Hapsburg Ultima 1850
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I am not very good with dates, but I will throw out a few ideas, anyway.
So, for starters, the Spanish Habsburgs don't die out...there's a few more male heirs. Then when the Iberian union happens Portugal is happier than otl, mostly because the East Indies don't get taken over by the Dutch.
Spanish forces succeed in squashing their protestant revolt, anyway, and after fifty years of conversion efforts, most of the Protestants or their descendants return to the Church.
The German Habsburgs continue to push the Mohammedans out of south eastern Europe, adding Bosnia to their dominions, whilst establishing new governments for the Danubian Provinces (which come to be called Romania), Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, etc. Bavaria Wurtemburg and Baden pass to Austria through royal unions, but Prussia is unhappy with this and fights a war against the Habsburgs in union with other Protestant princes. Eventually the Habsburgs succeed thanks to some Prince Eugene - type figures and the British who way into the fight when France sides with Prussia...the result is that the little states that eventually made up Thuringia in otl are absorbed, and most of western Germany. Britain gets New France and some territory in the Orient (India).
Poland is divided as per otl, the Papal states are a big challenge, though...the rest of the little states were ruled by the Habsburgs at one time or another with the exception of Savoy - Piedmont, so that isn't too hard. Umm...guess that's all for now.
So, for starters, the Spanish Habsburgs don't die out...there's a few more male heirs. Then when the Iberian union happens Portugal is happier than otl, mostly because the East Indies don't get taken over by the Dutch.
Spanish forces succeed in squashing their protestant revolt, anyway, and after fifty years of conversion efforts, most of the Protestants or their descendants return to the Church.
The German Habsburgs continue to push the Mohammedans out of south eastern Europe, adding Bosnia to their dominions, whilst establishing new governments for the Danubian Provinces (which come to be called Romania), Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, etc. Bavaria Wurtemburg and Baden pass to Austria through royal unions, but Prussia is unhappy with this and fights a war against the Habsburgs in union with other Protestant princes. Eventually the Habsburgs succeed thanks to some Prince Eugene - type figures and the British who way into the fight when France sides with Prussia...the result is that the little states that eventually made up Thuringia in otl are absorbed, and most of western Germany. Britain gets New France and some territory in the Orient (India).
Poland is divided as per otl, the Papal states are a big challenge, though...the rest of the little states were ruled by the Habsburgs at one time or another with the exception of Savoy - Piedmont, so that isn't too hard. Umm...guess that's all for now.
It just seems inconceivable to me, The Hapsburgs were doomed. Bad gene's, and an uber rich family-above the law- very little familial ties to large portions of thier lands. Being Catholic also regularly put them at a disadvantage at times. just my two cents
Oh come on, the Hapsburgs were certainly not "doomed"... the inbreeding pretty much ceased after the dynasty merged with the House of Lorraine, and as for familial ties... well, most of the major territories WERE inherited through familial ties, so I'm not sure what you mean. And as for Catholicism, well, I disagree with that heavily.
What FJ2 said. As for the problem of the the Papal States, you could have that they make it a "protectorate", leaving Rome itself in the hands of the Pope but de-facto ruling the region.
As for France being within their lands, maybe have that the Revolution gets either crushed or resolved with a compromise and that somehow the Throne of France passes to the habsburgs.
As for France being within their lands, maybe have that the Revolution gets either crushed or resolved with a compromise and that somehow the Throne of France passes to the habsburgs.
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Right. Things continue pretty much as normal, until the Habsburg Emperor-King dies in the late 1860s, and the throne passes to his (very inbred) son. Five years later and the Empire collapses, when the new Emperor-King declares himself to be a swarm of wasps...
Your POD would have to be some time in the early 1830s at the latest. By 1836, Texas was independent; by 1845 it had been annexed by the US; by 1848, the area you picture as northwesternmost Mexico (roughly CA, NV, AZ, NM, NV, UT, CO and some other territory) was part of the US.
Why would the Emperor-King be inbred? The inbreeding was over, this isn't the 1600s!
Max Sinister
Banned
Sorry Imajin... the last Spanish Habsburg king was VERY inbred, and he died in 1700. Emperor-king Ferdinand was mentally slow and epileptic. And like Rudolph (think it was him, could've been another 19th century Habsburg man though) said: "If one of us wants to marry someone, there's always a tiny little detail in the bloodline which prevents that. That's why bride and groom are always relatedtwenty times and half of the children are fools are epileptics."
Carlos II died in 1700, so the actual inbreeding happened earlier- in the 1600s!
And I thought Ferdinand's madness came from outside disease, not inbreeding? Though maybe I was wrong... and by inbreeding I meant something on the Carlos II level, not say, Ferdinand...
Indeed, Ferdinand was actually a very popular Emperor, though the people didn't like his advisors much.
IIRC, Emperor Ferdinand was known as Ferdinand the Good. He was popular because he genuinely cared about the people, much like his father, Francis, did. Infact, when the people rebelled in 1848, Ferdinand was in no danger. The only guys the people wanted out was Ferdinand's advisors. Francis had cultivated the position of Emperor as such a fatherly, loved-by-all, figure, that Ferdinand, despite his mental shortcomings, was loved by the people of the empire when he ascended the throne. He abdicated because he knew that he himself was too weak a ruler to effectively govern the empire, and that any advisors he had would rule behind his back, and so he abdicated in favor of his nephew, who took the reign name Francis Joseph.
Napoleon's Son was Half-Habsburg you know. If you count him as inhierting Napoleon's realm, with many of these as defacto states we could see this happen mid-1820s...
For the Habsburgs to get France, I think the easiest way to go about doing so is for them to crush the 1798/1799 revolution, and announce to the good Christians that they have been saved... . Rather than foist Louis XVII on them again the HR Emperor is declared King of France (I believe Joseph II? Someone will tell me, anyway ).
Prussia is not very happy with this at all because France is one of their few allies, and they decide to overturn the applecart...so they invade Germany, making good progress initially but eventually getting turned back with a few humiliating diasters (in Bohemia, Silesia, Bavaria, Saxony...). The Russians refuse to help the Prussians, and the Prussians have to send some forces to guard East Prussia...within about five years the war is over and Prussia is added to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
I am at a total loss how to explain North Africa so soon, unless maybe the Habsburgs decide to take the war to the Ottomans again...maybe because of constant pirate attacks on shipping in the Med the Imperial Navy takes them out, and makes a landing in North Africa...the Arab/Ottoman forces are quickly overrun because they are of low quality and the Imperial Government in Vienna begins to dream of re establishing Christian North Africa.
Algeria is established as a colony, and until the XIX century draws only a trickle of colonists...but conversion efforts are very strongly endorsed by the Holy Roman Church.
. Rather than foist Louis XVII on them again the HR Emperor is declared King of France (I believe Joseph II? Someone will tell me, anyway ).Prussia is not very happy with this at all because France is one of their few allies, and they decide to overturn the applecart...so they invade Germany, making good progress initially but eventually getting turned back with a few humiliating diasters (in Bohemia, Silesia, Bavaria, Saxony...). The Russians refuse to help the Prussians, and the Prussians have to send some forces to guard East Prussia...within about five years the war is over and Prussia is added to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
I am at a total loss how to explain North Africa so soon, unless maybe the Habsburgs decide to take the war to the Ottomans again...maybe because of constant pirate attacks on shipping in the Med the Imperial Navy takes them out, and makes a landing in North Africa...the Arab/Ottoman forces are quickly overrun because they are of low quality and the Imperial Government in Vienna begins to dream of re establishing Christian North Africa.
Algeria is established as a colony, and until the XIX century draws only a trickle of colonists...but conversion efforts are very strongly endorsed by the Holy Roman Church.
Leopold II was the Emperor. Joseph died in feb. 1790, before Austria even got involved. That would be pretty interesting. They could easily spin it as the "reunification of Charlemagne's Empire" rather than a "conquest" in order to pacify revolutionaries. As long as the Habsburgs rule well, and Leopold was an "Enlightened Monarch", the French will be happy as will the other of their empire.
Can anyone imagine Paris and her elites willingly being second fiddle to Vienna? I suppose if you can imagine that it is alot easier.. but I tend to think it would never happen.
I suppose the city could be razed.. but that might make administering France quite difficult. Portugal and the Dutch would not be easilly brought back into the fold yet keeping them borders on the impossible.
I suppose the city could be razed.. but that might make administering France quite difficult. Portugal and the Dutch would not be easilly brought back into the fold yet keeping them borders on the impossible.
I think though you would need a very serious POD in order for the British to allow the Habsburgs to unite practically all of Europe under them.
There is that, along with just about every other state that wants to remain independent in the face of this Hapsburg juganaught.
I would be tempted to say that to get such a complete victory you would need to have an early POD, probably seeing the Reformation suppressed by a victorious counter-reformation. Expanding from this to possibly conquer a France split by religious conflict. From here an expansion into N Africa is possible as some renewal of the crusades.
However the problem with this is the borders in N America, which suggests a much latter POD.
Steve
The Habsburgs might be able to get some support from the supporters of the Ancien Regime...maybe also from the Catholics who have been vigorously persecuted by Robespierre and company. As for the Holland and Portugal, I already suggested that the Spanish Habsburgs suppressed the Protestants, and that the Iberian Union never ended. Therefore no problem.