Swedish-Prussian union/ a Prussian war of succession.

Who wins the war of Prussia succession?

  • Prussia-Sweden

    Votes: 31 64.6%
  • Russia and Austria

    Votes: 17 35.4%

  • Total voters
    48
Friedrike Wilhelmine had no male issue. Sigmaringen and Hechingen was not considered due to being catholic instead of protestant. And Ansbach was not considered in this timeline because of his houses debt which his father racked up. (with the Prussian's not wanting to take up debt before the start of a potential war.)

Would that stop Ansbach succeeding? For many if not most, if he's the next heir he's the next heir.
 
I'm honestly ost curious in how this affects Gustav III's ambitions in reconquering the Baltic Regions from Russia. It certainly helps in having the Prussian's military at his disposal.
 
Which meant they were still a field army numbering more than 100k (and durring the battle Napoleon had taken approximately the same amount of casualties meaning that parity of forces was roughly maintained). Had everything been committed and the outcome was still a loss then Austria is without an army and Napoleon still has Vienna, meaning he'd be free to impose a Carthaginian Peace.

Yes, no argument there, just as it is not possible to deny that, with all mistakes of their leadership, the Austrians managed to resist for 2 days and that at some points an outcome of the battle was anything but clear. But it also may be argued that if Archduke Charles was more aggressive (starting from paying more attention to the alternative points of Napoleon's crossing), the battle had chances to end as 2nd Essling. That reluctance to commit everything to achieve a victory with a purpose to minimize scope of a potential defeat had both its merits and its disadvantages. Especially when dealing with Napoleon who was ready to commit all his resources to achieve a victory.

As a side thought, I'm anything but sure if at any point Napoleon's goal was a complete destruction of Hapsburg monarchy. Cutting them down to size and minimizing their influence in Germany and Italy, yes, but that's pretty much it: he never seriously entertained creation of independent Bohemia or Hungary even after Austerlitz he was in a very good position to do just that, at least for Bohemia (his army was occupying it and Austria was left without an army). Can't tell why. Perhaps because, being a parvenu, he was sucking up to the "Great Dynasties" (does not apply to the Hohenzollerns who had a rather low position on a totem poll of the HRE whatever was their real power; IIRC, after unification of Germany some minor German princes refused to visit the imperial court considering themselves more aristocratic than the Prussian upstarts).
 
I'm honestly ost curious in how this affects Gustav III's ambitions in reconquering the Baltic Regions from Russia. It certainly helps in having the Prussian's military at his disposal.

Yes, but the right question is would the Prussians be ready to go to war with Russia (after experience of the 7YW) just for the Swedish interests. IMO, the answer id "no" and it would be among the reasons for rejecting his candidacy (which, it seems, was not on the top of the list, anyway).
 
As a side thought, I'm anything but sure if at any point Napoleon's goal was a complete destruction of Hapsburg monarchy. Cutting them down to size and minimizing their influence in Germany and Italy, yes, but that's pretty much it: he never seriously entertained creation of independent Bohemia or Hungary even after Austerlitz he was in a very good position to do just that, at least for Bohemia (his army was occupying it and Austria was left without an army). Can't tell why. Perhaps because, being a parvenu, he was sucking up to the "Great Dynasties" (does not apply to the Hohenzollerns who had a rather low position on a totem poll of the HRE whatever was their real power; IIRC, after unification of Germany some minor German princes refused to visit the imperial court considering themselves more aristocratic than the Prussian upstarts).
That's probably true. Not that Charles new that.

Now I think we should probably end this side track before we turn this thread into "WI: Austrian Victory at Wagram"
 
Top