Lately I've been reading a fair bit about medieval communes, the history of Switzerland, city states, etc...
It is quite interesting stuff to see how widespread such pseudo-democratic institutions were in the high medieval period, where by the early modern period they had largely vanished, Switzerland being the only real survivor.
So. How could we get a situation where the Lombard League in northern Italy survives?
It seems that this could be one of those scenarios where the changes needed to make it happen dwarf the goal- its abandonment IOTL, from the very simplified version I've read (hurray for wikipedia) was down to the collapse of the Hohenstaufens and it no longer being required.
It could be interesting to see a scenario though where it holds and down the line confederalises somewhat. The plains of northern Italy were a far richer place than the Alps afterall.
It is quite interesting stuff to see how widespread such pseudo-democratic institutions were in the high medieval period, where by the early modern period they had largely vanished, Switzerland being the only real survivor.
So. How could we get a situation where the Lombard League in northern Italy survives?
It seems that this could be one of those scenarios where the changes needed to make it happen dwarf the goal- its abandonment IOTL, from the very simplified version I've read (hurray for wikipedia) was down to the collapse of the Hohenstaufens and it no longer being required.
It could be interesting to see a scenario though where it holds and down the line confederalises somewhat. The plains of northern Italy were a far richer place than the Alps afterall.