United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover.

[Musketeer513]

In 1707 the Kingdoms of England and Scotland were united forming the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1801 Ireland joined this union. My POD is after the end of the Napoleanic Wars and Hanover (English spelling) is elevated to a Kingdom it is admiited into the union. British style democracy is introduced to the continent in 1815. The first major change I see is when Victoria take the throne and Hanover stays a part of the union instead of the dynastic seperation which occured in OTL.

[David S Poepoe]

Hmm. Sounds familiar. Hanover will have to change it adherance to the Salic Law. However, theres been mention before on this board, the likelihood that Britain would try to lessen its involvement on the continent. Hanover is a bit of a pain in the butt for the British.

[ljofa]

It just interesting to speculate what Prussia does - is Bismarck stupid enough to antagonise the British?

[Grey Wolf]

Hannover (why not use the German spelling for a German kingdom ?) was being run as a viceroyalty of the British crown, and as I understand it was virtually independent in this. The Viceroy ruled where a king would, and I am not aware of any specific reliance on Britain for anything ? Maybe it simply didn't get mentioned in what I have read, but quite possibly there was nothing.

The only real way to keep Hannover British is either to do what you propose, and tie it in to the United Kingdom, perhaps as part of the Act which fully incorporates Ireland at the turn of the century. Or to have a Hannoverian male inherit the British throne, and thus remain King of Hannover.

Grey Wolf

[DoleScum]

"It just interesting to speculate what Prussia does - is Bismarck stupid enough to antagonise the British?"

I doubt it, assuming that Hanover was incorporated into the union then Britain would have a permanent interest in European politics in the C19th – She wouldn’t have been able to withdraw into ‘splendid isolation’ as she did in reality.
Britain would probably have acted as a guarantor of the independence of the north German states in the same way that Austria did in the south. This may have led to conflict over schleswig-holstein or caused Britain to become embroiled in the austro-prussian war.
Assuming that some kind of German unification went ahead in the late 19th century I think Hanover would have been seen as an increasing liability for the British who would either have had to fork out large sums on its defence, or accept its loss as inevitable. I think the most likely scenario is that Britain would have traded Hanover (as it did Heligoland) to the German Empire in return for some kind of colonial concessions in Africa or the Middle East.