Montesuvian Silver Rush
The Montesuvian Silver Rush, commonly known as the Silver Rush of 1296 TT, was a period of warring conflict in La Rossa lasting from 1296 TT to 1044 TT, culminating in the nation's unification. Started by the discovery of large deposits of silver underneath the Montesuvian mountain range, the search for the metal (used in trade for centuries before, in smaller amounts) resulted in a decades-long fight for control over the mountain range by the Six Families, the merchant dynasties that held gripping influence over the island, which has persisted to this day.
Timeline
In the centuries prior to the Silver Rush, the island of La Rossa saw the construction of several cities and settlements around its coastline, and growing trade between them. Assembling into independent city-states, the trade centers formed relationships with each other on individual bases. Most came to pragmatically engage in trade with each other in order to account for the lacks in local resources. Silver, used mostly in jewellery and trinkets, saw minor presence in trade, although it was always seen as a valuable metal due to its shine and rarity.
In 1296 TT, mining prospects in search of salt by the Barozzo family from Tolia uncovered silver ore beneath the mountains of Montesuvia. As news spread across the coastline, along with the goods and riches they spoke of, a sudden interest was almost universally placed on the mountain range that towered over the island. The richest merchant families across the coast were quick to invest in mining operations in the mountain range, and had their bets swiftly pay off. The following decades saw the greater concentration of wealth among a handful of merchant Families, which used their newfound wealth to buy out and overwhelm smaller competitors. Eventually, complete control over the island's mining facilities could be found in the hands of a mere six cities, those being Buglio, Lorma, Mineria, Padeno, Salino, and Tolia. With the other towns seeing less and less local wealth, most being bought out by the neighboring giants, the populations of the smaller cities slowly dwindled, and shifted into becoming part of the aforementioned six.
By 1240 TT, with the wealth of the Families rapidly growing, their immense capital would allow them to come to be the de facto rulers of their local townships, owning directly or indirectly, through marital ties, the vast majority of the manufacturing centers in their home cities. Opening additional facilities in the mountains, each of the merchant Families sought to expand their areas of control in order to increase the extraction of the valuable metal, now commonplace as currency, used almost universally by the islands inhabitants, convenient due to its high value, non-changing density and easily measurable weight.
Expansion into neighboring territory, close to the operations of competing Families, became an increasing occurrence past 1200 TT. At first met with verbal scorn and punishments through trade tariffs, the following decades would see the rise of paid mercenaries in use as armed guards, defending against intrusion upon territory. The defensive model was soon adopted by all major mine owners, as news of several offensive incursions were noted around the time. The decades that followed saw the transformation of the Silver Rush into a bloody territorial battle, as skirmishes and mine seizing offenses became more prevalent, and more overt forms of punishment, such as trade blockades, began being utilized. With the cold mountaintops proving to be areas unfit for prolonged life, especially in warring conditions, the path of the mercenary became one of the most opportune sources of wealth for those not born into it, under the condition that they could survive it, as attrition quickly wore down most men fighting.
Although the skirmishes were fought often, the areas of regional control did not change significantly over the decades, with changes in control being swiftly reversed, sometimes even several times in a year. With increasing money being diverted into the local militaries, and the instability in control leading extraction to dwindle in the borderlands, the neverending conflict became the bane of all those who participated in it, yet impossible to escape from. Rising to become the head of the Giannone family in Salino in 1048 TT, Giuseppe Giannone would be the first to go against conventional wisdom, and chose to contact the Buonestrotti and Miglio families in Buglio and Padeno. Crafting a peace agreement over many months as the tensions between the neighboring cities cooled, a formal written agreement was signed whereby hostilities between the three would cease, and the Giannone family, their city standing in between the two, would monetarily help the armies of Padeno and Buglio.
See more: Unification of La Rossa
With silver extraction no longer impeded by conflicts between the three, the following years saw a sharp increase in growth among the cities, with rising mutual intercity trade on the southern coast. The three cities on the north of the island, seeing the results the other Families were able to achieve, decided to lay down their arms, and asked for a seat at the negotiating table. Wishing to avoid such harmful conflict in the future, the city-states defined the borders of their regional control, formally agreeing not to overstep it. In order to ensure that arms cannot be taken up one against all, the Families would decide that a governing body, possessing arms of its own, would be needed in order to keep the island under the prosperity of peace. With the regional areas serving as the boundaries of the administrative city-provinces, a central government, to be led by a Dux, would preside over them, with absolute control over the island, bound only by the vote of the Families that ruled over it. Requiring a majority vote in order to be handed a mandate by the merchants once every two years, a timeframe chosen as to not allow any ruler to become overly comfortable with the power they hold, on 2-7 1044 TT, Giuseppe Giannone di Salino, the Father of La Rossa, would be crowned and given right to reign as the nation's first Dux.