Alright. Let me explain this one.
Let's say we have a France that does much worse in the Hundred Years' War. England "wins", but over time, slowly loses their grip over the territory they control on the mainland until France is in essence a bunch of squabbling microstates - much like the Germanic states at the time, but without the semi-unifying factor that was the HRE.
Skip forward a couple hundred years. It's 1860 or so, and romanticism and nationalism have kicked in more or less on time. These French microstates have just unified - whether one came to dominance and absorbed the rest a la Prussia or something else isn't the concern.
Now, what I'd like to ask is this. Could the notions of romanticism lead to a situation where instead of the new state being named France or something similiar, the powers that be decide to christen their new country Gaul? Or is that not likely?
Let's say we have a France that does much worse in the Hundred Years' War. England "wins", but over time, slowly loses their grip over the territory they control on the mainland until France is in essence a bunch of squabbling microstates - much like the Germanic states at the time, but without the semi-unifying factor that was the HRE.
Skip forward a couple hundred years. It's 1860 or so, and romanticism and nationalism have kicked in more or less on time. These French microstates have just unified - whether one came to dominance and absorbed the rest a la Prussia or something else isn't the concern.
Now, what I'd like to ask is this. Could the notions of romanticism lead to a situation where instead of the new state being named France or something similiar, the powers that be decide to christen their new country Gaul? Or is that not likely?