Austrian Revolution and Austrian Napoleon

From what I gather, Vienna was a centre for the kind of enlightened ideas that surged after the American revolution. What crisis would be created to provoke an Austrian revolution similar in scope and scale to the OTL French revolution? Example: Just a mob demanding a Constitutional Monarchy, Francis II refuses, they imprision him and execute him when he tries to escape, then they create an Austrian republic. A genius military officer rises through the ranks, assumes leadership, and goes on in a glorious campaign of unprecedented conquest.

Would that be possible, or is too ASBish?
 
From what I gather, Vienna was a centre for the kind of enlightened ideas that surged after the American revolution. What crisis would be created to provoke an Austrian revolution similar in scope and scale to the OTL French revolution? Example: Just a mob demanding a Constitutional Monarchy, Francis II refuses, they imprision him and execute him when he tries to escape, then they create an Austrian republic. A genius military officer rises through the ranks, assumes leadership, and goes on in a glorious campaign of unprecedented conquest.

Would that be possible, or is too ASBish?

Total ASB. Vienna may have been a center of enlightened ideals at one point, but Emperor Josef II basically proved that many of the ideas were very difficult to implement. Plus the Austrian Monarchy was made up of dozens of nationalities and many lands, so chances are any attempt at an Austrian republic would end in a blow back on the German Austrians, perhaps the Bohemians and Hungarians conquering Vienna and restoring the Habsburgs.
 
Total ASB. Vienna may have been a center of enlightened ideals at one point, but Emperor Josef II basically proved that many of the ideas were very difficult to implement. Plus the Austrian Monarchy was made up of dozens of nationalities and many lands, so chances are any attempt at an Austrian republic would end in a blow back on the German Austrians, perhaps the Bohemians and Hungarians conquering Vienna and restoring the Habsburgs.

I agree with this assessment.
Additionally, the Habsburgs were far less excessive than the Bourbons in France. There was little reason for a revolt in Austria. Also, Vienna was not the same absolute political centre as Paris was. If the situation in Vienna were to become unstable the Emperor (or his heir if the emperor was killed in the uprising) would just relocate to Linz, Innsbruck or Prague and could hope for enough support from the countryside to crush any uprsisng.
 
Yup, no revolution happens because of one thing. In your case, huge crowd gathers, asks for constitution, becomes violent, huge crowd gets shot, leaders sent in prison, end of story.

You need a fertile ground for a revolution, for example bad harvests and disaffection from the ruling elites as well as mid-level elites and a new rising political force.

In France the nobility renounced the century old status quo of administration for taxes they had with the peasants. They rule and pay taxes. After the Sun King, most of them were in Versailles and didn't rule directly. Instead of being administrators they became leeches. Facing this you had the bourgeoisie who wanted more power but was blocked in the current system.

You can apply that in other revolutions: in Tunisia, dictatorship, national economy kept in check by government and friends of, lack of prospects for the youth and the emergence of a highly educated generation (aka the "Twitter generation") with no possible jobs.
 
Total ASB. Vienna may have been a center of enlightened ideals at one point, but Emperor Josef II basically proved that many of the ideas were very difficult to implement. Plus the Austrian Monarchy was made up of dozens of nationalities and many lands, so chances are any attempt at an Austrian republic would end in a blow back on the German Austrians, perhaps the Bohemians and Hungarians conquering Vienna and restoring the Habsburgs.

This is a classic case of "ASB" being far too overused. The scenario is unlikely, but not ridiculously so with an early enough POD.

1) The idea that the difficulty of implementing ideas is a major issue to radical revolutionaries is bizarre. Also, a new regime would have different constraints to a hereditary monarchy.

2) Your blowback is entirely correct, but that doesn't mean the revolution can't happen. It just means it would be complicated by a whole host of ethnic rivalries. It's quite possible that the Bohemians and Hungarians would take the chance for independence rather than restoration.
 
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