1871
Vienna
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria had spent the past two decades attempting to shore up his expansive European domains so Austria may retain some semblance of equality with France and Russia. In 1848, he seized power from his imbecile Uncle with the old man was about to offer a massive dispersal of authority to the various Habsburg subject peoples. Franz Joseph nixed this and sent his secret police into the streets to hunt down dissidents. For the most part, he succeeded thought the Hungarians, Czechs, etc, largely proved...displeased...with their lack of autonomy and increasing centralization of the Habsburg domains.
Eternally backward, Austria never could catch up with the modernizing nations of France, Britain, the United States, even parts of the Confederation of the Rhine. Unlike Napoleon III or the late Alexander II, Franz Joseph refused to believe that technological and economic modernization must go hand in hand with social reform. Instead, Franz Joseph attempted to force the Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, etc, under his crown to speak German.
Bit by bit, the nation began to fall apart. The Slavic neighbors of Poland and Serbia quietly enjoyed Austria's revolutionary convulsions, encouraging it when they could. Many German states actively encouraged Austria's duchy to abandon the old order and join the Confederation, perhaps alongside Prussia. The latter had long been excluded from the Confederation to ensure it was under French control. Perhaps with Austria and Prussia...?
As his armies began to defect to various rebel groups, usually by ethnicity, there were fewer and fewer loyal forces to call upon. Franz Joseph's greatest advantage was that several peoples under the crown of St. Stephen did not want to be left to Hungarian domination and supported Austria, deeming Vienna the lesser to two evils. Armies clashed throughout the Empire, some resulting in Imperial victories, some in defeat.
Finally, the Emperor dispatched calls for aid to France and Russia. Humiliated, the Emperor awaited their response as to whether they would assist in preserving his own throne. The Poles and Balkan Slavic countries demanded that the European hegemony powers do nothing, let the old relic of a bygone age collapse under the weight of its incompetence and tyranny. However, neither power wanted central Europe to become a warzone. Both were well entrenched in colonial affairs and saw no advantage to allowing the Habsburg Empire to turn into a festering hole in the middle of Europe.
France and Russia, long the ascendant powers on the continent, had learned over the years that neither would overly involve themselves into the other's business provided that neither attempted to take precipitous action in the "neutral" areas of central Europe. Neither country wanted to conquer Austria, Prussia or Poland but simply didn't want the other to dominate there. Both were happy to "influence" their immediate neighbors (Russia in the Balkans, France in the Dutch Republic and the Confederation of the Rhine) without conquering and this left the continent in a general state of peace. However, Austrian incompetence was too much for Franz Joseph's subjects and they rebelled, somewhat predictably.
French and Russian diplomats hastily agreed that the Habsburg Empire would become more of a Federation. Russian troops marched in and informed both the Emperor and his subjects of the new arrangement. Both sides protested but the presence of 200,000 Russian troops forced the issue. Local Parliaments sprung up everywhere but under the nominal rule of the Emperor, whom resentfully accepted that his fate was determined by others for the moment.
Open Civil War was halted as the assorted peoples attempted to figure out what they had won and what they had lost, a task that would take them years. Franz Joseph eternally attempted to undermine the agreement. Violence was temporarily halted but not for long.
Madrid
Emperor Ferdinand VIII of Spain had waited a very long time for his father to die, seemingly his whole life. Given the decay of his father's body over the years, it was logical that Ferdinand VII wouldn't have lived to see fifty years. But the old man hung on, year after year, driving the Empire ever further into revolt, anarchy, oppression and general obsolescence compared to the thriving neighbors of New Spain, naming British Brazil and the United States.
The re-conquest of northern New Spain, now Tierra Fernanda, had been accomplished at great expense. But there was little to show of it as the land was destroyed after decades of war. The colonial elites, once the metropolis' greatest supporters, now sought to make themselves independent of Spain. Bit by bit, the colonies slipped away, often without a fight. For the most part, they did not declare open independence like the Philippines. Generally, they just informed the Royal Governors of who was now in charge.
Spain's capacity to dispatch armies was at a low ebb. Indeed, the suppression of Tierra Fernanda would not have been possible without the support of the other colonies. Had they revolted at that time as well...?
Perhaps worse was the knowledge that both America quietly supported these colonial insurrections, as they desired all Europeans out of the western hemisphere. Britain was a bit more ambiguous. As a colonial power in Brazil, independence movements may spread to their territories though Brazil had already been largely granted "Home Rule". Still, it was a bad precedent and the British quietly encouraged some peaceful solution. Britain knew perfectly well that Spain was not a threat to them. Perhaps an independent New Spain may prove as dynamic as the United States and prove a real contender for British-Brazilian hegemony in South America.
Spain was left impotent as the locals in Peru, Granada and Chile smoothly assumed power. Only in Tierra Fernanda and Cuba did the regime survive due to the large number of troops on site. What few forces available remained in Iberia to put down these constant revolts in Portugal and Catalonia provinces as well as the odd "Liberal" revolts that popped up everywhere. God knew that Ferdinand VIII was a reformer, over the past five decades, the then Infant had supported reform of the outdated Spanish industry and government. But this political reform? No.
Though he loathed to do it, Ferdinand VIII was forced to dispatch a request to his cousin, Napoleon III of France, for help. Ferdinand's mother had been a Bonaparte and childless Napoleon II's cousin (for this Ferdinand VIII was hated by his father, Ferdinand VII having loathed the Bonapartes and resented having to marry the "Low-born" daughter of a Corsican minor gentryman"). When Napoleon III assumed the throne of his uncle in France, the relationship between France and Spain had collapsed years before. Both new monarchs attempted to reestablish ties, though this was not popular in either country.
As rebellions tore apart his country, the Spanish King sought the only help he had left.
Napoleon III agreed to help on the condition that many of the revolutionaries' demands were met. Oddly, even Britain supported this to an extent, if only to stabilize Europe. Grudgingly, Ferdinand VIII did so but vowed never to allow such an embarrassment to be repeated.
The colonies were declared "self-governing" under Imperial Rule. This did not end the violence there as this simply meant that the local oligarchies replaced the Imperial tyranny in Madrid. Few colonials received greater rights, slavery persisted and the violence continued against the new dictators of the Americas.
Very little improved though Europe's worst violence had momentarily ended.