Yeah the Austrian decline trope is somewhat prevalent sadly -
Also if you are a troper, the actual TVtropes site mentions the Austrian Army in terminal decline starting from Frederick of Prussia giving them a bloody nose
Yeah the Austrian decline trope is somewhat prevalent sadly -
TV Tropes is hardly an academic source for a history discussion.Also if you are a troper, the actual TVtropes site mentions the Austrian Army in terminal decline starting from Frederick of Prussia giving them a bloody nose
Austria would probably content itself with the return of Silesia. Saxony would get the territory lost following the Napoleonic Wars. I don't see much in the way of any other losses of Prussian territory. For Austria it would be enough to re-establish its supremacy in the German Confederation. Prussia faced up to her in 1850 and had to back down with the threat of war. To actually lose a war sixteen years later would be a huge blow to Prussian prestige, damage limitation would be the order of the day. If, as has been suggested, the Austrians were to transfer the Habsburg rulers from the Italian States to Western Germany then it would be Austria's responsibility to protect the Confederation from an ambitious France. I think that that is a responsibility that they declined after the Napoleonic Wars. Austria needed to lead the German Confederation but, following her losses in Italy, her eyes were set firmly on the Balkans.
Hmm. Perhaps an Austrian annexation of more of Silesia, a restoration of Saxony to its old frontiers, and something on the Rhineland? A Bavarian Rhineland, perhaps, expanding on the Palatinate?
One interesting question might be what neighbouring Great Powers will accept, or be given, to ratify a crushing defeat. This may well be how France gets Luxembourg, at least, if not the Saar, or how Russia gets more Polish provinces from Prussia.