Il Battaglione di Marina Toscano e la spedizione nel Coromandel. Le ragioni geopolitiche di una progettata proiezione livornese anziché triestina alle foci del Gange

Abstract

The professonalization of the XVIIIth century armies and the commercial expansion of the main European powers made necessary to create special units of marine infantry. But a small state like the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with an almost non-existent navy, why decided in 1746 to establish a marine battalion? After drawing a general picture of the Lorraine military reforms, the article explains that the purpose of the marine battalion was to create a Lorraine base at the mouth of the Ganges. The project, later abandoned for financial reasons, was to reestablish an Austrian presence in India after the suppression (1731) of the Ostend Company, however connecting Vienna not directly from Trieste but indirectly from Livorno, the main English commercial center in the Mediterranean, in order to reassure the British Company of the East Indies.