Personal Unions that became Political Unions

The Professor

The Professor

There have been relatively few personal unions that managed to become political unions:

England, Scotland, & Ireland
France & Navarre
Aragon, Castile, & Leon
Poland & Lithuania

What other personal unions do you think could have unified politically? or at least remained unified.

Are there any alternate personal unions that would likely have unified politically?

Are there any OTL unions that were extremely unlikely to unify (personally or politically)?

etc etc

EDIT: please also expand your reasoning a little more than just an "X & Y" response
 
Last edited:

Elfwine

Makes sense. I'm not familiar enough with it to say exactly what would be changed to make it stick.

But it does seem to have gone further than most.
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
Austria, Hungary and the Bohemian Crown.
Brandnenburg-Prussia
Naples-Sicily
Hannover (formed from the inheritance of Brunswick-Luneburg and Brunswick-Kalenburg)
Burgundy
 

Solomaxwell6

Banned
Socrates said:
Portugal & Spain?
Click to expand...

Seconding this. Geographically right next door, relatively similar culture, no religious mismatches, a lot of similar geopolitical goals, just following the trend Spain had set in the past. Perhaps just slowing down Portuguese integration could ensure it?

The Professor said:
Would you be able to expand upon their successes and failures to unify politically?
Click to expand...

Austria-Hungary actually had been a political union. Hungary was too powerful, however, and had great potential to cause some pretty major revolts. So Austria backing off and setting up the dual monarchy was meant to dissuade Hungarian rebellion.

The UK and Hannover have a major geographic impediment, aren't natural trading partners (at least, not as much as northern France), and have a language disjoint, all of which are greatly going to slow down any chances of a political union. And since the line of succession was not synchronized between the two nations, when Victoria made the mistake of being born with a uterus, Hannover drifted away. You'd need some big cultural changes to keep Hannover in with the UK.
 
Last edited:

Last of the Stuarts

How about Britain and the Netherlands under William III of both Netherlands and UK (coincendently).

They were allies, had the same religeon and linked by the sea are geographically close.
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
The Professor said:
Would you be able to expand upon their successes and failures to unify politically?
Click to expand...

Austria-Hungary: Started off as a political union, but then became a personal one when Hungary grew to powerful.
Austria-Bohemia: Bohemia became so integrated into the Austrian crown that in the aforementioned situation it and Slovenia were considered to be core territories of Austria.

Brandenburg-Prussia: Became the Kingdom of Prussia, and remained integrated with each other until the 3rd Reich (even Weimar had them lumped together as the Free State of Prussia).

Hannover: With the two branches united at the end of the 17th Century, the new state became a single unit until its annexation by Prussia.

Burgundy: Slowly inherited most of the Netherlands. This inheritence actually lasted longer than possetion of most of the original Kingdom of Burgundy by the ruling house, with a large part being conqured by France after the whole Kingdom had been inherited by Spain.
 

charl

Elfwine said:
How close is Denmark and Norway?
Click to expand...

Denmark and Norway were a proper political union until we took the Norwegian part away. Arguably anyway, as close as say Poland-Lithuania.

There is also the union of Denmark and Iceland between WW1 and WW2. And Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein for that matter.
 

ImperialVienna

Alex Richards said:
Austria-Hungary: Started off as a political union, but then became a personal one when Hungary grew to powerful.
Austria-Bohemia: Bohemia became so integrated into the Austrian crown that in the aforementioned situation it and Slovenia were considered to be core territories of Austria.
Click to expand...
Comparing the relationship between Austria and Bohemia, and Austria and the territories that comprise modern Slovenia is a little misleading. Carniola was as far as the Austrians were concerned Austrian in every sense. It had been a core possession for longer than parts of modern Austria (Salzburg and I believe Tyrol too). Bohemia was still distinct, and while it ultimately became part of the Austrian half of the Empire, Czechs were still recognized as different from Austrians. An often forgotten fact is that Franz Joseph did harbor some desire to federate his empire further, and while he did not go as far as say the theorists of Greater Austria, addition crowns to raise Bohemia and Croatia-Slavonia were tossed about briefly(the Hungarians promptly shot these ideas down).

EDIT: Also technically the relationship between Austria and Hungary started out as a personal union, then became political, then devolved to a quasi-political/personal.
 
Tobit

Tobit

Come on Habsburgs!

Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia.

Or Austria, Florence, Hungary, Bohemia, Lorraine and Belgium

Austria, Spain, Naples, Bohemia and Belgium

Prussia, Brandenburg, Cleves, Mark, and Pommerania.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top