DBWI: Prussia had gained territory in the west of Germany

JJohnson

Banned
What if Prussia had gained territory in the west of Germany? Do you think the states of Westphalia, Rhineland, Hanover, and Oldenburg, and part or all of Saxony could've been made part of Prussia? Maybe Magdeburg-Anhalt could be bigger? I know they have a few provinces now, mainly Brandenburg, Silesia, Posen, Pomerania, and East/West Prussia, but maybe they could've gotten some western territory and used that to help unite Germany under Prussian rule. Is that a plausible timeline?
 
Not too difficult--Prussia had some scattered holdings in the west prior to the Revolutionary Wars. If Prussia gets more involved with those, instead of taking more of Poland, maybe you'll see more of a Prussian influence in German unification. I don't know how they'd get Hanover, though, without ending up in conflict with Britain...
 
Maybe they would form germany instead of Bavaria

got your german geography wrong, Bavaria was the name of an old kingdom in germany ruled by wittelbastch dinasty, they exchange it for the more rich Burgundy(ITTL name for belgium/Austria Netherlands) from the hasburgs in Eigthteen century, when prussia won silesia and galicia and started to push into poland to finally divided it with russia.

So if Prussia have loss all their third polish partitions territories(let's say french republic was more sucessful and beated it) maybe they decided recover those territories in the west and expand it rather ceding it to Saxony in exchange support in the polish partitions.

So Prussia would be more german rather otl weird germano-baltic-polish culture?
 
This is absurd. Prussia didn't even want territory in the west of Germany. They wanted further advances in Saxony, in accordance with the long-held tendency of their expansion; this was hardly a new thing; it was well-established policy. They did well in the Napoleonic Wars, coming out as one of the leading powers on the winning side, with Blücher's symbolically important defeat of Bonaparte at Waterloo after he defeated the British Army, and so they got what they wanted.

Why would they end up being lumped with the Rhineland when they didn't even want to have it and when it was disconnected from the rest of their possessions in addition to possessing a highly different identity that would obviously react badly towards Prussian rule? That would be like if England won a war against Scotland (prior to the Acts of Union, of course) and then took the highlands instead of any parts that were actually bordering England and culturally more Anglicised.
 
Plus, the Rhineland is full of Catholics. Why would Prussia want them?

If anything, I see the Wittelsbachs angling to add the Rhineland to their possessions in the formerly Austrian Netherlands. Give them a better performance in the Revolutionary Wars and bam, Wittelsbach Wacht am Rhein.
 
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