I suppose the POD for this might be slightly before 1900, but I anticipate the main effects would come in 1914 or thereabouts.
Kaiser Wilhelm made one of his I'm-just-joking-actually-I-wasn't-and-you've-upset-me remarks to King Albert when the Belgian king was viewing German military exercises. He asked Albert if Nord and parts of Picardy would satisfy Albert if he were to allow the Germans to pass freely through Belgium. Albert was shocked and told Wilhelm "no", and then got treated to a small fit in which the Kaiser said that he would rue the day he decided to stand against Germany.
What if alt-Albert considered the idea, and planned to simply allow the Germans to march through Belgium in the event of a war? Say he only hints at it until the initial councils of war with his parliamentary leaders just prior to the outbreak of war, then states that he is firmly opposed to resisting any German invasion. Does the Belgian Council of State depose him, or do they go along with it? How does this affect the Schlieffen plan and Belgium's place in the world after the alt-WW1?
Kaiser Wilhelm made one of his I'm-just-joking-actually-I-wasn't-and-you've-upset-me remarks to King Albert when the Belgian king was viewing German military exercises. He asked Albert if Nord and parts of Picardy would satisfy Albert if he were to allow the Germans to pass freely through Belgium. Albert was shocked and told Wilhelm "no", and then got treated to a small fit in which the Kaiser said that he would rue the day he decided to stand against Germany.
What if alt-Albert considered the idea, and planned to simply allow the Germans to march through Belgium in the event of a war? Say he only hints at it until the initial councils of war with his parliamentary leaders just prior to the outbreak of war, then states that he is firmly opposed to resisting any German invasion. Does the Belgian Council of State depose him, or do they go along with it? How does this affect the Schlieffen plan and Belgium's place in the world after the alt-WW1?