Would it actually have been possible for the Austrians to unite Germany instead of the Prussians?
How could this have been accomplished, and when was their best shot?
How would this Germany compare to the Prussian-led Empire?
Austrians held slavs under their territory, prussians did not. Pretty much your answer
>>877934
>Implying Austria could ever compete with Prussia.
If the Austrian empire ever looked remotely capable of uniting the Germanic people under one banner, Prussia had powerful allies before the unification and the prospect of an Austro-German superstate would piss many of them off.
>>877982
>>877934
If Austria was ever going to create a united Germany, it would have been way, way earlier. You had some notions during the Diet at Worms in 1495 of centralizing a lot of the HRE's functions into what would at least be modern for the time, on par with say, England or France; and the Austrians were on board with such ideas, but couldn't push the reforms through, against opposition from some of the more regional powrs in the HRE like Cologne and Mainz.
I'm not an expert on the politicking by any means, but if the Hapsburgs had a stronger hold on some of the electors back then, they probably could have pushed through reforms to at least edge towards a unified Germany.
By the 19th century though, it's way, way too late.
>>877988
>Muh Poles stole German land
>>877934
Yes: by not fucking up Konnigratz.
>Victoria 2 memes
back to /gsg/
>trusting austrians ever
>>877982
Prussia had a bunch of Poles and one or two Lithuanians.
>>877934
seems like they tried that for 700 years before prussia actually did it the absolute madmen
so no
UK, France, and Russia would have found an excuse to start a war.
They were not going to the Autro-Hungarian Empire have control over that much of the continent.