AH Challange: Three german states based on dialectal boundaries

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Have 3 states with approximately the borders shown in the map.
 
French victory in the Franco-Prussian War.

1871 - The French humiliates the Prussians and occupy the Rhineland.
1872 - As the German states continue to lose battles to the French, the Southern States seek for Austrian help.
1873 - The Southern states change sides and Austria joins the war alongside France to humiliate Prussia and annex Silesia.
1874 - The battle of Berlin starts.
1874 - Russia and Britain get worried about the break of balance in the European Concert if Prussia falls apart and try to mediate peace talks.
1874 - Notwithstanding British and Russian efforts, the Treaty of Frankfurt is gravely detrimental to Prussia with the following clauses:
  • An indepent and neutral Kingdom of the Rhine is established;
  • An Austrian-led South German Confederation is created;
  • To counter Prussian agressiveness and create a functional buffer state between Austria and Prussia, Saxony quits the North German Confederation and annexes the small Thuringian States and Silesia.
1900's - On the brink of ATL World War the Rhineland and Saxony unite to try to enforce their neutrality during a possible revanchist war between Austria and Prussia.
 
French victory in the Franco-Prussian War.

1871 - The French humiliates the Prussians and occupy the Rhineland.
1872 - As the German states continue to lose battles to the French, the Southern States seek for Austrian help.
1873 - The Southern states change sides and Austria joins the war alongside France to humiliate Prussia and annex Silesia.
1874 - The battle of Berlin starts.
1874 - Russia and Britain get worried about the break of balance in the European Concert if Prussia falls apart and try to mediate peace talks.
1874 - Notwithstanding British and Russian efforts, the Treaty of Frankfurt is gravely detrimental to Prussia with the following clauses:
  • An indepent and neutral Kingdom of the Rhine is established;
  • An Austrian-led South German Confederation is created;
  • To counter Prussian agressiveness and create a functional buffer state between Austria and Prussia, Saxony quits the North German Confederation and annexes the small Thuringian States and Silesia.
1900's - On the brink of ATL World War the Rhineland and Saxony unite to try to enforce their neutrality during a possible revanchist war between Austria and Prussia.

1880-1890's a nationalist movement, with liberal a conservative factions, in all three states forms to create a united Germany and expel Austrian influence.

Both factions consider themselves the heirs of the Hambacher Festival of 1848.

Once the genie of nationalism is unchained by the Napoleonic Wars and the revolutions of 1848 there is no turning back
 
1880-1890's a nationalist movement, with liberal a conservative factions, in all three states forms to create a united Germany and expel Austrian influence.

Both factions consider themselves the heirs of the Hambacher Festival of 1848.

Once the genie of nationalism is unchained by the Napoleonic Wars and the revolutions of 1848 there is no turning back

Austrians are not foreigners.

They're just as Germans as any other German State, they only happened to have a large allophone empire. That's all, you cannot play the nationalist card to throw Austria out. Both the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns can profit and lose from nationalist fervor. They risk a lot by playing the nationalist card and 1848 is, indeed, the best example why they wouldn't do it IMHO.
 
Austrians are not foreigners.

They're just as Germans as any other German State, they only happened to have a large allophone empire. That's all, you cannot play the nationalist card to throw Austria out. Both the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns can profit and lose from nationalist fervor. They risk a lot by playing the nationalist card and 1848 is, indeed, the best example why they wouldn't do it IMHO.

Oh, you certainly could play the nationalist card against the Austrians, precisely because of that large non-German empire of its that it was loathe to part with. The Austrians may well be your brothers, but the Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenes, Croats, Italians, and others who come with them definitely aren't. (Without even getting into the Czechs, with whom pan-German nationalism had a very complicated and very awkward relationship.) That question on the compatibility of the Habsburg polyglot empire's compatibility with a pan-German state was a major part of OTL's Kleindeutschland vs. Großdeutschland debates.

As for the actual topic of the thread and something a bit further off the beaten path, you might be able to get the North German state a Hanseatic successor state, which would have a very funny story to tell about how it got involved in Baltic Prussia. Not nearly as funny as its stories about of the butterflies created by a large German trading principality cum Super Netherlands following a trajectory similar to the Dutch OTL, though.
 
Oh, you certainly could play the nationalist card against the Austrians, precisely because of that large non-German empire of its that it was loathe to part with. The Austrians may well be your brothers, but the Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenes, Croats, Italians, and others who come with them definitely aren't. (Without even getting into the Czechs, with whom pan-German nationalism had a very complicated and very awkward relationship.) That question on the compatibility of the Habsburg polyglot empire's compatibility with a pan-German state was a major part of OTL's Kleindeutschland vs. Großdeutschland debates.

In the proposed ATL there's no Kleindeutschland vs. Großdeutschland debate. The 1870 war is the equivalent of OTL WW1 to German nationalism: everyone blames Prussian militaristic expansionism for their defeat.

In this ATL however there's no Weimar Republic, but a rump Hohenzollern Prussia, which probably wouldn't be very keen about mingling with liberals and socialists, creating a social unrest capable of overthrowing their Monarchical rule. Even if you look elsewhere to foment nationalism isn't the best ideia for the traditional elites: the Rhineland would greatly benefit economically speaking from neutrality and independence (it was Konrad Adenauer's plan after the WW1 to make the Rhineland some kind of Belgium) and even Bavaria would benefit from a loose confederation with Austria rather than getting overshadowed by Prussia and also avoid the unnecessary Catholic v. Protestant conflict.
 
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