French Supremcy

Prussia get a little less, which goes to France, so France gives some back to the Netherlands including what would be British Flanders? The Netherlands then only loses majority French areas so they wouldnt feel as screwed over in the 19th than IOTL. Then Britain stays in Hannover and Prussia never manages to unite Germany. France is dominant with having influence over Holland and maybe some other minor Germans.

Kinda complicated but no too difficult to achieve, or is it?
 
No one has addressed the population issue. Something will need to be done to prevent the demographic collapse of France in the 19th century. If you don't do that, nothing else matters. France needs to keep her population edge to maintain hedgemony. It was what made her the great power in the 17th and 18th century.
Nobody really know why France had a demographic collapse some say it was cultural other say it was due to a law.
 
Simple, as it has been said. No French demographic collapse gives them a continual dominant position on the continent, even if they are defeated in some wars.
 
Nobody really know why France had a demographic collapse some say it was cultural other say it was due to a law.

Isn't a common theory that the large number of Frenchmen killed during the Napoleonic Wars a major cause? Though, that doesn't really explain why Belgium and the Rhineland didn't also have demographic collapses.
 
The Napoleonic Wars theory doesn't hold up, since most of the dead were German. The most popular theory, and the one that makes the most sense to me, is that France underwent the demographic transition earlier than the rest of Europe.

On a less serious note, French demographics never make any sense. Today,even as all of Europe starts declining, the French birth rate is actually above the replacement rate.
 
No one has addressed the population issue. Something will need to be done to prevent the demographic collapse of France in the 19th century. If you don't do that, nothing else matters. France needs to keep her population edge to maintain hedgemony. It was what made her the great power in the 17th and 18th century.

Hell, just having France follow the same curve as the rest of Europe might still allow France to keep it's edge by itself. If France had followed the same demographic boom as germany or great britain it would have something between 100 and 150 millions people today (conservative guess comparing to germany and liberal one comparing to great britain) and that's not counting all the people that were siphoned by emmigration from those countries.

If France had the same growth rate but without the emmigration (or less) or kept the growth rate from Louis XIV then it could be the 4th or 5th most populous nation in the world.

While France has shown the remarquable ability to snatch surprising victory from the jaws of defeat, it's true speciality is in throwing what should have been walks in the park and a strange reluctance to live up to it's potential.
 
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