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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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An Empire Reborn Part 13 By Vincent Longobardi
April 16th 1971 Representatives of the South Vietnamese government meet with Count Ciano in Constantinople. Their request for Italian intervention in their civil war is turned down at this time. Reports from the Comando Supremo shows no capability to project power into southeast Asia and that the infrastructure of Burma, the only available Lira Block staging ground in the region would not be able to support the operation. Also, the Italians would have to cooperate with the American military and use American R.O.E. while in Vietnam which would greatly conflict with standard Italian military procedure for putting down communist uprisings. May 2nd 1971 No agreement can be reached between Cartier and Aubert over who gets to write the sequel to "The Last Bastille Day." Both vow to write books separately with Cartier threatening Aubert to sue if he attempts to get it published. May 15th 1971 Grand Admiral Junio Borghese is named Viceroy of Italian East Africa. June 5th 1971 Medici pays a visit to Tripoli, Libya officially to remember the legacy of Italo Balbo. Speaking before a crowd in square dedicated to Balbo the Consul proclaims that Libya is no longer a colony but officially a province of Italy. The cheers of the crowd quickly drown out the rest of the speech and word begins to spread throughout the city and into the country. Business quickly grinds to a halt as the streets become filled with revelers. Years of loyal service and hoping have finally paid off and the population of Libya both Italian and Arab have been recognized and rewarded for their dedication to the Empire. June 6th 1971 The official plan for the Province of Libya is released. A new class of citizenship is introduced to serve as a middle ground between Italian citizenship and Colonial citizenship. The status of "Imperial citizenship" will be granted to all Libyans who have been Italianized and granted colonial citizenship. Imperial citizens are granted nearly all the rights of the rights of Italians being allowed freedom of movement, rights to travel outside the Empire and the ability to resettle anywhere within the Empire(not including the Italian peninsula.) They are also allowed to join any Colonial Army and hold officer commissions within them as well as government posts.
Those who do not yet hold colonial citizenship status will maintain their current status until they qualify for Colonial citizenship following that after a waiting period of two years Imperial citizenship will be granted. June 12th 1971 The ISA team sent to the United States returns to Sardinia with an American team in tow. June 20th 1971 Libyans are encouraged to migrate to Mozambique to help civilize that colony and take an active part in running the colonial government present. Rome is hoping to establishing a settlement of 10,000 Libyans within the colony to serve as a loyal base for the long term peace and prosperity of the territory. Italian settlement rates in the region have been deemed to be sub par for proper pacification. June 27th 1971 OVRA agents in Jerusalem are instructed to make sure that favorable results are obtained in the free city’s upcoming elections. July 5th 1971 From every nation of the Lira Block they assembled in Rome. They were the best their nations had to offer and they were here to compete to be the first winner of the Caesar Cup. Processing into the stadium they presented themselves before the Emperor for his approval and the start of the games. The next 10 days would be devoted to soccer. July 15th 1971 After a series of eliminations it had come down to the final two teams Spain and Italy. The Italians take an early one goal lead until the Spanish tie up the game at halftime. With less than 30 seconds rush down the field and score! Spain wins! In two rows the players of all the other nations line up and salute the Spaniards as if they were conquering heros, and to their fans they were indeed conquering heros. Kneeling before the Emperor the team captain is presented with the Caesar Cup which shall reside in Spain for two years before it is returned to Rome for the next set of games. July 17th 1971 Count Mario Lucchini and Gemma Medici publically announce their engagement. July 25th 1971 Egypt begins purchasing weapons in earnest from the NRE. August 6th 1971 Elections are held in Jerusalem. It is widely suspected that the Palestinian parties will maintain the narrow majority they have possessed since the freeing of the city. August 10th 1971 An upset! The results in Jerusalem are in and have been confirmed by Italian observers, Jewish parties have secured a 60% majority in elections for the City Council and mayoral post. Palestinian politicians call foul on the results of the election. August 11th 1971 The Italian overseeing committee for elections verifies their counting methods and once again confirms the results as accurate. August 12th 1971 Protesters rally around the ruins of the Rock of the Dome and call for the destruction of the Jewish government of Jerusalem and the establishment of an absolute Palestinian government within the city. August 17th 1971 Demonstrations continue in Jerusalem over the election as Italian troops within the city make sure that they do not turn violent. September 3rd 1971 Qatar gains nominal independence from Britain. This independence is conditional on the factors that the emirate allows Britain to continue to station troops within the country and that it pledges not to join the Lira Block. Even though Britain has largely moved away from granting colonies independence, the creation of the new emirate in the Mideast was seen as a positive in restoring British standing amongst the Arabs in the region. September 7th 1971 President Sadat of Egypt meets with Consul Medici. Sadat informs Medici of his plans for a renewed war with Israel, stressing that this is no way connected to the current situation in Jerusalem and will not be executed for at least a year. Medici is not very receptive of the plan saying that if Egypt does go to war with Israel it will be alone as the NRE has no cause for a new war with the Jewish state. Neither does he agree to sell Egypt state-of-the-art Italian weapons. September 17th 1971 The PLO detonates a bomb in a predominately Jewish section of Jerusalem injuring 11 people. September 20th 1971 Claiming responsibility for the bombing three days before the PLO declares that it will continue to apply pressure to the Zionist and fraudulent Jerusalem government until the rightful government is returned to power. September 22nd 1971 Rome responds to the PLO statement that Italian troops will continue to protect the peace of all the citizens of Jerusalem, Muslim, Jewish or Christian and will not tolerate terrorist attacks within the city. September 27th 1971 Emperor Hirohito meets with Emperor Umberto in Rome. The Japanese Emperor remarks later to the press that it is amazing to have found a nation that has not relegated its monarch to a merely symbolic role and still allows the throne to participate in the running of the nation. October 4th 1971 Germany and France request that the other free nations of Europe come together in a conference next year to discuss the state of Europe and to create a stronger united front against the other world powers. October 10th 1971 A wave of small bombings in Jerusalem prompts both the police and the Imperial garrison to crackdown on PLO terrorist cells. October 25th 1971 The UN General Assembly votes to expel the Republic of China(Taiwan) from the UN and admits the People’s Republic of China to take Taiwan’s seat. Representatives from Lira Block nations with UN membership walk out in protest during the Chinese Ambassador’s acceptance speech. End of Part 13.
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