How big can France get?

Anaxagoras

Banned
In Europe, I think the largest France would have borders on the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrennees, with perhaps some inroads into northern Italy. Any larger than that, the other powers would eventually cut it down to size (i.e. Napoleon).

As far as the colonial empire is concerned, France could have emerged as the dominant colonial power in North America and/or India, and could have done better in Africa. If they had done better in their 17th and 18th Century wars with England, we could see a world in which France, not Britain, became the largest empire in the world.
 
The key is for Napoleon to break the chain of alliances around him instead of leaving every major power and many minor ones with literally nothing to do except combine against him.
 
The matter lies not with Napoleon, but with Louis XIV. If he had been more successful, we could have seen the entirety of Spain and her territories in the French sphere. Had he gotten what he wanted, though this might be a stretch, the Dutch Republic would surely have beeen annexed, as well as parts of the Hole Roman Empire. Parts of Italy are also possible. Granted, he wouldn't have gotten an empire as large as Napoleon did, but the fact of the matter is, had he gotten what he desired, assuming the French Revolution and subsequent events still go as they did in OTL, Napoleon would have started out with a bigger empire, and thus, less of a challenge in creating one from the historical France.
 
The key is for Napoleon to break the chain of alliances around him instead of leaving every major power and many minor ones with literally nothing to do except combine against him.

It's kind of hard to stop people from allying when you're attacking all of them simultaneously.
 
How could the UR possibly have enemies?

Anyway, I think a Napoleonic state of some form is the maximum.
 
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