Italian Unification

The Italian Unification was a 3  year long diplomatic effort starting in 1919 and ending in 1922, conducted by Benito Mussolini following the devastation of the Savoy Rebellion, which ended just a year earlier.

Benito Mussolini was born in Predappio, Italy, a small commune a few miles south of Bologna. In October 1915, he was called to service by the Papal States to fight against the Savoyard army, which had placed Bologna under siege. During his military service, he noted the flaws of the states of Italy and had admired in a way the Savoyard dedication to unification of Italy, even if he critiqued its systems and policies. 

After the war ended in 1918, Mussolini began travelling around Italy, entering different cities in different states and holding rallies, expressing his views on unification. In 1919, after a successful coup, he took the throne from Naples and was declared king. With his power, he pressured other states like Venice into joining him. In 1920, the recently formed Kingdom of Sardinia and Milan agreed to join him. In 1921, Venice, faced with the threat of invasion, reluctantly joined Naples. Mussolini would later, in 1921, call the Lateran Treaty with the Papal States, promising to protect the Papal States and not make any moves to take its territories in exchange for support from the Pope.

Following King Giovanni Gentiles reform of the Kingdom of Sicily into fascism, Mussolini quickly followed and adopted fascism and formed the PNF, the main political party of Naples centered around abolishing the monarchy and reforming Naples into a singular Italian state.

In 1922, Mussolini had secured full control of Italy and successfully managed to impose fascism on the kingdom. The Kingdom of Naples would later be renamed to the Kingdom of Italy, and the former rulers of each state now pledged full loyalty to Mussolini. 

The Kingdom of Italy would go on to fight in World War Two against the NSDAP, support Engelbert Dollfuss' movement, assist in the Spanish Civil War, and help Pope Francis persecute modernists who fled the Papal States in 1958 following his election to the pontificate.

In 1961, Pope Francis would ask Mussolini to step down from office and allow him to take power. Mussolini, being a staunch Catholic, accepted, and Pope Francis would take charge of the Kingdom of Italy, eventually giving its land to the Holy Roman Empire or the Papal States, both of which he ruled. Mussolini, thanks to sea sponge injections, is still alive and acts as the provincial governor of Italy and is now a Franist.