More tales from my ME7 Europe...
Byronic Greece, Orleanist France, and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire
POD: Lord Byron survives an encounter with marsh fever (malaria) in April 1824.
Royal Dynasties and Pan-Hellenism: 1828-48
- With a more stable position for the rebels following the capture of the fortress of Lepanto in 1824, Byron returns to Britain in 1828. His influence amongst the upper classes results in an official (if unwilling) pledge of British support and troops by Wellington to the Greek cause. As a result of this, the Greek nation declares a strengthened independence in 1831 [liberal Constitution along British lines?].
- The UK holds onto the Protectorate of the Ionian Islands.
- A pro-British Greek King - Leopold of Saxe-Coburg [uncle of Queen Victoria] – marries a French Orleanist Princess (Louise-Marie d’Orleans) [daughter of King Louis-Felipe I of France].
- A French Orleanist (Louis, Duc d’Nemours (1814-96)) becomes monarch of the Belgian state declared in 1830 [second son of King Louis-Felipe I of France]. He later marries Victoria Saxe-Coburg (1822-57) [cousin of Queen Victoria].
- These (above) are two strong marriages, which cement the British and French royal dynasties in the process of creating two new monarchies. Anglo-French relations strengthened
- By 1848, Greece is in the process of modernizing, industrializing, and anglicizing – has its eye on colonial power status.
- With an Orleanist monarch, from 1838 Belgium has become a perpetual battlefield between Dutch and French forces. Belgian government in exile? British intervention?
- Pan-Hellenic Movement, propagated by Byron and his contemporaries, gives an additional boost to neo-classicism and romanticism in the arts, but is it at the expense of rationalism?
A Muted Revolution and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire: 1848-50
- Orleanist France survives the unrest and outbursts of 1848 with the abdication of King Louis-Philippe I in favour of his more liberal son; Ferdinand-Philippe (1810-71). His first move as King was to dismiss the government of the time, replacing them with the pro-Ferdinand centre-left opposition. This new government, headed by Thiers (Prime Minister) and Barrot (Minister of the Interior), made a number of liberal reforms – including universal male suffrage and a new [Greek-style?] constitution – in an attempt to placate the workers.
- In the Hapsburg Empire, the liberal reforms of Ferdinand-Philippe and the centre-left government in France ultimately forced Chancellor Metternich to resign. With an absence of ministerial expertise, revolutionary activities (more liberal and organised than OTL) spread across the empire bring Emperor Ferdinand back to the forefront. Unprepared for such a role, heart failure leads to the unexpected death of Emperor Ferdinand I (1793-1848), creating a power vacuum and plunging Habsburg lands into chaos. In the following years, the Republic of Lombardy-Venetia [who leads?]; the Austrian Empire (with Tyrol and Salzburg, under Franz-Josef); the Republic of Hungary (with Lajos Kossuth as de facto dictator until his assassination in 1873); Dalmatia; and the Grand Duchy of Krakow (encompassing Galicia), all declare independence, whilst the province of Bukovnia is annexed by the Ottomans, and Montenegro seizes some of its adjacent costal territory.
- In 1848, popular discontent erupts more or less as OTL in the various German states, although, a less extreme and less vehemently republican Berlin situation in Prussia is far more easily crushed. Rather than being scared into promising reform, King Frederick William IV (1795-61) moves to repress the rebels through force, [No counter-revolution = no liberal reforms = no Bismarck] and thus maintains control of the country. The following years see Prussia slowly sliding into an absolutist monarchy, as Frederick William IV gets more paranoid, reactionary and militaristic. Without Prussian support, the pro-unification movement, at least in any recognisable sense, is still-born.
- In Italy, the liberation of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from the dust of the collapsed Hapsburg Empire released the states of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany from the Hapsburg orbit. The new Pope, Pius IX, (appointed in 1846) pledges military support from the Papal States for the newly liberated nations of North-Eastern Italy (no flight of Pius IX). More extreme pro-unification movements, such as that of ‘Young Italy’, are less successful than in OTL. A further spread of moderate constitutional ideals and minor reforms are felt in Italy as were elsewhere in Europe.
- In the chaos of 1848, Denmark annexes Schleswig.
Byronic Greece, Orleanist France, and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire
POD: Lord Byron survives an encounter with marsh fever (malaria) in April 1824.
Royal Dynasties and Pan-Hellenism: 1828-48
- With a more stable position for the rebels following the capture of the fortress of Lepanto in 1824, Byron returns to Britain in 1828. His influence amongst the upper classes results in an official (if unwilling) pledge of British support and troops by Wellington to the Greek cause. As a result of this, the Greek nation declares a strengthened independence in 1831 [liberal Constitution along British lines?].
- The UK holds onto the Protectorate of the Ionian Islands.
- A pro-British Greek King - Leopold of Saxe-Coburg [uncle of Queen Victoria] – marries a French Orleanist Princess (Louise-Marie d’Orleans) [daughter of King Louis-Felipe I of France].
- A French Orleanist (Louis, Duc d’Nemours (1814-96)) becomes monarch of the Belgian state declared in 1830 [second son of King Louis-Felipe I of France]. He later marries Victoria Saxe-Coburg (1822-57) [cousin of Queen Victoria].
- These (above) are two strong marriages, which cement the British and French royal dynasties in the process of creating two new monarchies. Anglo-French relations strengthened
- By 1848, Greece is in the process of modernizing, industrializing, and anglicizing – has its eye on colonial power status.
- With an Orleanist monarch, from 1838 Belgium has become a perpetual battlefield between Dutch and French forces. Belgian government in exile? British intervention?
- Pan-Hellenic Movement, propagated by Byron and his contemporaries, gives an additional boost to neo-classicism and romanticism in the arts, but is it at the expense of rationalism?
A Muted Revolution and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire: 1848-50
- Orleanist France survives the unrest and outbursts of 1848 with the abdication of King Louis-Philippe I in favour of his more liberal son; Ferdinand-Philippe (1810-71). His first move as King was to dismiss the government of the time, replacing them with the pro-Ferdinand centre-left opposition. This new government, headed by Thiers (Prime Minister) and Barrot (Minister of the Interior), made a number of liberal reforms – including universal male suffrage and a new [Greek-style?] constitution – in an attempt to placate the workers.
- In the Hapsburg Empire, the liberal reforms of Ferdinand-Philippe and the centre-left government in France ultimately forced Chancellor Metternich to resign. With an absence of ministerial expertise, revolutionary activities (more liberal and organised than OTL) spread across the empire bring Emperor Ferdinand back to the forefront. Unprepared for such a role, heart failure leads to the unexpected death of Emperor Ferdinand I (1793-1848), creating a power vacuum and plunging Habsburg lands into chaos. In the following years, the Republic of Lombardy-Venetia [who leads?]; the Austrian Empire (with Tyrol and Salzburg, under Franz-Josef); the Republic of Hungary (with Lajos Kossuth as de facto dictator until his assassination in 1873); Dalmatia; and the Grand Duchy of Krakow (encompassing Galicia), all declare independence, whilst the province of Bukovnia is annexed by the Ottomans, and Montenegro seizes some of its adjacent costal territory.
- In 1848, popular discontent erupts more or less as OTL in the various German states, although, a less extreme and less vehemently republican Berlin situation in Prussia is far more easily crushed. Rather than being scared into promising reform, King Frederick William IV (1795-61) moves to repress the rebels through force, [No counter-revolution = no liberal reforms = no Bismarck] and thus maintains control of the country. The following years see Prussia slowly sliding into an absolutist monarchy, as Frederick William IV gets more paranoid, reactionary and militaristic. Without Prussian support, the pro-unification movement, at least in any recognisable sense, is still-born.
- In Italy, the liberation of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from the dust of the collapsed Hapsburg Empire released the states of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany from the Hapsburg orbit. The new Pope, Pius IX, (appointed in 1846) pledges military support from the Papal States for the newly liberated nations of North-Eastern Italy (no flight of Pius IX). More extreme pro-unification movements, such as that of ‘Young Italy’, are less successful than in OTL. A further spread of moderate constitutional ideals and minor reforms are felt in Italy as were elsewhere in Europe.
- In the chaos of 1848, Denmark annexes Schleswig.
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