Italy divided

May 1951 (point of divergence): Marco Rossi (random common Italian name, he can be whoever) becomes prime minister of Italy, elected with democrazia cristiana, his secret plans are very clear in his mind since the begining.

A few months later, June 1951, Rossi has secret meeting with stalin. He proposes to USSR leader a very persuasive plan to split Italy into north and south, dividing Rome into two on the tiber river. The first would become the republic of northern Italy, a democratic parliamentary federal republic, on the german model, with capital city, Milan, and federal units the regions, the latter would become the socialist republic of Naples and two Sicilies, SRNS, led, very important detail, by Rossi. In return for this political change and "for the division of Italian people" (official reason), Rossi asks back the Adriatic lands taken from Yugoslavia after the war, to be part of SRNS: Stalin accepts.

End of June 1951: right after the publication of the agreements reactions are multiple, on NATO side it is seen with fear by europeans countries and with anger by USA, on Warsaw pact side it is seen as a great goal, from everyone excluse for Tito, Yugoslavia denies to give up freshly conquered lands, higher tensions grow between Yugoslavia and USSR

September-October 1951: however southern Italy is strategically too important for the global cold war which is taking shape, and USSR increases pressure on Yugoslavia to convince Tito to give back what Rossi demanded. As of agreement for the end of the year the splitting of Italy will be effective , USSR would like the Adriatic problem to be over for that date

November 1951: an agreement is reached between USSR, Rossi, and Tito, Yugoslavia will give up only Yugoslavian Julian March, SRNS will assure the Slavic minority, consequentially, Yugoslavia will annex Bulgaria as its 7th republic, Bulgaria is obligated to accept. Finally on November 21st 1951 the treaty of Beograd is reached the territory changes will be effective on January 1st 1952, on the same date Italy will be split. With this treaty, Yugoslavia and future SRNS will collaborate in friendship for mutual defense.

January 1952: NATO countries are astonished even because the treaty was top secret until December 31st 1951, many of them don't recognize the new state
USA and UK tighten the alliance with Northern Italy

April 1952: France, who fears growing power and decreasing geographical distance of communist block (Sardinia is right under Corsica and not too far away from french Mediterranean continental coasts), believing that northern Italy was diplomatically isolated, invades it with little efforts, USA and NATO are shocked and declare war on France to defend NI, Rossi was totally aware of these possible reactions, thus he reassures USSR and Yugoslavia not to intervene at all in this war.

End of May 1952 - July 1953: France, advances in Italy, annexing Aosta Valley, part of Piedmont and part of Liguria, establishing the "région" of "Cislpine" (capital: Turin), and creating the puppet state of republic of Genua. Nevertheless France, in a second part of the war is invaded from all sides: from the Atlantic by USA, from the English Channel by UK, from Rhineland by GFR and, finally even northern Italy recovers territories, with the help of NATO troops, which attacks Corsica and, then, Provence from Mediterranean. Paris falls in July 1953 and France surrenders.

September 27th 1953: (another) treaty of Paris, France has to give Alsace and german speaking moselle department to GFR and alpine pass to Italy. Plus Corsica is constituted as a separate state on dependence of USA, the same status of modern day Puerto Rico, to fight communism better. France has to pay just a little amount of money to NATO state but can keep all its army with no limits.

September 27th 1954 symbolically one year later, treaty of Frankfurt on Main is signed, three years later than in our timeline, the ECSC is born, since then the process of european integration is almost the same of our timeline.

1952-1954: meanwhile southern Italy knows a very strict dictatorship which declares a ruthless war to Mafia and all the other organized crimes using methods, such as the death penalty for the guilts, that leads to high social tensions.

1954-1989 (in NI): the history of Cold War is, apart for this important deviation, is the same, a lot of threats but no action "thanks" to the nuclear weapons. In northern Italy peace and "armory" are restored, the Marshall plan and the european action lead to the economical "boom" of sixties, the boom begins in the same years and with the same dynamics of our timeline, even if NI starts from a lower economical level, caused by the french war, massive aids arrive so that the economical gap with our timeline is filled.

1954-1989 (in SRNS): even if southern Italy has a good advantage on northern Italy in terms of time (peace instead of war), this "temporal bonus" is employed in fighting Mafia, this action takes all the period that runs from 1952 to the first half of the sixties, this little temporal blink of around 5 years, from (around) 1960 to (around) 1965, makes that many people from southern Italy, especially ex-Mafia but not only, abandon SRNS, emigration is allowed to everywhere, the favorite destinations are the Americas and northern Italy, it follows a period of stagnation both in economical and demographic fields. Finally Mafia is defeated, many of them have emigrated, some of them are died, killed by the socialist regime, a little part, having lost all their power, leave the criminal life and become normal citizens. The way to the economical growth is now open, meanwhile the world is beginning to experience global warming and climate change, SRNS specializes in renewable energies and its research reaches some aims that, in our timeline, are reached only in years 2000, preceding of 20-30 year modern science and contributing to save a big part of ice and global ecosystems exporting its technologies worldwide, in NATO countries too. Together with alimentary and war industries, green energy industries let SRNS having an economical boom during all the seventies, population, decreased a lot, starts to increase again, while many families emigrated in past years go back to SRNS, that still employ a socialist system. People who are coming back from Americas had a contact with liberal and democratic societies and, even though the government demands them, in exchange of permission of entry not to mention those new ideas, it is inevitable that those ideas spread in southern Italy.

1998 (in Italy): the communist block has fallen, the socialist regime is shaken by people's revolution, lacking of exterior support the regime falls in October 1998, a new democratic government is elected in a relatively rich southern Italy, the new name is Republic of Southern Italy, the new state dialogues with northern Italy and finally on April 25 1990, symbolic date coinciding with the date of the liberation in WW2, treaty of Rome is signed, Italy is reunited, like Germany in 1998, the new state will be a federal parliamentary republic, on german model; regions of Lazio and Friuli-Venezia Giulia with Rome are reunited, great celebrations are organized in Rome, the new capital city, on 26th.

1991-1992: Italy takes Serbian side in balkan war and pushes to make a free, peaceful and democratic federal state in Yugoslavia, Albanian parts are given back to Albania in 2006 and Yugoslavia joins the EU in 2007 (Italy is already in, the reunification has the same effect of Germany as for eec)

1995: Corsica is set free by USA since there is no more point in having it after the fall of Communism and joins EU in 2004

Italy is now (alt. history) a well balanced state under economical and demographical point of view in the European Union, 2008 economical crisis hits it less then in our timeline (as much as today France)