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Random thought brought up by the recent What If France Invades Belgium in 1914 thread but what if the British decided to send the British Expeditionary Force into Belgium instead? The PoD is that in 1904 the Entente cordiale is slightly less cordial in that whilst all the issues that were in our timeline worked out are settled but the British make very clear that they wont automatically come in on France and Russia's side in a war with the Central Powers, they will however observe a one sided neutrality whereby they wont trade or aid Germany during hostilities whilst doing whatever they can for France and Russia. Now in our timeline there was a fair bit of debate over whether to declare war on Germany but protecting Belgian neutrality, the Entente cordiale and self-interest in not wanting to see Germany dominate the continent brought them down on the Allies side. In this one though with less of a commitment to France a month or two before the western front kicked off IOTL the British send the BEF to Belgium to link up with the Belgian army for 'joint training' and a series of 'war games'. Luxembourg's government declines to join the training and French offers of sending troops to participate in the war games is politely rejected as being just a bit too blatant. At the same time both Germany and France are pointedly reminded of Belgiums neutrality and their responsibilities to respect it under the Treaty of London 1839, with the unspoken statement that Britain will take it as an act of war if either violates it and will oppose them with force of arms.

So what happens now? A number of senior German officials apparently didn't believe that Britain would go to war over a "mere scrap of paper" but ITTL are under no such misapprehensions, is having the BEF in Belgium right in the way of the right wing of the Schlieffen Plan enough to make them reconsider? They've still got Luxembourg they could chance going through but that gap is pretty small so the French could probably hold it. If the Germans decide to not provoke the British and the French are able to hold the front line we could see them reverting to an eastern front first plan whilst staying defensive against the French which funnily enough means that the British may have inadvertantly helped them win the war. The Russians get clubbed to death over the course of two years before having to sign something similar to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The war in the west drags on as a stalemate and eventually ends in a negotiated peace - if France had conquered all of Germany's overseas colonies and sunk their navy would Germany agree to return Alsace-Lorraine for getting them back since with their puppet states in the east and Russia crippled they've more than won, or would that be too much? If not then it's status quo ante bellum.

Other knock-on effects could be the Ottomans staying out of the war since Sultan Osman I and Reshadiye wont be seized. The naval war is going to be very different without the Grand Fleet bottling up the High Seas Fleet, it's going to be much more balanced even if the British decide to shadow German ships and/or report their locations back to the French. Most likely no US involvement and its follow on.

So what do people think, is this at all possible or would it require intervention from the ASBs to work? Any ideas or suggestions on how things might turn out that I've missed?
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