Could Bismarck unite the Holy Roman Empire-Voting

Could Otto Von Bismarck Unite the Holy Roman Empire?

  • Yes, Otto Von Bismarck can unite the Holy Roman Empire under Prussia

    Votes: 20 35.1%
  • No, It's to diffcult unite the Holy Roman Empire under Prussia

    Votes: 37 64.9%

  • Total voters
    57
I did a similar thread discussing this topic:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-bismarck-unify-the-holy-roman-empire.447253/

In an alternate scenario where the Holy Roman Empire was never dissolved or/and reinstated after the Napoleonic wars, Could Otto Von Bismarck unify the Holy Roman Empire under Prussia, and make the House of Hohenzollern the Holy Emperor, creating a Holy German Empire?
No way. The Holy Roman Empire or any eventual Holy German Empire will require inclusion of Austria and Bohemia and their Crown was held by Catholics Kings, traditionally an Habsburg and nobody but Habsburg, some Wittelsbach and Maria Theresa's husband had that crown for long time so no way Bismarck would be able to do that... Plus here at the OTL date of the German unification the Holy Roman Emperor would still be Ferdinand (V) with Franz III or Franz Joseph as King of the Romans
 
That happened only years and years after the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by Napoleon and the German Enpire was a totally different entity from the Holy Roman Empire

It was the vast majority of the remaining ex-HRE territories sans Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Moravia so I fail to see how it wasn't the HRE's successor state. Yes, it was a totally different entity from the HRE, the Russian Federation is not the Soviet Union, yet it is its legal successor. The German Empire was not the Holy Roman Empire, yet it was its legal successor. So, point? Also, Napoleon didn't dissolve the Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Francis II did.
 
The idea of "Uniting the Holy Roman Empire" is usually used to indicate that someone works within the legal framework of the Holy Roman Empire and centralizes it.

Honestly, Bismarck couldn't even Unite the German Confederation. Prussia Seceded from the German Confederation and then Conquered it. They didn't unite the German Confederation, they destroyed it and then founded their own state, first the North German Confederation and then later the German Empire, on its corpse.

That's why Prussia is referred to as Uniting Germany, the Nation, but not Uniting the German Confederation, the actual Political Institution that existed at the time.
 
It was the vast majority of the remaining ex-HRE territories sans Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and Moravia so I fail to see how it wasn't the HRE's successor state. Yes, it was a totally different entity from the HRE, the Russian Federation is not the Soviet Union, yet it is its legal successor. The German Empire was not the Holy Roman Empire, yet it was its legal successor. So, point? Also, Napoleon didn't dissolve the Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Francis II did.

The territorial structure/balance was SIGNIFICANTLY better for Prussia in the Comfederation, for one. If you have the pre-Napoleonic borders, than Prussia lacks the majority of its Rhinish territories (its economic and industrial heartland) and has a significantly larger and more powerful Saxony providing a check on it. That has severe effects, key among them an inability to dominate any potential Zoulverien and thus heading off the economic hegemony that smoothed over its political ambitions
 
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