AHC: Netherlands to the Elbe

given that Elbe runs east-west all the way to Wittenberge, more than 2/3's of the way to Berlin from the Mouth (it empties at Hamburg) ... sure you're not thinking of Weser? (runs past Bremen and empties at Bremerhaven)
 
given that Elbe runs east-west all the way to Wittenberge, more than 2/3's of the way to Berlin from the Mouth (it empties at Hamburg) ... sure you're not thinking of Weser? (runs past Bremen and empties at Bremerhaven)

Nope, the Elbe.

I actually did a thread on the Netherlands to the Weser a while back, and the consensus in that thread was that it was achievable in the Vienna Congress, Prussia gets Luxembourg, and the Netherlands gets a Weser border in exchange.
 
Assuming the border just has to be somewhere on the Elbe (and not along its entire course), I think a Burgundian POD would be a good starting point. East Frisia amnd Oldenburg would be relatively easy to integrate into the Burgundian holdings that would become the Netherlands, and they're linguistically separate from the rest of Germany at the time. THe archbishopric of Bremen is harder (what with the dead hand), but maybe at this point it would be enough to gain administratorship.

Then, with a different outcome to the Anbabaptist War, Münster might be up in the air, too, come the Reformation. Bremen certainly is a ripe target for secularisation. Given the Swedish king got it IOTL, it's not improbable for someone else to get it, especially if the course of TTL allows the Netherlands to technically remain in the Empire. That puts the border on thje Elbe estuary. Throw in Hadeln and Verden to ropund out the borders and you've got a territory that is not big enough to dominate the Netherlands, compact enough to be defensible, and a cultural and linguistic fit. IOTL all these areas had close ties to the Netherlands. It was traditional for younger sons to seek work there, crew Dutch ships and serve in their army and colonies. Their spoken dialect is mutually intelligible.

Cue a Dutch-Danish war over navigation on the lower Elbe?
 
Netherlands-Hannover personal union in the 1800s somehow? A tall order: Hannover needs to survive for as long as it takes for the House of Orange to go extinct and then marry the female heir.
 
Netherlands-Hannover personal union in the 1800s somehow? A tall order: Hannover needs to survive for as long as it takes for the House of Orange to go extinct and then marry the female heir.

I don't think that would work this late. The personal union would be between two fully formed states with their own ethnic identities - the Netherlands, proudly independent, neutral, and Hanover, a German principality integrated into the Bund and Zollverein, with a consciously German populace. The two would remain separate, sharing a head of state under different contitutional arrangements. To make territories that are German today part of the Netherlands, it needs to happen before they think of themselves entirely as German. In the Frisian/Platt corner that is possible until fairly late, but after 1800 is too late IMO.
 
I don't think that would work this late. The personal union would be between two fully formed states with their own ethnic identities - the Netherlands, proudly independent, neutral, and Hanover, a German principality integrated into the Bund and Zollverein, with a consciously German populace. The two would remain separate, sharing a head of state under different contitutional arrangements. To make territories that are German today part of the Netherlands, it needs to happen before they think of themselves entirely as German. In the Frisian/Platt corner that is possible until fairly late, but after 1800 is too late IMO.
Also in the 19th century a personal union between the Netherlands and another country was not allowed in the Dutch constitution.
 
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