alternatehistory.com

While France eventually became the very epitome of a nationstate, it was originally a pretty diverse collection of ethnic groups, cultures, and languages. It seems to me that in the 1500s France was in many ways comparable to the Hapsburg lands in central Europe; a collection of regions of competing interest that all shared a commonruler whose power periodically waxed and waned.

Why did France become a unitary state and Austria-Hungary eventuallybalkanize? I assume that the end result is driven in part by geography. However, is there any way to reverse that outcome so that France splinters into separate countries while the Hapsburg domains stay united and develop a common culture? Could there be something like a France and an Occitan with a history analogous to present day Spain and Portugal?
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