AHC: A Less Balkanized Europe

Germany separate from the German speaking Austrian lands? Implausible, unless you mean to imply Bavaria unites Germany. ;):p

You could have OTL Germany and Alsace-Lorraine form a single state minus Prussia and Bavaria can form Germany, Prussia is absorbed in the Slavic Empire, I was not serious when I made this.
 
Some PODs are relatively simple here: the Ottomans conquer their OTL territories and have much earlier military reforms while occupying their peak of territory, meaning that instead of relative decline they continue to be the equals of the various European monarchs. The Habsburgs might rule a space-filling empire in Central Europe, while Brandenberg or Saxony are the obvious contenders to unite all of Germany's northern boundaries. England uniting the British Isles is another obvious one from OTL.

A hypothetical example might be an alternate 20th Century where a unified Northern Germany co-exists with a larger France, Spain, Ottoman Empire, Russia, Sweden (including OTL Finland), Norway (including OTL Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland), and Britain. Italy might be either united or a Habsburg domain in the ATL. This is much the same geopolitical development on a superficial level as OTL, the devil in the details is how to get there and prevent a general war that would spur Balkanization.
 

Perkeo

Banned
How the heck does Germany get divided like that?
The contemporarys would rather have asked "How the heck not?".

Germany WAS divided IOTL at that time. The HRE officially ceased to exist in 1806, after centuries of de-facto souvereighnty of its member states, Prussia lost about half its territory in 1807, and German nationalism was lightyears apart from being a mainstream idea. So IMHO this division of Germany is the likely outcome of a likely French victory against the sixth coalition. It took a lot of skill and a lot of nerve on the side of Napoleons enemies to turn the tide.

And the idea of a revived Byzantine Empire at this point...not a chance in hell. At most you get Greece+ with delusions of grandeur, which adds an extra state.

all the scenario requires is that no more than one successor state of the Ottoman empire and its vassals holds any territory in Europe. One way to accomplish this is the collective secession of all European parts. I don't care what they call it. However, the Holy Roman Empire was a lot less Roman (it never ever included Rome) than the revived Byzantine Empire wold have been Byzantine, so why not?

Don't forget that in an alt-Napoleonic Wars scenario Britain won't give up Hanover.

Depends on what they are offered in return. Then again, why not merge Hannover to the British Empire? Napoleon may be pissed of, but as in OTL he can't afford eternal warfare, can he?
 
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Why not a German-dominated "Mitteleuropa" style empire. That could come from Austria uniting Germany and then industrialising. Eastern Europe would then be divided by the Ottomans, greater Germany and Russia. The Swiss and the Dutch get absorbed during the later age of totalitarians.

(1) British Isles
(2) Scandinavia
(3) Iberia
(4) Italy
(5) France
(6) Germany
(7) Russia
(8) Ottoman Empire
 

Perkeo

Banned
Why not a German-dominated "Mitteleuropa" style empire. That could come from Austria uniting Germany and then industrialising.
But when and how could Austria unite Germany? After 1815, Austria faces
1) Separatism in Hungaria, Bohemia, Croatia, ...
2) Italian claims for Lombardy–Venetia
3) Rivalry with Prussia
4) Russian intervention to prevent a superpower in the neighborhood
5) France: see Russia ans multiply by 10-100
The size of those matters did vary over time, but IMHO it is really, really difficult to plausibly remove them all.

What about the HRE uniting under Habsburg leadership to defeat Napoleon?

Eastern Europe would then be divided by the Ottomans, greater Germany and Russia. The Swiss and the Dutch get absorbed during the later age of totalitarians.
Netherlands, maybe (the topography is not exactly suitable for partisan warfare) but Switzerland, no way. They have both the will and the means to prevent any invasion force from ever controlling the country. Besides, Switzerland conquered by the Habsburg empire is as ideological biased as the US conquered by Britain.

Besides, a German-dominated "Mitteleuropa" could easily butterfly away the age of the totalitarians.
 
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Do dynastic unions count? In which case I proffer this:
Habsburgs in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Southern Italy, Lombardy, Burgundy, Switzerland (quash the rebellion against Austria), Bavaria, Hungary and Bohemia.

Bourbons: France

Stuarts: England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the United Provinces (maybe the UP decides they want a good foreign-born king who'll let them get on with things and get a nice Protestant Stuart).

Wettins: Saxony, Poland-Lithuania, Prussia, Brandenburg (taken off the Teutonic Knights maybe). Have an alternate Edict of Nantes in effect so that Catholic Poland and Protestant Saxony and Brandenburg can co-exist.

Brunswick: Hanover, Anhalt, Hesse, etc. the North German states (serving as a Protestant counter-balance to the Hapbburgs.

Romanov: Russia (obviously).

Osman: the Ottoman Empire including Moldavia and Wallachia.

Wittelsbach: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Bremen.

NB the aufklarung went similarly to OTL so although Germany's balkanised, it's still fairly homogeneous.
 
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