What if Italy Was Divided Like Germany After WWII? 

Special thanks to EmperorTigerstar for the suggestion. Check out his channel if you don't know who he is already. ru-vid.com

Aaah, yes. Every italian's favourite Alternate History: Divided Italy

“A unified Italy is a danger to European and world peace” -No one

"democratically elected communists and socialists into power" Ooh. That's like holding a red flag to a bull, except the bull is America and the red flag is a, uh, red flag-

“You can’t ignore a popular election in the West” Laughs in 1975 Australian constitutional crisis

I hope I never stop laughing at the swastika being replaced with the RU-vid logo.

Southern Italy was much more monarchist than the north so it could have resulted in the kingdom of Italy surviving in the south

As an italian, I must say that I know really little about the history of my country. In middle school we just skip to the establishment of democracy after the election of 1948 and hail constitution as a deity, I really didn't know that communist was this popular in Italy at the time. Also, the north/south division is something which you can't ignore in Italy, the two almost seems like two different countries

0:32 “Becoming a relatively stable NATO ally” Keyword: Relatively

"And just like the Romans, it fell to the Germans" OOF

fell asleep watching a documentary about Mussolini, woke up to this and was confused as fuck before I realised that this was an alternate history channel. Stellar video tho

"Progress is actively deterred for the sake of benefiting the pockets of a few crime families" I thought we were discussing alternate history, not real events. *cries in Neapolitan*

4:27 Germany causally annexes Austria

You are now obligated to do "What if Japan was divided after WWII"

If this happened, North Italy would have Stalin’s brother, Mario, in charge.

I have a feeling South Italy would probably see a lot of investment to make it modern and industrial. The US would probably sink a bunch of cash into it to at the very least prop it up. Couple that with a focus on shipping in the south. Resources from Africa and the Middle East flowing into factories and refineries in southern Italy being shipped out across the Mediterranean and beyond.

“Moderate centrist party.” *shows grill daddy*

0:56 Aw shucks no prob- 0:58 OH GOD WHAT IS THAT? (Actually for fan art that’s kind of adorable).

Interesting angle for an alternate history video! Great stuff as always :)

A very good job!! Thank you for all the time and effort that you spend on your videos. I love well conceived and delivered alternate history.

“Relatively stable”…. *Operation Gladio intensifies*

What if King Bach never pulled out the Comically Large Spoon?

This coming from an Italian: Korea situation was much sadder, a country that was essentially united for 2000 years then suffered 50 years of Japanese abuse and then divided in to tanks to all their neighbors

This might be my favorite video you have made, short and sweet with a fascinating outcome.

I hope there will be more videos about world history and Vietnam. Thank you team, every video is good 👏🏻

“South Italy becomes a mafia state” Mexico: Bienvenido Hermano

"Relatively stable" Well, that's really fucking generous.

Honestly, I think this has one of the happier endings than the other ones, though maybe that’s because I just watched the one on if Germany was split differently

North italy: actually successfull communist state South italy: basically european mexico

I get the red green split here but I can't stop thinking about the North and South like Mario and Luigi

I also feel that the Pope and the Vatican would have a massive impact on southern politics, perhaps even power to rival the mafia. This is especially apparent when you consider that the Vatican had declared a "crusade" on communism during the 1948 election and was responsible for convincing much of the South to vote Christian democrats

I love that sometimes the Italian flag's green falls into green screen logic and becomes transparent just like Felice Caccamo's tie

The three state Italy is honestly the most likely if not the most interestingly cursed. Fantastic video!

Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany: I see this as an absolute win

As an italian, this video makes me die inside. italy is already culturally divided between north and south, If each one was it's own country, the divide would be irreparable

That scenario would have been interesting to see play out in reality And I have to agree with you that the debate about Socialism and leftist politics certainly would be taking on a more nuanced town today .

Great job with the ad at the end. 😅👍 (oh, and the actual alternate history video too 😉)

Italian Mafia in South italy in the alternate universe: I love democracy.

I feel like South Italy would still be the Kingdom of Italy since the south largely voted to keep the monarchy in the 1946 referendum.

I like how you looked into the subject quite well but do you perhaps think it would affect other countries as well?

I really enjoyed this!!

"There were plans to divide Japan." For some reason, my brain immediately went to "Ainu Ethnic State Hokkaido", and I'm not entirely sure why.

Southern Italy could theoretically become Russia. A "democracy" with an president and the Mafia being some kind of oligarchy

I thought of a weird alternate history: the USSR emulated China in reforms and stopped threatening Europe. Would it become sort of like the factory of Europe.?

Just discovered your channel by watching your video on what would it have been like if British India did not exist…great job, just subscribed We need a longer video on that topic

Luigi: mario, wheres-a my coins? Mario: Its-a OUR coins now *sends Luigi to gulag*

As a geography nerd I know of a city in Russia called Togliatti, but I never investigated the background of such a markedly non Russian name.

I can't see the US letting such an unstable south Italy in Europe, it would show that capitalism does not work, and they don't want to show that, so they would most likely send financial help and attempt to industrialise the south. I don't know if they would succeed, but I suspect that Sicily would be much better off that it is today, being rather industrialised and with lots of big cities

5:27 I'm italian and i live in Friuli Venezia Giulia, i think that in this scenario the region of veneto, Friuli venezia Giulia and trentino alto adige were 3 different states, because even now there are differents between this regions and the other italian territories.

To be fair in the referendum on the monarchy in 1946 there was a north south devide between the (largely) pro-monarchy south and the republican north. This was before the point of diveregnce mentioned but if the split happened maybe the monarchy could come back too.

But Cody, How would we know which Italy to make WW2 jokes about?

"Southern Italy would become a corrupt failed state in many ways with a level of bribery and corruption we'd see in a failing south american dictatorship" Well, that still exist in actuality and is very painful to see the reality for us in the eyes of alternate history for others

Please do more kaiserreich videos going into detail on specific conflicts

North Italy: Commie Paradise South Italy: Mafia Kleptocracy

"And so like Rome it fell to the Germans" Jeez that was savage

I wonder if this would've helped avoid the Years of Lead in Italy or would it turn into a border conflict of some sort?

I love this content I wish I could see it more often

Southern Italy after WW2 would have probably shifted towards a monarchy as most of the south supported that ideology in those years and mafia would be a powerful entity within the nation, but it would probably merge into the political and economic landscape, becoming a sort of new class in society, not becoming a mafia-state

"Togliatti would not be like Stalin and Mao, his leadership in the party was competent" lmao

North Italy: the paradise all bread tubers swear is real. South Italy: GTA 6: Golden Wind.

Great stuff! You should do one for Chile's 1973 military coup

"I think both sides would just let things be" As an italian I want to ask, have you ever met an italian before? haha

"We all know what the US would do" Oh lawd he comin'

Another scenario that I think may be (slightly) more plausible is if, following the Institutional referendum of 1946 (Republic v. Monarchy), which ended in a very close vote- the Republican victory that was declared being not at all secure, and the King even trying to start a Monarchist military coup,- instead of being dissuaded to coup the Republican government, the King does start a coup, but rapid UN intervention imposes a ceasefire in Italy, with a Republican North and a Monarchist South. The North, as would be expected, votes the Socialists/Communists into power, whilst the South stays a Nato ally (even if not necessarily a Democratic one), and we go from there.

This was pretty fun and reminded me of a Timeline I'd really love to see you cover. Please please please check out Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline and make a video on it, I'd love to see more people check out and enjoy that timeline.

South Italy really be a Gangsta's Paradise

0:57 I didn't expect to see my artwork in one of your videos but I feel honored! Thank You!

I am happy that RU-vidrs who put sponsors at the end of the video exist.

Nice video :)

To be honest This is an alternate history I'd actually like to see myself, even if it's just being able to read the Wikipedia articles about them from this alternate timeline I'd love to see how it'd change a lot of the political topics of conflict today, or if it'd have enough of a butterfly effect that it'd change everything about today

this is one of the more interesting scenarios to think about, simply cus of how the conditions of the split was diferent from the other communist nations unlike Germany where most of the industry was lokated in the west, Korea where the north was compleatly Destroyed during the korean war or the warsaw pact which was poor even before ww2, a Communist country that had the advantage from the start, it would be facinating how that might play out

As an italian I can say that this is a very possible alternative timeline but i don't think any reunification would be possible because the nation split after a popular vote, not forced like germany and I don't that the north would have been ok with reuniting with the whole mafia/right parties situation in the south

This is a very good video ! well done , but i recommend switching the north and the south , yeah it doesn't make much sense from a perspective but the north is richer and more hard working while the south is more into farming and stuff like that.

The second that Cody brought up the Mafia, I instantly thought "ok so when does Diavolo factor into this". And lo and behold, 12:00 gives us Primo Mafioso Giorno Giovanna.

Please do: what if Mexico accepted the Zimmerman Telegram

1:39 that's not "ridding itself of fascism", that was the Savoy emblem which had been on the flag since 1860 and remained on it until the birth of the Republic in 1946. Nothing to do with fascism. If anything, a clearly fascist flag was the RSI battle flag which featured an eagle on a fasce over the Italian flag.

10:26 that town is 100% not in south or even central Italy. I'd go as far as to guess it's from South Tyrol, the northernmost province of Italy. Also, if you look at the monarchy/republic referendum, the vote towards republic mainly came from the north, it feels off to see the republic being put in the south, where most of the monarchy votes came from A parte from that, the vid is cool

“What if we lived in the Harrison Bergeron dystopia”

Very cool what if. Speaking from what I know, my Grandfather (RIP), from the South, hated the facist government and the War (along with most of the South) but was drafted and had to fight in Greece. He did his tours then came back home. He volunteered for the new army to help retake the country with the Allies. Became a German POW, which, it turns out, was kinda horrible. But he made it through and eventually saw the birth of his mediocre Grandson. Plus he learned to speak a bit of Greek and German (and English, obviously, when he immigrated), he was cool dude, miss him.

hey tyler. i recently started watching the Chernobyl miniseries (yes, I'm a very topical guy) and in the second episode they were talking about how "the tanks are full" and if the lava got there, it would rupture all the cores leading to a nuclear winter for the soviet block and probably most of Europe and other parts of the world. here's my question/idea for a video. What if they failed.

like the use of music in the video

_"It's free real estate."_ - Goths (probably)

idea: what if Gregory Zhukov took power after Stalin died instead of Khrushchev?

Question what song did you use in the end parts I like it

First time I became aware of the extreme differences between North and South Italy, was when some Italian seperatist politician, Umberto Bossi, declared 'Padanian independence' in the late 1990s. Padania would have been the name of an independent Northern Italy.

What would happen to South Tyrol in this timeline? I remember reading somewhere that it was not given back to Austria after WW2 because there was fears that Italy would turn communist if it happened.

Well for one thing, Super Mario Bros might actually be about a working class hero trying to rescue a helpless woman from an autocratic monarchy that denies rights to the labor class. And then Mario becomes evil and starts making the turtles clean the sewers.

Post WW2 Europe: "We plege to not have another war in Europe" Putin 2022: "Hold my Vodka"

14:31 Yo did anyone notice the two red dots or glowing eyes in the top middle

13:06 that flag on the right is actually the Federal Service Flag of (West) Germany.

I could see a thin demilitarized zone run by the papal state.

Another Point:A large Second wave of immigration of southern italians in America would have happened after The 1965 Immigration Act was signed,as the condtions would've been even worse then when most italians immigrated in the early 20th century.

Interesting video, but some much needed corrections: 1. It's Lombardy not Lombard in English (Lombardia in Italian, and both pronounced as you'd expect). 2. The South of Italy was not always as unfortunate and the North not so lucky as you claim. The North was the victim of many wars throughout the early modern era between its more powerful neighbours, in fact when Italy was unified Lombardy (the region of Milan) and Veneto (the region of Venice) were the poorest regions of Italy, but today they're the richest two. Meanwhile the Kingdom of Sicily (meaning Sicily and Naples) were extremely prosperous regions from agricultural industries that are still important today. However these regions were deeply conservative and dominated by large land owners and they never industrialised. It was only after Italian unification in the 1870s that Sicily and the South because how you described it. 3. Because one point 2, it's a leap to assume that an independent South Italy would resemble itself as part of a unified Italy. Without the North and the influence of Northern elites we can't say how this might affect the South. In our timeline Southern Italians generally have to move to the Milan, Rome or Turin for work and the South is culturally denigrated and borderline persecuted by a state that likes to pretend its not there while taking backhands from the various mafia. I'd like to be slightly more optimistic and say that if independent from the 1940s it could have pulled itself up and prospered, but the truth is the US would have probably created the very situation you described just like they did in South America. The CIA only support democracy if it means their puppets win. 4. The North and South are very different culturally and even between the different regions (regions are the Italian equivalent of US states for anyone not aware). They all have different dialects and cultures, and what we think of as Italian is just a standardised form of Florentine Italian forced on people from the 19th century when it was unified (chosen because of Florence's important role in Italian literature and culture). In reality dialects and languages are all on a continuum, and so languages are just the ones with an army to back them up. I say this to emphasise that Italian unification after the end of the Cold War (assuming the butterflies of this mean the ending stays the same, which I doubt) was in no way inevitable. Italy as a united country in this alternate timeline would have only lasted about 70 years compared to hundreds as very different entities.

Can you do a video on centered on the question, “What if Spain didn’t have a civil war before WW2” ?

Unlike Korea and Vietnam, both northern and southern Italy would keep switching between the Western and Eastern blocs.

"Hey isn't this familiar" My exact thought 2 minutes earlier.

Interesting video but there's a major problem; it assumes that the PCI would evolve the same way in power that it did out of power

This was so interesting as an Italian and I liked the "what if" a lot, very well made

Alternate History Hub: dividing a country is a last resort when they don’t surrender *sad Korea noises*

Hey AlternateHistoryHUb, remember when you made a video about the alternate history video for the Hearts of Iron 4 mod "Kaiserreich"? Well I don't know if you are already making something but I have a proposition for perhaps a future video. Is it possible to make a video about the HOI4 mod "The New Order: Last Days of Europe"?