wolf_brother
Banned
So, I've been doing some more research for future updates on my timeline, and I came across this in David Duff's Eugenie and Napoleon III;
So, plenty to work with here. I think of several PODs off the top of my head in the immediate time-period that would lead to France agreeing to the British position; it had only been a decade earlier that the two had been allies in the Crimean War. So what are the repercussions, short-term and long-term (50+ years) if France, Britain, and Denmark declare war on Prussia (and potentially Austria) over the Schleswig-Holstein Question?
This was a moment when Napoleon might have opposed Prussia and, if he had, he would have had the backing of Eugenie. But Napoleon was ill and his troops were scattered in Rome, Algiers and Mexico. He tried to retrain his position as the arbiter of Europe though statesmanship not war, and he concentrated on driving a wedge between Prussia and Austria. To an extent he succeeded, but delay of the day of reckoning was his only prize. It was to Britain that he should have looked for the answer to the threat rising like a mist about him. But there Queen Victoria, who should have been talking face to face with the Emperor whom she liked and understood so well, was sitting in the gloom listening to the sepulchral voice of Albert repeating on the well worn record that everything that Prussia did was right.
If the Queen and her Ministers had talked with the Emperor at this time, perhaps the German Empire might never have been born. Thirty years later Lord Rendel was chatting with Mr Gladestone:
Mr G. told me as a fact not enough know... that the Third Napoleon had in 1864 missed an opportunity which, turned to account by France, would probably have altered the whole course of subsequent history. Lord Palmerston, without the consent of the cabinet or, indeed, any consultation with it, made, towards the end of the Session, in and through him, a statement that if Denmark choose to stand firm in the Augustenberg affair and resist the dictation of Germany, Denmark would not find itself alone. Denmark naturally interpreted this declaration as a pledge of British aid, and on finding it a broken reed greatly resented this betrayal. When it came to the point, it was clear England would not undertake to protect Denmark single-handed against Prussia, Austria, and the Bund, and so it was necessary at the least to throw over Palmerstone and Denmark.
But meanwhile the government made proposals to France for a joint assistance of Denmark, and undertook, if France would go in with England, to aid Denmark with all its force by sea and land. Napoleon was foolish enough to decline the proposition, on the ground that the interests involved for France were much inferior to those of England, which might look after its own affairs. So Denmark went to the wall, and the first aggressive steps in the series of movements by Prussia towards the creation of the German Empire and the reduction of French pretension was secured at a a time when Louis Napoleon might have easily nipped the Bismarck program in the bug.
[...]
It was not only the Austrians who were vanquished at Sadowa, but the French also. Napoleon had lost his power in Europe. His offers to mediate were brushed aside. Even King Victor Emmanuel ignored him now. He knew full well that, with his forces deployed and the feeling of the people against war, he could not face a show-down with Bismarck. He did not realize that, if he had quickly dispatched a force to the scarcely guarded banks of the Rhine, the Southern States might well have joined him and the Prussians forces obliged to retreat towards Berlin. Yet that fear hung heavily over Bismarck's head-quarters.
So, plenty to work with here. I think of several PODs off the top of my head in the immediate time-period that would lead to France agreeing to the British position; it had only been a decade earlier that the two had been allies in the Crimean War. So what are the repercussions, short-term and long-term (50+ years) if France, Britain, and Denmark declare war on Prussia (and potentially Austria) over the Schleswig-Holstein Question?