Post Napoleonic French expansion in the 19th and 20th century

During the 16th-18th century France basicly was the major militairy power in Europe (or even the world). It more or less took all of the rest of Europe banding together to stop France and although it didn't get the rhine border, France still managed to slowly increase its size. But after Napoleon this changed. France only managed to gain Nice and Savoy* and after losing the Franco-Prussian war and their less than stellar performance in the early stages of world war II, France even got the undeserved reputation of "surrender monkeys".

So with a POD after the defeat of Napoleon I, can France remain the dominant militairy power in Europe and can France expand its territory in Europe and how can they do it? Mind you I am talking about French expansion in Europe, not the colonies.






*unless I am misstaken and I would realy love to know if I am
 

Titus_Pullo

Banned
So with a POD after the defeat of Napoleon I, can France remain the dominant militairy power in Europe and can France expand its territory in Europe and how can they do it? Mind you I am talking about French expansion in Europe, not the colonies.
*unless I am misstaken and I would realy love to know if I am

That's the thing. Even after Napoleon France remained the dominant army in Europe and expanded into North Africa. They beat the snot out of Austria in the war for Italian unification and won the Crimean War (along with England)
To make France continue its dominant military role in Europe you'd need the most obvious pod, have France win the Franco-Prussian War and prevent Germany from unifying under Prussia. Also have France industrialize much sooner than they did and tweak its birthrate by increasing it.
 
Also have France industrialize much sooner than they did and tweak its birthrate by increasing it.

I seem to recall a discussion on here a while back, of which the gist was that the French demographic problem is a bit trickier than you make it sound...
 
I seem to recall a discussion on here a while back, of which the gist was that the French demographic problem is a bit trickier than you make it sound...
yeah isn't the demographic problem at least a little bit Napoleons fault?
I mean mass conscripting an entire generation and then killing them all off in a series of coalition wars isn't really gonna leave a situation where you can just tweak the numbers.

You'd have to have the French either not at war with as many countries, or do way better and not lose as many people.
 

FDW

Banned
yeah isn't the demographic problem at least a little bit Napoleons fault?
I mean mass conscripting an entire generation and then killing them all off in a series of coalition wars isn't really gonna leave a situation where you can just tweak the numbers.

You'd have to have the French either not at war with as many countries, or do way better and not lose as many people.

It actually goes farther back that, the French used a natural form of birth control called "Marrying in your late 20's" that did a wonderful job of slowing down population growth.
 
It actually goes farther back that, the French used a natural form of birth control called "Marrying in your late 20's" that did a wonderful job of slowing down population growth.

Ahh natural birth control. So sought after now, but in the past it could ruin your national image:D

Not aligning with England might also be good for France, since the need to appease England made France look weak and subservient, and hampered it's diplomatic abilities on the mainland, which would be vital for long term eastwrd expansion.
 
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