The
Free State of the Three Leagues was a confederation of three separate republics in the Rhaetian Alps that existed from the 15th century to 1799, when the area was absorbed by the Helvetic Republic established by Napoleon; just like many other territories in Europe, its independence wasn't restored after the fall of the French Empire, but it became a part of Switzerland, as the canton of Grisons.
The present day province of Sondrio in Italy used to be a subject territory of the Three Leagues, but never really became a sovereign part of it; because of this, the people of Bormio, Chiavenna and Valtellina took up arms against the Rhaetians as soon as the French armies approached, and the region was annexed by the Cisalpine Republic; however, ever since the 16th century there were
proposals to turn the region into a fourth league, and
Napoleon himself suggested such a solution too in the late 18th century that however the locals refused in favour of unification with the other Lombard-speaking territories in the Cisalpine Republic.
But what if Valtellina actually became the Grisons' fourth league in 1799? Today, the population of the Grisons is of 197,550 people, while the population of the province of Sondrio alone is of 181,712 people: back then, as the Rhaeto-Romance language was more widespread than it is today, Lombard and Romansh speakers together would've suddenly become the dominant group in the new Free State of the Four Leagues, that would've also become majority Catholic.
How would the survival of the Rhaetian confederacy change the history of Europe in the 19th century?