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An expansion on my thread on alternatives to Bismark, I wanted to take a look at the results of a longer Austro-Prussian War; specifically, how it would exacerbate the financial hardships and domestic chaos Vienna experienced following the conflict that threatened to tear the Empire apart. I've been reading through The Habsburg Empire, A New History and it seems there was quite a bit of liberal protests from many quarters; not just the small Magyar elite pressing for independence, and that Austria's foreign creditors were making it clear that, to quote the Rothschilds "No Constitution, No Credit". Now, in our timeline Vienna managed to only have to strike a decentralization compromise with Hungary, giving them very broad autonomy from Austria in what was essentially a tight alliance/personal union, but in the event of even further damage to the regime would additional concessions have to be made to other Crownlands in order to maintain their loyalty? (Or, at the very least, if credit was unavailable to offload some of the central government's expenses onto the provinces and their local nobility/power brokers).

From what I read in the above mentioned book, the Diets of Bohemia and Moravia were both pushing for more liberal, pro-Czech legislation (Though Moravia wanted to maintain their traditional autonomy from Prague), which could make the lands of St. Wenceslaus a possibility as a third crown for Franz Joseph's head. Venetia too could be an option if for some reason it were to be kept out of Italy's hands for one reason or another (Perhaps with the new Maggior Consiglio being crafted as a laboratory to test a more liberal-representative model by the Empire, since it could be done without disrupting the established local elite unlike in the other provinces), while Gallicia is probably the longest shot.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that this is a real possibility if Vienna comes out of the conflict without a strong army to re-establish order, or ends up having to lean more heavily on locally raised troops/extra governmental volunteers to bail the country out of total defeat in the event somebody less willing to offer generous terms or stand up to the King in Prussia than Bismark pressed the war further, especially considering the Great Powers might consider the restoration of centeralization attempts an unessicery risk to the stability of A-H and, therefore, the security of the Balkans and Eastern Europe (Given how near-run a thing it was that Hungary stood down from a second shot at independence). Especially if the pot was sweetened by reform being tied to guarantees of territorial integrity and/or access to credit to rebuild the national infastructure (both physical and governmental). However, I'm somewhat biased given I have a certain desired result in mind, and so wanted to get some input from the community.
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