Leej said:
We'd need some different kids born, someone 'better' for the Austrians who reforms and all that and also someone 'better' for Germany who doesn't alienate Britain and keeps them at least neutral.
Or maybe French victory in the Franco-Prussian war...
I see Germany as the key here whichever way you go about it.
Hmmm - interesting!
We could have Mack do a couple of things slightly different at Ulm in 1805 and suddenly it's Napoleon who is trapped. Napoleonic wars end almost before they have started, and the Habsburgs consolidate as the primary power of the continent. The Prussians realise that this will be the end of their superpower dreams, but are decisively beaten in 1807. In Russia Alexander really can't decide what to do. He's sure he's the saviour of mankind, but who shall he save mankind from? By 1812 he has decided that the Austrians and their willing British supporters are the scum of the earth, and launches big offensive westwards. The Holy Union created by Metternich reacts swiftly however, and 100’s of thousands of Russian soldiers are lost due to bad logistics and enemy action. Not at least the numerous Habsburg Streifkorps wreck havoc in the slow moving Russian columns. Alexander is displaced and Russia is decimated by loosing a lot of land in the west (Baltic and Ukraine) and a more introvert Czar is installed. Russia turns into a much more moderately sized power that basically stays away from European affairs, but still have ambitions in the Caucasus (to the worry of mainly the Ottomans but also the British Empire – will the Russians eventually reach India?).
Nationalism never gets the boost it did during the Napoleonic wars, and basically this means that the Habsburg have some extra decades to get reforms in place. Metternich initially opposes any change and the generally good times, economically and culturally, support him (no drain from Napoleonic wars). But by mid 19th century there is a major rebellion in Hungary and in protestant Northern Germany. The two incidents are not coordinated but by happening at the same time the Empire and its Holy Union are severely strained. In the end the Hungarians are crushed but the Holy Union looses its power over North Germany, France and Netherlands and is replaced by a Federal Monarchy containing the OTL Habsburg Empire plus Bavaria. In effect the Hungarian nobility have lost its special position, and instead the different nationalities are closer to equal rights. In the North a protestant league incl. North/West Germany, Netherlands, Denmark-Norway and Sweden-Finland is formed. Around 1860 the French, lead by a descendant of Napoleon interfere in Habsburg matters by supporting Polish, Bavarian and Italian dissidents, and it comes to war in which France is again decisively beaten. The Protestant League and the British intermediate and make sure the Habsburgs are not rolling over the continent and basically it ends in status quo, but also in France paying large indemnities.
Industrialisation now starts to roll, and the Habsburg Empire is in the front, especially in Galicia, Bohemia, Austria, N. Italy and Bavaria. The other great powers are UK, Protestant League and France, but Russia is slowly gaining weight. By early 20th century a French-Russian-Spanish-Ottoman alliance is formed and it comes to war over some dynastic questions regarding the Kingdom of Naples. The British and Protestant League are to busy watching each other to bother about the other continentals. The war turns out to very bloody on all fronts. By 1916 the Habsburgs are close to collapsing, but are saved by intervention from the Protestant League, UK and USA. The French, Russians and Ottomans try an all-out offensive before the reinforcements arrive, but fail on all fronts and the regimes in all countries collapse. At the peace conference the Habsburgs are forced by the intervening power to grant Italy and Poland independence (the last mainly chewed out of Ukraine), but gain both land and influence in the Balkans. The British and Protestant League use the opportunity to dismember the Ottoman Empire while they are at it. In France, Italy, Spain and Russia civil war follows between reds and whites, but in all places the white win and quickly develops into what we in OTL would call fascist regimes. USA turns isolationist and Turkey wisely decide to stay out of any European turmoil.
In the 20’s and 30’s an international fascist league of France, Italy, Spain, Russia and Japan emerges, and openly cry for revenge over the old regimes. The Habsurgs have alliances with UK and the Protestant League but on 14th of October 1940 the Fascist League attack into what is in OTL Rumania (Ploesti oilfields) and from Italy into Austria and with diversionary offensives from France into the Protestant League. In the Atlantic and Med. British and Protestant shipping and bases are attacked (taking Gibraltar) and in the Far East the Japanese fall over British and Protestant League possessions. The idea is to take out Austria while winter prohibits the Protestant League from undertaking major offensives into Russia or France and simultaneously engage the British and Protestants as many places as possible. The plan almost succeeds, as Ploesti is reached, but the Russian Army then suffers of its old problem of insufficient logistics and a counteroffensive supported by British/Protestant League Expeditionary Force thrashes the Russian Army. In the Far East the Japanese suffer from similar problems as their army forces landed in Malaya and Protestant East India finds themselves cut off by British and Protestant naval forces supported by land based air (the Protestant navy is about the size of RN). By Spring of 1941 the Protestant League start a major offensive into Russia from the Baltic, and in two months Moscow has fallen and the Russians driven out of Habsburg possessions. In Russia the dictator and leader of the “Motherland Steel party” a Georgian called “the Steel Man” suffers the fate of the last Czar and the leaders in France and Italy experience fates similar to OTL Mussolini. This ends the war for the Habsburgs who again have come out successfully of a war.
In 1945 it is announced that a team under the Viennese scientist Dr. Albert Einstein has developed a new and extremely powerful weapon, which has been successfully tested in the Transylvanian Mountains. The world is shocked by film footage showing an entire mountain being blown/melted into atoms. Kaiser Otto announces that the next attacker will suffer a fate similar to the Transylvanian mountain…
Regards
Steffen Redbeard