19th Century Austria Europe's Strongest Power

What would it take for 19th Century Austria to be the strongest power in Europe?

You can't have Austria unite all of Germany but you can have Austria annex more of Germany (and other territories). PODs need to be 1809 or later.
 
Well I hope Britain could be excluded in this scenario since it is a sea power and would only care about Europe the if the balance of power was disrupted. France was Austria main rival during this time period, things had quieted down with Prussia until 1866 since problems could be resolved in the German Confederation. France will need to be contained both politically and ideologically. The latter is the hard part. France had a lot of revolutions during this time period, so it was exporting a lot of ideological material that would need to be suppressed. It is funny that Austria's success depends on the political stability of France!

The more disunited Germany and Italy are, the more powerful Austria would be. Letting Austria annex German territory makes this a little too easy because this could turn into a Prussia-screw timeline and it isn't like there arn't plenty of those already but if Austria beats Prussia they could take Silesia back. They absolutely could do that. Now the Italians got screwed over in OTL. The Germans at least got the German confederation but the Italians got nothing from the Congress of Vienna. Even so, Italy was unified almost too easily in OTL, it wouldn't be to hard to make an almost unrecognizable Italy from ours under the right circumstances. If Austria was the predominant power over both a disunited Germany and Italy, they would be a lot stronger.

Even under the most favorable circumstances though I can't see nationalism being delayed for longer than 50 years, so Austria will need to adapt to that or there will be a total meltdown by 1900 give or take 20 years. Nationalism was linked Industrial Revolution and both of those things are what finally killed Austria.
 
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I'd exclude Britain from the scenario, yes.

Austrian Silesia would increase the percentage of the Empire comprised by Germans to 30% from 23% if we're sticking with the OTL boundaries of Austria-Hungary plus Silesia.

If Italy (North Italy) were unified by Hapsburg Tuscany rather than Piedmont-Sardinia, that'd probably be good for Austria. The Savoys would be limited to the Island of Sardinia, and Austrian influence would be cemented in the North of the Peninsula.

Perhaps Austria joins the Crimean War on the Russian side as well. They acquire Bosnia 60 years early here.
 
Austria needs to integrate Bavaria and Switzerland. Don't really see how that's going to happen post 1809.
 
Austria needs to integrate Bavaria and Switzerland. Don't really see how that's going to happen post 1809.

Prussia was talking about how the Wettins of Saxony ought to have lost all right to their realm following their siding with Napoleon. Maybe Austria agrees on the condition that Austria gets to annex Bavaria, who also sided with Napoleon.

Wittelsbachs are left with a rump Palatine Statelet and the Wettins get a Kingdom of the Rhineland.

The Polish-Saxon Crisis ends with:
Russia getting Posen and Galicia-Lodomeria (minus the salt mines of Wieliczka and perhaps lands south of the Dniester)
Prussia getting all of Saxony
Austria getting Bavaria
The Wittelsbachs being left with just the Palatinate
The Wettins getting the Rhineland and possibly Luxembourg




Down the line, have Austria defeat Prussia and seize Silesia and you've got an Austria that's around 40% Germans.
 
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