alternatehistory.com

I'm wondering what a German-Austrian union before the Franco-Prussian War (as the title implies) would look like. In this scenario, the French Napoleonic Second Empire still exists and is the most powerful state on the Continent. Would it be a plausible to have an enlarged German Confederation which includes Austria proper (assuming Hungary is made independent and maybe Galicia is given to either Hungary or an independent Poland)? I think the Napoleonic idea of a Confederation of the Rhine to balance Prussia and Austria would be a good idea, but how plausible is establishing this new German union in the 1860s?
As for the PoD I think it should be somewhere around the 1848 Revolutions in which they are successful in establishing a liberal democracy in Prussia, thereby extending the idea of pan-German civic nationalism to include Austria. This German Union would include a customs union and a federal army, but otherwise each state is responsible for its own internal policies. In fact, this was the idea which was prevailing in the North German Confederation; would it be possible to extend this to South Germany and Austria? What would be the reaction of other great powers to this scenario, and is it even plausible? Would this Union be more able to preserve the Basic Rights established by the Revolutions in Germany?
Top