User blog comment:IndigoOnIceCream/What if France won the Franco-Prussian War?/@comment-4656717-20120519053229

You are right about the southern states, they wouldn't have become powers, but more...fill the power vacuum in Central europe left by a weak Austria and non-existant German Empire? I mean, Bavaria was easily as powerful as Switzerland.

And yes, WWI would probably end up happening, but completely diffently, and possibly later than otl.