If Germany had unified in 1848, what would its foreign policy have looked like?

Agreed. IOTL, rapid industrialization focused almost exclusively on the Ruhr region, the Rhein-Main and Rhein-Neckar regions, with a bit of Silesia, Saxony and Berlin thrown in. Elsewhere, industrial development came much, much later. Quicker integration might produce faster market permeation and more shocks, shaking up old agricultural and artisan traditions. That, OTOH, might produce a mighty backlash, too. Going quicker with industrialisation would certainly have radicalised Germany much earlier, in both directions.


No German government ever saw the Dutch in this way, though, before the Nazis. And no relevant opposition did, either, before the Nazis and similar Völkische splinter factions in the Weimar era. Even they clearly didn`t focus on the Netherlands much and occupied them primarily for strategic reasons.

You're not answering the question about why the Germans would care about Dutch opinion in a situation where they view them as apart of the German peoples.
And I'd like to point out that no German government was as Blood and Soil as the Nazis. If you get a government filled with radical Pan-Germanists, you could easily get somebody who views the Dutch as Germans, alongside the Danes, Norwegians, and anybody else who isn't French and had significant mingling with the Germans.
 
You're not answering the question about why the Germans would care about Dutch opinion in a situation where they view them as apart of the German peoples.
And I'd like to point out that no German government was as Blood and Soil as the Nazis. If you get a government filled with radical Pan-Germanists, you could easily get somebody who views the Dutch as Germans, alongside the Danes, Norwegians, and anybody else who isn't French and had significant mingling with the Germans.
Well, obviously the first and only German government which held such a view, i.e. the Nazis, didn`t care about what the Dutch thought about the matter.
But that was almost a century after 1848. In 1848, this was just way out of German political paradigms. Tell me how you want to bring this weird pan-Germanism about around 1848, and I´ll tell you what I think about it. So far, I can just say that mere unification in 1848 would not bring this any milimetre closer.
 
You're not answering the question about why the Germans would care about Dutch opinion in a situation where they view them as apart of the German peoples.
And I'd like to point out that no German government was as Blood and Soil as the Nazis. If you get a government filled with radical Pan-Germanists, you could easily get somebody who views the Dutch as Germans, alongside the Danes, Norwegians, and anybody else who isn't French and had significant mingling with the Germans.

... then you have a country half made up of Irelands. Irelands with the franchise and a much greater portion of the national population than other nation's "minority ulser" regions who's resistance is much easier to organize and supply. The matter of German intent is irelevent (even assuming ALL the governments the new Germany founded on the 1848 revolutionary principals see would hold such a radical pan-German faction in dominance); this situation is just begging for an implosion with a little international prodding
 
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