Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula sits at the the south of Europe on the Mediterranean. Sicily is just off the bottom left coast of it, and the top half extends to a degree into the Alps, with what is Austria, and what will eventually become Switzerland to the north. It is currently split between to competing powers, one at the top half from Rome upwards, and another in the south. The former power is the Papal States, while the south is the Lombards. Both of these are hostile to one another, and regularly carry out raids and the like into each other's territory.
The Papal States are a collection of related states controlled from Rome, or more specifically the Vatican City & the Papacy. They have had help in the past 75 to 100 years from the Franks to win the majority of their holding back from the Lombards. By doing so they have pushed the latter halfway down the peninsula weakening them. The Papal States control the Roman Catholic faith and deal almost exclusively with Roman Catholic countries, and trade quite openly with them too. Some trade comes from the Middle East too, where their ports import valuable commodities for sale in Europe.
The Lombards are a Germanic tribe that attacked the Papal States due to ongoing bad relations due to their beliefs in either paganism or Arian Christianity. They see the Papacy as denying them wealth and power, as well as their own land to rule. This led them to attack and conquer the surrounding regions in the 560s AD. The Franks have pushed them south after a request by the Papacy, and they control the more southerly states of Italy, at least with Lombard nobility.
The Papal States are a collection of related states controlled from Rome, or more specifically the Vatican City & the Papacy. They have had help in the past 75 to 100 years from the Franks to win the majority of their holding back from the Lombards. By doing so they have pushed the latter halfway down the peninsula weakening them. The Papal States control the Roman Catholic faith and deal almost exclusively with Roman Catholic countries, and trade quite openly with them too. Some trade comes from the Middle East too, where their ports import valuable commodities for sale in Europe.
The Lombards are a Germanic tribe that attacked the Papal States due to ongoing bad relations due to their beliefs in either paganism or Arian Christianity. They see the Papacy as denying them wealth and power, as well as their own land to rule. This led them to attack and conquer the surrounding regions in the 560s AD. The Franks have pushed them south after a request by the Papacy, and they control the more southerly states of Italy, at least with Lombard nobility.
Type
Geopolitical, Country
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