East Cantons, 1926

Hey Guys,

In 1926 the Weimar Republic and Belgium began secret negotiations over the purchase of the 'East Cantons', also called Eupen-Malmedy. These were predominantly German areas and had only been ceded to Belgium in the Treaty of Versailles. However when the French got wind of the negotiations they were livid and the talks were broken up.

However what if this hadn't happened? The most likely scenario I can conceive of is the secret negotiations remain secret and so, by the time the purchase is finalised, it's too late for the French. What would European reactions be to the annexations? I'm guessing the Germans would be pretty darn happy about getting back some land with Germans in, it'd certainly fuel the irredentists.

How would France react, while they may still be livid would could they really do about it? What would Britain do etc?
 
The idea is interesting. The Franco-British won't like, and will write off the Belgians as ungrateful. If we choose to bring things to the extreme, during WWII they won't even rush to the rescue, writing the Low Countries off for good. And Sichelschnitt will eventually fail against the bulk of Franco-British armor, poised to await a decisive clash on the Franco-Belgian border as the Belgian army (in this TL de facto conniving with the Germans, at first) stays idly beyond the Dyle.
There's likely the Balkan campaign, with overall German success, but no attack upon the Soviet Union. Italy stays neutral as the Crown imposes its will upon the Duce and the army faces north in the Alps. By 1943 Hitler is killed by Tretschkow & al., the Nazis are hunted down by the Wehrmacht and Germany, by now at war with the US too, tries pitifully to surrender conditionally, in vain. Many units will fight, but the Allies occupy the entire country (Italy too, in the general despise of the Allies, knives dying Germany through the Alps, to get absolutely nothing at the peace table, paart dire mences in case it won't withdraw to her territory ASAP), then proceed to exert harsh victors' justice against the surviving Nazis and the Junker military caste. Poland, reconstituted, gets eastern and western Prussia; France the Saar; the Netherlands too get some border area in gelderland and East Frisia; Belgium, where a nasty civil war has been fought between pro-Nazis and pro-Allies, gets nothing, as Eupena nd Malmèdy remain to occupied Germany, which is broken in several independent states: Saxony-Westfalia, a kingdom; Greater Brandenburg (the east), a parlamentarian republic; Franconia-Rheinland, another republic; Danubia (Austria plus Bavaria), entrusted to the nominal sovereignity of Otto, the pro-Allies Hapsburg heir.
 
Extension of the Maginot line?

Might the French see Belgium as being at best, untrustworthy and at worse a potential ally of Germany? This may inspire the French to decide to burn yet more funds on extending the Maginot line along the Franco Belgian border, so providing a continuous line from the Alps to the Channel.

I'm not saying its the right thing to do, or even if it would be completed, just that the French would be tempted to do so as a gesture against both Belgium and Germany. Of course, this means that the mobile forces in the French army would be proportionately smaller, rendering them less potent in a sabre rattling role.

1939 might be interesting. The British would be unlikely to deploy the BEF if Belgium is seen as neutral/favouring Geemany, while France's defences are seen as impregnable. The threat of war with Germany over Poland looks less tenable - Poland falls like the Czechs before them.
 
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