ȂȈȅ Partʺʺ: Politics and Philosophythrone of Britain, but the medieval Salic Law excluded all females from
the throne of Hanover so long as any male heirs were to be found. So
another of Victoria’s uncles, Ernest Augustus, became king of Hanover,
separating the two crowns.
Now, if the new monarch of Britain had been a male, he would also
have been king of Hanover. A kingdom in the heart of northern Ger-
many sharing the same English-speaking, English-educated monarch
with Great Britain would have greatly hampered Bismarck’s efforts toward
German unification. Ļe Seven Weeks War ofȀȇȅȅ(Prussia against Aus-
tria), having in its background theȀȇȅȃwar of Prussia and Austria against
Denmark over the north-German Schleswig-Holstein issue, might never
have taken place. As its result, however, Hanover, an ally of defeated Aus-
tria, lost its independence inȀȇȅȅand was absorbed into Prussia. Without
Victoria’s conception as a female, then, the wars ofȀȇȅȅandȀȇȆǿ–ȀȇȆȀ, the
establishment of the German Empire, World War I, and the Bolshevik
revolution ofȀȈȀȆmight never have occurred, at least not at their actual
times and in their actual ways. Would our lives be different? It’s difficult
to argue otherwise.
Small chance events can indeed sway history. Ļis is how uchronia
becomes reality.