The Eagle Never Fails TL: Prussia loses the War of Austrian Succession

Oh god, that's a lot. Perhaps, jlk7e, we can have a discussion in PMs to work on this? I would be glad of your help as you clearly know a lot about this period.
Maybe an update on Austria's next major alliance? Russia maybe?

Yeah that was pretty long :D But I'm in agreement with on most of this hence why I had asked originally.
As will become clear in the next update Britain has not ditched Austria and has recreated the Grand Alliance. Hope that answers at least some of the questions.
 
@jlk7e: if Prussia-Brandenburg comes into conflict with the electorate of Saxony, then this will mean Poland-Lithuania will be dragged along (provided they're still in personal union). This will give Prussia-Brandenburg an opportunity to try seizing Polish Western Prussia, a territory they were interested in ever since the personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia began. For this to succeed they will need allies, most likely Russia and maybe even Austria.
Other than that getting back (parts of) the duchy of Magdeburg and the principality of Halberstadt will have a higher priority for Prussia-Brandenburg than getting back the scattered western Hohenzollern possessions (so Cleves, Lingen etc.).

Austria may be interested in balancing Saxony and Prussia-Brandenburg out; maybe Prussia-Brandenburg gets Western Prussia and in turn Saxony is allowed to retain parts of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, but has to cede Lusatia to Austria (and Poland could their enclaves in Hungary)?
 
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@jlk7e: if Prussia-Brandenburg comes into conflict with the electorate of Saxony, then this will mean Poland-Lithuania will be dragged along (provided they're still in personal union). This will give Prussia-Brandenburg an opportunity to try seizing Polish Western Prussia, a territory they were interested in ever since the personal union between Brandenburg and Prussia began. For this to succeed they will need allies, most likely Russia and maybe even Austria.
Other than that getting back (parts of) the duchy of Magdeburg and the principality of Halberstadt will have a higher priority for Prussia-Brandenburg than getting back the scattered western Hohenzollern possessions (so Cleves, Lingen etc.).

Austria may be interested in balancing Saxony and Prussia-Brandenburg out; maybe Prussia-Brandenburg gets Western Prussia and in turn Saxony is allowed to retain parts of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, but has to cede Lusatia to Austria (and Poland could their enclaves in Hungary)?

Poland doesn't necessarily get involved - the Sejm, not the king, has the right to declare war. In OTL, Poland was neutral in both the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, I believe, in spite of Saxon participation, though they allowed the passage of Russian troops in the latter.
 
Poland doesn't necessarily get involved - the Sejm, not the king, has the right to declare war. In OTL, Poland was neutral in both the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, I believe, in spite of Saxon participation, though they allowed the passage of Russian troops in the latter.

Still Polish Western/Royal Prussia is amongst the territories Prussia-Brandenburg desires. If Prussia-Brandenburg allies with Russia, then IMHO certain Polish territories will be on the table too, well provided they win.
 
Part 4: 1750-1756 War of Sardinian Succession:
The War of Sardinian Succession, known as The Empress’ War in Austria, the Italian War in Italy, the European War in the Americas and as the Franco-British War in Indian, began with the invasion of Genoa by Sardinia. Most modern historians agree that it would have remained a regional conflict had it not been for the death of Charles Emmanuel III in battle near Voltri, Genoa and Maria Theresa’s subsequent power play. Following Charles Emmanuel III’s death his son Victor Amadeus III, who was viewed by many as a weak man. Maria Theresa attempted to take advantage of this and have his younger brother Prince Benedetto, who was betrothed to Maria Anna (note: This marriage occurred because she was rejected as a potential wife by most kings because of a spine deformity, it also did not occur IOTL). Some members of the Savoyard nobility supported this idea in the hope of an alliance with Austria, but the king did not. The French then offered their support for Victor Amadeus III if he rejected Maria Theresa’s demands. Low and behold he swiftly did so, in response Austria declared war on Sardinia and sent an army under Field-Marshal Ludwig Khevenhüller to invade Sardinia. France then declared war on Austria, who promptly called the Grand Alliance into action (a recently signed treaty between Britain, Prussia and Austria) bringing the might of two great powers and one minor power on France. France roped Spain into the war on their side shortly afterwards. A British army under General James Wolfe marched from Hanover to assist in the defence of the Austrian Netherlands. Meanwhile in North America another British army under General John Forbes marched towards Louisbourg and another invaded Spanish Florida. France, then agreed an alliance with Saxony who then invaded Austria. For the next 2 years (from 1751-1753) France and her allies would dominate the war, occupying Hanover, British Canada, the Austrian Netherlands and East Prussia. Bavaria was forced/convinced to enter the war in 1752 on the French side. However a decisive battle at Leuthen, following the Saxon-Polish-Lithuanian (but the force is predominately made up of Saxon forces) invasion of Silesia resulted in the crushing defeat of the Saxon army. A dual-pronged Austrian counter-attack, wiped out the Bavarians at the Battle of Munich and the Saxons at the Battle of Dresden. A Prussian attack then smashed through West Prussia and recaptured East Prussia following the Battle of Konigsberg. Saxony-Poland and Bavaria surrendered on the 3rd March 1755 allowing Austria to turn on France. However, in North America the French had defeated the British invasion at Louisbourg and had now invaded the 13 Colonies and British Canada. British Canada was swiftly occupied, but the 13 Colonies put up more of a fight. Despite this Spanish Florida had been occupied. In India, meanwhile the French-backed Hyderabadi forces were scoring victory after victory against the British-backed Maratha Empire and a French force was massing to invade Bombay from the south. This brought Austria and Britian to the negotiating table and France was happy to agree to a peace. The Treaty of Voltri was as follows:
-Bavaria annexed by Austria.
-Austria renounces all claims on Sardinian throne and allows creation of North Italian League (including Genoa, Parma, Modena and Lucca).
-The Bavarian Wittelsbachs granted control of the Austrian Netherlands. This creates the Hainaut under the Wittelsbachs.
-Britain gains Spanish Florida.
-France gains British Canada west of James Bay.
-Territory in south of the Maratha Empire ceded to Hyderabad.
-British control in North India confirmed as is French control in the south.
The Treaty ended up as a great game of swapsies and nobody really achieved anything. However the French felt particularly aggrieved by it, given that they dominated the war for two years and conquered most of British America and British India.
 
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No comments on the last update?
Was it good or bad?
Anyway next update will be up tomorrow along with a map showing the world following that update. :D
 
New Update, a short interlude:
Interlude: 1757 – 1759: The Great Movement
Following the French defeat, of sorts, in the War of Sardinian Succession unrest began to grow in France, they had been fought to a standstill in America in 1745 and had now lost (largely) the war in Europe. The gains in the Americas and of their allies in India did next to nothing to improve the public mood. Thus in 1757 riots broke out in Paris, Toulouse and other cities across the nation, aggravated in part by the great French thinkers, such as François-Marie Arouet (known by his pen nameVoltaire) and Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target. However the riots were swiftly crushed the army. The riots, however, had a lasting effect on the country. Louis XV, further restricted free speech and implemented total censorship on written works. This lead to, what became known as, the Great Movement. Many of the French thinkers and writers left the country, some such as Voltaire moved to Louisiana, others moved to New Spain and some moved to Austria.
Please comment this time. :D
 
Nice Update :D
I wonder how/wether the French revolution will play out without the great thinkers. Im really interested in the German politics going on after the war. What are the relations between Austria ans the smaller German states like after Austrias annexation of Bavaria? Your TL is really interesting, keep it ip :)
 
Nice Update :D
I wonder how/wether the French revolution will play out without the great thinkers. Im really interested in the German politics going on after the war. What are the relations between Austria ans the smaller German states like after Austrias annexation of Bavaria? Your TL is really interesting, keep it ip :)
OK, the next update will be about that then. :D
Thanks for the support. :D
 
On the way the war played out. It seems that Austria lost enough battles to GAINING NOTHING, but ended up with Bavaria.

While Saxony and Poland were "united" under one ruler, they were not one Country. I think Polish aristocracy might have opposed a war - rendeering Polish effort to (nearly) Nil.

I assume M-T would also force the Saxons to renounce their claim to the Polish crown...

I would cancel the second attack in Italy and the defeat at Cracow (BTW SAXONY invading Austria - the latter must have made some blunders... ;) - the saxons of OTL have neglected their army BECAUSE so much Money went into Poland)

Austria is glad to get Bavaria and granting the Italians a "federation" that costs AUSTRIA nothing (Tuscany still is in the Hand of M-T husband and Milano is still Austrian IIRC) - What does the deposed Bavarians get instead (there must be some sort of compensation)

BTW Why does Britain get Spanish Florida - did not see that Spain was involved in the fighting...
 
On the way the war played out. It seems that Austria lost enough battles to GAINING NOTHING, but ended up with Bavaria.

While Saxony and Poland were "united" under one ruler, they were not one Country. I think Polish aristocracy might have opposed a war - rendeering Polish effort to (nearly) Nil.

I assume M-T would also force the Saxons to renounce their claim to the Polish crown...

I would cancel the second attack in Italy and the defeat at Cracow (BTW SAXONY invading Austria - the latter must have made some blunders... ;) - the saxons of OTL have neglected their army BECAUSE so much Money went into Poland)

Austria is glad to get Bavaria and granting the Italians a "federation" that costs AUSTRIA nothing (Tuscany still is in the Hand of M-T husband and Milano is still Austrian IIRC) - What does the deposed Bavarians get instead (there must be some sort of compensation)

BTW Why does Britain get Spanish Florida - did not see that Spain was involved in the fighting...
1. Austria won a lot of battles, but I guess the war's end was pretty bad.
2. Well, that is largely the case most of the Saxon-Polish attacks were predominately Saxon.
3. Good point.
4. Another good point.
5. Not quite sure what you're getting at there.
6. Damn it, that's another thing I forgot to mention. :mad:
 
Look at least me is reading your TL ;)

About Point 4 is that TTL it seems Austria is not so much troubled by Italy - so it might (later) be more inclined to give the Italians some leeway in unification - under the condition that Austria is now more focussed (and has a more secured poition) in Germany. I am wondering how this affects Austria in regard of the Balkans and Poland.

France strong in North America - might this precent the ACW (British settlers might want to stay british and not become French - if some fear that Revolution means ultimately fall into the French sphere)
 
Right let's see if we can get this going again. I'm starting from the beginning with a new style. I present to you:

The House of Habsburg: The First Silesian War – Present Day (A First Silesian War TL)
(OOC: N.B. Intro from Wikipedia.)
The First Silesian War
Introduction:
The First Silesian War owed its origins to the Pragmatic Sanction of 19 April 1713 whereby the Habsburg emperor Charles VI decreed the imperial succession arrangements as set out in his will, according precedence to his own daughters over the daughters of his (by now deceased) elder brother Joseph I. This proved prescient: in May 1717 the emperor’s own eldest daughter was born and on his death in 1740, she duly succeeded as Archduchess of Austria as well as to the thrones of the Bohemian and Hungarian lands within the Habsburg Monarchy as Queen Maria Theresa.
During the emperor’s lifetime the Pragmatic Sanction was generally acknowledged by the imperial states but when he died it was promptly contested both by the Hohenzollern scion Frederick II, who had just ascended the Prussian throne, and by the Wittelsbach elector Charles Albert of Bavaria. While Charles launched a claim to the imperial throne and the Habsburg territories, King Frederick II aimed at the annexation of Silesia, a Bohemian crown land since 1526.
Frederick based his demands on a 1537 inheritance treaty of the Silesian duke Frederick II of Legnica with the Hohenzollern elector Joachim II of Brandenburg, whereby the Silesian duchies of Legnica, Wołów and Brzeg were to pass to the Electorate of Brandenburg on the extinction of the Silesian Piasts. The Bohemian king Ferdinand of Habsburg, aware of the Hohenzollern ambitions, had immediately rejected the agreement; nevertheless in 1675 the "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg raised claim to the principalities, when with the death of Duke George William of Legnica the Piast line finally had died out. At that time no attempt had been made to implement these old treaty provisions, and when in the course of the 1685 Edict of Potsdam the Elector entered into an alliance with the Habsburg emperor Leopold I, he was persuaded to renounce his claims in return for the assignment of the Silesian Świebodzin (Schwiebus) exclave and a payment. However, after the accession of Frederick William's son and successor Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg, the emperor in 1695 enforced the restitution of Świebodzin, which allegedly only had been personally assigned to late Frederick William for life. Furious Frederick III in turn again insisted on the centuries-old Brandenburg claims to the Silesian Piast heritage.
Forty-five years on, an extensive alliance formed in support of Prussia’s newly asserted claims on Silesia. King Frederick II was supported by the electorates of Bavaria, Saxony and Cologne, as well as by the kingdoms of France, Spain, Sweden and Naples along with various smaller European powers. The shared objective within the alliance was the destruction or at least the diminution of the Habsburg Monarchy and of its dominant influence over the other German states. The Habsburgs found themselves supported by the Russian Empire along with the maritime powers, the Dutch and the British (in personal union with the Electorate of Hanover), whose imperial aspirations beyond Europe always inclined them to join available eighteenth-century European wars on the anti-French side. Britain and Austria were bound by the Anglo-Austrian Alliance which had existed since 1731.

The Campaign:
On 8 November 1740, King Frederick II ordered the mobilization of the Prussian Army. According to his plan of attack, two corps would defeat a small Austrian infantry regiment and occupy the whole Silesian lands. On December 11 he issued an ultimatum to Austria demanding the surrender of Silesia. In turn, he promised to acknowledge the Pragmatic Sanction and to give his vote as Brandenburg prince-elector in the Imperial election to Maria Theresa's husband Duke Francis of Lorraine. Instead of awaiting the Austrian response, he marched against Silesia with an army of about 27,000 men five days later, hailed by the Protestant population.
After a two-month campaign, Prussian forces had occupied all of Silesia, with only small Austrian garrisons entrenched in the fortresses of Głogów, Brzeg, and Nysa. Having abandoned winter quarters in 1741, the Prussian forces started their spring campaign: on March 9 Prince Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau took Głogów by storm. The remaining Austrian troops gathered near Brzeg under the command of Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg, where they defeated the Prussians under Frederick's Generalfeldmarschall Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin in the Battle of Mollwitz on April 10. During the battle von Schwerin was killed and Frederick II captured.
Following this dramatic victory a second Austrian army under the command of Ludwig Andreas Khevenhüller entered Silesia. Once there they, in cooperation with Neipperg’s remaining forces, began to remove the Prussians from the province. After a short campaign, lasting only 1 month. A small Prussian force of 4,000 was all that remained in the province. This army under the command of Prince Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau was in retreat and was nearing Züllichau and the Prussian border. The Austrian force attacked them from behind and routed the force. The Battle of Züllichau on May 14 was the concluding battle of the First Silesian War.
The Austrians had proved that they deserved their position as a great power, for now at least, and had crushed the ambition of a potentially dangerous nieghbour.
 
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