AHC: Hanover unites Germany

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to unify Germany under Hanover instead of Prussia with a POD no earlier than 1500.
 
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Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to unify Germany under Hanover instead of Prussia with a POD no earlier than 1500.
Different Congress of Vienna: instead of Rhineland, Prussia is given Duchy of Warsaw and over time changes into Prusso-Poland, Rhineland is given to Hannoverians, who had to keep eye on the French now, when Prussians keep their on Russia.
 
I once read a book series by Mark Hodder (the first of which was called the Strange Case of Spring Heeled Jack), and although this was a steam-punk series it had a pretty good go at how this could happen. The idea was that Prince Albert doesn't die when he does and Britain subsequently becomes more involved in German affairs. Their aim in this? To prevent the rise of a Prussian united Germany. Instead of supporting Austria unification the decided to back the Hanoverians, who they of course have dynastic ties to, in establishing a Central German Confederation, who's members are never named explicitly in the books but presumably included Bavaria, Saxony, the Thuringian states, Baden-Wurttemberg, Oldenberg, Mecklenberg, etc. This might well not be a true unified Germany but is closest I can see Hannover coming to unifying Germany when their 19th century size already their maximum extent.
 
POD - let Tsarica Yelizavieta (Empress Elizabeth) live 6 months longer - there will be no Prussia to unite Germany ...
I am not sure that's a good POD for Hanover to unite Germany, since Hanover was allied to Prussia in that war and would probably not come out of it unscathed.
 

TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
I am not sure that's a good POD for Hanover to unite Germany, since Hanover was allied to Prussia in that war and would probably not come out of it unscathed.
As long as it survives and Prussia is gutted ...
Prussia loses:
1 - Prussia proper to PLC (swap for Kurland)
2 - Silesia restored to Austria
3 - come up with your own to pare down Hohenzollern holdings to Brandenburg.

The UK needs a continental ally - so now it will invest in Hannover more ...
 
Another POD: a slighty earlier split between Great Britain and Hannover with a different King.
Charlotte of Wales survive and became Queen so York or Clarence became King of Hannover (with male legittimate heirs) and will stay closer to Great Britain
 
You need to use a POD before the 19. century. The Kingdom of Hannover hasn't enough power to become the main force behind unification. But earlier PODs are possible.
With a different 18. century (or before) Hannover could gain step by step from peace treaty to peace treaty more and more territory. Hannover need to gain territories in the Rhineland, which would justify to give Hannover the entire Rhineland after a different version of the Napoleonic wars.
 
You need to use a POD before the 19. century. The Kingdom of Hannover hasn't enough power to become the main force behind unification. But earlier PODs are possible.
With a different 18. century (or before) Hannover could gain step by step from peace treaty to peace treaty more and more territory. Hannover need to gain territories in the Rhineland, which would justify to give Hannover the entire Rhineland after a different version of the Napoleonic wars.

How could this happen?
 
How could this happen?
You would need the British Kings and Parliament to decide that expanding Hanover is more in their interests than expanding their overseas empire, or to give Britain a few very one sided wars during the 1700s where they can grab land overseas and push for more land in their German principality. Neither of these is easy to achieve especially since you would need to curb Brandenburg-Prussia's growing power quickly and historically they were Britains ally in the mid to late 1700s (and a member of the empire prior to then.)
 
The Welfs somehow inherit Jülich-Cleves-Berg in the early 16th century, became a strong presence in North-Western Germany and somehow manage to get involved with the Dutch? The land they would control with this inheritance would look something like this:

MGAoImk.jpg
 
You would need the British Kings and Parliament to decide that expanding Hanover is more in their interests than expanding their overseas empire, or to give Britain a few very one sided wars during the 1700s where they can grab land overseas and push for more land in their German principality. Neither of these is easy to achieve especially since you would need to curb Brandenburg-Prussia's growing power quickly and historically they were Britains ally in the mid to late 1700s (and a member of the empire prior to then.)

Would you consider it borderline ASB?
 
The Welfs somehow inherit Jülich-Cleves-Berg in the early 16th century, became a strong presence in North-Western Germany and somehow manage to get involved with the Dutch? The land they would control with this inheritance would look something like this:

MGAoImk.jpg

Ah. That’s interesting. Thanks. Anyone have an idea how that’s possible?
 
Would you consider it borderline ASB?
Not at all (then again I'm not a fan of painting anything ASB that doesn't require divine intervention,) you just need a different environment in Britain because historically the Brits were skeptical of the Hanoverian Kings using British power within Germany for German ideals. If you get Britain allied with, say, Russia or (a different) Poland in the 17th and 18th centuries instead of one of the German countries that way they can pick at Northern Germany without hurting their ally Prussia or pissing off their (once) ally Austria. You would probably need to start around the English Civil War and maybe have France and Spain be more successful in North America so the English can be kept at the coast. You pretty much need a better balance of power outside of Europe so the Brits are okay settling for German lands (either that or have the British empire conquer North America and India before the end of the 1600s which might actually come close to being ASB.)
 
It's pretty hard. In decreasing amounts of plausibility, here are the potential countries that could unify Germany, with potential PODs for them: Prussia (OTL), Austria (mid-19th century), Saxony (SYW), and Bavaria (War of Austrian Succession). With Hanover, I can only imagine it unifying a smallish country named "Germany", or perhaps breaking up Prussia (how? I don't know) may give it an opportunity. You'd also need to break the Hanover-Britain personal union by, having a woman accede to the throne of Britain much earlier (thus Salic law results in the Hanoverian throne moving to a different man), avoiding Britain's intervening in Hanover's political climate.

Now, what I could imagine is the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia centralizing the Confederation of the Rhine and bringing Prussia and/or Austria into the Confederation after a Napoleonic victory against it, but I don't think that's what you're looking for.
 
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