DBWI: What if the Prussians had won at Königgrätz?

I recently reread my copy of "10 deciding battles of the 19th century".

To my surprise the Battle of Königgrätz was more close than I could remember. Had the Crown Princes Army (2.nd Prussian) not been delayed and reachend the battlefield 2-3 hours earlier (noon instead of 1500) the Prussians could have won the battle and likely the war.

What would have been the consequences of Austria loosing Venetia (or more) instead of reclaiming Lombardia. What would be the consequence of Austria losing Austrian-Silesia, probably Bohemia. instead of getting Silesia (Prussian) back after more than 100 years?

Would the Austrians (or someone else) have reestablised the Polish Kingdom as the Austrians did after the Balkan Wars against Russia and their allies?

Would we have a centralised (PRussian led) Germany instaed of the German Federation. I have read - can't remember where that an unified Germany would be seen as a threat by France and the two would never be friends?
 
You mean WI the Austrians won?Because in real life the Prussians were the ones who won.

Its fun how there is always one guy in these threads, who dont know what "DBWI" means. We need to create a list of AH jargon so newcomers could assimilate more easily into us :D
 
Its fun how there is always one guy in these threads, who dont know what "DBWI" means. We need to create a list of AH jargon so newcomers could assimilate more easily into us :D
I suppose that's a good idea.Took me a while to understand what ASB is.:eek:
 
Well Prussia winning the war would be very interesting, they may even unify the smaller German states, but I doubt that since it'll shatter the balance of power in the continent.
 
Could have been a mixed blessing for King Wilhelm II.

As head of a great power, might have had to settle down and become a sober and responsible ruler, rather than the "classroom clown" of German royalty.
 
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Its fun how there is always one guy in these threads, who don't know what "DBWI" means. We need to create a list of AH jargon so newcomers could assimilate more easily into us. :D
I suppose that's a good idea.Took me a while to understand what ASB is.:eek:
Well one idea might be to make posting a quick disclaimer and link to the Double Blind What If wiki page at the top of these threads standard practice. Just something brief like 'This is a Double Blind What If thread, if you are unfamiliar with this then please read the link before posting. Thank you.' would do it.
 
Well one idea might be to make posting a quick disclaimer and link to the Double Blind What If wiki page at the top of these threads standard practice. Just something brief like 'This is a Double Blind What If thread, if you are unfamiliar with this then please read the link before posting. Thank you.' would do it.

That's way too inefficient, and also breaks the immersion. An informative sticky thread would be the best.

It's not like there's the wiki...

I'm not sure it's a sound idea to expect people to read a wiki just to contribute to a forum, especially as this is the only forum I can think of which actually does have a well-developed and relevant wiki.

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Would the Austrians (or someone else) have reestablised the Polish Kingdom as the Austrians did after the Balkan Wars against Russia and their allies?

The Prussians wanted to Germanize the Polish areas, and the Russians wanted to Russify them. The Habsburgs were the only ones who didn't really try to assimilate them - to them, what was important was getting Habsburgs on thrones (which is why they were content to cede Galicia-Lodomeria to Poland after they installed a Habsburg cadet branch). A weaker Austria would probably have led to an understanding between Prussia and Russia never to reunify Poland.

I have read - can't remember where that an unified Germany would be seen as a threat by France and the two would never be friends?

I'm not sure how far Prussia would have expanded, really. I read up on Prussia and apparently it was led by a guy called Bismarck at that point, who was strongly Protestant and did not really want to integrate more Catholics into his realm.

And why could they never be friends? If France decides not to try to establish a sphere of influence in the Rhineland as per OTL (and not everyone supported that foreign policy, after all), the two of them really don't have that much in the way of conflicting interests. After the wars of the 1860s, tensions are going to cool down, the French accept the new order and things go on.
 
Well, Prussian victory at Koniggratz might've kept Napoleon III in power longer.

He probably wouldn't have (belatedly) entered the war "in support of Austria", in order to invade the Rhine Province.

Not only would France have been spared the condemnation stemming from her reprisals against German civilian "stadtjager" during the invasion, but she wouldn't have run afoul of Britain and Austria.

They could look at a map and realize that, in order to securely hold the Rhine Province, France would have to eventually annex Belgium, and probably the Bavarian Palatinate.

When Napoleon's secret offer to buy Luxembourg was revealed by Willian III, it caused an uproar in Britain. It grew into a storm when Bismarck cleverly revealed that Napoleon had expressed an intention to get Belgium during their Oct 1865 meeting at Biarritz.

And Austria, of course, wasn't about to let France threaten Bavaria, who had supported her during the war.

When both threatened war, Napoleon withdrew his troops. The disappointment and outrage the people of France felt were probably decisive factors in his overthrow a few months later.

So, Prussian victory at Koniggratz just might have resulted in Louis-Napoleon staying in power longer; whether that would've been good for France, I don't know.
 
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