Hey the internets. I'm a long time lurker who recently started trying to come up with some more developed TLs, and so I thought it'd good to just sort of test the water with an idea that's been rattling around in the old noodle.
If Italian nationalism wasn't as strong as it was OTL, could a more cunning Austrian monarch take advantage of that and unify the peninsula under the double eagle during the 1848 revolutions?
My reasoning is this: If Italian nationalism was more of an underground thing, not really taken up by the Piedmontese as a national agenda, could Franz Joseph have harnessed it and form some sort of Austria-Italy, or at least something less silly sounding
Hypothetically any Austrian suboordinate Italian kingdom could consist of Lombardy, Venetia right off the bat. Depending on whether or not the Austrians want to use the Italians to keep the Slavs in check, Trieste and Dalmatia could be incorporated, and Trento could possibly be involved to. Depending on how popular this move is, depending on how the Italian Nationalists see this move, a revolt in central Italy could see the territory controlled by the United Provinces of Central Italy joining with it.
Would this new hypothetical Italian state be liberal or more conservative? Could we expect some sort of Italian/Austrian Zollverein to further capitalize on this? Would this shift Austria's attention away from the balkans and strengthen them against Prussia? Or is this all just a trippy Italophile's pipe dream and totally ASB?
Thanks for any input!
If Italian nationalism wasn't as strong as it was OTL, could a more cunning Austrian monarch take advantage of that and unify the peninsula under the double eagle during the 1848 revolutions?
My reasoning is this: If Italian nationalism was more of an underground thing, not really taken up by the Piedmontese as a national agenda, could Franz Joseph have harnessed it and form some sort of Austria-Italy, or at least something less silly sounding
Hypothetically any Austrian suboordinate Italian kingdom could consist of Lombardy, Venetia right off the bat. Depending on whether or not the Austrians want to use the Italians to keep the Slavs in check, Trieste and Dalmatia could be incorporated, and Trento could possibly be involved to. Depending on how popular this move is, depending on how the Italian Nationalists see this move, a revolt in central Italy could see the territory controlled by the United Provinces of Central Italy joining with it.
Would this new hypothetical Italian state be liberal or more conservative? Could we expect some sort of Italian/Austrian Zollverein to further capitalize on this? Would this shift Austria's attention away from the balkans and strengthen them against Prussia? Or is this all just a trippy Italophile's pipe dream and totally ASB?
Thanks for any input!