Assassination attempts on Austrian Crown Prince Rudolph and Empress Elisabeth by the French Government and an Anarchist respectively fail in the late 1800's. These events cause a restoration of bonds between the Habsburg-Lothringen Imperial Family and result in Rudolph having 3 male heirs, Franz Joseph, Leopold, and Maximilian.
Events continue with little change as they did IOTL, Franz Ferdinand, a member of the Imperial Family is assassinated, WWI begins, ect.
November 11th, 1918 - Emperors Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph I formally sue for peace with the allies. Yes Franz Joseph is still alive at this point.
1919 - Peace Talks at Versailles France fail due to the combined factors of French arrogance in calling for extreme actions against Germany among other things, and the revelation that 20 years prior the French Government attempted to have Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria assassinated. The British, Americans, and minor allies decide to end the war on their terms and withdraw from the Versailles talks. They agree to hold the talks at the Austrian Summer Palace, Schloss Schönbrunn, and to allow representitives from Imperial Germany and the now defuncted Austro-Hungarian Empire to have major roles in negotiations. The talks end up being dominated by Franz Joseph who makes it his Swan Song(he wishes to see his lands remain united in some fashion), he dies in 1922 a year after the signing of the Peace of Schönbrunn, which states:
1. The Central Powers accept they lost the war.
2. The peoples of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire are to hold plebiscites as to whether they wish to remain part of a successor Habsburg state or to become independent.
3. The recognation of the independence of Poland-Lithuania, the Ukraine, and the Baltic States.
4. The division of Germany into 4 successor states:
- The Kingdom of Germany(Northern Germany), to be headed by a Monarch from a German Royal Family that would be choosen by the people in a plebscite, that Royal House however could not be the House of Hohenzollern. The Kingdom of Germany is allowed to keep German East Africa for Economic reasons.
- The Kingdom of Bavaria, headed by Ludwig III King of Bavaria.
- The Grand Duchy of Prussia, headed by former German Emperor Wilhelm II.
- The Kingdom of the Rhineland(a Franco-German buffer state including Elsaß & Lothringen), a Monarch would be appointed by the British from a German Royal Family.
All of these countries were required to draw up constitutions, with most basing theirs on the British system of government.
- The Ottoman Turks and Bulgarians cede large tracts of land to the Greeks in the Balkans and Asia Minor as well as land on Asia minor to Italy.
- Most of the Ottoman Middle East is absorbed by the British with the acception of Antioch which goes to the Greeks.
- The Central Powers also must pay minor war damages and the like.
The terms are very favorable to the defeated powers and are quickly signed, even with the Serbs and Italians dragging their feet. The demands of the French are largely ignored.
Shortly after the signing the required plescites are held with Austria(including Tyrol), Hungary, Bohemia, Slovenia, Croatia, and parts of Bosnia federating into a strange confederacy called the Imperial Crownlands of Greater Austria, with a constitution based largely on the American Articles of Confederation. Slovakia, votes to become independent, and several other areas vote to join either Italy, Serbia, Poland, the Ukraine, or Rumania.
In the Kingdom of Germany, the Germans elect Frederick Francis IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin of the House of Mecklenburg, King of the Germans. Upon his coronation at the new German Capital of Hamburg, he takes the title Friedrich IV, King of the Germans.
In the Rhenish Kingdom the British appoint Karl of Habsburg-Lothringen(OTL Karl I of Austria) Karl V, King of the Rhine. The French loudly protest this.
Thus the world in 1922 at the end of Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Greater Austria's life.
(PS: There are some other things that have happened, but I'm lazy and don't feel like pointing them out.)
(PPS: Just for reference, Franz Joseph becomes the longest reigning monarch in European History sitting on the Austrian Throne for 74 years)
