Danish Empire is larger in the 19th century

depends heavily on your POD ... in reverse the most obvious would be...

Better succes in First Schleswig War (making the London Protecol accepting the fait accompli of Denmark integrating Schleswig-Holstein and the other duchies, instead of 'merely' a personal union), and not getting goaded into the Second Schleswig War might help.

Not being militarily incompetent from 1600s onwards, hence not losing the Torstenson War in the tailend of 30 years, or more critically First Northern War or give Denmark the ability to rebound shortly afterwards, reconquering what they lost.

Another again would be less antagonistic attitude between Denmark (and the Royality) on one side, and the Swedish Nobilty on the other, doing the Kalmar Union.

No loss in Bornhöved, solidifying Danish Control over Northern Germany, which the Emperor had already accepted (and wrote out of the empire in the Golden Bull of 1214).

Denmarks greatest problem from 1600s onwards was that it suffered from repeatedly incompetent kings, while their neighbours (Sweden and Prussia specially) had strings of great kings
 
Is it possible for the Denmark to be a larger and more significant empire in the 19th century?

If the PoD is in the 19th century, then it will be pretty hard. Stop the sale of Danish Gold Coast to the UK and maybe they will be better poised for expansion into central Africa in the 1860s, '70s and /80s?

Of course, any Denmark with S-H is on a collision course with a pan-German movement. The Prussians might well swoop in and take the whole thing at some point anyway.
 
What about not backing Napoleon and losing Norway as a result for starters?

Denmark didn't back Napoleon as such. They got backstabbed by Britain who didn't want to accept the Danish claim of armed neutrality, forcing them to ally with the enemy of their enemy
 
If the PoD is in the 19th century, then it will be pretty hard. Stop the sale of Danish Gold Coast to the UK and maybe they will be better poised for expansion into central Africa in the 1860s, '70s and /80s?

Of course, any Denmark with S-H is on a collision course with a pan-German movement. The Prussians might well swoop in and take the whole thing at some point anyway.

Possibly but the Danes would be on a collision course with the Brits and the French unless if an empire is willing to back up their claims to CA. What about the Danes keep Gulkdkyst and expand it to form modern day Ghana while British support the Danes in their expansion into CA. Maybe we could have the Germans to support the Danes in the scramble to Africa?
 
depends heavily on your POD ... in reverse the most obvious would be...

Better succes in First Schleswig War (making the London Protecol accepting the fait accompli of Denmark integrating Schleswig-Holstein and the other duchies, instead of 'merely' a personal union), and not getting goaded into the Second Schleswig War might help.

Just a comment: In 1850, this United Denmark would have roughly 1,4 mn Danes and 0,9 mn Germans, ie a Germanophone population of c.40%. By 1900, it would be still about 36% Germanophones (apparently many Schleswig-Holsteiners emigrated to other parts of Germany after 1864 in OTL.)
Even with that rate of emigration intact or even a bit higher, once full democracy becomes a reality, there will be a huge minority inside Denmark's borders that will probably desire closer relation to the gargantua at the southern border. OTOH, in the Reichstag elections after 1867, Holstein voted mostly Left Liberal (ie anti-Bismarck) and Schleswig either Danish of National Liberal. Having Prussia turn towards open reaction after 1850 and Danmark-Schleswig-Holstein as a bilingual liberal refuge would be very interesting.

(And if we envision Denmark even gobbling up Hamburg and Lübeck, as I have seen in some Danewanks, then the rate of Germanophones will rise to 45% in 1850 and even 48% in 1900.)
 

Redbeard

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Just a comment: In 1850, this United Denmark would have roughly 1,4 mn Danes and 0,9 mn Germans, ie a Germanophone population of c.40%. By 1900, it would be still about 36% Germanophones (apparently many Schleswig-Holsteiners emigrated to other parts of Germany after 1864 in OTL.)
Even with that rate of emigration intact or even a bit higher, once full democracy becomes a reality, there will be a huge minority inside Denmark's borders that will probably desire closer relation to the gargantua at the southern border. OTOH, in the Reichstag elections after 1867, Holstein voted mostly Left Liberal (ie anti-Bismarck) and Schleswig either Danish of National Liberal. Having Prussia turn towards open reaction after 1850 and Danmark-Schleswig-Holstein as a bilingual liberal refuge would be very interesting.

(And if we envision Denmark even gobbling up Hamburg and Lübeck, as I have seen in some Danewanks, then the rate of Germanophones will rise to 45% in 1850 and even 48% in 1900.)

The 19th century ideas about a "Great Denmark" never went beyond Slesvig however. Holsten, which was almost 100% German speaking and never had been Danish speaking, was to be left as a German Duchy (ruled by the Danish Monarch for as long as it lasted). After both WWI and WWII it was seriously considered to retake South Slesvig, which by then was predominantly German speaking but historically had been Danish. Thank God they/we didn't - a 5% German minority wasn't considered worthwhile a strip of land. Looking back on recent events here in Copenhagen it perhaps would have been better with 5% Germans than 5% Arabs…

With earlier PoDs, like Valdemar winning at Bornhoved in 1241 or even a more successful Danish participation in the 30 years’ war and/or Scanian wars you of course plausibly could imagine a relatively homogeneous Kingdom around the western Baltic, but it might end up more German than Danish - Platdeutsch to be exact.

In many ways it seems like a miracle we're still here. If you could rerun history 10 times from a starting point in say 1300, I don't think we would be here by 2000 in more than 5 out of 10 times.
 
As for the 1852 London protocol, how about a compromise? Granted at the time it could be seen as a loss, but it might not be that bad on the longer run.

The house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg will succeed in Denmark and Denmark is allowed to integrate Schleswig/Slesvig.

The house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg will succeed in the German duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg and will become/stay German. However ITTL they won't end up Prussian.
I know this breaks the old bond between Schleswig and Holstein, but it would be an achievable compromise.

However how about a pod, where Denmark keeps Skåneland?

I knew the Netherlands had possessions on the Goudkust, but apparently so did Denmark on the Gulkdkyst.
 
Either the First Northern War or the Scanian war going better helps Denmark, but I would argue that it helps Prussia even more.

You mean Brandenburg-Prussia might be able to keep Ermland and perhaps could make some gains in Swedish Pomerania?

This would tone down Sweden, but provided Brandenburg-Prussia doesn't make too much gains, Denmark might be in better situation than IOTL.
 
The only way this happens is if Germany doesn't unite under Prussia (alternate 7 Years War, Prussia is not aggrandized after Napoleonic Wars, or Prussia suffers a major defeat to Austria/France/Poland in 1860's.
 
Actually when Denmark had their conflicts with the German States, Germany wasn't (re-) united yet and in the second Schleswig war the two German great powers, Prussia and Austria, were allied (together with smaller German states).

Actually Prussia wasn't that much aggrandized after the Napoleonic wars either, Prussia was mostly restored and compensated, especially when one compares pre Revolutionary wars Prussia (after the third Polish partition) and post Napoleonic wars Prussia. Prussia suffering a defeat OTOH is possible, but once German nationalism develops Schleswig-Holstein is likely to become a problem, which can lead to a conflict with all German states like IOTL.
 
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As for the 1852 London protocol, how about a compromise? Granted at the time it could be seen as a loss, but it might not be that bad on the longer run.

The house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg will succeed in Denmark and Denmark is allowed to integrate Schleswig/Slesvig.

The house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg will succeed in the German duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg and will become/stay German. However ITTL they won't end up Prussian.
I know this breaks the old bond between Schleswig and Holstein, but it would be an achievable compromise.

A compromise is something that leaves both sides unsatisfied, right? :D So maybe the Duchy of Slesvig/Schleswig is divided along the dotted red line, giving the eponymous town and castle to Holstein (thereby keeping the old bond intact), while merging the purely and predominantly Danish parishes , the mixed German/Danish parishes and the Frisian areas with Danmark proper.

=25655731.601.png


ETA: A slightly different, but overall similar map with Eglish legend:
LinguisticSituationSchleswigSlesvig.png
 
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