Centralised Germany vs Decentralised France

Would not a unified Germany in this scenario take advantage of a disunited France and take territories away from France? In OTL, France grabbed territories away from the Holy Roman Empire, so would not a united Germany wind up even bigger in size than OTL’s Empire?
 
Hey, our discussion is going in circles. Depending on the reasons for France bigger population, I cant see a good explanation why our earlier unified Germany dont have the same advantages as OTL France.

All I'm saying is France (the area, not necessarily any individual state) will still have more population. Germany also faces a few more problems than France did, namely how many neighbors and potential enemies they have.

The reason for the demographic declines in France (compared to Germany or England( are numerous, but it is some combination of less industrialization, less urbanization, the fact France was already pretty full of people, and most of all Napoleon. When half your youth dies off at the beginning of the 19th century, it puts a damper on population growth.
 
It's not that people were having more babies during industrialization that caused the populations to grow as much as they did, it's because the babies started to live past infancy and people lived longer thanks to medical modernization.

Population growth has four (general) stages:

I: Birth and death rates are largely in equilibrium, with population only gradually increasing.
II: Death rate drops sharply, population boom ensues.
III: Birth rates begin to decline because of less need for so many babies
IV: Birth and Death rates are both much lower, and back in equilibrium. In the generation that makes the transition, you have a tonne of old people.
 
It's not that people were having more babies during industrialization that caused the populations to grow as much as they did, it's because the babies started to live past infancy and people lived longer thanks to medical modernization.

No one said this wasn't true.
 
Perhaps we will see Burgundy(Franche Comte and the Duchy of Burgundy) being gained by Germany rather than Silesia.

Occitania might unite..
 
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