long, well-thought out analysis
Nice thoughts, I didn't even think of some of that. Attaching them to Voralberg might be interesting. On the one hand, it's a loyal territory, on the other, it's had long historical ties to the Swiss. Wonder how that would affect both Voralberg and the cantons attached to it...
There's one thing this WI is missing though: what on earth is the casus belli? Why on earth would Austria get away with going to war with the Swiss? Post the 30 years war, there's just no motive for war, and simple land-grabs in Europe only happened where one state could manufacture a legitimate reason to cover up for the illegitimate land-grab. Considering the way that the Swiss were hardly the most active participants in war (they tended to just hire out mercenaries rather than get involved, and hiring mercenaries is NOT legitimate grounds for war) there's really just no sensible reason for Austria to do this all.
That does seem to be the main problem here. Yes, Austria could conquer Switzerland, but there's not much reason to like I said earlier. Seems a pretty big waste of resources for such a small reward.
(PS, what do you have against Swiss-wank? I don't think I've ever found a Swisswank TL on this site, so you can't have much use for it...)
Conclusion: set the POD back in the medieval era when the Swiss were actually at war with the Austrians.
That would be the best choice, yes.
This is something that has always intrigued me. Switzerland has been consistently anti-monarchy, or certainly anti-Habsburg, while Tyrol, just down the road and, superficially at least, a similar sort of country, evolved exactly the opposite way. Any thoughts as to why?
I'm not entirely sure, but it's a very good question. I don't know a whole lot about Tyrol, myself, so I can't really compare the experiences of the two areas.
Anyone out there able to explain?
I agree with you, what i said before was pretty stupid
. Yeah only in the medieval era could Austria truly conquer Swiss, but even then, from what iI heard about the Swiss, they would eventually revolt and succeed in driving out the Austrians, since the Swiss lands are well suited for a defensive war.
Don't beat yourself up about it. We all post stupid things from time to time.