Map Challenge: Austria by the Sea....
- Thread starter ComradeFlyer
- Start date
Italy must have stayed neutral in WWI. That, or following WWII, in order to punish Italy the 1914 border was re established. Also, just a note: Austria would not be referred to as a 'kingdom.' For the whole of its existence it was referred to as an 'archduchy'; the term 'empire of Austria' referred to the Habsburg dominions as a whole following the dissolution of the HRE - but it is feasible that if the Habsburgs are not overthrown after 1918 that they keep the title 'Empire of Austria' for their ancestral dominions which remain to them. I think the slovenes wouldn't mind terribly staying united with the Habsburgs - they had more in common with them than with the Serbs, anyway.
Ah, yes...on further investigation I see you are right. So, Italy gets even less territory than it did in OTL which is going to have very serious consequences if they were allies of the Entente. Even if they stayed neutral there will still be considerable bad feeling in the country. This of course makes a Fascist government (along with the promise of empire) even more appealing than OTL.
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
The border with Italy looks weird. Not just the Trentino bit, all of it. I know it was much rounder before Versailles, but I can't quite make out if it was Italy or Austria that won territory.
Austria has most of the Trent region, you should compare a 1914 and 1919 map and the difference will be clear. As I said, Italy has a very small piece, but that's it. Austria and Germany might partition the Sudetenland, but in this map the border with Austria (and from what I can see of Germany) it is the same as otl. I wonder if Kaiser Karl will make a bid to reclaim the Hungarian throne and be successful with the resources of Austria behind him? That being said, maybe he would make sure one of his children would rule, with a proper regent in place until then, and someone alot more worthy than Niklos Horthy). I don't think either the Hungarians or the Austrians would want to resurrect the Ausgleich.
That is, if the Quantum butterflies don't rampage all over Uzbekistan.
Why would Austria have a significant navy? There are only two naval ports (Fiume and Trieste), and even at the height of the Empire the navy was used mostly to protect Austria's extended coast. That has shrunk considerably: I could see a few larger vessels supplemented by some small cruisers and the like. Maybe they get to keep the surviving Viribus Unitis dreadnoughts plus the three fast scout cruisers and their destroyers and torpedo boats. The rest of their navy was obsolete anyway. Don't forget Austria is on the losing side, here, so expect that they will have similar restrictions as the Germans, although when the Germans get going in the '30s, I'd guess that the Austrians will do likewise. Maybe sooner, if Italy starts getting uppity.
In 1918 the Reichstag voted to become a republic and overthrew the Monarchy after the Hungarians, Czechs, etc. split away. So butterfly away the republican vote: loyal troops clamp down on dissenters, etc. It's possible - there were Habsburg supporters until the Anschluss, and it concerned Hitler enough that he had a military invasion of his homeland planned just in case Chancellor Schushnigg restored the Monarchy. I believe it was codenamed 'Operation Otto,' or something like that. Oh, and Austria would in this case actually have three naval ports, Pola being the one that I missed. Oops.
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