Post by eurofed on Apr 25, 2021 9:40:24 GMT
Let's assume, with a multiple divergence in the early 15th century, that the destinies of the major Western European nations (England/Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy) since the Early Modern age get more or less reversed.
As it concerns Britain and France, the Hundred Year War saw a greater amount of English success, just enough to get the conflict considerably prolonged even if a complete success eluded either side. The Wars of the Roses and the infighting between rival factions of the French high nobility also got extended and more vicious. When the dust settled, England had more or less managed to recover the Angevin territories, but it was too exhausted and too focused on preventing a French comeback to engage in major colonial expansion or meddle in the rest of Europe. It might well be able to unify the British Isles, but that was it. France got out of the conflict with serious territorial losses and too weak, exhausted, and divided to engage in any territorial expansion against its stronger neighbors, getting trapped in its Middle Ages borders. The drive to recover its western territories absorbed all its residual energies and attention, so the Meuse and the Rhone became its entrenched natural borders.
As it concerns the HRE/Germany, a surviving House of Luxemburg, or alternatively their Habsburg heirs, managed to consolidate a domain that included the Low Countries, Brandenburg, Silesia, Bohemia-Moravia, and Austria. Victory in the inevitable military conflict against anti-centralization princes (a much shorter and less destructive equivalent of the Thirty Year War) enabled them to absorb the possessions of their defeated enemies, such as Saxony, the Palatinate, Hesse, and Berg-Julich. This gave the Luxemburg/Habsburg the critical mass to impose a successful centralization reform that turned the HRE into a functional federal state. The Teutonic Order won the conflict against Poland-Lithuania, consolidating its control of Prussia and the Baltic lands. The reforms that marked the end of the Western Schism led to its secularization and assimilation by the HRE.
The resolution of the Western Schism saw the victory of Conciliarism. This paved the way to a massive reform of the Church that decentralized it, defanged and effectively abolished the Papacy, purged corruption and ignorance of the clergy, and drove secular authorities to seize its excess wealth, abolish many religious orders, and secularize ecclesiastical states. This prevented the Reformation, killed the Hussite movement in its crib, and allowed reconciliation and reunification between the Latin and Eastern Churches.
As it concerns Italy, greater success of the Visconti dynasty allowed it to consolidate its domain across northern Italy, defeat and absorb Florence and Venice, and later oust the Anjou from Naples, paving the way to unification of Italy. The downfall of the Papacy after the resolution of the Western Schism allowed it to conquer the Papal states; the weakness of France enabled it to absorb Savoy, Dauphine, and Provence. A victorious naval war with Aragon granted it control of Sicily and Sardinia.
As it concerns Spain, the drive to unify Castile, Aragon, and Portugal by dynastic marriages was a complete success. After the growing strength of the Visconti state expelled the Aragonese from Italy, newborn Iberia focused its energies on expansion of the Reconquista in North Africa. Past a point, Italy became a potential major rival in the enterprise, but a functional sphere of influence agreement eventually became possible that left Morocco and Algeria to Iberia, and Tunisia and Libya to Italy.
Despite their inevitable rivalries and conflicts, Iberia, Italy, and Germany soon found an effective opportunity for cooperation in their joint effort to contain and remove Islam and the Ottoman threat from the Balkans, the Western/Central Med, and North Africa. Even at the apex of their strength, the Ottomans found themselves utterly unable to defeat or resist this compact of European powers. It was a long and ardous effort, but eventually the Ibero-Italo-German alliance managed to expel the Ottomans and Islam from the Balkans and Northwest Africa.
Various changes led to the success and entrenchment of the Kalmar Union.
As it concerns Britain and France, the Hundred Year War saw a greater amount of English success, just enough to get the conflict considerably prolonged even if a complete success eluded either side. The Wars of the Roses and the infighting between rival factions of the French high nobility also got extended and more vicious. When the dust settled, England had more or less managed to recover the Angevin territories, but it was too exhausted and too focused on preventing a French comeback to engage in major colonial expansion or meddle in the rest of Europe. It might well be able to unify the British Isles, but that was it. France got out of the conflict with serious territorial losses and too weak, exhausted, and divided to engage in any territorial expansion against its stronger neighbors, getting trapped in its Middle Ages borders. The drive to recover its western territories absorbed all its residual energies and attention, so the Meuse and the Rhone became its entrenched natural borders.
As it concerns the HRE/Germany, a surviving House of Luxemburg, or alternatively their Habsburg heirs, managed to consolidate a domain that included the Low Countries, Brandenburg, Silesia, Bohemia-Moravia, and Austria. Victory in the inevitable military conflict against anti-centralization princes (a much shorter and less destructive equivalent of the Thirty Year War) enabled them to absorb the possessions of their defeated enemies, such as Saxony, the Palatinate, Hesse, and Berg-Julich. This gave the Luxemburg/Habsburg the critical mass to impose a successful centralization reform that turned the HRE into a functional federal state. The Teutonic Order won the conflict against Poland-Lithuania, consolidating its control of Prussia and the Baltic lands. The reforms that marked the end of the Western Schism led to its secularization and assimilation by the HRE.
The resolution of the Western Schism saw the victory of Conciliarism. This paved the way to a massive reform of the Church that decentralized it, defanged and effectively abolished the Papacy, purged corruption and ignorance of the clergy, and drove secular authorities to seize its excess wealth, abolish many religious orders, and secularize ecclesiastical states. This prevented the Reformation, killed the Hussite movement in its crib, and allowed reconciliation and reunification between the Latin and Eastern Churches.
As it concerns Italy, greater success of the Visconti dynasty allowed it to consolidate its domain across northern Italy, defeat and absorb Florence and Venice, and later oust the Anjou from Naples, paving the way to unification of Italy. The downfall of the Papacy after the resolution of the Western Schism allowed it to conquer the Papal states; the weakness of France enabled it to absorb Savoy, Dauphine, and Provence. A victorious naval war with Aragon granted it control of Sicily and Sardinia.
As it concerns Spain, the drive to unify Castile, Aragon, and Portugal by dynastic marriages was a complete success. After the growing strength of the Visconti state expelled the Aragonese from Italy, newborn Iberia focused its energies on expansion of the Reconquista in North Africa. Past a point, Italy became a potential major rival in the enterprise, but a functional sphere of influence agreement eventually became possible that left Morocco and Algeria to Iberia, and Tunisia and Libya to Italy.
Despite their inevitable rivalries and conflicts, Iberia, Italy, and Germany soon found an effective opportunity for cooperation in their joint effort to contain and remove Islam and the Ottoman threat from the Balkans, the Western/Central Med, and North Africa. Even at the apex of their strength, the Ottomans found themselves utterly unable to defeat or resist this compact of European powers. It was a long and ardous effort, but eventually the Ibero-Italo-German alliance managed to expel the Ottomans and Islam from the Balkans and Northwest Africa.
Various changes led to the success and entrenchment of the Kalmar Union.