An interesting topic that I have been discussing with my friends is the matter of Napoleon's victory at Waterloo. But I was curious as to what could have happened if Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo?
DBWI: Napoleon at Waterloo
- Thread starter TheBrunswickian
- Start date
CthulhuFhtagn
Banned
The war would have ended two months earlier. It's also possible that Prussia might have gained more at the Congress of Vienna. The way the French crushed them at Waterloo really damaged what little prestige they had left. Other than that, things would be pretty much the same.
Well, it's really likely that Britain wouldn't have adopted the IOTL conciliatory policy. With a French victory at Waterloo, probably no Castlereagh suicide and no Whig takeover.
I don't think that Whitbread would be able to pull the acknowledgement of the imperial return, and I disagree importantly with the previous poster there : it's really unlikely that Napoleon would be allowed to stay in power if he was defeated in Netherlands. I know his popularity and the really half-heatred campaigns of this war could point otherwise, but except Britain, Prussia and Austria really had enough.
Now, I concede that the Congress of Vienna would probably follow as IOTL for most matters (heck, Talleyrand could even still be part of the party, he only changed sides...what, half a dozen times?) but a non-Napoleonic France would be certainly far more harshly treated. Forget about keeping parts of Netherlands départements (it wasn't even in the first Congress drafts), forget about Alpine borders and colonies and most probably forget about French Flanders (it extended up to Duinkerke), North Catalunya and Alsace.
With France clearly crushed in 1815 a second time, Coalised aren't going to be really patient : they won't have any interest destroying France, but they'd have to pass a message.
Interestingly, you may spare France the wave of revolutionnary troubles of 1850's : the growing contradiction between Imperial autocracy, economical and small-scale liberalism in power and progress of societism (Will Charles Marx stay in Germany ITTL?) really increased social tensions.
Whatever the power in charge (Bourbon return, if Napoleon is out of game, seems likely) they'd have coalised support and maybe have enough grasp on power to know a slow progression to parlementarian liberalism akin to British and Netherlandian situations.
I don't think that Whitbread would be able to pull the acknowledgement of the imperial return, and I disagree importantly with the previous poster there : it's really unlikely that Napoleon would be allowed to stay in power if he was defeated in Netherlands. I know his popularity and the really half-heatred campaigns of this war could point otherwise, but except Britain, Prussia and Austria really had enough.
Now, I concede that the Congress of Vienna would probably follow as IOTL for most matters (heck, Talleyrand could even still be part of the party, he only changed sides...what, half a dozen times?) but a non-Napoleonic France would be certainly far more harshly treated. Forget about keeping parts of Netherlands départements (it wasn't even in the first Congress drafts), forget about Alpine borders and colonies and most probably forget about French Flanders (it extended up to Duinkerke), North Catalunya and Alsace.
With France clearly crushed in 1815 a second time, Coalised aren't going to be really patient : they won't have any interest destroying France, but they'd have to pass a message.
Interestingly, you may spare France the wave of revolutionnary troubles of 1850's : the growing contradiction between Imperial autocracy, economical and small-scale liberalism in power and progress of societism (Will Charles Marx stay in Germany ITTL?) really increased social tensions.
Whatever the power in charge (Bourbon return, if Napoleon is out of game, seems likely) they'd have coalised support and maybe have enough grasp on power to know a slow progression to parlementarian liberalism akin to British and Netherlandian situations.