DBWI: France doesn't save Prussia

In the Austro-Prussian War, France saved Prussia's bacon after the Austrian victory at Koniggratz.

France, having had troops stationed in Lombardy since 1859, seized Veneto, South Tyrol, Istria, Parma, and Tuscany from the Austrians and Hapsburgs and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy (much to the chagrin of the Savoys who would soon lose Piedmont).

France claimed the southern Triangle of the Rhineland, protected Prussia from other territorial cessions to Austria (with Prussia gaining Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony in exchange for a cession of the North Rhineland to the Wettins) and with Prussian diplomatic support would purchase Luxembourg the following year.

France gained territory and influence, Prussia was bolstered, and Austria was weakened. Germany from henceforth would be divided between the Rhenish Confederacy, Prussian-dominated East German Confederation, and the South German Bloc.

What if France hadn't saved Prussia?
 
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Likely Prussia goes the way that was planned in the Seven Years War between Austria, France and Russia. Russia gets East Prussia, France gets the Rhineland territories, and Austria in this case would get Prussia's Polish territories (no one was going to agree to Russia getting more Polish cake). Or Saxony might. Can't remember whose side thry were on.

Britain probably starts looking very worriedly over the Channel and joins up with Prussia to avoid a big blue blob scenario. Wilhelm I probably abdicates (like he was very nearly forced to) and Bismarck gets removed by Friedrich III (or assasinated).
 
In the Austro-Prussian War, France saved Prussia's bacon after the Austrian victory at Koniggratz.

France, having had troops stationed in Lombardy since 1859, seized Veneto, South Tyrol, Istria, Parma, and Tuscany from the Austrians and Hapsburgs and proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy (much to the chagrin of the Savoys who would soon lose Piedmont).

France claimed the southern Triangle of the Rhineland, protected Prussia from other territorial cessions to Austria (with Prussia gaining Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony in exchange for a cession of the North Rhineland to the Wettins) and with Prussian diplomatic support would purchase Luxembourg the following year.

France gained territory and influence, Prussia was bolstered, and Austria was weakened. Germany from henceforth would be divided between the Rhenish Confederacy, Prussian-dominated East German Confederation, and the South German Bloc.

What if France hadn't saved Prussia?

Well, "saved" is a vague word and, let's face it, it did very little militarily to help Prussia (with an excuse that the whole affair was over too soon). Not sure where exactly did you get your data about the territorial swaps.

Defeat at Königgrätz was humiliating but it was not Jena-like catastrophe. Prussians still had their 2nd Army coming and, with a brilliant maneuver executed by von Blumenthal, it managed to stop Austrian advance and guaranteed safe retreat to Saxony with the part of the 1st Army getting back to the right bank of Oder River in Silesia (and having a safe line of retreat to Posen). Austrians simply did not have enough troops to both take Silesia (their initial goal) and safely contain Prussians in Saxony on their left flank. The war started turning into a stalemate thus giving other two continental Great Powers time to interfere and, as you put it, "save" Prussia (theoretically, Prussia should win a protracted war thanks to its greater economic resources but nobody was going to test this theory).

In the intensive diplomatic exchange France and Russia (none of which had a single reason to have any good feelings toward Austria) demanded from Austria to agree to a peace with the minimal territorial concessions from Prussia. As a demonstration of their seriousness France assembled 200,000 troops on her northern border while Russia moved 120,000 to its border with Austria (Galicia) and 50,000 to Kalish to back up Prussian troops in Silesia. In a meantime Prussia continued mobilization of its reserves. Austria had to start talks.

By the Peace of Paris all combatants more or less returned to their pre-war borders: Austria got Neurode - Glatz - Habelschweirdt region, Prussia - Leipzig area and France got Southern part of the Rhineland (not sure where did you get these greater swaps). Alexander II got a moral satisfaction by repaying Austria for its "ingratitude" toward his father.

Immediate results:
1. Bismark and Moltke had been sacked. Von Blumenthal had been promoted to the Chief of the General Staff. Roon, somewhat discredited, survived and military reforms continued.
2. Agreement regarding Franco-Russian-Prussian military alliance had been signed. A secret protocol stated dismemberment of the Austrian empire as a goal for the possible future war.
3. Austrian militaristic faction led by Austrian Chancellor Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust was openly unhappy with the results of Peace of Paris and called to a new decisive war with Prussia and made threatening noises against those "who stabbed Austria in the back" (France and Austria). In euphoria of victory nobody thought about rearmament or military reform.

In 1870 Prussia used an artificially created diplomatic scandal to provoke Austria into a military action. Contrary to the rosy expectations of the "militarists", Austria found itself confronted by the alliance of Prussia-France-Russia (so-called "Tripple Alliance") with Piedmont joining as soon as the war started. Austrian German allies, Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, Wurttemberg, etc. proved to be of a little use.

Resulting so-called "6 weeks war" ended up with a complete defeat of Austria by the Tripple Alliance:
1. France got the left bank of the Rhine.
2. The German Empire had been created (Tripple Alliance had been renamed into "Alliance of Three Emperors") with King of Prussia assuming the imperial title. Kingdom of Prussia got back Silesian territories lost in a previous war.
3. Piedmont united all Italian lands to became Kingdom of Italy.
4. Russia got Galicia (and had to figure out what to do with the local Jewish landowners).
5. Bohemia and Hungary (Francis Joseph I did not bother with being crowned in either) had been proclaimed the independent kingdoms (suitable German princelings related to both Hohenzollern and Holstein-Gottorp family got the crowns).
6. Not to be forgotten, Britain expressed its unhappiness. :)
 
Well, "saved" is a vague word and, let's face it, it did very little militarily to help Prussia (with an excuse that the whole affair was over too soon). Not sure where exactly did you get your data about the territorial swaps.

Defeat at Königgrätz was humiliating but it was not Jena-like catastrophe. Prussians still had their 2nd Army coming and, with a brilliant maneuver executed by von Blumenthal, it managed to stop Austrian advance and guaranteed safe retreat to Saxony with the part of the 1st Army getting back to the right bank of Oder River in Silesia (and having a safe line of retreat to Posen). Austrians simply did not have enough troops to both take Silesia (their initial goal) and safely contain Prussians in Saxony on their left flank. The war started turning into a stalemate thus giving other two continental Great Powers time to interfere and, as you put it, "save" Prussia (theoretically, Prussia should win a protracted war thanks to its greater economic resources but nobody was going to test this theory).

In the intensive diplomatic exchange France and Russia (none of which had a single reason to have any good feelings toward Austria) demanded from Austria to agree to a peace with the minimal territorial concessions from Prussia. As a demonstration of their seriousness France assembled 200,000 troops on her northern border while Russia moved 120,000 to its border with Austria (Galicia) and 50,000 to Kalish to back up Prussian troops in Silesia. In a meantime Prussia continued mobilization of its reserves. Austria had to start talks.

By the Peace of Paris all combatants more or less returned to their pre-war borders: Austria got Neurode - Glatz - Habelschweirdt region, Prussia - Leipzig area and France got Southern part of the Rhineland (not sure where did you get these greater swaps). Alexander II got a moral satisfaction by repaying Austria for its "ingratitude" toward his father.

Immediate results:
1. Bismark and Moltke had been sacked. Von Blumenthal had been promoted to the Chief of the General Staff. Roon, somewhat discredited, survived and military reforms continued.
2. Agreement regarding Franco-Russian-Prussian military alliance had been signed. A secret protocol stated dismemberment of the Austrian empire as a goal for the possible future war.
3. Austrian militaristic faction led by Austrian Chancellor Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust was openly unhappy with the results of Peace of Paris and called to a new decisive war with Prussia and made threatening noises against those "who stabbed Austria in the back" (France and Austria). In euphoria of victory nobody thought about rearmament or military reform.

In 1870 Prussia used an artificially created diplomatic scandal to provoke Austria into a military action. Contrary to the rosy expectations of the "militarists", Austria found itself confronted by the alliance of Prussia-France-Russia (so-called "Tripple Alliance") with Piedmont joining as soon as the war started. Austrian German allies, Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, Wurttemberg, etc. proved to be of a little use.

Resulting so-called "6 weeks war" ended up with a complete defeat of Austria by the Tripple Alliance:
1. France got the left bank of the Rhine.
2. The German Empire had been created (Tripple Alliance had been renamed into "Alliance of Three Emperors") with King of Prussia assuming the imperial title. Kingdom of Prussia got back Silesian territories lost in a previous war.
3. Piedmont united all Italian lands to became Kingdom of Italy.
4. Russia got Galicia (and had to figure out what to do with the local Jewish landowners).
5. Bohemia and Hungary (Francis Joseph I did not bother with being crowned in either) had been proclaimed the independent kingdoms (suitable German princelings related to both Hohenzollern and Holstein-Gottorp family got the crowns).
6. Not to be forgotten, Britain expressed its unhappiness. :)

The so-called 'League of Three Emperors" is hardly something worth talking about. Like the previous attempt at a Continent-wide conservative coalition it existed almost entirely on paper and in the Czar's head as the fall of Austria lead to French and German interests suddenly bumping up against Russia's as Vienna's fall revealed the threat Russia now posed in terms of infringing on traditional Western European regions of interest. The pond was simply too small for three big fish to swim around in, which lead to the "Second Great Game" over the new Italy, Hungary, and Bohemia as well as influence in the Baltic. Ended up leading to Russia being overextended when the Second Crimean War rolled around and the joint German-British-Ottoman-Swedish "Grand Offensive of 1891" pushing them back and establishing the cordain of border states that put the kibosh on their Imperial ambitions. A world where Prussia gets strangled in its cradle though... We might see a greater Russian Empire
 
The so-called 'League of Three Emperors" is hardly something worth talking about. Like the previous attempt at a Continent-wide conservative coalition it existed almost entirely on paper and in the Czar's head as the fall of Austria lead to French and German interests suddenly bumping up against Russia's as Vienna's fall revealed the threat Russia now posed in terms of infringing on traditional Western European regions of interest. The pond was simply too small for three big fish to swim around in, which lead to the "Second Great Game" over the new Italy, Hungary, and Bohemia as well as influence in the Baltic. Ended up leading to Russia being overextended when the Second Crimean War rolled around and the joint German-British-Ottoman-Swedish "Grand Offensive of 1891" pushing them back and establishing the cordain of border states that put the kibosh on their Imperial ambitions.

Yes, this was a glorious affair or at least looked as such for a while. The Grand Coalition was quite successful in forcing Alexander II to reintroduce Latin alphabet in Estonia, Finland and even in Italy (this one he gave up suspiciously easily so Grand Coalition decided to proceed expediently but judicially) but when the festivities in London, Berlin, Stockholm, and Istanbul were finally over (which took couple years), it was, quite occasionally, discovered that in a meantime Russians constructed a railroad all across Siberia and managed to annex Manchuria, a very promising new market for the products of Smirnov family enterprise (*).

Their close ally, Japan, got Korea and a big chunk of China and was already developing plans regarding the Dutch and British colonies. In the US President Teddy Roosevelt had been making speeches about a manifest necessity to connect Alaska to the main US territory ("House divided can't stay...") and a need to have at least 30 capital ships, just in case somebody is going to question this notion. The people were cheering.

France, notoriously absent from the Grand Coalition, had been quietly providing the loans while secretly working on building a new "League of Three Emperors", French, Russian and Japanese.

Information that the Russians are marching from Caucasus across Anatolia was treated as a silly rumor until their batteries had been installed on the Asiatic coast of the Straits. Shelling of Istanbul became a daily entertainment of general Skobelev, military commander in Russain newly created governorship of Anatolia stretching all the way along the Asiatic coast of the Black Sea. Massive uprisings followed and in a short time the new states started appearing like mushrooms after the rain (are they really appearing after the rain? I'm not very good in agriculture): Tsardom Great Armenia, Kurdish Republic of Ararat, Alawite Kingdom of Syria, Kingdom of Baghdad, Sultanate of Basra.

Within couple years the problems started growing within the Grand Coalition: abolishing Russian alphabet in Estonia and Finland was fine but what should it be replaced with? Quite obviously, the German and British ideas on the subject had been noticeably different and the local nationalists also came with their silly ideas and had to be dealt with. When this was done, the issue of alphabet became more or less theoretical due to almost complete extermination of the local population but this did not eliminate the principal differences between British and German points of view. Both in the Parliament and in Reichstag leaders of the patriotic parties declared that differences like these can be resolved only by steel and blood. Funds for the new armaments had been voted on unanimously..... Britain began speedily construction of 20 new battleships and Germany formed 30 new divisions.... The famous "Alphabet War" (also known as "Whale and Elephant War") was nearing .....

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(*) According to the memoirs of Smirnoff Jr. (one who managed to escape to the US with the recipie of what became Smirnoff vodka), in OTL he was put in charge of building the distillation plants in the area of Russian penetration. The main problem was competition of the low quality Chinese moonshine.
 
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"Alphabet War" Continuation

This is early 1893. French and Russian empires are neutral in a brewing conflict between British and Prussian empires. Austrian Empire is reduced to Austria while the Ottoman Empire is just a small piece of a territory near Istanbul on European side of the Straits). The rest is either occupied by the Russian Empire or a dynamically changing set of the newly-created states fighting each other.

Within couple years the problems started growing within the Grand Coalition: abolishing Russian alphabet in Estonia and Finland was fine but what should it be replaced with? Quite obviously, the German and British ideas on the subject had been noticeably different and the local nationalists also came with their silly ideas and had to be dealt with. When this was done, the issue of alphabet became more or less theoretical due to almost complete extermination of the local population but this did not eliminate the principal differences between British and German points of view. Both in the Parliament and in Reichstag leaders of the patriotic parties declared that differences like these can be resolved only by steel and blood. Funds for the new armaments had been voted on unanimously..... Britain began speedily construction of 20 new battleships and Germany formed 30 new divisions.... The famous "Alphabet War" (also known as "Whale and Elephant War") was nearing .....

The British-German war (generally known as "Alphabet War") had been officially declared after the yacht of Kaiser Wilhelm II visiting his garndma did not get appropriate salute from a passing British warship (it was later argued that it just run out of ammunition before the needed number of salvos had been fired but nobody cared). The German public went berserk, the war was officially declared and a battery of the Württemberger 1st Infantry Regiment fired a symbolic salvo in the general direction of the British Isles. Not to be outdone, platoon of the Coldstream Guards fired 3 salvos in a direction of Germany. The war began.

International reactions:

France. There were bloody clashes between the British and German visitors in Place Pigalle, Paris. French police had to interfere to prevent the further escalation of a brawl and to disperse the crowd watching the fistfight with a gleeful interest. Emperor Napoleon V in his interview to the press underscored both French neutrality and the fact that "the French whores are the best in the world because they are taking their job seriously". Police Prefect of Paris, addressing crowd of the enthusiastic prostitutes, further emphasized both points and also declared that serving ALL clients without showing any national preferences is their patriotic duty: "French economy depends on your efforts! Vive la Emperor! Vive la France!". Quite understandably, both British and German clients of "Maxim's" limited expression of their feelings to waiving small national flags thoughtfully supplied by restaurant's administration.

Russia. In the early 1893 Emperor Alexander II finally died at the age of 82, after escaping 12 assassination attempts and 4 proposals to make Russia a constitutional monarchy. He was succeeded by his son, Alexander III who was, by that time known mostly as an enthusiastic trombone player. His first actions as an emperor had been rather encouraging: he ordered to design new uniforms for the Russian army and published a declaration about "Danger of ANY reforms". Russian society issued a sight of relief and proceeded with its daily businesses. Information about the start of the British-German war had been delivered to Alexander when he was fishing in a lake near one of the Petergoff palaces. His reaction (immediately published in all Russian newspapers) was "When the Emperor of Russia is busy fishing, Europe can wait".

Japan. Japanese had been so busy looting Nanking, Donjing, Nontong, Beijing and other Chinese cities with the names ending with "ing" and "ong" that they simply did not pay any attention.

United States. Teddy Roosevelt kept making speeches about the need to link Alaska to the main US territory. US Congress approved conscription law.

Sweden. Just in case, Sweden hastily returned Finland to Russia after burning all compromising books printed using the Latin alphabet. There was some bargaining involved because Alexander III could not figure out to which end he may need Finland. Oscar II had to call to the traditional friendship between the houses of Bernadotte and Holstein-Gottorp to convince Alexander to take Finland back. As a token of friendship Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna had been married to Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland.

Course of the war.

For the first few months scope of the hostilities had been quite limited by the obvious reasons. Leaders on each side had been explaining to the enthusiastic public that everything is going as it should be because "Not a single <German/British> soldier stepped on a sacred ground of <Great Britain/German Empire>".

When asked in the Parliament why the British Grand Fleet is not leaving its base, the 1st Lord of Admiralty, The Right Honourable George Goschen, answered that the function of the Grand Fleet is, by the mere fact of its existence, to prevent German (or any other) navy from doing any harm to Britain (*) . Quite obviously, sailing out of Scapa Flow can be detrimental to achieving that goal due to the possible losses of men and material (not to mention expenses on coal). This statement had been greeted even by the Opposition as a sign of a great competence and prudence.

On the German side, Grand Admiral Tirpitz had been raving about sending the High Sea Fleet into the Armageddon battle against the Brits until, in one of his rare moments of a relative sanity, Kaiser Wilhelm ordered to place him in one of the nice quiet institutions with the well-padded walls. Wilhelm's official statement was "Our fleet is too expensive toy to be destroyed frivolously". To the deep satisfaction of his subjects, soon enough Willy got back to his "normal condition".

However, after German light cruiser "Verrückt" sunk the British trawler near Dogger Bank, a show of force had been decided upon and the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under command of David Beatty (a dashing admiral best known for having 3, instead of the standard 4 pairs of the buttons on his uniform jacket) sailed out of Scapa Flow with the explicitly stated purpose "to do something". Unfortunately, the squadron was crossing a sector allocated to U-32. The last Beatty's statement recorded for the history was "Oops! Something is wrong with our ....". After the national outcry "Sunk the U-32!" it was hunted down by the whole Grand Fleet and sunk with no survivors. Its task being accomplished (and German navy being put to shame) the Grand Fleet returned to Scapa Flow to receive victor's welcome. German Navy, humiliated by this loss restricted its further operations to sailing back and forth in the Kiel Canal.

To secure Germany from a British invasion Wilhelm ordered construction of the "Atlantic Wall" a huge line of a fortifications stretching along the whole Germany's Atlantic coast.

The Brits had been busily setting the huge minefields at the entries of all their ports.

German Zeppelin managed to reach the Shetland Islands and destroyed a sheep farm. No human lives had been lost but 12 sheep perished causing huge outcry about cruelty to the animals in all civilized world. On Place Pigalle, Paris, one of the ladies of the negotiable affections refused proposal from a German tourist calling him "sheep murderer" and alluding to the unnatural sexual preferences of the German nation. She was officially (gently) reprimanded but progressive national press called her "Second Joan of Arc" and for a while her clientele skyrocketed. To avoid further repercussions, Wilhelm forbade further usage of the Zeppelins.


In Africa the British troops (approximately 300,000) had been chasing forces of the German general Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans) all across Africa thus keeping the national spirit high. On the German side he was cheered as the 1st German commander to successfully invade imperial British soil.

The war was going on already for 3 years but with all exhausting efforts neither side managed to get a clear advantage.
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(*) it is not me, see thread about the torpedoes :cool:
 
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