User blog comment:ChrisL123/New Crimean War timeline/@comment-3967693-20120326212250

I'm not sure if that'd be true. Sure, they might go after the Ottoman Empire, but it's not like there wouldn't be conflict between the Russians and French, who had been feuding for authority in the Holy Land. So it might even be a 3-way war...

When you say "...having to hold down Balkans they gain," I don't understand. The only 'gains' i can think of would be Bosnia, and they didn't officially get Bosnia until 1909, and the A-P war happened in 1866. I was thinking that if the Russian alliance wins in the Crimean War, Russia would "make" Austria split Bosnia in half, because of their ethnic groups. But other than that they wouldn't have much else. Considering the Austrians and Russians wouldn't have a feud yet, they should be able to do enough damage to win.

And yes, I realized that it would be rough by the 1910s, but by then the alliances would be pretty much made (the Italo-German one and the Franco-British one), so I'm sure the Austrian's would put their differences aside to not be isolated, no?