Modern Imperialism
Banned
In the 1800s, the Austrian Empire annexes the south German Catholic majority lands while Prussia takes over what was the North German Confederation. How would this impact the Austrian Empire and Europe?
If they attempt it during or just after the Congress of Vienna it's entirely possible they'd end up at war with both France and Britain and maybe even Prussia if Prussia doesn't feel that they're receiving something of equivalent value.
The whole outcome of the Congress of Vienna is that the great powers of Europe have to remain roughly equivalent in power so if Austria takes that huge chunk of Germany it will do one of three things. One, either they keep it and the other powers demand concessions roughly equivalent to maintain the balance. Two they try to take it and are smacked down hard by the other nations. Three, they take it and manage to keep it over the objections of the other nations.
Option three is roughly what happened when Prussia turned into Germany. It destabilized the whole system of checks and balances that had kept the European peace for a century.
The dynamics and purpose of the "Concert of Europe" created in the wake of the Congress of Vienna, which limited both nationalist and liberal revolutions as well as maintaining the balance of power, was for all intents and purposes dead after the Crimean War. Russia was the biggest proponent and believer in the post-Congress of Vienna alliance of all the great powers, but the Concert failed Russia when no one (Austria or Prussia) came to their aid against the British and French. Though Austria looked bad and even ungrateful (remember Russia aided with Hungary in 1848,) especially in the eyes of Germany, the Prussians were not as hurt by their perceived and veiled support of Russia that did not transpire to actual military aid.Do you think that Prussia could be bribed off, if offered Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony and the rest of northern Germany?
Couldn't the same be said about Catholics when Prussia united Germany? The south is more Catholic then Protestant so I imagine many would prefer an Catholic Austrian emperor over a Protestant Prussian KaiserThe Protestants in Franconia, Württemberg and Baden wouldn't be that happy.
All of it. They would have a border with France now.What parts of south Germany could Austria conquer? Bavaria is one possibility, given the Wittelsbachs' alliances with Napoleonic France, but how willing would Austria be to absorb one of the old polities of central Europe in the middle of its restoration of the old order?
All of it. They would have a border with France now.
What parts of south Germany could Austria conquer?