What if Prussia takes austria's side in the Franco-Austrian war in Italy?

If Prussia sided with Austria against France & Piedmont

  • It would be a quick French victory anyway

    Votes: 6 15.8%
  • It would be a quick austro-Prussian victory

    Votes: 10 26.3%
  • It would be a long Crimean war & WWI & ACW style slog w/ France winning

    Votes: 8 21.1%
  • It would be a long multi year slog with France losing

    Votes: 8 21.1%
  • We end up with a radical socialist/anarchist revolution in France or The German Confederation

    Votes: 6 15.8%

  • Total voters
    38

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
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some in Prussia supported the idea of joining with Austria to contain the bonapartist French threat in the late 1850s. What if Prussia sided with Austria? What is the most likely outcome?
 
It most likely wouldn't, but let's say the Kaiser decides it's a great idea and since he is the absolute monarch nobody questions him. Prussia wasn't nearly ready modernizing, and yet France was on the decline itself. Most likely either Sardinia is gonna get crushed and France will decide that fighting two empires isn't the best idea, the French win and take the Rhineland, turning the Rhineland into a kind of Alsace Lorraine, or someone like England or Russia steps in and the whole situation gets ten times more confusing.
 
some in Prussia supported the idea of joining with Austria to contain the bonapartist French threat in the late 1850s. What if Prussia sided with Austria? What is the most likely outcome?
Hate telling you this, but actually they did enter (nominally) the war under the chart of the German Confederation. By the time Prussia had complete its mobilization, the war in Italy was over (armistice of Villafranca). After this less than stellar performance, the re-organization of Prussian military really started and the performance in 1864 (Schleswig-Holstein) and 1866 (Austria) showed the difference
 
It most likely wouldn't, but let's say the Kaiser decides it's a great idea and since he is the absolute monarch nobody questions him. Prussia wasn't nearly ready modernizing, and yet France was on the decline itself. Most likely either Sardinia is gonna get crushed and France will decide that fighting two empires isn't the best idea, the French win and take the Rhineland, turning the Rhineland into a kind of Alsace Lorraine, or someone like England or Russia steps in and the whole situation gets ten times more confusing.
France is not going to take Rhineland and Rhineland is way bigger than Alsace-Lorraine so the comparison can´t stand.
 
France is not going to take Rhineland and Rhineland is way bigger than Alsace-Lorraine so the comparison can´t stand.
Then maybe the Saar. Either way, France will probably at least try to do the old "two massive armies battle it out, whoever wins takes a piece of land away from the looser and everyone goes home" method of warfare, but in the Age of Nationalism it will backfire horribly.
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raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Hate telling you this, but actually they did enter (nominally) the war under the chart of the German Confederation. By the time Prussia had complete its mobilization, the war in Italy was over (armistice of Villafranca).

Well a big "oops" on my part then.

Could we somehow have the Austrians do better enough so that the war keeps on going in time for the Prussians to actually participate?
 
I doubt, unless you fish out a non-existent better commander in chief for the Austrian army. If it may console you the late mobilization of the Prussians was one of the reasons that induced Nappy to accept the Austrian proposal for an armistice after the battle of Solferino. It is quite possible that the armistice might be agreed even without the threat of a Prussian intervention (which is not guaranteed to be a success anyway: the Prussians had done some reforms in the army but not enough IMHO), since Nappy was appalled by the casualties of the battle of Solferino and his plans for Italy had already gone down the drain (the duchies of Parma and Modena, the Grandduchy of Tuscany and the Papal legations in Romagna had already kicked out the former rulers and petitioned to join the kingdom of Sardinia) but anyway the danger of a two-front war clinched the deal
 
Any thoughts on what the Tsar might do?

He had no fondness for Austria, but if King Wilhelm I (his uncle) had entered the war, might he have reconsidered?
 
It most likely wouldn't, but let's say the Kaiser decides it's a great idea and since he is the absolute monarch nobody questions him. Prussia wasn't nearly ready modernizing, and yet France was on the decline itself. Most likely either Sardinia is gonna get crushed and France will decide that fighting two empires isn't the best idea, the French win and take the Rhineland, turning the Rhineland into a kind of Alsace Lorraine, or someone like England or Russia steps in and the whole situation gets ten times more confusing.
What Kaiser are you talking about? Prussia does not have a kaiser.
 
Quite. He was annoyed with Franz Josef, for letting Russsia down in the Crimean War. But he was closer to Wilhelm do just conceivably.
Well Wilhelm too was not exactly pro-Austrian: Prussia was still smarting after the humiliation suffered at the end of 1850 at Olmutz, when they had been forced to dismantle the Union of Erfurt and to enter again the German Confederation, accepting that the Austrian Emperor would be always the President. When Austria declared war on Sardinia (and was counterdeclared by France) Prussia was forced to start mobilization in accordance with the charter of the Confederation, but it is quite possible that their effort may have been even less speedy than justified by the still messy status of the Prussian army
 
Well Wilhelm too was not exactly pro-Austrian: Prussia was still smarting after the humiliation suffered at the end of 1850 at Olmutz, when they had been forced to dismantle the Union of Erfurt and to enter again the German Confederation, accepting that the Austrian Emperor would be always the President. When Austria declared war on Sardinia (and was counterdeclared by France) Prussia was forced to start mobilization in accordance with the charter of the Confederation, but it is quite possible that their effort may have been even less speedy than justified by the still messy status of the Prussian army


Quite - which is why the OP never came about.

Prussia (under any king) wouldn't help unless it got equal status with Austria in the GC - and Franz Josef disliked that idea so much that he would lose a province rather than agree to it. In the end, of course his mulishness led to him losing on both points.
 
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