Constantino landed personally with his army of 15,000 in the Tunisian heartland and marched on the Capital itself. Back home his brother worked on his plan on turning the republic into Constantino’s personal monarchy. He allied the small Muslim state of Kabyla to gain support and supplies on the African continent. Castile and Genoa joined Tuscany and Kabyla to beat Tunisia and its two vassals into submission in the grace of God.
The Tuscanese military was far more technologically advanced then the North African nations they now faced. Constantino hunted down and eliminated the Tunisian army before sieging the Capital of Tunis itself. He won the battle with a ten to one ratio of casualties. He only lost 1,500 men while all 7,000 Tunisian’s was killed. Castilian and Tuscany ships blockaded the Tunisian ports and Constantino split up his army to carpet siege Tunisia.
The Tuscan-Tunis War raged on from 1458-1561 when Tunis was forced to except a humiliating peace treaty. Tuscany gave a province to Kabyla, annexed almost all Tunisian land themselves and forced them to release Algiers in Mitidja. Tunis was allowed to keep their vassal and provided Tuscany with War reparations and a large sum of money.
Constantino returned home to Italy to be celebrated as a hero and the feast lasted for days as people partied on the streets both night and day. It was the greatest military achievement in the republics history.
The 28th May 1461 Constantino reformed the Merchant Republic into a Noble Republic with elections every eight years instead of every fourth. It was the first step in his plan to turn the Republic into a dictatorship under him. He was thirty-nine years old and yet he wasn’t worried about what time he had. He assumed the title of Prince instead of Doge.
In short he returned to the Tunisian colony to continue making war with Tripoli, a heretic nation bordering Tuscany North Africa. But not to anger the population back home he recruited mercenaries to assist in the fight and to make sure that not too many Tuscan men returned home in caskets.
General Grimaldi was put in charge of half the army with Constantino commanding the other half.
In January 1462 Constantino led 11,000 men into Kabyla to crush the peasant uprising. He did so with brutal force and efficiency. The Kabyla Malik was most grateful for Constantino keeping him in power. Just as he was poised to attack Tripoli Castile declared war upon an alliance of Western North African nations, excluding the Ottomans who was in Turkey. Constantino was forced to go to war with his newest ally. Kabyla was pulled in and their armies crushed by their former ally.
Constantino was furious at the Castilian King for halting his plans of a North African Tuscanese Empire. It would be the beginning of a huge Tuscanese Mediterranean Empire.
1464 the war ended, however Tuscany was forced to come to the aid of Algiers who was attacked by Kabyla. Tuscany declared war on Tripoli finally in 1466 in June. In September Genoa asked for help when Crimea and the Ottomans was attacking its territory in the black sea. Tuscany joined and set their best naval commander, Admiral Henry Stefano. Henry Stefano was fifty-seven years old and have spent twenty years living in England. There he had been educated in both administrative and military tasks. He had been a political rival to Constantino’s both predecessors.
On the 17th December 1466 the Tuscany navy suffered a heavy defeat by the Ottoman navy. Henry Stefano sunk with his ship. Standing with 34 ships the Tuscan navy faced the 120 strong Ottoman navy. But Rear Admiral Medici, a relative to the former Doge Medici managed to win several battles and sink many Ottoman galleys and slowly ground down their naval power.
Algiers was vassalized and they planned to turn them into a march and give them all of Western North Africa.
Constantino died suddenly while campaigning in Tripoli. He was only forty-four years old. He seemingly fell off his horse during and March and was declared dead before he hit the ground by a physician. His dream of an empire temporarily died with him. However his dream of a monarchy survived. A Bureaucrat became the next Prince. Innocenzo Barbarini was 47 years old. Barbarini wasn’t expected to live for very long. Without an actually plan Prince Barbarini continued both wars until the enemy would capitulated. He sued manpower that Tuscany couldn’t effort to create a new army in Italy.
The war with Tripoli ended in success and half the nation in Tuscany hands 1468. The Ottoman-Genoan war entered its third year. But with all manpower gone the Tuscany war machine grounds to a bloody halt.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
