact invasion of Sardinia never materialized, the order creating the military zones was allowed to lapse; but the damage was already done. The towns' original residents could in theory return to their homes, but for many it was not possible. Scraping a living off the land was better than living in a town with no access to food or other supplies.
Conditions deteriorated further in the next few years. Fuel ran out and any remaining vehicles were no longer usable. Power generation ceased; batteries died. Goods and information could now only travel on horseback. The larger towns emptied out as anyone still living there sought food and safety in the hills. Sassari itself was almost completely abandoned.
In the more successful of the small communes, inhabitants began to collectively manage their resources in order that all the community would benefit from them, both in agricultural cooperatives to assure that resources would not be wasted and worker's cooperatives where workers took onto themselves the production of goods essential for survival, in particular boats necessary to continue fishing in the Mediterranean. Sardinian shepherds relied on a local aid system known as Sa paradura, an ancient tradition this was a sort of mutual assistance and aid when a shepherd lost their herd. This form of aid expanded with the apocalypse and it started to include things that like helping a neighbor if their roof collapsed, or sharing one's food with the poorest. These forms of cooperation helped the local economies of Sardinia immensely, even if production was limited because of few materials, low demand, and very little outside trade.
Pressure from Sicily[]
With the loss of so many people, as well as industry and ports, Sardinia became very isolated - though not necessarily by choice, given what conditions have been recorded from that era. This began to change in 1988 when merchants from Sicily made increased visits to the island. It is suspected that at this point that many were spies for the government of the Sicilian Republic, a hybrid regime of personnel from Gladio, NATO militaries, the ruling Christian Democratic Party, and allied clans of the Sicilian Mafia. During this time, the remaining Gladio personnel went to Sicily, but some like-minded supporters remained, clustered in Carbonia and a few port towns. Communities that had them sold their now-rusting armored vehicles to the Sicilians, which helped to reinforce the growing Sicilian armored forces.
Sicilian merchants were perfectly willing to sell the Sardinians things that they desperately needed. Yet, this did not include any military supplies. Besides the Sicilians, the Sardinians had little contact with other parts of the world at the time.
Between 1987 and 1992, Sicily occupied large portions of the Italian peninsula and began to incorporate them into its republic. The same period saw leading Mafia clans increase their control of the republic's economy and political system. Throughout this time, the Sicilians continued to treat the powerless Carbonia government as a kind of loose vassal. Most people in Sardinia thought of Carbonia as "the government," and that government connected in some way to a larger Italy, now based in Sicily - but it had little to no impact on their lives. Life on the island became much as it was in the Middle Ages: an isolated, rugged land where rural communities survived without much regard for outside powers. Ghilarza, where local leaders continued to meet to work out disputes, was more active and relevant as a quasi-government than the clique in Carbonia.
Throughout the 1990s, representatives from Sicily would periodically arrive in Ghilarza, making demands - chiefly, that as the successor to the Italian government, their republic's direct jurisdiction over Sardinia should be recognized. They offered to send administrators to govern the island and provide employment, as well as additional security with the deployment of units of the navy and the army. These offers were rejected each time. Most people did not trust the Sicilian republic, both because it had been ineffective at improving life on Sardinia and because they knew of its oppressive actions in the peninsula. As the Sicilians were just as isolated diplomatically - though not nearly for the same reasons - most Sardinians thought themselves to be safe. They saw little use for this outside republic and perceived little threat from it.
Sicilian takeover[]
Sicilian policy underwent a major shift in 2000, when the delicate balance of the Gladio-mafia state gave way to a more overt authoritarianism under Paolo Di Stefano. Di Stefano sought closer ties with like-minded regimes in the region, namely the neo-franquista Spanish National Republic and the one-party regime of Hédi Baccouche in Tunisia. These alliances emboldened Di Stefano to make aggressive moves in Italy and around the western Mediterranean. In 2001 Sicily invaded Tripolitania intending to colonize it with displaced Italians. In 2004, Sicily and the Spanish National Republic planned an operation to knock the forces of the País de Oro out of the Balearic Islands.
In the run-up to this conflict, which became the First Sicily War or War of the Alboran Sea, Sicily launched a rapid invasion of Sardinia. The republic landed troops at several points on the island's shores where it already had a light presence; from there, the soldiers began their occupation. Given the Sardinians' lack of unity or supplies, the invaders' advance was rapid, with only crude barricades to slow them down at all until they reached Ghilarza, which had been fortified somewhat. While the Sardinians lacked artillery, the Sicilians did not, and the town was taken. Leaders who had organized the resistance were executed, and the body of the perceived ringleader, a former member of the Sassari city council named Gavino Angius, hung outside of the ruins for years to come, only being buried after it fell down from its perch. All of this, in only two weeks.
The Sicilians would begin to fortify their new possession almost immediately. They started to send colonists to the island, starting with the region around Carbonia. Carbonia was more fully developed as the regional headquarters, including with a restored port nearby. Other bands of settlers settled elsewhere on the island. The influx of workers caused many problems among the local population. Many saw it as a “colonialist invasion”. In addition, the incoming workers got many of the choicest new jobs while the Sardinians would get whatever remained.
Rebels remained in areas of the interior, small in number and often caught by the Sicilians. There were attacks against Sicilian officials, companies and workers. The Sardinian Armed Movement, a socialist and independentist movement created in 1982, reappeared as a prominent rebel organization. To counter the rebellion, Sicily began a campaign to try and gain the loyalty of the island, one way or the other. The republic emphasized the continuity between the Sicilian regime and the administration that had long existed in Carbonia. It encouraged people who had served the regime to organize into a political force. The Association of Sardinian Combatants was created by veterans in 2006. Sicily made attempts to buy the population's loyalty through jobs and new infrastructure projects, though many of these projects were for the military and stirred up even more resentment. Many of Sardinia's civilians were never quite loyal to the regime. While they may not have supported the rebels in any way, they at the same time did not support the Sicilians.
As war in the Mediterranean drew closer, Sicily moved more and more soldiers into Sardinia. The Sicilian government saw Sardinia was a valuable asset, its newly-refurbished airfields within reach reach of Genoa and Alessandria, allowing Sicilian planes to disrupt the growing industrial capabilities of northwestern Italy. In addition, Sardinia would defend Sicily's northern flank in case of a war against the newly formed ADC and the Alpine Confederation. All these movements and militarization weren’t unnoticed by Sardinians, but life by the late 2000s has become more and more authoritarian, defined by the ever-greater presence of the Italian National Guard, an armed partisan paramilitary that functioned increasingly as the republic's secret police.
Sicily also used Sardinia to house prisoners: prisoners of war, political dissidents, Libyan rebels and other enemies of the state. Five detention camps were opened Iglesiente-Sulcis area, alongside ones in Barbagia and Gallura, and the infamous Asinara prison, which would be restored during the war and used for PoWs. These camps will be known for their hardship and hostility, in particular, those revolving around forced labour in the mines of Iglesiente-Sulcis. Anti-Sicilian resistance activities turned toward helping the prisoners by smuggling in food, medicines, and other supplies. Many local clergy became aligned against the Republic through these activities, and they often led local relief initiatives.
ADC-IPA rule[]
The Second Sicily War was fought by the allied forces of Sicily and Tunisia against two new anti-Sicily alliances: the Atlantic Defense Community and Italian Peninsula Alliance. It lasted from 2009 to early 2011. Sardinia became a front in the war as local bands of rebels harassed the Sicilian national guard. In December 2009 the ADC began a campaign of aerial bombardment in Sardinia. The allies launched a land invasion, Operation Blindfold, from Corsica in June 2010. Troops from Genoa, North Germany, Spain, Corsica and the Nordic Union landed on the northwestern coast and began to advance southward. In October, a large Sicilian force surrendered, giving the advancing ADC control of most of the island. Many Sicilian civilians now began to flee to Sicily, but the core territory around Carbonia itself remained well defended. It held out until the end of the war.
When the war ended, the island was put under a mandate responsible to both the ADC and IPA. The ADC interest was represented by the Corsican Republic, while after the first year Genoa became the lead party for the IPA, the other Italian allies being either too weak or too preoccupied to contribute to the governance of Sardinia. The newly-formed League of Nations' High Commission for the Mediterranean and Black Seas was also given a supervisory role. The Mandate was tasked with setting up the island towards independence or joining another country. After some deliberation, it was decided that the Mandate would be headquartered in the western city of Oristano, which could be easily reinforced in the event of another war.
The Mandate of Sardinia was governed by a High Commissioner, Riccardo Garrone, appointed by the Genoan government in light of the mainland commitments of the rest of the IPA, and a Magistrate, Dr. Tomaso Vercellotti, a civilian who was born on the island in the mid-1950s, appointed by the High Commissioner to establish a government. In 2012 an elected council formed to assist the Magistrate. The High Commissioner was assisted by four Commissioners, appointed by the other three IPA members and Corsica, an ADC member.
The biggest issue during the Mandate era was what to do with the Sicilian colonists who did not leave the island with repudiated Sicilian prisoners. Many Sardinians demanded that they be deported, but on the other hand, they comprised a large part of the population in some southern areas of the island, especially in and around Carbonia. It was a delicate subject, especially since the Sicilians were banned from the electoral process on the island, along with any officials from under the Sicilian regime.
Repubblica Sarda[]
A decade of occupation and war had made clear the need for Sardinia to have a united government with the capacity to defend itself. As 2012 became 2013 and the second anniversary of the war's end passed, it was equally clear that no desire existed on Sardinia to join any outside nation or federation. An independent Sardinian Republic was the only viable option. Plans to hold a referendum on independence were put aside; instead, local and Mandate leaders worked to lay the foundations of an independent government.
The council also acquiesced to demands from the people of Carbonia that they be enfranchised: without outside troops, it would not be possible to run the province as an occupied territory. Local cooperation was essential. The franchise was extended to all adult residents who had not held positions of leadership in the Sicilian regime. This expanded electorate voted in 2014 for a new parliament called by its historic name, the Stamento. This body took charge of the transition to independence.
Near the end of 2014, the occupation government was dismissed and replaced by one responsible to the Stamento. This ended one of the major unresolved issues from the Second Sicily War. Two major issues dominated the first years of Sardinia's parliamentary politics. The first was economic: whether to continue promoting the island's development along lines set under Sicilian rule. Some in the Stamento wished to encourage the growth of mines and ports to provide employment and gain access to imports. Opposing them was a traditionalist and isolationist faction arguing for a rejection of this kind of development in favor of the local agriculture that had sustained the island since the nuclear war. The second issue was one of foreign policy: to what extent Sardinia should align with regional blocs, and which ones it should favor.
Federation[]
In 2016, the Italian Peninsula Alliance coalesced into the sovereign Italian Federation, bringing a common identity to all the small states of central Italy. However, with some in Sardinia arguing for union with Corscia, others for union with the Italian mainland, and some even for total neutrality, the island would not join its one-time allies as a founding state of the Federation.
However, growing trade across the Mediterranean was making it appear more and more difficult for Sardinia to grow as an independent nation. The choices that appeared were to follow Corsica in aligning with the Atlantics, or join the peninsular states in the Federation. Those continuing to argue for permanent neutrality and isolation were in the minority.
The military requirements of the Atlantic Defense Community made it impractical to join, and by the 2020s few in parliament were making the case for ADC membership. By 2022, the governing coalition was solidly pro-Federation and called a referendum - Sardinia's first - on joining. The vote passed by a narrow margin, and Sardinia became a member of the Italian Federation in 2022.
Government and Politics[]
Economy[]
Economically, agriculture is predominant on the island. The prevalent economic sectors are those that sustained the island for centuries: the work force has grown in the sheep breeding industry, alongside those related to goats, cattle and other livestock. In the Campidano region, wheat farming is especially productive, alongside oats, barley and durum, Other parts of the island produce wine, olive oil, cheese and tomatoes.
An important sector that has grown since the 2000s is mining, since Sardinia is rich in deposits of coal, antimony, gold, bauxite, granite, lead, zinc. These rich resources were seen as highly valuable by the Sicilian Republic early on, who promoted the reopening of many of the old mines and also the opening of new mines and pits all over the island, bringing not only wealth, but also old problems too. The mining sector took a hit with the Sicilian war and the end of Sicilian rule. It has recovered since then only slowly and remains a relatively small sector of the economy.
Another important element of the Sardinian economy is the presence of cork oak, which grows naturally on the island. After 1983 cork was used more as a substance material and for many objects made in traditional ways, such as in wine production, in construction (both in natural form and as agglomerate) and for footwear. Exported cork is used to make bulletin boards and floor and wall tiles.
Finally, fishing for both domestic consumption and export is a key part of the Sardinian economy.
International Relations[]
As of 2022, Sardinia is a constituent state of the Italian Federation, with most of its foreign relations now conducted at the federal level. Members of the international community first established consulates and interest offices in Oristano during the Mandate period. Embassies began to appear during the run-up to independent government. During the first years of independence, one of the main unanswered political question was whether Sardinia should pursue neutrality or alignment with a regional bloc.
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