The Germanic Empire: the ultimate Megadeutschland wank TL

[Mario]

Background​

The Second Wave of Napoleonic Wars (1815-1819) led to the main victors (the United Kingdom, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia) to design a new continental balance where these three powers would play an equitative role. The main product of this balance was the creation of the Germanic Confederation (Germanischer Bund) between the ten surviving states considered as heirs of the defunct Holy Roman Empire: the Austrian Empire, the Kingdoms of Prussia, Netherlands-Nassau, Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony and Württenberg, and the Grand Duchies of Hesse, Mecklenburg and Baden.

The broader term 'Germanic/Germanisch' was preferred by the British and Dutch over the restrictive 'German/Deutsch', as the Orange-Nassau dynasty did not consider themselves 'German' anymore (even if the Confederation contained many non-Germanic nations, the ten ruling dynasties were indeed Germanic). The Confederation would have a rotatory Presidency, so no state would have a permanent hegemony over the others :

The British sponsored the brand new Kingdom of Netherlands-Nassau as its proxy main power inside the Confederation. The Kingdom included the former Dutch provinces, the former Austrian Netherlands, the Rhenish territories, part of Westphalia and territories stripped from defeated France. The duchies of Luxembourg and Nassau retained internal autonomy. The so-called 'British Block' was completed by the enhanced Kingdom of Hanover (which was in personal union with the British Crown) and the unified Grand Duchy of Hesse.

The Austrian Empire achieved the sovereignty over all the Italian states north of the Papal States, even if they kept their own institutions as separate entities. They also achieved sovereignty over the Swiss Cantons (Switzerland as such was not restored) and the Polish borders were restored to the 1795 Third Partition agreement. The states of Baden, Württenberg and Bavaria remained under its area of influence, so the four states were called the 'Austrian Block'.

Prussia was forced to withdraw its claims in West Germany and received part of Saxony, Anhalt (which retained internal autonomy) and most of the Thuringian states as compensation. It was also allowed to keep the Polish borders from 1795. Prussia also extended its influence over the unified Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg and the Kingdom of Saxony, which despite the loses in favour of Prussia, incorporated some of the eastern Thuringian states. These three states formed the 'Prussian Block'.

The free city of Frankfurt am Main was not incorporated into any of the states and remained as the neutral see of the Confederation, including a common Parliament with very limited powers. Other free cities like Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck were placed under the nominal sovereignty of Hanover, even if they kept their own institutions and almost full independence. The Swiss Cantons followed a similar model inside the Austrian Empire.

Outside the new Confederation, the restored Bourbon Kingdom of France would suffer major territorial loses in favour of mainly the British-puppet Netherlands-Nassau and also the Austrian Empire: the French Low Countries (French Flanders and French Hainaut) and the French territories east of the river Meuse would be transferred to Netherlands-Nassau and Baden, while some parts of Burgundy and the island of Corsica would be transferred to Austrian sovereignty. This made France pretty defenceless in case of an eventual new continental war.

The Russian Empire got recognized its sovereignty over Finland and Bessarabia, and agreed on restoring the Polish borders of 1795 in exchange of a General Agreement with the Confederation regarding a common policy in the Balkan issues and a consensus against the Ottoman policies there. Denmark was stripped from any claim over Holstein, which passed to Hanoverian sovereignty, but retained the whole Duchy of Schleswig. Italy was definitely divided in three parts: Austrian North, central Papal States and the south controlled by the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

 

[Socrates]

Why on Earth would the Great Powers agree to Austria being so large?

 

[AmericaForever]

Neat

 

[Deleted member 147978]

Why on Earth would the Great Powers agree to Austria being so large?

If the TL speaks like a wank, acts like a wank, walks like a wank, then it's definitely a wank TL.

 

[Mario]

Why on Earth would the Great Powers agree to Austria being so large?

In fact, this is not much larger than the Austrian area of influence after the Congress of Vienna IOTL.

The Habsburgs had an indirect control over the northern Italian states through their cadet branches and they created the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto. Maybe here the Habsburgian sovereignty is officially clearer but in fact, the result is mostly the same.

So, the differences compared to IOTL are basically three:

- The territories obtained from France: Burgundy is a small territory and Corsica is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, so here the rule is not direct.
- The maintenance of the Polish borders of 1795: it is something that might have happened anyway IOTL if Russia would have been not that interested in controlling Warsaw, and accepted any other concession.
- The sovereignty over the Swiss cantons: it is a mainly nominal thing after Switzerland had been disbanded as a con-/federation. Same solution applied for the Hanseatic cities in Hanover.

 

[WunWun]

Lmao
this truly is a wank
I'm interested in how far you manage to write this

 

[Mario]

CHAPTER 0.1: THE BRITISH BLOCK

​

The British completely designed its own proxy entity in the continent through the bizarre assembling of the Kingdom of the Netherlands-Nassau. William I of Orange-Nassau was placed in the throne of what he expected to be an expanded polity of his ideal of united Low Countries, but he just was allowed to be a figurehead of a series of badly assembled provinces stretching from the Low Countries to the Rheinland and Lorraine. The British deployed 'assistant troops' and 'assistant diplomats' in several of the provinces in order to keep the effective control of the country in key affairs like economy, trading and military. The provinces assumed most of the other policies and the central government in The Hague remained as a fiction where the Orange-Nassau dynasty could display their royal paraphernalia. More worringly, the British gradually take control of the administration of the former Dutch colonies.

William I, King of the Netherlands-Nassau.

Unlike the fictional Netherlands, the Kingdom of Hanover was created over a central and solid authority. The British monarch George IV elected a governor who had an extended political power, and excepting the autonomous duchies of Oldenburg and Brunswick and the Hanseatic cities, the rest of the country was highly centralized. Hanover aligned with the Netherlands inside the Confederation in order to protect the British interests in the continent. The third state of the block, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, had no direct ties with the United Kingdom, but usually aligned with the Netherlands and Hanover as mere opposition to both Prussian and Austrian policies.

The British Block clashed with the Prussian Block since the very beginning of the existence of the Confederation. Prussia strongly advocated to follow a Germanic-centered policy independent of foreign interests, while the British Block defended the interests of the allegedly main ally of the Confederation, the United Kingdom. The Austrian Block remained neutral between these two positions, at least at the beginning of the Confederation period. In fact, Austria was happy with the existence of a third party which avoided to hold a direct two-side balance with Prussia. Unlike the other two blocks, the Austrian delegates were little interested in verbal fighting at the Parliament in Frankfurt, and they often absented during the decade of the 1820s.

The British Block remained strong and aligned with the interests of the United Kingdom until 1837, when the end of the personal union between Hanover and the United Kingdom destabilized the balance of power inside the Germanic Confederation.

 

[Mario]

CHAPTER 0.2: THE PRUSSIAN BLOCK​

The Kingdom of Prussia tried to promote all kind of proposals in order to enhance the Germanic Confederation, something that found the opposition of the British Block and the usual disinterest of the Austrian Block, as both blocks mainly prefered to keep the Confederation as it was originally designed, with some exceptions. The Prussians were interested in the creation of a customs union, a common Germanic Navy (something that was strongly dismissed by the United Kingdom) and a share in the colonial administration of the former Dutch colonies, which was theoretically reserved to the Kingdom of Netherlands-Nassau but increasingly intervened by British officers.

Frederick William III, King of Prussia.

The main problem of Prussia is that it conformed the weakest block, with the only support of Saxony and Mecklenburg, which was far from being inconditional (i.e. Saxony did not support the Prussian project of a common Navy). Austria showed cold support to the customs union and an absolute disinterest to invest money in a common Navy. Vienna only supported the Prussian block in denouncing the British interference in the Dutch colonial administration, but avoided to clash with the British Block as far as they could.

Thus, Prussia did a lot of effort in investing in their own Navy project (only shared with Mecklenburg) as they considered it a priority in order to keep the Bristish influence at bay. King Frederick William III of Prussia was convinced that a future conflict with the British would be necessary in order to strengthen the Confederation, an essential goal of the Prussian politics. However, the British did not concern much about the Prussian ambitions as long as they would not align with the Austrian Block.

The first opportunity to change the internal balance of the Confederation arrived by 1837, when the personal union between the British and Hanoverian Crowns ceased to exist.

 

[Socrates]

In fact, this is not much larger than the Austrian area of influence after the Congress of Vienna IOTL.

The Habsburgs had an indirect control over the northern Italian states through their cadet branches and they created the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto. Maybe here the Habsburgian sovereignty is officially clearer but in fact, the result is mostly the same.

So, the differences compared to IOTL are basically three:

- The territories obtained from France: Burgundy is a small territory and Corsica is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, so here the rule is not direct.
- The maintenance of the Polish borders of 1795: it is something that might have happened anyway IOTL if Russia would have been not that interested in controlling Warsaw, and accepted any other concession.
- The sovereignty over the Swiss cantons: it is a mainly nominal thing after Switzerland had been disbanded as a con-/federation. Same solution applied for the Hanseatic cities in Hanover.

The Habsburg monarchy was already seen as the most powerful country in Europe after the Congress. There is no way the great powers, who most insisted on a balance of powers, would accept them to be even slightly bigger, let alone the behemoth here. Plus, the Congress went to great lengths to layer in buffer states, and here Austria and France are right next to each other.

You are also wrong that a Habsburg on another throne gives Austria "indirect control" over the other country and that's the same as direct ownership.

 

[Mario]

The Habsburg monarchy was already seen as the most powerful country in Europe after the Congress. There is no way the great powers, who most insisted on a balance of powers, would accept them to be even slightly bigger, let alone the behemoth here. Plus, the Congress went to great lengths to layer in buffer states, and here Austria and France are right next to each other.

You are also wrong that a Habsburg on another throne gives Austria "indirect control" over the other country and that's the same as direct ownership.

Some clarifications here:

- ITTL there is no Congress of Vienna at all. The resulting GC is an agreement between the UK, Prussia and Austria, and they were fine with this design due to their own interests. Austria might be slightly more powerful, but this is because UK has a quite bigger say in the continental balance through direct participation in the GC. Here there is no need of buffer states as France has been significantly weakened with defenceless borders. The philosophy under this alt-design is very different to IOTL Congress of Vienna as the Napoleonic Wars were longer, harsher and thus the powers agreed on a bigger punishment to the French and direct participation of UK in the continent.
- Russia did not participate in the Second Wave of Napoleonic Wars, so it stuck just with their former gains (Finland and Bessarabia). The agreement on keeping the 1795 borders in Poland is done as an exchange for another agreement with the GC on the Ottoman Balkan topic.
- There is no much de facto difference between the duchies of Modena or Parma to be held by cadet branches of Habsburgs or directly under the Austrian Emperor sovereignty as long as they kept their own separate institutions. IOTL Austria was able to move their troops through northern Italy against the Papal states as they wanted when they needed, so at the end there is no much real difference.

 

[Mario]

CHAPTER 0.3: THE AUSTRIAN BLOCK​

Out of the three political blocks, the Austrian Block was by far the most disinterested in the affairs of the Confederation. Austria just accepted the new designed proposed by the Bristish in order to consolidate its influence over northern Italy and the Swiss cantons, but did not care much about the quarrels between the pro-Bristish states and Prussia. The only topic that attracted some of its interest at the beginning of the Confederation was the controversy about the administration of the former Dutch colonial Empire, as the Austrian merchants were pretty interested in the potential trading opportunities there.

Francis I, Emperor of Austria.

Emperor Francis I followed a policy of pleasing the British in order to consolidate his new extended power over Central Europe, the northern Balkans and northern Italy. He was more interested in other affairs outside the Germanic sphere, specially regarding the start of the disintegration of the Ottoman rule in the Balkans and how sharing the Austrian influence there with the Russians. The control over the northern Italian entities was also of his main headaches, but he could rely on British diplomatic help in order to appease the conflicts in that region.

If Austria showed little interest in the Confederal affairs, the other states of the block (Baden, Württenberg and Bavaria) were even more indifferent, to the point that their delegation absented in many of the sessions of the Parliament in Frankfurt. Baden struggled with the incorporation of most of former French Alsace, while the northern strip was transferred to the Bavarian Palatinate. These three states usually supported Austria just by regional affinities and because they were not interested in the problems between the two other blocks.

 

[WunWun]

Even more Italians and poles to rule over for Austria...
And I don't think the swiss Germans can offset their numbers enough.

 

[Mario]

MAP OF EUROPE IN 1820
​

As in this timeline there was no Congress of Vienna, the map of Europe in 1820 looks quite different to IOTL:

Notice that in this case there is no union Sweden-Norway and that Sardinia has been left as an island state which would probably join the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies quite soon. The Ottoman Empire has not started its process of disintegration yet, but this is something that will also happen soon.

 

[WunWun]

Sardinia has been left as an island state which would probably join the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies quite soon.

Would that make it the kingdom of the three Sicilies?

 

[Mario]

Would that make it the kingdom of the three Sicilies?

If there is no Italian unification (spoiler: it won't happen ITTL) then I think the most suitable name would be the Kingdom of Southern Italy.

 

[Mario]

CHAPTER 1: THE FIRST YEARS OF THE GERMANIC CONFEDERATION (1820-1828)​

The fist years of the Germanic Confederation were marked internally by the clash between the British Block and the Prussian Block over some topics related to the strengthening of the association and externally by the tensions with both France and the Ottoman Empire, specially in the later case due to the beginning of the Greek Revolution in 1825.

As almost all of the day-to-day domestic affairs were still reserved to the member states, the Parliament in Frankfurt had little real topics to run, and most of them were focused in the regulation of internal trading issues. One of the first Prussian proposals was the progressive establishment of a customs union between the member states, but the British Block dismissed this idea and the Austrian Block, even if approved it on paper, prefered to cold down any expectative of its implementation in a medium term. Anyway, the KIngdom of Prussia, Mecklenburg and Saxony agreed on eliminate their tariffs between them by 1823 and Hesse, despite aligning with the Brirish Block, declared interest in joining the others by the end of the decade.

The military affairs was another controversial question in Frankfurt. The Germanic Confederation did not have a common army, but already established some protocols of common defense in case of an external aggression. However, the Prussian Block considered it insufficient, specially in the case of the Navy. The former Dutch Navy was controlled by the British and the Austrian Navy was in a very early stage of development after the acquisition of the Adriatic territories during the Napoleonic Wars. Prussia wanted to develop its own project of an enhanced Navy in the Baltic and requested financial assistance to the other members, but it was denied. As in the customs union case, Prussia finally launched its own project in collaboration with Mecklenburg in 1826, something strongly disapproved by Hanover and the Netherlands.

The administration of the former Dutch colonies was another hot point of friction. The Dutch East Indies, as well of the rest of colonies, passed to the theoretical Netherlandic administration, but in fact it was taken over by British officers, something that caused concern both inside and outside the Confederation. The Prussian Block strongly demanded to put the administration after Frankfurt's supervision while Austria opted for promoting a more moderate compromise. However, London refused to concede any cession here, claiming that the Dutch colonies were a property of the new Netherlandic state and thus, an internal affair of a member state not to be shared with the others.

Klemens von Metternich, first Foreign Minister of the Germanic Confederation.

In the foreign affairs field, the Confederation appointed the Austrian conservative Klemens von Metternich as Foreign Minister of the Confederation in 1821. The two main topics he had to address were the strained relations with the Kingdom of France, who strongly demanded a revision of the new borders imposed by the Agreement with Britain in 1820, and the Greek Revolution which started in 1825, because the Agreement with Russia dragged the Germanic Confederation to support the Greeks as requested by the Russian Empire.

The Kingdom of France had a very unstable internal situation and King Louis XVIII warned the Confederation and the United Kingdom that the risk of a new French Revolution was very high despite the recent sound defeat. This risk escalated after the death of the King in 1824 as the rule of his successor Charles X was even more unpopular. By 1827, the breakout of a new social unrest in France seemed unavoidable despite some concessions made by the Germanic Confederation in reducing the harsh tariffs imposed to French products after the War. In 1828, a new Revolution started in France once again.

 

[justinmil22]

Big chungus Germany

 

[Mario]

ANNEX I: THE DYSFUNCTIONAL KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS-NASSAU​

The new brand Kingdom of the Netherlands-Nassau was somehow a bizarre creation in order to directly serve the British interests in the continent. The territory was indeed divided in very differentiated areas with different constitutional status, including a military area in part of the border with France:

The Provinces of the Low Countries were considered the real core of the country, even if the capital, The Hague, was detached in its own special 'royal district'. The twelve provinces were provided with their own provincial assemblies as the British wanted them to run all of their own domestic affairs that were not related to the main British interests in the Kingdom (military and commercial). The Orange-Nassau dynasty was instructed to do not interfere much in the affairs of these provinces, as the relations between the Protestants and Catholics (by one side) and the Dutch-speakers and Francophones (by other side) posed a very fragile balance that should be better kept by themselves with minimal central interference.

The Province of the Rhine was indeed a separate territory with no autonomy as a whole, even if some of the major cities (Cologne, Dusseldorf etc.) were granted with special powers regarding its own urban policies. The British officers were in charge of many of the key economical fields of the province, something that caused some discontent in the region, as well in rival Prussia. However, unlike other territories, the presence of the British troops there was minimal and the military administration was similar to those designed for the Lower Countries provinces.

The Province of Lorraine, however, had a lot of foreign military deployment during the first years of the Confederation, specially in cities like Nancy or Metz. Most of the troops were British, but also Austrian and from other Germanic members. The military administration of the province pushed most of the former French population in the cities to relocate to the Ile-de-France, but the rural areas remained overwhelmingly Francophone excepting in the German-speaking northern districts.

The Verdun Strip was an official military march with lot of fortified stations along the west bank of the Meuse. In this case, the former French population was forced to move to the French east bank, where they founded new towns like Nouvelle Verdun. The city of Verdun, renamed as Wirten, was repopulated with Dutch, Austrian and other Germanic immigrants, but many of the military officers were British.

Finally, the two autonomous duchies kept their own institutions, even if the Duchy of Nassau, as it directly depended on the King's rule (as Duke of Nassau himself), was de facto directly ruled from The Hague and it was maybe the only territory where the King had a real unrestricted power.

The United Kingdom invested a lot of effort to convert this Kingdom in a proxy realm of themselves in the continent and submit all the regional interests to their major, superior interests, specially regarding the control of the defeated France. However, the local population was pretty discontent of this situation from the very beginning and the anti-Bristish sentiment flourished in almost all the corners of this fictional, overstretched mega-Netherlands.

 

[lordblaze]

Make threadmarks.

That way, I can use "Reader mode", and just read your story instead of having to see comments by other users.

 

[Sarthak]

ITTL there is no Congress of Vienna at all. The resulting GC is an agreement between the UK, Prussia and Austria, and they were fine with this design due to their own interests. Austria might be slightly more powerful, but this is because UK has a quite bigger say in the continental balance through direct participation in the GC. Here there is no need of buffer states as France has been significantly weakened with defenceless borders. The philosophy under this alt-design is very different to IOTL Congress of Vienna as the Napoleonic Wars were longer, harsher and thus the powers agreed on a bigger punishment to the French and direct participation of UK in the continent.

Austria is now the most powerful hegemon. Britain nearly went to war with Austria in 1815 when it pressed it's claim to Italian lands outside of lombardy-venetia. Giving all of those lands is a non-starter to 2 centuries worth of British policy. Prussia would also be threatened by the massive strengthening of Austria.
Europe After Napoleon goes into the Congress System in detail. This argument doesn't fly in face of British-Russo-Prussian policy at the time.

Russia did not participate in the Second Wave of Napoleonic Wars, so it stuck just with their former gains (Finland and Bessarabia). The agreement on keeping the 1795 borders in Poland is done as an exchange for another agreement with the

The Ottomans couldn't care less about the Polish by the 1750s let along 1795! They were a non-entity to Ottoman policy except when they have refuge to a few polish aristocrats in return for their imperial service. The ottomans would not do anything with Poland on policy during this time period. They would not upturn a 75 year long policy over a small agreement.

Also the Dutch outright refused to annex Rhineland otl and even declared that they would withdraw and give independence to the region if they were forced to take it under one of the Orange Cadet lines. Keeping it goes against their national policy since 1788 without a clear reason as to why they keep it.

Also there were over 20,000 Swiss guerillas by 1815 fighting the french. If they are annexed into Austria then they and even more Swiss will start and fight.

Also the Austrians explicitly rejected the notion of a single ethnic identity and for good reason considering their major population were non-germans. They aren't going to provoke their non-german populace by calling themselves the Germanic Confederation. This idea goes against literal 400 years of policy without a proper reason either.