Iron Reich: A TL

Chapter I
Iron Reich



January 26th, 1871


Belfort, France


General August von Werder smiled grimly. Victory at last. The damn frogs had finally seen the light of their situation and had given up their hopeless defense of Belfort after he had smashed their army at the Lissaine. Finally. It had taken far too long in his opinion; he had arrived with his troops in November and it was only now, after over two months, that they had decided to surrender. The French gener- er, the French colonel in charge of the defense had led his troops well, but his men, demoralized after news of the French defeat, knew that their time was up. He had offered generous surrender terms; Belfort’s defenders would be allowed to leave the city unmolested along with any citizenry who wished to do so. They were allowed to keep their colors and arms as well; von Werder knew he would soon be seeing them again along with other French troops on the opposing side of a battlefield. But it was worth it to let them fight along for another day, he knew; Belfort was the gateway to Central France, and with this the next part of the invasion could begin. These lands used to belong to Wurttemburg back before the time of Napoleon; and soon they would be German lands once again.


~~~


March 17th, 1871

Berlin, German Empire


“I still think we should annex the rest of the Moselle department from the French,” Emperor Wilhelm said. “We’re annexing all of Alsace, why not do the same for Moselle?”

“We’ve gone over this already,” Chancellor Bismarck replied. “The western fifth of the Moselle department is almost entirely composed of French-speakers, unlike the other four-fifths. And we agreed only to incorporate the parts of France that have Germans in them, remember? I want as few angry Frenchmen in our Empire as possible, and I know that you do as well.”

“I know,” Wilhelm continued. “I guess you are correct. We’ll let the French have that- wait.”

He paused. “But if we annex the entirety of Moselle, we will cut Luxembourg’s land connection to France entirely. If we do that, I’m sure that the case for annexation will be undeniable. Luxemburg has two hundred thousand Germans. I think that we would be willing to suffer a few tens of thousands of Frenchmen for ten times as many Germans, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Again, we’ve gone over this,” Bismarck responded. “Cutting the border between France and Luxembourg doesn’t necessarily mean that Luxembourg will be more likely to submit to the annexation. But fine. Have it your way. We’ll annex the entirety of Moselle.”

“Who knows,” Emperor Wilhelm said. “That tiny piece of land might even turn out to be incredibly valuable someday...”


~~~


Hello, I guess this is my first TL here on AH.Com. Been throwing this idea around for a while I guess... I have a general idea of how this is going to go but not too much of one. I kinda need a lot of help (ideas, suggestions, resources I can use, ect.) for this, anything would be appreciated. I hope it goes over okay; please excuse me if not everything is plausible. I’m really new to this, I guess? Anyways, hope you enjoy! :)


Basically, the POD is during the Franco-Prussian War, after the French army sent to relieve the besieged town of Belfort is shattered by German forces in the Battle of Lisaine as OTL, the French commander of Belfort, Colonel Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau, decides to surrender his forces as no help is coming and all seems lost; being allowed to withdraw to friendly lines, instead of choosing to fight on as in OTL. Which in OTL resulted in Belfort and the surrounding regions being the only parts of Alsace not annexed by Germany after the war.


But since all of Alsace is being annexed in this ATL, Emperor Wilhelm decides to ask about why isn’t all of the Moselle department isn’t annexed either? ...And so the Germans also take all of Moselle, resulting in Germany owning the Longwy-Briey area. And thus now own the region that IOTL will have been the vast majority of French iron ore production. And thus, the world will never be the same.



aaaaahhh I put it in After 1900 instead of Before 1900
 
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