Bella Italia Militar: Eserciti e Marine nell'Italia pre-napoleonica (1748-1792), and: Storia Militare dell'Italia Giacobina (1796-1802) (review)

After the French invasion of 1494, the pursuit of dynastic interests in Italy resulted in extensive campaigning in the peninsula for the next three centuries. The French Revolution transformed dynastic objectives into national policy and Italy remained a focus of military and political endeavors. These conflicts took on a general European character with primary military efforts focused on Germany and Belgium. Yet, the grand strategic designs always involved pressing Italian claims. These European conflicts often overshadowed the internal politics of the Italian peninsula.

The three splendid volumes by Virgilio Ilari, Ciro Paoletti, and Piero Crociani under review here comprise three-quarters of the official military history of the Italian peninsula from the mid-eighteenth century through the French Revolution. The other volume of the quartet, La Guerra della Alpi [The war in the Alps] (1792-1796) was reviewed in the April 2002 issue of the JMH. Their series is a significant contribution to the historical literature of the period. The authors rely heavily on archival material from Milan, Rome, Turin, and Naples, along with an exhaustive and impressive bibliography of printed sources. In all three volumes, the authors' narrative begins with an analysis of Italy's geopolitical position in Europe, and the impact of European politics and military campaigns on the individual Italian states. With the international context established, the authors proceed to examine the internal politics of the peninsula and the military organization and operations of the princes. Careful consideration is given to economic constraints and the intellectual, social, and cultural factors that impinged upon policy and conduct.

Bella Italia Militar (1748-92) covers the rare forty years of peace in the peninsula after the War of the Austrian Succession. The diplomatic revolution and the political realignment of Europe, in particular the Bourbon-Habsburg marriage alliance, eliminated the direct cause of conflict in the peninsula. This volte face, according to the authors, was of great concern to England, which found its strategic situation in the Mediterranean compromised. Economic incentives offered to Italian princes were insufficient to alter the realignment. Furthermore, the third Bourbon Family Compact (1761), which included Naples and Parma, reaffirmed this relationship. French acquisition of Corsica, along with the marriage contracts between the House of Bourbon and the House of Savoy in the 1770s, virtually eliminated English influence. In short, the Italian politics of France and Austria resulted in creating Bourbon "dominance" in the Tyrrhenian Sea and Habsburg sway in the Adriatic (p. 15).

Ilari, Paoletti, and Crociani spend most of their energy on the extensive military reforms during the years of peace. Enlightenment influence, generally transmitted through popular Masonic lodges, combined with what can be termed an eighteenth-century Italian "peace dividend," resulted in the gradual reduction of armed forces. Declining military expenditure aided fiscal rationalization. The extreme case was the Leopoldine demilitarization of Tuscany.

Reform and reorganization of the Italian armies followed the European...