Deleted member 1487
The Hohenstaufen dynasty marked the beginning of the decentralization of Central Europe after the failure of the dynasty to form a French-like government/monarchy that dominated its political realm, resulting in a lot of infighting and increasing breakdown of the politics of Central Europe. However this could have gone the other way and is usually the POD for a centralized Germany/Central Europe on par with France or Britain. Assuming the Hohenstaufen's had successfully managed to institute a hereditary monarchy that was increasingly centralized, say starting with the POD of Barbarossa living and locking in his dynasty's control over the HRE with a stable capital at either Frankfurt or Aachen, would that result in Central Europe/Germany dominating Europe going forward?
The HRE if centralized and well run, probably spinning off Italy as a separate kingdom under a Hohenstaufen branch family to reduce the constant struggle to keep it part of the fold, it would be the biggest and most populous entity in Europe and would pretty much be able to dominate its neighbors of the time. Short of a political breakdown and civil war (pretty much OTL) the Empire would be able to put its energies outward rather than inward; would then the history of Europe be a central entity using its economic/military power to dominate its neighbors and run Europe from 1300 onwards or would some other power or collections of powers have risen to take it down? I guess what I'm asking is whether the balance of power would be locked in early as Central Europe having the central place in European politics as has been developing since the late 1800s, just by the middle ages had it not fractured in that period instead?
The HRE if centralized and well run, probably spinning off Italy as a separate kingdom under a Hohenstaufen branch family to reduce the constant struggle to keep it part of the fold, it would be the biggest and most populous entity in Europe and would pretty much be able to dominate its neighbors of the time. Short of a political breakdown and civil war (pretty much OTL) the Empire would be able to put its energies outward rather than inward; would then the history of Europe be a central entity using its economic/military power to dominate its neighbors and run Europe from 1300 onwards or would some other power or collections of powers have risen to take it down? I guess what I'm asking is whether the balance of power would be locked in early as Central Europe having the central place in European politics as has been developing since the late 1800s, just by the middle ages had it not fractured in that period instead?