Anglo-German EEC

What if France had opted to go its own way following WW2 (let's say the US tells them to buzz off in Asia and makes French Indochina Independent) and the EEC was formed along a UK-Germany alignment rather than a Franco-German one.

The big knock-on I can think of is less agricultural protectionism and more focus on international trade. There'd be more focus on economic integration and less on the political methinks.
Denmark and Norway would join earlier as well. Ireland may too, or maybe they cozy up to France to get away from UK-dominance.
 
You may want to have a look at:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...nt-commonly-used.451500/page-22#post-18116179

There are also Remainers on Twitters arguing along your lines – i.e. it was just a matter of time before France was too weak, and its interests too diverging to serve German mercantilist interests. At some point Germany would have to replace France and find another P5 member with strategic capabilities to rule the subcontinent with. With the expansion to the Nordics and Eastern Europe, the EU is also tilting heavily towards "North" and "Periphery". It was just a matter of time before a German/UK alliance would have emerged.
 
It is difficult to see France wanting to disengage from Germany, especially in the early Cold War. Why is France not going to want to create a binding arrangement with Germany to make sure that Germany will never again pose a threat to French security?
 
It is difficult to see France wanting to disengage from Germany, especially in the early Cold War. Why is France not going to want to create a binding arrangement with Germany to make sure that Germany will never again pose a threat to French security?

Issues of autonomy? Under DeGaulle France more than once threatened to exit integrationist European institutions.
 

GarethC

Donor
Issues of autonomy? Under DeGaulle France more than once threatened to exit integrationist European institutions.
France wants Paris to have autonomy from Washington and London.

France does not want Bonn to have autonomy from Paris, because that ends with tourists in feldgrau making a mess of the place every generation or so.
 
France wants Paris to have autonomy from Washington and London.

France does not want Bonn to have autonomy from Paris, because that ends with tourists in feldgrau making a mess of the place every generation or so.

Indeed. After the Second World War, France was very strongly motivated to adopt policies which would permanently bind Germany with France in such a way as to make another devastating Franco-German war impossible. Even with the division of Germany--something that France could not count on continuing indefinitely--the Federal Republic was simply powerful enough that it could eventually overshadow France. European integration, binding a strong Germany into a wider Europe that would be presumably be under French leadership, was the only solution.
 
Indeed. After the Second World War, France was very strongly motivated to adopt policies which would permanently bind Germany with France in such a way as to make another devastating Franco-German war impossible. Even with the division of Germany--something that France could not count on continuing indefinitely--the Federal Republic was simply powerful enough that it could eventually overshadow France. European integration, binding a strong Germany into a wider Europe that would be presumably be under French leadership, was the only solution.
Charlemagne would be proud to see his descendants reunifying. The original EU core of France, the Low Countries, Northern Italy and West Germany is largely coterminous with his Empire.
 
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