Could there be a possible combination of events, preferably with a post 1789 POD, where the Habsburg Empire rules over what in OTL would become known as Cisleithania, but not on Hungary, while at the same time controlling also Bavaria (as a plus Baden and Wuerttenberg too) and Northern Italy?
I am thinking at a radically different outcome to the 1848 revolutions, but probably a much earlier POD is needed.
Basically, is there a way to have an Austro-Italian Empire instead of an Austro-Hungarian one? Would such an Empire be stronger on weaker than OTL? Could it be more able to manage the Nationalities question and survive to the XXI century in some form?
I think that the region I sketched, although divided by the Alps, has strong common economic interests, an history of belonging together in some form or another under the HRE and cultural closeness due to the shared Catholic Religion, so such a state could work, if it had a sufficiently enlightened leadership. The problem is, however, how to make such a divergence from OTL happen in a plausible way and how to avoid disgregating factors such as nationalism from making the whole thing collapse.
I am thinking at a radically different outcome to the 1848 revolutions, but probably a much earlier POD is needed.
Basically, is there a way to have an Austro-Italian Empire instead of an Austro-Hungarian one? Would such an Empire be stronger on weaker than OTL? Could it be more able to manage the Nationalities question and survive to the XXI century in some form?
I think that the region I sketched, although divided by the Alps, has strong common economic interests, an history of belonging together in some form or another under the HRE and cultural closeness due to the shared Catholic Religion, so such a state could work, if it had a sufficiently enlightened leadership. The problem is, however, how to make such a divergence from OTL happen in a plausible way and how to avoid disgregating factors such as nationalism from making the whole thing collapse.