Hello everyone, I’ve been a lurker on the board for several months, and I have had an idea for a timeline bouncing around in my head for a while now. What if Prussia became a constitutional monarchy in 1848? After all Fredrick William IV verbally agreed to protestors demands of a constitutional convention to begin with. It wasn’t until after someone took a potshot at him that he called in the army to stamp out the uprising in Berlin. So what if the uprising stayed peaceful? No potshot, no barricades, no soldiers. Could some sort of moderate constitution be created where the King retained some powers (veto, ability to appoint ministers with the assemblies approval, maybe even the ability to declare war?) while the legislature gets to pass tax laws and preside over other domestic issues? Granted Austria and Russia would not be happy with a democratic Prussia, but historically Austria had its hands full already, maybe throw in a cossack/serf revolt in Russia so Nicholas will already have his hands full, and be unable to help the Austrians with their Hungarian problem and threaten Prussia’s ambition to unify the German states. This could lead to an independent Hungary (if Russia is putting down revolts of its own they won’t be able to help the Austrians) and a Prussian dominated German Confederation due to a weaker Austria (if Hungary and possibly other regions successfully break off from the Austrian Empire). Maybe even a less centralized German Empire due to an alternate unification through the German Confederation instead of a series of wars of unification and a strong federal state?
Is this at all plausible? European history isn’t really my specialty, and I haven’t studied the German states in the 19th century (except for some brief wiki research for this idea) since AP European History in high school a few years back. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome!