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In 1889, following Boulanger's victory in the race to be Deputy for Paris, Boulanger's supporters were pushing for him to lead a coup against the Republic. There was a revolt on January 27th by his supporters, but Boulanger spent the night with his mistress instead of taking power then and he also wanted to take power legally rather than extralegally. Ultimately his opponents rallied and the government came after him and his supporters, issuing a warrant for his arrest resulting in his fleeing the country in 1890.

What if Boulanger had taken power in 1889? He was an arch-revanchist who wanted war with Germany and likely would have mobilized France against Germany shortly after taking power. At the time France had more modern mobilization tactics and Germany's general staff was comprised of out of touch generals who Willhelm kept around due to personal affinity, so Boulanger likely would have defeated Germany easily.
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