Austrian Northern Italy?

With a POD after 1815, could it be possible for the Austrian Empire to keep hold of its Italian territories, but lose the Hungarian ones, while keeping everything else (Bohemia, Croatia, Slovenia and some germanized parts of Galicia)?

If yes, is anyone knowledgeable enough to set up some kind of scenario to start a TL or to identify a certain episode that could have caused what i wrote above?

I think that AI (Austria-Italy) could be more stable than AH (both areas are catholic), and have less hostility with Russia (while keeping the grudge with France, as usual).
 
If you love someone, set them free (or something). Vienna could have followed a more conciliatory policy in Italy. One in which the Italians did the governing and the empire merely skimmed revenue off the top. In such a case, might the haughty Milanese look to Turin to liberate them? or would they stand aloof from Italian unification? Lombardy-Venetia-Austria-Bohemia would be an oddly shaped but quite wealthy state. About Hungary. In 1848, Vienna throws up its hands and offers personal union or allows independence.
 
This question was asked some where before, the best scenario I could think of was to have Hungary lost in a war to the Ottomans, while Austria takes more of an interest in Italy
 
If you love someone, set them free (or something). Vienna could have followed a more conciliatory policy in Italy. One in which the Italians did the governing and the empire merely skimmed revenue off the top. In such a case, might the haughty Milanese look to Turin to liberate them? or would they stand aloof from Italian unification? Lombardy-Venetia-Austria-Bohemia would be an oddly shaped but quite wealthy state. About Hungary. In 1848, Vienna throws up its hands and offers personal union or allows independence.

So, after this 1848 breakup we have a crippled Austria that could be able at least of retaining the slavic lands, but for the italian ones has to give some kind of autonomies. We might expect a double/triple monarchy by the 60s.

And about the Concert of Europe? What would be the reactions of France and Germany? Could it be possible to avoid the Italian Independence Wars (read: Piemontese expansion) which were driven by France in order to push Austria north of the Alps?
 
And about the Concert of Europe? What would be the reactions of France and Germany? Could it be possible to avoid the Italian Independence Wars (read: Piemontese expansion) which were driven by France in order to push Austria north of the Alps?

I think you're right on in pointing out the problem lies with France; they were not inclined to accept a situation in Italy in which Austria was allowed to grow too powerful at the expense of their own influence. If you can get France to disengage from Italy somehow, or get more broad international support for Austrian administration in northern Italy, then it might be feasible. These are the sorts of ideas I'm playing with in my timeline currently.
 
I think you're right on in pointing out the problem lies with France; they were not inclined to accept a situation in Italy in which Austria was allowed to grow too powerful at the expense of their own influence. If you can get France to disengage from Italy somehow, or get more broad international support for Austrian administration in northern Italy, then it might be feasible. These are the sorts of ideas I'm playing with in my timeline currently.

What if the loss of Hungary by Austria makes France less worried about an Austrian presence in Italy? Or, on the contrary, they decide to annex Savoy (or make it a puppet), to avoid further Austrian expansion?

They can't play the independence card if Austrians make large concessions to the Lombard-Venetian kingdom. I think that after a breakup of Hungary in 1848, Austria enstablishes a double monarchy with Italy, so the french have no opportunities like the Second Italian War of independence: you'll have a situation where France will just try to stabilize things, like having Piedmont as a buffer zone, or something.
 
Napoleon III is successfully assassinated by that Italian nationalist. The resulting backlash leads to the end of Franco-Italian relations, and Cavour opts out of war with Austria. Skip ahead to the 20th century, where Franz Joseph dies early, and his heir federalises Austria, leading with most people being content with their circumstances.
 
What if the loss of Hungary by Austria makes France less worried about an Austrian presence in Italy? Or, on the contrary, they decide to annex Savoy (or make it a puppet), to avoid further Austrian expansion?

They can't play the independence card if Austrians make large concessions to the Lombard-Venetian kingdom. I think that after a breakup of Hungary in 1848, Austria enstablishes a double monarchy with Italy, so the french have no opportunities like the Second Italian War of independence: you'll have a situation where France will just try to stabilize things, like having Piedmont as a buffer zone, or something.

The problem is that i don't really see the Austrians...after Hungary get her independence try another time the double-monarchy thing, just with the italians this time.
Better option is to coopt the italian nationalist, leave the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto and unite it with the other italian duchies (Modena, Parma and Tuscany), maybe even Romagna from the Papal States and create a single Kingdom of Italy and give it to an Hapsburg. If you are bold try to get Savoy with war or insurgence and enstablish an Italian confederation with the Pope as the nominal and very powerless leader as envisioned after the second war of independence.
 
What if the loss of Hungary by Austria makes France less worried about an Austrian presence in Italy? Or, on the contrary, they decide to annex Savoy (or make it a puppet), to avoid further Austrian expansion?

They can't play the independence card if Austrians make large concessions to the Lombard-Venetian kingdom. I think that after a breakup of Hungary in 1848, Austria enstablishes a double monarchy with Italy, so the french have no opportunities like the Second Italian War of independence: you'll have a situation where France will just try to stabilize things, like having Piedmont as a buffer zone, or something.

I don't think France's concern about Austria in Italy is necessarily related to Austrian rule in Hungary; regardless of whether or not Austria was in full control of Italy, Napoleon III especially wanted to show that France was the protector of Catholics (Italian Catholics). I believe there were some family ties between the Habsburgs and the Piedmontese ruling family that would have made a French takeover difficult, but I could be wrong.

I also think you're right though, in that a more consolidated Austrian presence in Lombardy-Venetia would make it much harder for France (or anyone else really) to push the Austrians out, especially if Austria feels she has to protect her prestige and status following the loss of Hungary, for example.
 
These are very interesting propositions! How about this?: Devolution of power in Austrian Lombardy and (presumably) benevolent regimes in the other Italian states makes life easier for Napoleon III. With a blunted or nonexistent Italian unification movement, he does not have to try to please the Catholics and liberals simultaneously (something that was to be a great cause of grief). he could merely support the pope. Perhaps with Austrian cooperation, a papal led confederation is formed. Austria may join to the extent of its Italian territories. Sardinia-Piedmont is out in the cold unless it joins as well.
 
Austria is thrashed by Nap 1 and forced to give up Hungarian/Polish/Silesian/Ukranian lands but given Venice as compensation. After Russia, Prussia and Britain win war, Russia and Prussia see no reason to rebuild a rival who married into the Bonapartes.
 
A post-1848 POD is too late for Austria to hold Lombardy-Venetia without internal unrest, the Italian nationalism is already established. IMHO there should have been a better approach after 1815, not so much in terms of political liberties (which were out of the questions at the time in all of the Austrian empire) but rather by avoiding the purge of the administrators of the former kingdom of Italy, keeping an Italian judiciary, respecting local autonomies, more than anything else promoting economical growth. The problems are that Francis was completely opposed to changes, the Austrians were behaving like occupiers and Lombardy-Venetia was one of the two provinces producing a surplus: the inexhaustible Austrian thirst for money resulted in the Italian provinces being treated as a cash cow. At a pinch I suppose that the 1830s might work, with some more difficulties: unfortunately the Austrian solution was to increase repression and censorship. By 1848 the cat is well out of the bag, and running.

It's also worth noting that there is a diffused belief that either Austria or France might do what they liked with the kingdom of Sardinia, including occupying it, partitioning and so on. The point is that Sardinia was reinstated and enlarged after the defeat of Napoleon to play a role as buffer state between France and Austria, and its existence was guaranteed by the Powers (in particular Savoy was declared neutral area by international treaty; in 1861 there was a strong opposition by the Swiss Confederation to its annexation by France, and that was almost two generations after the Congress of Vienna). Therefore both of its neighbors had to thread with care, or at least obtain a permission by the other Powers to carry out any significant modification to what was established at the Congress of Vienna.
 
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