For A Few Germans More

AFAIK the population of Czechoslovakia in the 1930s was about 15 million people. Of them about 10 million lived what is now the Czech Republic. Four million lived in Slovakia and one million in Ruthenia.

However, AFAIK 35% of the population of what is now the Czech Republic were German speakers and a quarter of the population of Slovakia spoke Hungarian as their first language.

With a POD of 1870 would it be feasible for the ratios of German to Czech and Hungarian to Slovak speakers to be more balanced? That is 45:55 in what is now the Czech Republic and 50:50 in what is now Slovakia.

If it was would that have been enough to prevent the creation of Czechoslovakia after World War One? That is what's now the Czech Republic would remain a part of Austria and Slovakia would remain part of Hungary. Ruthenia would be awarded to Poland whether the Ruthenians wanted to be or not.
 
Slovakia with Hungary looks doable if only for the reason that Slovakia is relatively obscure. Bohemia with Austria not only looks retarded on the map but is inimical to the Entente's strategic interests. As for Ruthenia in Poland, I think it'd be sooner labelled "assorted Slav land that we'll give to Hungary to deal with" than turned over to the fledgling Polish administration.
 
That POD really is quite late and I can't see a situation in which German-speaking Austria and Bohemia are united in a single state. Might as well put Bavaria in there while you're at it! Only something very, very disruptive would change demographics so much that the Czechs, by 1914, would consider themselves in the same nation as Austria. Even Bohemian Germans might have preferred independence if they didn't feel threatened by the czechs... Still, I think the mostly likely way that this kind of thing would happen would be if either Austria and Hungary could get away with more vigorous linguistic assimilation campaigns. The Czechs were already restive about the status in the empire and I don't think Austria could have afforded to try to Germanize them without risking the cohesion of the empire in one of its very most important regions. Perhaps a failed uprising would break their power but even so I can't see Austria imposing such harsh language laws. On the other hand, survival of the empire might cool nationalistic attitudes and make German the lingua Franca of central Europe (it was already known by many) to such an extent that it would slowly become the language of choice and Czechs would consider themselves closer to their German-speaking neighbors with each generation. The same goes for the Slovaks, to whom the Magyars seem to have been rather more forceful about forcing assimilation than the German Austrians.
 
According to the 1910 census of Germany Upper Silesia had 1,245,000 Poles and 672,000 Germans. In the partition of Upper Silesia 350,00 Germans went to Poland and 570,000 Poles were left in Germany so about half the Germans and half the Poles were on the wrong side of the border. However, Poland got the parts that produced 75% of Germany's zinc ore and 23% of its coal.

IOTL there were 2 Poles for one German according to the 1910 Census. With a POD of 1900 would it be possible to alter that to one to one with roughly 300,000 fewer Poles and 300,000 more Germans.

According to the Polish census of 1931 the populations of the ex German territories were:
1,086,259 Pomorze
2,114,251 Poznan
1,298,352 Silesia
While I'm at it the populations of the Czech Provinces in their census of 1931 were:
7,109,376 Bohemia
3,565,010 Moravia and Silesia
3,329,793 Slovakia
725,357 Carpatho-Ukriane
Luxembourg had a population of 299,993 in 1930. Which isn't many people, but it was on top of an iron ore field and produced several million tons of steel. It had been part of the German Customs Union until forced to leave by the Treaty of Versailles. With a POD of 1900 is there any possibility of it being treated like the Saar and joining Germany in 1935?
 

Deleted member 1487

AFAIK the population of Czechoslovakia in the 1930s was about 15 million people. Of them about 10 million lived what is now the Czech Republic. Four million lived in Slovakia and one million in Ruthenia.

However, AFAIK 35% of the population of what is now the Czech Republic were German speakers and a quarter of the population of Slovakia spoke Hungarian as their first language.

With a POD of 1870 would it be feasible for the ratios of German to Czech and Hungarian to Slovak speakers to be more balanced? That is 45:55 in what is now the Czech Republic and 50:50 in what is now Slovakia.

If it was would that have been enough to prevent the creation of Czechoslovakia after World War One? That is what's now the Czech Republic would remain a part of Austria and Slovakia would remain part of Hungary. Ruthenia would be awarded to Poland whether the Ruthenians wanted to be or not.
Depending on how the population is distributed they'd likely get absorbed in Austria. It would theoretically be possible for west Bohemia to have been more assimilated so that it gets mostly absorbed into Austria, while Moravia-Slovakia becomes like a Greater Slovakia. At that point you're probably going to see some weird borders not based on geography, because Cechoslovakia really couldn't survive being 45% German and it would be a really poor farce to keep it separate from Austria or Germany.
 
Depending on how the population is distributed they'd likely get absorbed in Austria. It would theoretically be possible for west Bohemia to have been more assimilated so that it gets mostly absorbed into Austria, while Moravia-Slovakia becomes like a Greater Slovakia. At that point you're probably going to see some weird borders not based on geography, because Cechoslovakia really couldn't survive being 45% German and it would be a really poor farce to keep it separate from Austro or Germany.
The internal politics of an Austria-Bohemian state would be interesting because in 1934 Austria and a population of 6,760,263, which was about 350,000 less than Bohemia in 1930. Add in the 3.5 million in Moravia-Silesia and what IOTL became the Czech Republic outnumbers Austria. The Capital might have to be Prague instead of Vienna.
 
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