Suggesting the latest PoD so far:
Let the Papacy crumble completely in the age of the Reformation!
The following potential reasons come to my mind:
worse economic and military situation of the Papal State itself,
(some) spread of the ideas of the Reformation into Italy,
no such staunch...
I see the Seven-Years' War as the earliest plausible, yet possible occasion for this.
You would then have to shift the upper hand in that war to the French side (most easily by some change in the alliances) so that Britain is occupied in Europe.
Alternatively or additionally, you could...
Not very likely.
As I said about Austria, the democrats-nationalists were extremely crabby about non-German influence on German affairs. (For a not too distant comparison, think of the apprehension of the newly founded USA against recolonialization by any power, and rules to which this led, as...
It's true that it would be very dangerous for Switzerland to join any conflict that has a religious connotation. They were smart enough to avoid that, and consistently so for centuries. This is quite an achievement; I find very remarkable that Switzerland hadn't disintegrated due to a religious...
Why do you all take for granted that Austria is out of this business?
If you say "united Germany!" in a 1848 context, this implies all German-speaking countries (except those in Switzerland). And that is the whole dilemma.
The Paulskirche Constitution explicitly ruled that a foreign...
That's the easy part. Not doing anything (or anything signifcant) in this respect would be a lot more natural for Bismarck and his political camp.
So I would be ready to accept as "didn't think of this cunning trick" or "didn't dare to" as sufficient explanations for a change ;)
And sure, the...
I'm not completely sure if I understand correctly - if your point is a Pagan (Western) Europe and a Christian Middle East, that's actually quite likely from a late ancient perspective. You don't have to prevent Christians in Rome - which would be hard anyway, the Roman Empire worked as a pipette...
While this was clearly a legal possibility, I can't see it happen. Yes, Kings of France once were also Dukes of Milan, which came in handy for Francis I among other things to keep in the struggle for the Imperial Crown itself. However, this is Imperial Italy, and accepting loyal duties in...
Until the Varian Disaster, Germania Magna was already considered pacified and under Roman control!
This already implies what Augustus and his likes were dreaming of at best:
A large area that acknowledges Roman dominance, where troops would enter from time to time if necessary to crash an...
ADDENDUM:
To duly emphasize the positive aspect of this question, this thread is indeed somewhat different from all the others, stressing assimilation of the people over cheap military victory.
Therefore, another thought about this aspect:
All peoples in contact with the Romans wanted to live...
A few thoughts:
Note that the Germans near the Imperial border experienced a lot of Roman influence over several centuries. They absorbed many aspects of Roman culture, from agricultural techniques over construction to money and law (to name one obvious and convincing detail, consider the...
The first question is, how should a German unification work?
Prussia and Austria are too deeply adversaries to even ally, let alone unite.
Moreover, either of them is far too strong and self-confident to submit to a federate crown.
And with at most one of these two, how is that "Germany"...