Standalone/Laibach War
| Laibach War | |||||||||
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.jpg) The Artillery of the IIIrd Division attacking during the Battle of Bolzano, 1870 | |||||||||
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| Total: 1,200,000 | Total: 1,925,300 | ||||||||
| 3,125,300 (Total all) | |||||||||
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The Laibach War was fought between the Italian Empire and the Archduchy of Austria between October of 1870 to January of 1871. At first intended to be a quick recover of the lost Austrian region of Laibach, the unexpected total defeat of Italy marked the end of Italian hegemony over Europe and the start of a power vaccum that eventually result on the Great War.
The end of the war is marked by the disastrous Italian defeat at the Battle of Krainburg, which not only caused the complete collapse of the Italian armed forces, but ended with Italian emperor Napoleon III executed by German partisans.
Background[edit | edit source]
Laibach was conquered by Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars, the region was annexed to the Italian Empire in 1809, as the Laibach Departament. Before that, the region was part of the Hapsburgian Empire since the 800s, when East Francia inherited the region that was conquered by Charlemagne.
The War was the direct result of the slow decline of the Italian Empire over the 19th Century, with the Weakness of Italy, and the recent worsening of relations between Bavaria and Italy, Austria saw an opportunity to inflict a heavy blow to a rival power, aswell as regain a long lost region inhabited by Germans, appeasing the Pan-Germanist sentiments that grew by the minute at the time.
The War[edit | edit source]
Early Engagements[edit | edit source]
One day before the war, German partisans rised up all trough the Tyrol, receving orders from the Austrian army to disrupt enemy supply lines and communications. While most of these partisan organizations where republican, they collaborated with the Austrian government due to their main priority being the unification of Germany.
On the first offensive the Austrians captured the city of Carcampositone, defeating the already weakened Italian army which was already depleted from the combat against guerrilas since the previous day. After the capture of the city the administration renamed the town to Radmannsdorf.
Disaster at Krainburg[edit | edit source]
Already harrased by both Austrian Scouts and Republican partisans, the Italian Army met the Austrian army at the village of Strochain, where a minor battle occured, Austrian forces where reluctant to fully engage the numerically superior Italian forces, so they adpted a defensive position to try to bleed the Italian army as much as possible.
On december, the Italians decided to pull out of the germanic Laibach and regroup on the majority Italian Trieste departament to organize a counterattack, the Austrians forces persued and met the Italian army on the outskirts of Krainburg, where the disorganized and undersupplied Italian forces where encircled and destroyed by the Austrian Army.
Reportedly, most of the Italian forces where encamped on tents on the outskirts of the city, with most of the generals and commanders of the Italian armies being on a banquet at a Château close to camp. The Italian troops where surprised by sudden artillery fire followed by gunfire and an austrian cavarly charge on the camp, most of the encamped Italians where slaughtered. Whitout orders and equipment, the Italian army collapsed, breaking formation and running away from the massacre.
As soon as the attack began, Napoleon III and his commanders rushed to the site of the battle, but it was too late, before the emperor could reach the frontline he was intercepted by Austrian forces and taken prisioner, over 2/3 of the Italian Generals where taken prisioner by Austrian forces at Bolzano. During his captivity, Napoleon III ordered the execution of General Giosuè Ritucci, which he blamed for the defeat, but the Austrian army denied his wish.
Anarchy[edit | edit source]
Some of the soldiers who where not encamped managed to regroup at the city itself, there the troops met more conflict, this time from fellow Italians, as disagreements between the soldiers on weather or not to surrender soon turned violent, believing that the Empire would soon collapse from the social unrest and the Austrian invasion, many dissilusioned soldiers began to mutiny against their officers. To stop the violence from escalating, the soldiers decided that men who wished to surrender could hand over their weapons and desert, while those who wished to continue the fight would be able to do so. It was decided that the troops would counterattack the Austrians outside of Krainburg, before leaving the group split again between those who wished to reconquer Laibach and those who just wanted to defend Italian majority areas from an Austrian Attack, the latter staying behind to defend the city.
On the night of 17th of December the counter-attacking Italian troops met the Austrian Army outside of Bolzano, surprising the enemy army on what was called a "mad, suicidal attack" on Austrian positions. With extremely heavy losses, the Italians managed to push back the Austrians, but the lack of organization and heavy death toll made the Italian army begin to collapse again. During the attack, Napoleon III was freed by Italian troops, but during the chaos that ensued, a group of Austrian commanders, aided by Republican Partisans, captured Napoleon and took him to the forests away from the chaos, this was the last time Napoleon III was seen alive in public.
As morning came, the Austrian army launched a counterattack on the Italians, quickly defeating the Italian army which began surrendering en masse, the garrison in Krainburg surrendered whitout a fight. At this point, news of the defeat and the capture of Napoleon reached Venice and soon all of Italy, and revolt began to spread trought the country.
Austrian Retreat[edit | edit source]
Austrian forces reached Venice on January 2, capturing the city virtually unnoposed, on January 6th the army reached republican occupied Verona, which resisted the Austrian invaders. The Austrians camped outside the city but did not lay siege. On January 9th a messenger from Napoleon IV announced the surrender of the Italian Empire.
While a peace treaty would only be signed in June of 1871, an immediate armistice was put in effect and the Austrian Army would retreat to the now annexed Laibach departament. But before a final retreat, the Austrian Army helped the royalist forces of Napoleon IV, which where stationed in Milan, to capture Republican held Verona. The war is considered to be over by January 28th when the entirety of the Austrian army retreated to Laibach.
Aftermath[edit | edit source]
Execution of Napoleon III[edit | edit source]
After Napoleon's captors reached safety, the group split, most of the Austrian officers went back to friendly forces while two officers stayed with the Partisans to guard Napoleon.
The group passed by an abandoned farm where they slept trough the night. It was at this moment that the partisans took away the officer's weapons and had them arrested, knowing that the Austrian forces fully intended to turn their forces against the republicans in Laibach after Italy was defeated. According to the memories of one of the Officers, Napoleon III was made to sit on a chair which they found at the abandoned farm, while the officers where tied on the ground, they waited until another man, which the other partisans greeted as a superior, came to the area with a letter.
The partisans then discussed among themselves for a while before another man came with a piece of paper, the partisan leader then read the document, which is presumed to have been another letter, and took out a pistol from his garment, he then turned to Napoleon III and shot him twice on his chest. According to the officer, Napoleon was having a conversation with him and his fellow officer before his execution, his last words where:
Im not sure if I'll even be emperor when I return to home, my abdication letter has written itself. I just hope I am allowed to return as soon as possible to settle this situation. Altough...
Napoleon did not finish his setence as he looked at the partisan leader who approached him. After getting shot, he fell to the ground and began to choke on his own blood for around five minutes before he finally died. The partisans, whitout looking at the tied up officers, left to the forests again. The two officers and Napoleon's corpse where found by an Austrian Patrol later that day.
The circunstances regarding Napoleon's execution are surrounded in mistery, as to this day the identity of the executor is unknow, aswell as the identity of most of the partisans present at execution and what was written on the two letters. There is discussion about where the orders to execute Napoleon came, with many believing that the partisans followed orders coming from Austria or one of many Italian Republican armed groups, or that the orders came from Rome itself.
Formation of the Empire of Empire of Germans, Slavs and Hungarians[edit | edit source]
After the news of the Italian surrender reached Vienna, the Emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph I, triumphantly announced to the world the total victory over the Italian Empire, and that the unificationg of all Germanic peoples was at hand. To celebrate the victory, the Archduchy of Austria was officially renamed the "Empire of Germans, Slavs and Hungarians", the same name of the reorganization of the lands governed by the Habsburg family that was proposed in 1848, but never implemented due to Italian pressure. The name changed was seen a symbol of the triumph of Austria over the Italian Empire and her newfound place among the great powers.
Peace Treaty[edit | edit source]
Due to the chaotic nature of the end of the war, the Austrians settled for only annexing its claimed territory. While there where proposals for demanding reparations and even occupying key areas of the country to seize tax and trade tariffs, these plans where abandoned for the fears that this would only strenghten the republicans in Italy, which could ally with the already strong austrian republican partisans against the crown.
Mezzogiorno di Sangue[edit | edit source]
The Austrian retreat did not help to end the state of civil war in the country, more provinces where taken over by republicans, but in a short lived campaign, royalist forces put down the uprising. The same could not be said for the southern regions, know as Mezzogiorno, where guerrila warfare and countryside violence would last for a decade.
