Could Wallonia become germanised (or dutchified?)

Well first it's importyant to get that while Wallons only makes up 1/5 of the population of Benelux, historical they made up 1/3, but massive larger Dutch and Flemish birth rate have resulted in the Wallons falling in percent of the population. As for whether Wallonia could be Dutchified.

Let's look at this map

The coal fields show roughly where the Belgium industralisation happened. If the UK of Netherlands had survived, we would also have seen the influx of poor rural Dutch to these regions (beside the Flemish who also migrated there), and with Dutch state pushing Dutch, we would likely see these workers keep speaking Dutch, the French speaking burghers of Wallonian cities and towns in the industrial region would likely have at some point be reduced to irrelevance, the French peasantry would likely stay more stubborn, but as the city grows, we would likely see the same process as happened to Dutch speakers in France (or German speakers around Arlon). I imagine that only in the region south and east of Dinant would we see French speakers stay in majority until modern day. I imagine that UK of Netherlands would likely stay home to less than a million French speakers of which slightly above half live in French majority area, while the rest mostly live in rural areas in the rest of Wallonia.

The problem is that in order for the UK-Netherlands to survive, concessions have to be made to francophones. If the Dutch state tries to make them into Dutchmen, they will revolt.

The POD needs to be really early for it to work.
 
You are right that the % is higher than I previously said, although looking the numbers it seems more like 1/4(accounting for German Luxembourg and French Brabant).

Around the same place as today.
I mean Brussels alone kinda makes that doubtful, add on top of that Arlon and I think we shouldn't be so sure the border followed the current regional border, even if the difference isn't that big.


The problem is that in order for the UK-Netherlands (as it existed OTL) to survive, concessions have to be made to francophones. If the Dutch state tries to make them into Dutchmen, they will revolt.

The POD needs to be really early for it to work.
Wasn't it a problem or religion as well? If the problem on that front is resolved the revolt would be easier to deal with.
 
Wasn't it a problem or religion as well? If the problem on that front is resolved the revolt would be easier to deal with.

yes the best way to cut the legs off on the Belgium revolutionaries, is if the Dutch king comes to some agreement with the Pope about giving the Catholic Church wide rights in Catholic majority areas.
 
But still one should look at why Flanders did not Wallonify in spite of the the Upper Code being French for 4 centuries ...
French did have a massive influence, the elitist parts of the upper classes still speak French only, even in Flanders. Further there are enormous amounts of loanwords from French in the regional dialects. Also Flemish nation-forming started very early, rallying around the 1838 book "Lion of flanders" which is a romantic-nationalist novel centering around the battle of the golden spurs.
The problem is that in order for the UK-Netherlands to survive, concessions have to be made to francophones. If the Dutch state tries to make them into Dutchmen, they will revolt.
The POD needs to be really early for it to work.
Not really. In my opinion, Willem just wanted to pass his reforms all at once. If he had spread them a bit more, first unifying the economy, then tackling the school/language problem, then tackling the church problem, he could have kept the country united. He just tried to do it all in the shortest amount of time possible, and that wasnt smart.
 
Not really. In my opinion, Willem just wanted to pass his reforms all at once. If he had spread them a bit more, first unifying the economy, then tackling the school/language problem, then tackling the church problem, he could have kept the country united. He just tried to do it all in the shortest amount of time possible, and that wasnt smart.

Whenever he tries, I think it's going to be difficult to ask the francophones to abandon their own language - particularly since France has designs on Belgium, and would like to encourage dissent to separate it from the Netherlands...
 
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