Bismarck should have conquered Austria.
Austrians are a Germanic people.. Their language, life style, cuisine, music, and so on. Austrian culture is very much German, and core Austria could have been easily integrated into Germany.
Besides, Austria was a rich, powerful player in Europe, and deposing that country by annexing its core territories, and creating puppet states such as Hungary and Croatia in other territories then held by Austria, would geopolitically benefit the newly born German nation, in that Germany would directly control more resources (territory, farmlands, Austrian businesses) and have a number of puppet allies in Central Europe.
The unification was an unstopable trainwreck and Prussia, altogether with the other Germanic states, had enough power to overthtrow Austria.
Why didn't he do it, and what do you think of the possibility of it having been tried?
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3fy0pq/why_didnt_bismarck_try_to_include_austria_in_his/
>>1091028
>Why didn't he do it, and what do you think of the possibility of it having been tried?
Agressive expansion, thus gangbang by France, Britain and Russia
>>1091028
"no"
1. The German Empire was essentially (ebin) Großpreußen, why would Bismarck want to include Prussia's greatest (German) foe? Their rivalry is what killed the German Confederation.
2. Integrating the Catholic south into the Protestant, Prussian-dominated Empire was difficult enough ("Kulturkampf") IRL. Annexing Austria is only going to amplify that problem.
3. The other Great Powers of Europe were already uneasy with the Kleindeutsche Solution that we got. They aren't going to sit idly by and let Germany blob across all of Central Europe.
4. Austria in 1866 includes Bohemia, so in addition to the Poles in Posen, you've also now got to worry about assimilating and/or oppressing the Czechs.
In my opinion, the best chances to get an Ebin Großgermanium would've been a successful Hungarian Revolution in 1848, or the actual Anschluss 90 years later.
No. Austria should have sticked with her alliance with Russia with the crimean war. Win the war against prussia together with russia a decade later. Hell they could have btfo'd prussia during the seven years war.
Großgermanium would then be a possibility, since austrians wanted it. and the capital of the germanophone world would be vienna, not berlin.
>>1091123
Austrians should have formed Germany desu
