AHC: Balkanise France

What's the most plausible route to have France be three or more states by the year 2000, with a POD after 1789?
 

King James IX

Something to do with the Revolution going awry... I don't know much European history. Maybe the Aristocrats re-assert themselves, are pushed into a separate nation; the Revolutionaries do a little squabbling about how the République should be run, and eventually get split due to political ideals... 'Aristocratic' France's political system soon becomes pseudo-British (purely ornamental monarchs, democracy), and all three nations hate each other so much (unconditionally) that they never unite.

Best I could do with my limited knowledge.
 
With a PoD after 1789 it's very unlikely.
There are neither profound ethnic/cultural gaps threatening the national identity,
nor is there much of a (recent) history of several entities inside.

So the only way you could achieve it would be a secondary split-up as in Korea.

Chaos and anarchy is much more plausible than several stable states ...
 
Well it's pretty difficult with a PoD after 1789, but perhaps the Germans could Balkanise the area that became Vinchy France instead of what they did.
 
You have much more chance to kept a desunited Germany then a balkanised France. Afterall French nationalism is a result of Hundred Years' War.
 
Decades of Darkness
POD: 1809
Here is France in 1936:
France1936.jpg
 
What are the blue state borders based on, if not medieval regions? Or are they also medieval regions?
 
I've heard of both duchies, but I don't know how well they match the borders.

Reasonably okayish. It's hard to say with Berry, because the Duchy of Berry was an honorary title for junior members of the French royal family, and thus considered part of the Royal demense

Then again, none of the regions' borders match the medieval regions 100%
 
Reasonably okayish. It's hard to say with Berry, because the Duchy of Berry was an honorary title for junior members of the French royal family, and thus considered part of the Royal demense

Then again, none of the regions' borders match the medieval regions 100%

Ah, that explains it. I wondered why I've never seen a map of it.

Augverne seems to be a sort of "There's nothing else to put there" region, correct me if I'm wrong.

Not that there wasn't a county(?) of Auverne once, but it wasn't that significant in the scheme of things.
 

mowque

Banned
Does Vichy count? I mean, that is France split up. Assuming a Nazi victory type deal, it won't be going away.
 
Languedoc (or langue d'Oc) was never a political unit, instead being a linguistic-cultural category until standardization of the French language

If you avoid certain facets of the revolution, is it possible to maintain some ethnolinguistic differences, similar to Spain? I'm imagining Gascony, Provence, Brittany... I was hoping they might be able to lead to a division later.

Also intrigued by the awry revolution idea. Is it possible for the Spanish or someone else to prop up a royalist state in Southern France, while the North goes Republican?
 
Well, you can have an independent Corsica propped up by England during the Revolution survive and a larger Monaco which has never lost Menton and Roquebrune. You can also have a papal Comtat Venaissin reinstated by the Congress of Vienna, but aside that...

There was no serious separatist movement in France until the twenties - and calling Mordrel's PAB serious is quite generous. Before that, regionalism was an Action Française thing, unlikely to lead to separatism.

A nazi victory, or something equivalent could lead to the establishment of puppet states. Mordrel tried to play this card in Britanny, but failed to gather enough support and was ultimately put in house arrest by the German because he was too extremist. With another leader, it might work, and of course, you have Himler's Burgondy.
 
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