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Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a way, with the latest point of divergence, for Alsace-Lorraine to be considered a natural part of Germany by everyone at the start of the twentieth century. For this thread Alsace-Lorraine means the modern day French departments of Moselle, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and Territoire de Belfort.
My original idea was for France to do worse in the War of Spanish Succession suffering a decisive defeat at the Battle of Malplaquet so that in addition to our timeline's terms they're also forced to cede the Duchy of Alsace back to the Holy Roman Empire to act as a defensive barrier along with the territory between the two main parts of the Duchy of Lorraine to them. The problem this brings though is that if and when the Duchy of Lorraine is traded away, either at the peace talks or in the future if the War of Polish Succession still goes ahead, that includes a chunk of Moselle as shown on this map. Easiest solution is to simply say that whilst France receives most the duchy negotiations have the Empire keeping a small part but that's a bit inelegant. So can anyone think of any other possibilities to have Alsace-Lorraine become German?