PC/WI: Possible European Federation formed post WW1 centred in Switzerland.

WILDGEESE

WILDGEESE

What if post WW1, around 1919 and after Versailies, Switzerland with cash incentives to rebuild the countries in question offered to join Austria, Belguim, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands to form an European federation with other countries apart from the Nordic ones allowed to join if they want?

The rules drawn up in Switzerland would be.

Only open to countries in continental Europe (UK & Eire excluded)
The federation capital would be Zurich.
Romansh (a neutral language) would become the standard language of the EF.
All countries joining the EF would have to dispose of the overseas lands (liquidate their Empires)
The Swiss Franc ( a neutral currency) would become the standard currency replacing the rest.
Freedom of movement would allow a mixing of the previous populations allowing better integration.

Would this be possible?

Would it work?

How would the UK react to this country being created?

Regards.
 

Some Bloke

WILDGEESE said:
What if post WW1, around 1919 and after Versailies, Switzerland with cash incentives to rebuild the countries in question offered to join Austria, Belguim, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands to form an European federation with other countries apart from the Nordic ones allowed to join if they want?

The rules drawn up in Switzerland would be.

1.) Only open to countries in continental Europe (UK & Eire excluded)
2.) The federation capital would be Zurich.
3.) Romansh (a neutral language) would become the standard language of the EF.
4.) All countries joining the EF would have to dispose of the overseas lands (liquidate their Empires)
5.) The Swiss Franc ( a neutral currency) would become the standard currency replacing the rest.
6.) Freedom of movement would allow a mixing of the previous populations allowing better integration.

Would this be possible?

Would it work?

How would the UK react to this country being created?

Regards.
Click to expand...

These could be the initial propososal, but points 5 & 6 won't get accepted in a month of Sundays.
Maybe some kind of defined exchange rate based on the Swiss Franc?
I doubt all of countries on the list would sign up straight away, but some of the new states might see
the benefits of a large trading partner.

Say it starts as a trading bloc in the 20s, how does the Great Depression affect things? Do Italy and Germany still go Fascist?
 
WILDGEESE

WILDGEESE

metalinvader665 said:
Why Romansh? Such a proposal would guarantee be using Esperanto if it had to use a neutral language.
Click to expand...

Well . . . as Switzerland doesn't have a national language, in regards to them using French, German and Italian with a minority group using Romansh and as the Swiss are rebuilding the nations involved in WW1 (a Swiss style Marshal Plan) I went with Romansh as a safe bet.

As the saying goes . . . "he who pays the piper . . . plays the tune."

Regards filers.
 
Queeney

Queeney

I'm not sure how you're imagining this scenario, but Switzerland is not nearly in a financial position to "rebuild the nations" following WW1.

It's a small country, and despite being very mountainous, there are no dwarves digging obscene amounts of gold and arkenstones out of the Alps.
 

Thisisnotausername

WILDGEESE said:
Well . . . as Switzerland doesn't have a national language, in regards to them using French, German and Italian with a minority group using Romansh and as the Swiss are rebuilding the nations involved in WW1 (a Swiss style Marshal Plan) I went with Romansh as a safe bet.

As the saying goes . . . "he who pays the piper . . . plays the tune."
Click to expand...
Romansh during this time was spoken by ~1% of the Swiss population. The Swiss wouldn't want to use it as the official language of Europe, let alone anyone else. Any project of this nature would most likely either pick a selection of existing languages commonly spoken by the member states, EU-style, or choose Esperanto, then the world's most prominent international auxiliary language. Where are you getting the idea that Switzerland is in a position to rebuild Europe, anyway?

WILDGEESE said:
All countries joining the EF would have to dispose of the overseas lands (liquidate their Empires)
Click to expand...
This alone kills the proposal. Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Italy aren't giving up their colonial empires for any price Switzerland can pay. Such a provision effectively limits your EF candidate countries to Germany and Austria, and an EF with just those two and Switzerland would basically just be an expanded Germany and would be vetoed by Britain and France accordingly.

WILDGEESE said:
Would this be possible?
Click to expand...
I think you could potentially have some sort of quasi-EU thing after WWI, but I don't think it would look very much like what you've proposed. It wouldn't speak Romansh, it wouldn't be able to force its members to give up their colonies, it wouldn't arbitrarily bar the UK, Ireland, and the Nordics from ever joining, it probably wouldn't be Switzerland's idea and it certainly wouldn't be built on Switzerland rebuilding everyone else.
 
WILDGEESE

WILDGEESE

Thisisnotausername

This alone kills the proposal. Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Italy aren't giving up their colonial empires for any price Switzerland can pay. Such a provision effectively limits your EF candidate countries to Germany and Austria, and an EF with just those two and Switzerland would basically just be an expanded Germany and would be vetoed by Britain and France accordingly.

Could enforcing all countries joining the EF be Republics first (removing their monarchies) help in this regards?

Regards filers
 
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