Relate to my ongoing TL about the German Empire, I was thinking about the following situation:
Given that Hungary could be an independent Kingdom by 1870 that would either implode due to the internal ethnic disputes or maybe be partitioned by its neighbors in a Polish style, the eventual German duchies (or whatever similar entity) in Transylvania/Banat resulting of such a division could be interested (and allowed to?) in joining the German Empire?
I find this idea quite interesting (because of the many consequences it could have for the future) but I'm afraid it could be a bit implausible, given the big distance that separates them from Austria/Germany, not only phisically but also socially and economically. I don't know how feasible was to keep distant exclaves by the 1870s, even if they could be tipped as neutral/demilitarised for not concerning the neighbor nations too much.
My idea is replacing the useless colonial projects of the OTL German Empire by the interest in keeping German-populated exclaves across Eastern Europe (in a combination of satisfying both imperalist/colonial and irredentist movements in Germany).
Given that Hungary could be an independent Kingdom by 1870 that would either implode due to the internal ethnic disputes or maybe be partitioned by its neighbors in a Polish style, the eventual German duchies (or whatever similar entity) in Transylvania/Banat resulting of such a division could be interested (and allowed to?) in joining the German Empire?
I find this idea quite interesting (because of the many consequences it could have for the future) but I'm afraid it could be a bit implausible, given the big distance that separates them from Austria/Germany, not only phisically but also socially and economically. I don't know how feasible was to keep distant exclaves by the 1870s, even if they could be tipped as neutral/demilitarised for not concerning the neighbor nations too much.
My idea is replacing the useless colonial projects of the OTL German Empire by the interest in keeping German-populated exclaves across Eastern Europe (in a combination of satisfying both imperalist/colonial and irredentist movements in Germany).