IOTL, the Russian Tsar Nicholas got cancer, keeping him bed ridden, but also still leaving him the official leader of Russia even though he was no longer able to make decisions. This was at about the right time, during the revolutions of 1848. As a result, the Russian leadership was incapacited and didn't intervene in Hungary. The Habsburg Empire fell apart into a Hungarian Republic and the Cisleithanian half still known as the Austrian Empire.
Russian weakness led to Prussian king Frederick William IV to accept the crown, but with several monarchist changes to the liberal constitution of the Frankfurt Assembly. His subsequent victory over Denmark and annexation of Schleswig-Holstein led to the German princes flocking to Prussia while Austria fell apart and Cisleithania was largely absorbed into Germany except for Galicia which was conquered by Russia after they had put down the revolting Poles. A secondary consequence was Italian unification in 1848.
WI Tsar Nicholas I had been fully capable of leading Russia and had squashed the Hungarians and had also curbed Prussian power and their victory over Denmark?
Russian weakness led to Prussian king Frederick William IV to accept the crown, but with several monarchist changes to the liberal constitution of the Frankfurt Assembly. His subsequent victory over Denmark and annexation of Schleswig-Holstein led to the German princes flocking to Prussia while Austria fell apart and Cisleithania was largely absorbed into Germany except for Galicia which was conquered by Russia after they had put down the revolting Poles. A secondary consequence was Italian unification in 1848.
WI Tsar Nicholas I had been fully capable of leading Russia and had squashed the Hungarians and had also curbed Prussian power and their victory over Denmark?