AHC: Habsburgs centralise HRE post-1740

Destroy Prussia in the 7YW, have some Napoleonic-esque war that forces the Great Powers to redraw the map of Europe with Austria as a leading victor (just like Prussia getting the Rhineland) and when German nationalism hits the Habsburgs unify the OTL territory of the German Confederation.
 
Destroy Prussia in the 7YW, have some Napoleonic-esque war that forces the Great Powers to redraw the map of Europe with Austria as a leading victor (just like Prussia getting the Rhineland) and when German nationalism hits the Habsburgs unify the OTL territory of the German Confederation.
There's no need to skip to the 7 Years War when the War of Austrian succession can still be won. Find a way for Austria to retain Silesia and stave off Prussia and France and you have a start.
 
Oh, I read 1760 for some reason.

Well then, the Habsburgs crushes the Prussians at Mollwitz (Fritz's first battle, was such a mess he had to abandon the battlefield, completely winnable event for the less disciplined and organized Austrian army).
 
There's no need to skip to the 7 Years War when the War of Austrian succession can still be won. Find a way for Austria to retain Silesia and stave off Prussia and France and you have a start.

The 7YW have the benefit that Austria can cut down Prussia. So let's say that Austria regain Silesia, while also annexing Mark, Cleve and the other Hohenzollern possessions in the Rhineland. The British influence ensure that France doesn't get all of the Austrian Netherlands, let's say France gain Hainaut. Next we have the 1st Bavarian Succession Crisis, where Austria trade the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria, Berg and Jülich. Together with the prince-archbishop of Cologne, Münster and Westphalia, Austria now dominate south east and north west Germany. The imperial circles of Swabia and Franconia was always pretty loyal to the emperor. So the Habsburg integrate these circles into their possession. From here we need some hand waving which include something which overthrow the existing order in Europe, the Hohenzollern end up with Royal and Ducal Prussia, the Wettins with Congress Poland and Galicia, the Wittelsbach with Belgium. Hanover end up under a separate line from UK and it, the Hessian states and the Mecklenburgs end up in a German Empire style federation with Austria.
 
Austria would be better off never losing Silesia or all the prestige it lost in the War of Austrian succession to begin with. Especially as an alliance with France is counterproductive in the longterm as an Austria ascendant over the HRE will be mortal enemies with France.
 
What would be the route to centralisation? A customs union? Common imperial army? Hereditary succession? Could all of these be done with a Reichstag majority vote?
 

Sulemain

Banned
The whole point of the HRE was that it was meant to protect Interests and Privileges; a centralised nation-state apparatus would defeat the point.
 
What would be the route to centralisation? A customs union? Common imperial army? Hereditary succession? Could all of these be done with a Reichstag majority vote?
It would be gradual, hereditary succession is not needed, defeating Prussia in 1740 avoids the whole mess that was the WotAS, so the hereditary succession of the House of Habsburg is maintained. So yeah, more political consensus, more participation in the Perpetual Diet to organize the Empire as some workable entity, a common army is out of question unless all princes but Austria are trashed and the Habsurgs end on top (like some Napoleonic war), but even so it would face foreign opposition (if not France the British Hanoverians), so expanding and, most important, consolidating Austrian influence over the princes (at the expense of powers like France, Sweden and Denmark) could establish of sort of "Commonwealth" where the HRE is seem as unified, but tenuous in practice, but in any scenario some sorts of revolution that breaks the political theory of the day (like the French one) is necessary to break the status quo, should the event unfold like OTL, Austria would be the only German power to emerge victorious, and the newly restored entity (a HRE or the German Confederation) is more unified under the whims of the Habsburgs.

For the "could it be done with the Reichstag" the answer would be yes if the circunstances allows, and no if otherwise, simply put the HRE didn't have a coherent "constitution" to be called for decision, rather the traditional laws of the Empire were always based on interpretions that suited the involved party, in the end you could do anything to the structure of the Empire there, however it depends on the political strenght of the party interested in those changes. As a political scientest in the 17th (or was it on 18th, I don't really remember) century said: "Germany is ruled in the German way"

The whole point of the HRE was that it was meant to protect Interests and Privileges; a centralised nation-state apparatus would defeat the point.
I would disagree, but not entirely, the HRE simply didn't have "a point", the prince definitely liked the interpretation of the German liberties, but the Emperor could argue that those liberties needs a strong government to be protected, the HRE in the 18th century doesn't need to be a French-like centralized union, an example for this would the Maximilian's Reichreform, it did create a, questionable, workable system with Imperial Circles and etc.
 
The whole point of the HRE was that it was meant to protect Interests and Privileges; a centralised nation-state apparatus would defeat the point.

Not really, that was what it gradually turned into. The investiture controversy, the absentee emperor Frederick II, the Great Interregnum, the 30 Years' War etc. all contributed to that, and the fact that early dynasties never lasted long enough.
 
Top