■ Chibitalia, Holy Roman Empire and France ■
Although he dubbed himself the Holy Roman Empire out of adulation for the Roman Empire,
the Holy Roman Empire was not Rome.
It appears he went around stalking Italy and making
ambiguous “Won’t you join me?” threats *laughs*.
His dream was to create a unified Holy Roman kingdom made of Italian and German people.
Feeling quite scandalized by the matter,
France and Spain would often call out “Stop making passes at Italy!”
Though, it wouldn’t be the Holy Roman Empire if he listened.
■ Before Italy became the bullied boy ■
After the fall of Rome, Italy became a collection of small city-states.
You could find everything in Italy back then.
Fertile lands, beautiful climate, magnificent culture,
history, art, trade, religion…
it was a completely enchanting place to be.
But it was WEAK.
It was weak even from this era.
From the eyes of the other countries, there’s no better trophy in the world. Beginning with France’s advance, the rest of the stronger countries began converging to pluck their own piece of Italy.
■ The Strongest Bully Appears ■
“All right, Italy is mine!”
Thus France resolved to begin his Italian invasion campaign.
Though he said he’d go help putting down troubles in Milan, he
went straight to conquer Florence and Naples.
Though he ended up going broke halfway and got stuck in
strange places, showing his own brand of uselessness
(though France’s wallet was in such a state that it’d burst if he so much as farted, anyway) we still think Italy was even more useless than him.
He had absolutely nothing prepared.
And he already knew it months in advance…
Therefore, things went downhill from beaten→surrender rapidly.
Italy was already Italy since this time period.
■ Why was Big Brother so anxious? ■
A little while ago, Austria (Habsburg rule) started
to swagger about in the Holy Roman household.
Austria’s plans had already netted him Spain,
so France suddenly got stuck in the middle.
[T/N : This is when Habsburg kings ruled both Austria and Spain, via marriage plans.]
Feeling antsy, France decided to take over the unspoiled
Northern Italy. The Holy Roman Empire and Spain had a few
things to say about that, however, and they began their own moves.
That was how the great war for Italian domination started…
■ Mr. Austria ■
An aristocratic intelligentsia who not only
busied himself with Italy,
but also controlled the Holy Roman Empire.
Loves music more than anything.
■ The Italian War ■
A war that turned the entirety of Italy into a bloodbath.
Lynched on by countries from all over,
Italy is torn off piece by piece by the strong countries.
And after this, Italy’s harsh life as a servant began…
■ Italy, the Renaissance, and… ■
Since Italy had to cling to stronger countries to survive,
it was not a proper time for art.
This heralds the beginning of the end
for the magnificent Renaissance culture.
Italy would disappear from the stage of history for many centuries afterwards, and because he remained an underling for so long, he never got the chance to expand.
By the way, it looks like Italy never used
his army in this period, either. *laughs*
■ Mr. Austria’s glorious musical history ■
The Austrian throne poured a great deal of money into arts and music,
so they were able to gather and support the very best of musicians.
The Vienna Boys’ Choir is reputed to have been there since the 15th century.
T-that’s old…!
■ Italy and Mr. Austria ■
Italy did have a number of small rebellions throughout,
but they were quickly crushed by Austria’s military.
Well, it was his longtime dream.(*´∀｀*)
Elsewhere, the elder Italy brother…
While Northern Italy was conquered by the Holy Roman Empire,
Spain managed to conquer the south.
Now that we mention it, maybe the reason South Italy has slow growth even now is because he spent too long a time under the laid back Spanish rule.
Since he didn’t have to do a thing by himself (heh, festa and siesta)
his main assets are still agricultural and tourism, like it was 1,000 years ago.
The Italian cheer also feels very Spanish, now that I think of it.
The Renaissance didn’t stop with Italy, but spread all over Europe.
The Holy Roman painter Albrecht Durer was famous, wasn’t he?
The Holy Roman Empire, beginning to copy Italy and start painting.
And so Chibitalia, the story of Italy’s childhood, comes to an end.
Italy’s history is full of invasion, isn’t it…?
After this, the Holy Roman Empire was embroiled in a tragic path with the Thirty Years’ War.
I’ll write something on this later.
France profited greatly from this fight.
Hyvää joulua!
