Challenge: Franco-Germany

Probably not as a single, cohesive, continuous state but look at something like Imperial China which saw itself as a 2000 year old state but had gone through various dynasties and periods of territorial disunity. Similarly, Frankland could have gone through various stages of territorial acquisitions and contraction and even temporary splits but could still be, now, a unified country.

To answer your first point, yes but Europe isn't China. China had special circumstances which allowed it to remain a cohesive unit, and some might argue that logic and chance should have conspired to make it break up at some point, to a far greater degree than ever happened in OTL.

To answer your second point, true, that simply wasn't what was originally implied. It's unlikely, but possible.
 
Wasn't the Rhein first proposed as the "natural" eastern boundary of France by Louis XIV? Before that, I don't think it was viewed as a barrier or boundary by many people at all.

I'd argue it plays into our view of civilization going back to the fall of Rome; the barbarians pouring across the Rhine to smash our Roman villas full of books and civilization.
 
Uh, Charlemagne did have one heir, Louis the Pious. Three of Louis the Pious's son's split the empire between them. This thread makes little sense to me since France and Germany were once one polity (Francia) that have diverged from each other more and more (obviously geography and ethnicity played a large part in this). To make France and Germany one country is very easy, as long as France and Germany as we know them do not exist.
Scipio

You are correct, I was thinking of the wrong man. Ok, then just have a line of succession, like Great Britain, where the oldest heir inherits all of the Empire. Of course then you have to worry about jealous younger siblings starting a civil war.
 
hat might be easier than using the Frankish kongdom is having the Romans succeed in conquering Magna Germania up to the Elbe. Then have Germanic tribes conquer Rome and partition it among them. One tribe settling on the Rhine manages to unite everything between the Atlantic and the Elbe into a single entity, populated by Romans and a thin Germanic upper class, resulting in a Romanic state later.
 
How about a luckier Napoleon who not only keeps his Empire but also adds the Rhinebund and the Kingdom of Italy as part of the Empire. I know that Austria and Prussia are not part of the Empire but the reat of Germany and Belgium are connected to France.
 
Instead of having 18 (legitimate and illegitimate) children, Charles VII of France is sterile and, while enjoying his marital duties, produces no heir. To spare the country another war, he adopts Charles the Bold as his successor (as Charles VIII). After the early death of the HRE emperor Frederick III, Charles is elected and crowned in Aachen as Charles V HRE (he had definately enough money to bribe the electors) and with France (ile de France), Luxemburg, Flanders, Brabant and Burgundy as new electorates and part of the HRE he manages to make the title quasi hereditary.
 
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