Bavaria in Austro-Hungarian Empire?

I think the prestige and income issue is going to make a lot of these ideas unlikely. Though, 20/20 hindsight says Bavaria (NOTE: pre-Napoleonic Bavaria is a lot smaller than modern day Bavaria) is better than parts of Italy. During the time periods in questions Bavaria was significantly inferior both revenue wise and prestige wise to even the Duchy of Milan.

Joseph II swap was for part of Austrian Netherlands for the whole of Bavaria, which is why it fell apart. The Austrian Netherlands though a pain, was a rich tax producing pain. So, you do not give your whole cash cow for Bavaria.

To be honest the swap of parts of Italy for Bavaria seems to make more sense in a draw or defeat than an Austrian victory. Maybe something like this:

Polish Succession Austria keeps the Kingdom of Naples but still loses Sicily to Spain like OTL. All else like OTL.

Austrian succession, Austria should do a bit better cause they would be richer the OTL, Naples generates a good chunk of taxes. However, keeping Naples defended would be tough, best case they would lose it then re-take before war end. Next, just like OTL Austria will demand Bavaria which they controlled most of the war. This time though, they can say they will give the Wittlesbach Naples (i.e. making them a King), which Austria figured out is too hard to defend and not worth it (at least in the Austrian Netherlands case you know it forces England to go to war for you). This would put a lot of stress on the Bourbon side as Spain would want Naples, but France is allied to the Wittlesbach. At the same time Prussia would not want Austria getting Bavaria cause it would slightly offset the loss of Silesia within the HRE. England would probably be for the swap as they most likely needed to provide naval aid to Austria to take it back during the war.
 
Another possible payment for the Austrian annexation of Bavaria in an alt-Treaty of Utrecht would be simply the cession of the formerly Spanish Netherlands to Max Emanuel, with the title most adequate for the political situation - king, grand duke or duke, each with the electoral title added. But since he actually was already the governor-general of the Spanish Netherlands from 1692 to 1706, that would be probably too reasonable for the time. :)

That might have very interesting repercussions:
a) The closeness of the Palatinate to Luxemburg and Juliers-Berg to Limburg might lead to a really big Wittelsbach realm, from Ostend to Heidelberg and Essen.
b) Secularization as an idea was suggested throughout the 18th century. Since many bishoprics in that area were usually collected by the Wittelsbach, we might postulate the addition of Liege, Trier, Cologne, Münster and perhaps even Paderborn und the following generations.
c) Ostend might become the home port for a overseas trading company just as in OTL. So, this TL might well have Belgian/Burgundian/Brabanter colonies.
d) If Austria owns Bavaria, any mediatization of the HRE might even see an annexation of smallish territorie north of Lake Constance to connect Bavaria/Tyrol with Freiburg im Breisgau.

EDIT: Yes, the Southern Netherlands were more valuable than Old Bavaria. This scenario would imply that Austria actually did no better or even a bit worse than OTL.
 
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Westphalian

I can see an upside to Austria for your suggestion, along the same lines that Prussia got a border with France during the Congress of Vienna. Since the Wittlesbach would essentially control Northeast HRE then they would not be so keen with France marching through (now essentially their lands) every time they invade the HRE. Though, they would need to show that they also would not be a French puppet state too.

Title you have all sorts of options (It cannot be King since only the Kingdom allowed to be part of the Empire is Bohemia, some old rule). However, you could call it the Grand Duchy of Burgundy, Grand Duchy of Flanders, Electorate of Burgundy etc...

If Max Emanuel's sons escaped with him in 1704 to French controlled Netherlands, and then the Battle of Ramillies is a draw or defeat of the Grand Alliance then maybe an early peace could be reached. 1706 was the Allies best year, and changing that would give the Bourban Alliance more room to make a better deal.
 
One of the problems I remembered about trading away the Austrian Netherlands is that the other Powers, and western states in the Holy Roman Empire, are going to be rather twitchy about putting what was almost a French puppet there and leaving the Rhine at France's mercy. Checking out one of the older threads it seems that France apparently tried getting the swap towards the end of the War of the Spanish Succession but got turned down. Naples, and possibly Sicily, seems the most likely candidate for any deal.

One of these days when I have the time I swear I'm actually going to get around to properly looking at doing my timeline where the Habsburgs swap Bavaria for Naples and then later on Maria Theresa marries Charles Emmanuel III to form the House of Habsburg-Savoy and create an Austrian juggernaut. Maybe not so much AEIUO but perhaps simply settle for the Holy Roman Empire. :)
 
IIRC during the 7 years' war Austria and France had an agreement (later replaced by another treaty), that France would help Austria to regain Silesia, in return the Bourbon duke Philip of Parma (,Piacenza & Guastella) would gain the Southern Netherlands in exchange for Parma (etc.) becoming Austrian.
Bavaria being an ally of France, probably is related with the fact, that Austria, their greatest threat, lies in their backyard. When Bavaria is exchanged for the Southern Netherlands, then suddenly France will be their greatest threat, so they might slightly alter their (foreign) politics.

Settle for the HRE? That will be very interesting for the balance of power...;)
 
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