WI: France joins Austria against Prussia in the 7 weeks war

I'm not sure how likely this is and know little about the era. But I thought about this today and wondered "Why didn't Napoleon III see the threat of Prussia before it was too late?".

Not sure what this is going to take, but what if France joined Austria, presumably defeated Prussia and thus preventing Germany from being created(For the time being)?
 

67th Tigers

Banned
I'm not sure how likely this is and know little about the era. But I thought about this today and wondered "Why didn't Napoleon III see the threat of Prussia before it was too late?".

Not sure what this is going to take, but what if France joined Austria, presumably defeated Prussia and thus preventing Germany from being created(For the time being)?

France was actually supporting Prussia as a check to Austrian power.....
 
Nappy III's Dual Loyalty

AFAIK Napoleon III was an ex-Carbonaro, more loyal to Italy than to France. That's why he couldn't bring himself to ally with Austria (at least as long as Austria was ruling Venice...)
 

Redbeard

Banned
Seen from 1866 Austria probably appeared the most dangerous opponent to France. Not only had Austria been the leading power on the continent for centuries, but France and Austria had also been at war in 1859.

In that context Prussia (still) just was a northern German power with many other rivals.

As long as Bismarck is Prussian Chancellor the Prussians are unlikely to bring themselves in an unfavourable situation, but this also leads to the obvious PoD: No Bismarck or Bismarck falling earlier. If we replace him with some proud but stupid hot-head (and remove similar types from the Governments of Prussia's neighbours) we might easily have Prussia in a situation like in mid 18th century - where both Austria and France saw it necessary to check a very ambitious Prussian, or mid 20th century, where everybody either by themselves or by German action saw the need to check another ambitious German...well Austrian.

Regards

Steffen Redbeard
 

Susano

Banned
Napoleon III DID have plans for the 1866 War. He bet on Prussia losing, in which case hed apepar as the maginimous saviour fo Prussia, for which in return ehd demand the Rhine border.

And then Prussia won. That is exactly why Bismarck so rushed peace negotiations, and did not rpess any demands on Austria - he wanted to have the War over before Nappy-3 could sort out his confusion and intervene.
 
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