"Two things of note happened in 1866 that would set the stage for the future, and in a very odd way, they served to counterbalance each other.
The first was the Austro-Prussian War. Now, why would a two month war between Germanic peoples be any type of benchmark in history? Well, it becomes incredibly important once you realize that it set the stage for the Franco-Prussian War and the Unification of Germany. Those two events nearly made World War I inevitable."
Well this is silly. If the Austrians had won, then we might have had a Franco-Austrian war. There was a problem in Alsace and Lorraine, a German-speaking population under the French. This had to be settled somehow. One of the two leading German nations would have done it: either the Prussians or the Austrians. Since the Prussians had won the 7-week war, it was them.
But too many what ifs... you can't do that in history, too many branches stem away from the root of a tree of possible alternatives.
The first was the Austro-Prussian War. Now, why would a two month war between Germanic peoples be any type of benchmark in history? Well, it becomes incredibly important once you realize that it set the stage for the Franco-Prussian War and the Unification of Germany. Those two events nearly made World War I inevitable."
Well this is silly. If the Austrians had won, then we might have had a Franco-Austrian war. There was a problem in Alsace and Lorraine, a German-speaking population under the French. This had to be settled somehow. One of the two leading German nations would have done it: either the Prussians or the Austrians. Since the Prussians had won the 7-week war, it was them.
But too many what ifs... you can't do that in history, too many branches stem away from the root of a tree of possible alternatives.