Assume that the 1848 Revolution escalates in Prussia. Don't bother too much with the details of this prerequisite - assume many people have died, FW IV - who sure was no firebreather - has fled Berlin and ponders abdication. A republican government forms, possibly in the Rheinprovinz, and in Frankfurt, the Vorparlament reacts by forming an Executive Commission (a provisional government, if you will) and begins to mobilise a levee en masse in order to withstand a potential Prussian onslaught.
The Prussian Army is divided. The reactionary faction wants to continue the crackdown, while some units especially of the Landwehr and officers have changed sides for the new pro-parliamentary Bundesheer. Both sides assemble - the republicans probably on the Rhine, the conservatives probably in the East - and, at some point, clash with each other.
All this time, assume that 2) Austria is busy e.g. in Italy and with all its other issues (Bohemia, Hungary etc.) so that they can't intervene in earnest.
How do the other important European nations react?
I assume that Nicholas sends Russian forces to crush the revolution in Prussia (like he did in Hungary).
What about France and Britain? Does anybody aid the republic if they prove not to be too easy a pushover?
The Prussian Army is divided. The reactionary faction wants to continue the crackdown, while some units especially of the Landwehr and officers have changed sides for the new pro-parliamentary Bundesheer. Both sides assemble - the republicans probably on the Rhine, the conservatives probably in the East - and, at some point, clash with each other.
All this time, assume that 2) Austria is busy e.g. in Italy and with all its other issues (Bohemia, Hungary etc.) so that they can't intervene in earnest.
How do the other important European nations react?
I assume that Nicholas sends Russian forces to crush the revolution in Prussia (like he did in Hungary).
What about France and Britain? Does anybody aid the republic if they prove not to be too easy a pushover?