WI: Habsburg Possessions in Italy Unify

What if the Austrian Habsburgs unified with not only Venetia and Lombardy but their possessions in Tuscany, Modena and Parma (I cant find the map showing the rest). What would the possible repruccusions be? Would they be given the same deal Hungary got or would only one get it? Would the Concert of Europe allow it? Could the House of Bourbon-Parma and their Dutchy of Lucca be cooptited?
 

archaeogeek

Banned
What if the Austrian Habsburgs unified with not only Venetia and Lombardy but their possessions in Tuscany, Modena and Parma (I cant find the map showing the rest). What would the possible repruccusions be? Would they be given the same deal Hungary got or would only one get it? Would the Concert of Europe allow it? Could the House of Bourbon-Parma and their Dutchy of Lucca be cooptited?

Lucca was never Bourbon Parma, Parma only belonged to the Habsburgs for one reign, that of empress Marie-Louise.

Tuscany was a secundogeniture and Modena belonged to a different branch of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine.
 
Lucca was never Bourbon Parma, Parma only belonged to the Habsburgs for one reign, that of empress Marie-Louise.

Tuscany was a secundogeniture and Modena belonged to a different branch of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine.

According to the Congress of Vienna, the Duchy of Lucca was to be heaaded by the House of Bourbon-Parma, and they would gain the Duchy of Parma when Marie-Louise died. No chance for the Habsurgs coming together for the greater good and saying their own necks then?
 
Lucca was never Bourbon Parma, Parma only belonged to the Habsburgs for one reign, that of empress Marie-Louise.

Tuscany was a secundogeniture and Modena belonged to a different branch of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine.

The Duchy of Lucca was ruled by the Bourbons of Parma until the death of Marie-Louise. Then Parma returned to them and Lucca was given back to Tuscany.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
According to the Congress of Vienna, the Duchy of Lucca was to be heaaded by the House of Bourbon-Parma, and they would gain the Duchy of Parma when Marie-Louise died. No chance for the Habsurgs coming together for the greater good and saying their own necks then?

You mean saving. Also probably not, although Leopold of Tuscany was mildly popular with the tuscans. He could probably have run part of the Habsburg lands, but it would probably just have been a counterweight to Sardinia at best.

Also, the congress of Vienna clearly stipulated that it was also temporary. They didn't gain Parma, they recovered Parma.
 
You mean saving. Also probably not, although Leopold of Tuscany was mildly popular with the tuscans. He could probably have run part of the Habsburg lands, but it would probably just have been a counterweight to Sardinia at best.

Also, the congress of Vienna clearly stipulated that it was also temporary. They didn't gain Parma, they recovered Parma.

And there is the reason to try coopting the Bourbon-Parma with Habsburgs. Do you think that the Austrians would be willing to give up Lombardy as part of a dowry to union between the sidebranches of the Bourbons and Habsburgs over Northern Italy?
 

archaeogeek

Banned
And there is the reason to try coopting the Bourbon-Parma with Habsburgs. Do you think that the Austrians would be willing to give up Lombardy as part of a dowry to union between the sidebranches of the Bourbons and Habsburgs over Northern Italy?

Ditching the Bourbons altogether would have been a smarter plan. They were as disastrous in Italy as they were in Spain and France, and the reason they lost Parma for a while was to punish the house of Bourbon-Parma for its horse trading with Napoleon.
 
Ditching the Bourbons altogether would have been a smarter plan. They were as disastrous in Italy as they were in Spain and France, and the reason they lost Parma for a while was to punish the house of Bourbon-Parma for its horse trading with Napoleon.

This would be more for unification between them than any attempt to bring them into an alliance, though it would have interesting effects on southern Italy. I wonder what people would think to Napoleon II as King of Italy.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
This would be more for unification between them than any attempt to bring them into an alliance, though it would have interesting effects on southern Italy. I wonder what people would think to Napoleon II as King of Italy.

The people who matter would either see the interest or be horrified at the prospect of yet another Bonaparte kingdom. The people of Italy would probably not care, as a thousand years of being Europe's battlefield had pretty much made apathy endemic.
 
The people who matter would either see the interest or be horrified at the prospect of yet another Bonaparte kingdom. The people of Italy would probably not care, as a thousand years of being Europe's battlefield had pretty much made apathy endemic.

Half Habsburg and raised as one though. He still might be seen by the Italians as his old role as King of Rome. A half-Corsican for a King may appeal to some of the old Revolutionaries.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
Half Habsburg and raised as one though. He still might be seen by the Italians as his old role as King of Rome. A half-Corsican for a King may appeal to some of the old Revolutionaries.

That's probably how his grandfather saw it, and Metternich was historically opposed to restoring the Bourbons in France, but it still wasn't enough. And of course there's the obvious problem of him dying of tuberculosis in his 20s.

There was a bit of noise to make him King of the Belgians IOTL.

I suspect a Bonaparte-Habsburg kingdom of Italy in the north may lead to Italy remaining divided in two, though.
 
That's probably how his grandfather saw it, and Metternich was historically opposed to restoring the Bourbons in France, but it still wasn't enough. And of course there's the obvious problem of him dying of tuberculosis in his 20s.

There was a bit of noise to make him King of the Belgians IOTL.

I suspect a Bonaparte-Habsburg kingdom of Italy in the north may lead to Italy remaining divided in two, though.

Even if the son of the former Duchess of Parma's son married into the Bourbon-Parma? Or do you mean with the Bourbons in the South r Savoy closer by?
 
Huh? Could you make it clearer?

Sorry about that. I meant for the first part that northern Italy could very well be run be a couple who had Habsburg, Bonaparte, and Bourbon blood. For the second part I was asking about what you thought the other group would be around, as you said it would stay divided.
 

archaeogeek

Banned
Sorry about that. I meant for the first part that northern Italy could very well be run be a couple who had Habsburg, Bonaparte, and Bourbon blood. For the second part I was asking about what you thought the other group would be around, as you said it would stay divided.

I mean that Sicily would be more likely to remain independent in the event where uniting the north would require a serious proxy war instead of a short campaign as it was IOTL.

Especially as this would probably short-circuit Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's imperial reign anyway. I figure a kingdom of Italy and a republic of Sicily or something. Truth is it's a hell of a lot of butterflies, but the one point: the papal states will die, they were hanging on a thread.
 
I mean that Sicily would be more likely to remain independent in the event where uniting the north would require a serious proxy war instead of a short campaign as it was IOTL.

Especially as this would probably short-circuit Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's imperial reign anyway. I figure a kingdom of Italy and a republic of Sicily or something. Truth is it's a hell of a lot of butterflies, but the one point: the papal states will die, they were hanging on a thread.

The butterflies could certainly have an effect on the Franco-Prussian War. Then again, Napoleon III may need to look for a new job. Would Britain support Prussia against what could seem to be a united front by the Austrians, French, and Spanish?
 

archaeogeek

Banned
The butterflies could certainly have an effect on the Franco-Prussian War. Then again, Napoleon III may need to look for a new job. Would Britain support Prussia against what could seem to be a united front by the Austrians, French, and Spanish?

The butterflies mean the political situation that led to the Franco-Prussian war is nearly inexistent. The diplomatic isolation of Second Empire France will probably not be there, for one.
 
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