AHC: Bigger Belgium
- Thread starter Stuyvesant
- Start date
Have William the Silent suffer a sudden and completely unexpected heart attack years before he's scheduled to die. The Seven Provinces hold on, but barely, and the Spanish are much more successful before coming to terms.
Having the Netherlands holding parts of the Rhineland would do it. They're Catholic and could join the Belgians.
That would butterfly away Belgium.
I think a good bet is to maybe have the Dutch collaberate with Germany in WWI. I can't think of why they would, but if you could come up with a way, then as punishment the allies may give the Belgians more of Germany/the Netherlands in the peace treaty.
Alternatively, have the Germans win and create a puppet state out of Belgium. As part of weakening France, they add bits of France to Belgium creating a slightly larger and perhaps more Catholic state.
Not necessarily, a major Catholic revolt would still be likely in an 1800's POD.
As ridiculous as it might sound, they(at least the French speaking elite) actually had some plans for that IRL in 1918!
So yeah, having the Dutch collaborate with the Germans in WW1 would probably enable Belgium to go through with these plans. They'd annex Limburg and the westernmost part of the Rhineland. How stable this state would be is another question, though.
As ridiculous as it might sound, they(at least the French speaking elite) actually had some plans for that IRL in 1918!
So yeah, having the Dutch collaborate with the Germans in WW1 would probably enable Belgium to go through with these plans. They'd annex Limburg and the westernmost part of the Rhineland. How stable this state would be is another question, though.
Are you sure ? The key is about the territories taken from Belgium, not what was expected to be given to. The green line is the canals and communication ways necessary to Belgium though, and most of them are outside of Belgium.