Just what it says in the title. What if the Catholic/Habsburgs won the Thirty Years war?
Just what it says in the title. What if the Catholic/Habsburgs won the Thirty Years war?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the latter two don't happen. But you do bring up a good point of a centralized Germany, one that is at first dominated by Spain thus the Spanish are yet again dominant (or the Hapsburgs at least) keeping France at bay with a much larger encirclement.Hate to be that guy, but what are the circumstances when they win? Do the Catholics capture Berlin? Does Spain recapture the Netherlands? Do they invade Sweden?
A more centralised HRE and Spain remains the power in Europe.
Easiest way is to buy the swedes off before they get seriously involved. Bogislav XIV will probably die without issue and Gustavus Adolphus is his brother in law. Have GAs heir inherit the duchy and the swedes will take their marbles and go away most likely. The French are unable to get involved at this early date and the baltic coast is one bridge too far anyway which Wallenstein came to realize. Without any hope of outside intervention the other protestant lords will most likely fall in line. It wont be a WW2 total victory but it´ll be the best the emperor can hope for.
Even better would be to have the Danish and the Swedish go to war, thus keeping both Denmark and Sweden from intervening.
THat would be difficult. After Knäred noone of the participants had ay interest in going at each other again. The swedes turned east in their interests and the danish south. There would require something spectacular to get them to change their minds at that time and handwaving a war because "they hate each other lolz" is somewhat lacking. There arent really any bones of contention at that time.
Sort of a "common enemy" thing here, they were both protestant nations (Sweden and Denmark) with ambitions in Germany that couldnt be met with a strong central government so splitting germany like OTL was a good approach. Plus Denmark shares a land border with the Empire so i don't think they'll be starting a war to the north when one in the south is possible if not likely at most times.What about the Skåneland region? Could that become a bone of concentration? Or was that not a problem area at the time? The only other thing I can think of would be Poland being more successful in its war with Sweden, thus forcing the Swedes to focus there rather then in Germany.
thats just it they would dominate for long, it would end up reversed.I am not sure if a successful Austrian Hapsburg entity would be dominated by the Spanish, certainly not for long. The Spaniards were dominant IIRC because they so often had to bail out the Austrian ones with troops and/or money. Here, would the successful one need such bailing out?
And, they could concentrate on building up "Germany" while the Spanish still have the Netherlands, France and England to worry about.
I am not sure if a successful Austrian Hapsburg entity would be dominated by the Spanish, certainly not for long. The Spaniards were dominant IIRC because they so often had to bail out the Austrian ones with troops and/or money. Here, would the successful one need such bailing out?
And, they could concentrate on building up "Germany" while the Spanish still have the Netherlands, France and England to worry about.
thats just it they would dominate for long, it would end up reversed.
the point is Germany would be really strong, and spain wasn't exactly a push over back then either.
With an Holy Roman Empire at peace, being re centralized and dominated by the Catholics and the Imperial Habsburgs we might see a the two Branches on a more equal footing with each other. If anything the Emperor might offer aid to Spain for the Eighty Years war. Speaking of the Spanish-Dutch war, what would happen to the Netherlands with a Catholic Victory in the Thirty Years' war? Would Spain retake a part of the Netherlands? Or would their be no difference?
The main problem Spain has is its lack of heirs. Spain went into decline during the end of Philip IV's reign and continued into the reign of Carlos II. a Catholic victory could butterfly Baltasar Carlos' death then maybe we would see Spain recover or at least not decline so quickly.