November 7, 1866 -
The Habsburg's vast multinational empire was drawing its final breath. The family had ruled as monarchs since 1282, dominating Central Europe for centuries. Six hundred years later, Austrian, Sudeten, and Siebenbürger Saxons accounted for just a quarter of the population of the ten different ethnic groups living in the huge territory that covered much of Central Europe. Nationalist pressures within her borders plus German and Italian aspirations triggered the Habsburg downfall.
In better days, the Austrian emperor led the German-speaking peoples through the thousand-year-old Holy Roman Empire and then later as the president of the Rhine Confederation. But the rising influence of Prussia dominated the successor Deutscher Bund (the German Confederation), causing tension. Consequently, the spirit of the Holy German Empire had long-since disappeared. It was to be replaced by sectarian struggles between the Protestant "Iron Chancellor" Otto von Bismarck and the Catholic Habsburgs. As the architect of a German customs union under the Zollverein policy, Bismarck sought no political interference of Catholic Austria; however, scientific, cultural and economic ties remained strong. The final blow to Habsburg rule came from Deutscher Dualismus, the intensifying rivalry between Austria and Prussia for the domination of the German states. The climax to this struggle was the Seven Weeks War that pitted Austria against the largest alliance since the fall of Napoleon: the Kingdom of Prussia, various allies within the German Confederation, and the recently unified Kingdom of Italy.
The decisive Prussian victory occurred at the Battle of Königgrätz on July 3. Sadowa, as it was commonly known, was a calamitous setback for the authority of Austrian Chancellor Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust. With the result no longer in doubt, the conflict petered out weeks later with the Prussian occupation of northern Württemberg. Military capitulation triggered a political collapse caused by a general uprising across the Habsburg lands. This unexpected outcome was an unwelcome surprise in Berlin as there was no realistic prospect that the Germans could absorb Slav territories into the German Empire. However, the German-speakers in the former Habsburg lands soon realized that only the Prussians could provide the necessary military protection from the new Slav nations arising from the conflict.
Although Italy gained territory in the south, the key result was that the majority German-speaking region, including a chunk of Bohemia and pro-Imperial Slovenia, were brought under Prussian hegemony as the German Kingdom of Austria. This was ruled by the Prince Rudolf Habsburg, a much weaker figure than his father, the recently deposed Emperor Franz Joseph. Lichtenstein, which had been under Austrian protection, also joined with the Germans. After the defeat of France, these territories would merge to form the Second German Reich that was proclaimed at the Palace of Versailles. This ethnically unified polity only excluded Swiss Germans who had been independent from the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire after the Swabian war and formalized by the Treaty of Westphalia.
The creation of the new powerful German state was a major challenge for the British whose primary foreign policy goal was to prevent continental domination by one Great Power. Had the late Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha survived, then perhaps Great Britain would have been more directly involved much earlier. Fortunately, the immense difficulties in consolidating the new territories with the states of the former German Confederation, and the tiny size of the Austrian Navy, were a constraint upon further expansion. Certainly they prevented the Reich from investing resources in colonial empire-building. Britain and Germany watched each other warily from the sides of their eyes and yet without clashing points or disputed areas there was no immediate threat of war breaking out.
The royal architect of German unification, Kaiser Wilhelm I, passed in 1888. His death ushered in the steady rule of Kaiser Frederick III, husband of Victoria, Princess Royal. Bismarck stepped down as Iron Chancellor, opening the way to democratic and social reforms. Intense diplomatic efforts were made to build a friendlier relationship, based upon neutrality, around agreed spheres of influence with Great Britain. The wise decision to return the province of Lorraine to France further reduced the tension in Europe.
Many royal heads attended the funeral of "Good Emperor Fritz" when he passed in 1905, but storm clouds were already gathering. He was to be replaced by his eldest son, Wilhelm II, an unstable individual who entertained dreams of a bellicose "New Course" to cement German status as a leading world power.
Author's Note:
In reality, the major result of the Seven Weeks War was a shift in power among the German states away from Austrian and towards Prussian hegemony. It resulted in the abolition of the German Confederation and its partial replacement by the unification of all of the northern German states in the North German Confederation that excluded Austria and the other Southern German states, a Kleindeutsches Reich. The war also resulted in the Italian annexation of the Austrian province of Venetia.
A further OTL consequence of von Beust's desire for revenge, was The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 which established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
Although Italy gained territory in the south, the key result was that the majority German-speaking region, including a chunk of Bohemia and pro-Imperial Slovenia, were brought under Prussian hegemony as the German Kingdom of Austria. This was ruled by the Prince Rudolf Habsburg, a much weaker figure than his father, the recently deposed Emperor Franz Joseph. Lichtenstein, which had been under Austrian protection, also joined with the Germans. After the defeat of France, these territories would merge to form the Second German Reich that was proclaimed at the Palace of Versailles. This ethnically unified polity only excluded Swiss Germans who had been independent from the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire after the Swabian war and formalized by the Treaty of Westphalia.
The creation of the new powerful German state was a major challenge for the British whose primary foreign policy goal was to prevent continental domination by one Great Power. Had the late Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha survived, then perhaps Great Britain would have been more directly involved much earlier. Fortunately, the immense difficulties in consolidating the new territories with the states of the former German Confederation, and the tiny size of the Austrian Navy, were a constraint upon further expansion. Certainly they prevented the Reich from investing resources in colonial empire-building. Britain and Germany watched each other warily from the sides of their eyes and yet without clashing points or disputed areas there was no immediate threat of war breaking out.
The royal architect of German unification, Kaiser Wilhelm I, passed in 1888. His death ushered in the steady rule of Kaiser Frederick III, husband of Victoria, Princess Royal. Bismarck stepped down as Iron Chancellor, opening the way to democratic and social reforms. Intense diplomatic efforts were made to build a friendlier relationship, based upon neutrality, around agreed spheres of influence with Great Britain. The wise decision to return the province of Lorraine to France further reduced the tension in Europe.
Many royal heads attended the funeral of "Good Emperor Fritz" when he passed in 1905, but storm clouds were already gathering. He was to be replaced by his eldest son, Wilhelm II, an unstable individual who entertained dreams of a bellicose "New Course" to cement German status as a leading world power.
Author's Note:
In reality, the major result of the Seven Weeks War was a shift in power among the German states away from Austrian and towards Prussian hegemony. It resulted in the abolition of the German Confederation and its partial replacement by the unification of all of the northern German states in the North German Confederation that excluded Austria and the other Southern German states, a Kleindeutsches Reich. The war also resulted in the Italian annexation of the Austrian province of Venetia.
A further OTL consequence of von Beust's desire for revenge, was The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 which established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
Provine's Addendum:
With Europe finding a new balance of power, the twentieth century began with a general sense of good feelings diplomatically. Britain, France, and other nations with long-standing overseas empires kept their eyes abroad with passion for colonialism, yet the recently unified nations of Germany and Italy served as seeming proof of the effectiveness of nationalism for unity. The same was seemingly being revealed in the east as the collapse of the Austrians meant independent nations for the Hungarians, Romanians, Czechs, Slovenes, Slovaks, and more. The Ottoman Empire retreated from the Balkans with independence for Greece in 1830 and Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria in 1878 overseen at the Congress of Berlin. Russia had been a major player in the Ottoman decline, supporting each of the rebelling nations, but it soon came into its own bitter inward struggle with antiquated serf laws and a sprawling territory that would be difficult to industrialize quickly. It was all the more agitated by the experimental republics established for Poles and Ukrainians spun off from former Austrian lands that Germany knew better than to attempt to absorb. Germans imagined that Russia might be the next empire to give way to nationalism, and they made ready to benefit.
The Russian Civil War was born out of the Balkan Wars where the new nations attempted to find mutually agreed borders. Parallel to military altercations was rampant genocide and huge numbers of refugees attempting to find a peaceful home. While Germany profited from industrial and agricultural sales, Russia became embroiled in the tensions and met demands for reform with unpopular crackdowns that only worsened the situation. The assassination of Nicholas II and attempted repression turned to open warfare and rebellions in Polish and Ukrainian lands as well as the Baltic states. This situation turned even more desperate with the death of the tsarevich in 1918. Wilhelm II stepped in to aid with another Congress of Berlin reinforced by German military authority that redrew borders and saw even more new countries added to the European map. The rump Russian Kingdom had only a fraction of its population and became, like much of the rest of Eastern Europe, economically dependent on German banking and industrialization.
Germany grew wealthy exploiting natural resources of its neighbors, creating a new system of economic colonialism rather than the more literal political states held by other empires. Following the Pacific War between Japan and an alliance of British, French, Dutch, and American forces, this German model became the norm for empires disintegrating from the map but still maintaining spheres of authority through commonwealths.
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