alternatehistory.com

Assume that everything basically goes as OTL, except that somewhere along the line, the King of Denmark-Norway becomes the heir to the British throne instead of the Elector of Hanover in 1714.

(Yes I know I'm killing a lot of butterflies here but I'm looking at this from the 10,000 foot level to get a sense of the issues involved).

In the short term...

Would this trigger something like the War of the English Succession (Danes and Whigs vs. Jacobites and Tories) or would the other great powers accept it knowing there wasn't much they could do about it? I can't quite see France wanting to get involved so soon after the War of the Spanish Succession but then again this impending Union would hardly be a surprise to anybody from about 1705 on.

Would Sweden accept this or try to build a coalition to break the Union by conquering Denmark or limit by conquering Norway?

Would the English/Scottish accept the Union? I don't see why they wouldn't, given that they accepted George I? On the other hand, a King with the resources of Denmark-Norway is probably a very different thing to a King with the resources of an Elector.

In the longer term...

How would the union work? Would it work at all? Could you see a move to some 'federal' system over time? Would it last a couple of Generations and then peter out in a rebellion somewhere?

I really have to go an find Tony Jones' Gurkani Alam.

David
Top