What would early Marxism look like in a world where Italy and Germany successfully unified in 1848?
My Afrikaner TL's 1848 begins with anti-Hapsburg urban revolts (per OTL?). Then the Hungarian regiments leave Italy, enabling Italian unification, while the Frankfurt Parliament prevails upon the Prussian King to become German Emperor and liberal Germany--with concessions to the Junkers to keep them from making his brother king instead--is built out of all German-speaking lands.
(Minus the Rhineland, which is under the control of a surviving 1789 French Republic in TTL.)
The Russians threaten to intervene, but the new German government buys them off with Austrian Galicia.
Since my TL features a USSR in the early 20th Century, Communism has to come around somehow.
Here're my thoughts so far:
Basically, "Marx" believes that the successful 1848 has destroyed feudalism in Europe, "backward" Russia excepted. He cites the unrest between middle-class and working-class revolutionaries in Vienna (before the Prussians imposed a settlement) as the beginnings of the coming class war.
Also, the Communist Manifesto is released a couple of years behind schedule due to the complications of the successful 1848.
What do you all think? This discussion could be useful for anyone planning a successful-1848 TL, not just me.