alternatehistory.com

1848 was a big missed opportunity for democracy and liberty. Revolutions raged across central Europe: it started in France where the peasants successfully overthrew King Louis-Phillippe, revolts broke out across the Italian states and King Charles Albert of Sardinia led a war to unite the peninsula under a liberal constitution, it hit Hungary where people demanded more freedom and eventually independence from the Austrian empire, it hit Germany where a constitutional assembly in Frankfurt drafted a liberal constitution that would've united the nation and made an offer to Frederick William IV of Prussia to be Kaiser.
But it all fell apart. Charles Albert was defeated by the Austrians, ironically with Hungarian assistance. The Austrians got help from the Russians to crush the Hungarian uprising. This made Frederick William IV confident enough to not accept the Frankfurt parliament's offer and give up most of his powers. In France, the revolution was hijacked, perhaps predictably, by Napoleon Bonaparte's grandson who became President of the Republic and crowned himself Emperor in 1852. This was a disaster, and it delayed the emergence of democracy in some of the places effected until 1989.
So what if the Hungarians declare their independence earlier, therefore depriving the Austrians of the troops needed to defeat the Sardinians allowing Italy to be united under a liberal order and Frederick William IV decides to take Frankfurt's offer? Would we see the revolution spread to Russia, Turkey, and Spain? Would the remainder of Austria decide to merge into the new German state?
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