Late-ish response, but here's my 2 cents:
Regarding le Grand Dauphin, its very hard to say. Traditional historiography seems to go with the idea that he was a dullard who had no ideas about how he'd reign and didn't really care (the famous "he could pass a whole day simply tapping his cane...
(appoligies for the wordy title, but couldn't figure out a shorter way to say it)
So I've recently started work on a TL in which the French Monarchy is restored for a third time in 1873 (aka Chambord accepts the Tricolor) and have a hit a roadblock in how this would affect Spain. For those who...
A very interesting thread. Trying to push past the debate over Sisi for a moment, I quite like the idea of Anna as Empress of Austria; she was considered quite intelligent and presided over a brilliant salon of artists and musicians. Moreover, in OTL she had three sons to Sisi's one, so using...
Personally, I'd like to see more TLs focused outside of Europe. Like some TLs set primarily in the middle east (ie Ottoman Empire, Abbasid Caliphate ex ex), Iran-Persia, India, China, Japan or pre-colonial Americas. The ones that exist are really good, but they're so few and far between.
I...
Personally, I've always got the feeling that Friedrich III's "liberalism" was overblown by later historians in light of the reign of Wilhelm II and the subsequent World wars. This is not unlike the overblown weight put on Alexander II of Russia.
I think, if Nader hadn't gotten super paranoid and blinded his only competent son Reza Qoli, then his Empire could have survived. IDK it it would have been fully established as the successors to the Safavids or not, but it would have lasted a bit longer.
Perhaps Władysław IV successfully gaining/securing the Russian throne? that would create a Polish-Lithuanian-Russian union stretching from Siberia all the way to Warsaw.
@unprincipled peter Er, I think you're getting your Britains confused. This isn't 18th century "balance of power" Britain; this is Restoration "lets divide up Holland with cousin Louis" England. Charles II and James II didn't seem to give a crap about a balance of power, and were more then happy...
Honestly a very interesting scenario to explore. I'd heard of the 1668 Treaty, but had never actually seen the proposed partition until now. I do have some thoughts on how such a scenario would unfold.
1. IDK who drew up this partition plan, but it seems like a nightmare to actually enforce. Of...
The biggest difference between the UK and Austria-Hungary is the lack of an "Imperial core". England, and the English people, was the UK's imperial core: English was the most widely spoken language of the state; the English region was the home of the vast majority of the nation's industry and...
I think the biggest issue Nappy had in Russia was a lack of clear goals, and an almost total divorce from reality toward the situation. Instead of treating his war with Russia as a massive conflict, the Emperor instead seemed to see it more like an 18th century cabinet war. Nappy seemed to think...
Except there's nothing stopping Isabel from collabing with a different faction of the army and removing the latest coupists. That happened like 3 or so times in her OTL reign, so there's no reason to think it wouldn't happen a 4th time ttl.
Sheer inertia, and getting all the crazy out of its system under Isabel II and the 1870s chaos. Though it is pretty telling that Restoration Spain basically invented a system of electoral fraud to keep the centre-right and centre-left in alternating power for decades (The Turno), in order to...
Again, you can't. Spain was a highly unstable society split between multiple political and social factions, each with their own influence and power. OTL was about as peaceful as such a mess could ever be.