The Netherlands form Germany

Is there any PoD after which the Dutch could have formed germany? with the Pod happening sometime after Spain gained the Netherlands from Burgundy.

How would this effect the future of Germany in your opinion and it's relation with other nations?
 
This is extremely hard. The moment the Netherlands became independent from Spain it is impossible, since the Dutch didn't consider themselves German. Actualy even before that.I would say that with a POD after 1600 it is impossible. Besides that the Netherlands will not be able to unite Germany as long as it is occupied/part of Spain or another major power, like Austria or France. And even if you manage to avoid the Dutch revolt (or kill it quickly enough) let some minor Habsburg inherit it and shake itself lose from the Spanish, you still have the problem that the Netherlands was pretty unimportant, under constant attack from France and one of the least German parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Oh and this is ignoring the fact that with a POD around 1500 it is pretty likely that German unification is butterflied away.
 
Is there any PoD after which the Dutch could have formed germany?

The German nation was already formed in the 15th century.
You are talking about the German state.

with the Pod happening sometime after Spain gained the Netherlands from Burgundy.

Spain did not gain the Netherlands, the Spanish Habsburgs did.

If the Habsburg rulers of the united Netherlands had remained German, it could have led to a German state founded by the German Habsburgs for the purpose of connecting their disconnected main domains, Austria(-Bohemia) and the Netherlands.
That was also the reason why the Prussian Hohenzollerns did create the North German Federation/German Empire.
 
This is extremely hard. The moment the Netherlands became independent from Spain it is impossible, since the Dutch didn't consider themselves German. Actualy even before that.I would say that with a POD after 1600 it is impossible. Besides that the Netherlands will not be able to unite Germany as long as it is occupied/part of Spain or another major power, like Austria or France. And even if you manage to avoid the Dutch revolt (or kill it quickly enough) let some minor Habsburg inherit it and shake itself lose from the Spanish, you still have the problem that the Netherlands was pretty unimportant, under constant attack from France and one of the least German parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Oh and this is ignoring the fact that with a POD around 1500 it is pretty likely that German unification is butterflied away.
If the 8 Years war end with the Netherlands owning most of today Belgium could this translate in a Netherlands capable of projecting power into the Rhine and North Sea?
I wouldn´t call Netherlands one of the least German parts of the HRE, Savoy, Italy, Wallonia and others are.
The OTL unification is surely butterflied but an unification is not tied to the chain of event IOTL. It would end with different territories of course.
 
If the 8 Years war end with the Netherlands owning most of today Belgium could this translate in a Netherlands capable of projecting power into the Rhine and North Sea?
It wouldn't. The focus of the Dutch, especialy Holland, Zeeland, Flanders, Brabant and Friesland, the parts that would become the most important was always away from Germany and towards the sea (and maybe France). If the Netherlands would gain Belgium during the revolt, it would gain Antwerp and Flanders, both areas that became rich by overseas trading.

I wouldn´t call Netherlands one of the least German parts of the HRE, Savoy, Italy, Wallonia and others are.
The Dutch principalities always were a border area with an independencestreak, that did not care too much about the emperor with a lot of English and French influences. I will admit that Italy was less German than the Netherlands, but I think you can compare the Netherlands to Switserland. Let me put it this way. If you show a map of 20th century Europe to someone from 1500, they would not be surprised that the Netherlands wasn't part of Germany. They would be surprised that Austria wasn't part of it.

The OTL unification is surely butterflied but an unification is not tied to the chain of event IOTL. It would end with different territories of course.
German unification is certainly not impossible, but it is not a given. A Germany divided by several smaller states (like Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony and Brunswick) is another possibility. Or a Germany which is divided by surrounding nations (like France, Denmark, Sweden, Poland etc).
 
Spain did not gain the Netherlands, the Spanish Habsburgs did.

If the Habsburg rulers of the united Netherlands had remained German, it could have led to a German state founded by the German Habsburgs for the purpose of connecting their disconnected main domains, Austria(-Bohemia) and the Netherlands.
That was also the reason why the Prussian Hohenzollerns did create the North German Federation/German Empire.

That does sound easiest; an Austria-Burgundy (with or without Bohemia/Hungary) could possibly eventually unite the Germans... but it wouldn't be too Dutch (depending on how the butterflies flutter - I just suspect that such a state if Dutch-enough would quickly lose the interest needed to actually reinforce the German state).

To me it seems hard, but I have suspicion it's possible, just... the Dutch were drawn further into Germany than the current borders (Lingen, Emden, Cleves, east Gelre), but every time they were sacrificed and never reinforced after the initial expansion. So you'd need some point before the peace of Münster to fundamentally alter the outlook of the Dutch state. And that's pretty darned hard when the whole Dutch Rebellion was a mostly Hollandic show after the first haphazard rebellion by the General Estates. The advantage is that a state springing from the Dutch rebellion would remain recognizably Dutch in other aspects even if it lost much of the maritime-mercantile focus that marked the Dutch Republic (and still marks much of the Dutch national mythology).
 
If a German state is defined as a kind of union of norhtern state the following can happen, only a dutch ste will never occure.
1 some where between 1200 and 1400 a nucleus of a united Gelre, Cleve, Mark, Berg, Ravens berg and ealier or later unted with Brabant-Limburg, Frisian lands.
2 Charles 4 united the Brugunidan Kreis with the West Phalian kreis added with some lands taken from the Bishoprich lands of Coln and Munster.
3 William of Orange the 1st lives longer and establish a monarchy gradually expanding East.
 
The Netherlands as we know them were pretty much the County of Holland.

[BTW - Art Garfunkel cannot complain. At least he was not absorbed whole like Holland's partner West-Friesland was. At least Zealand, in a slightly less assimilated position got named a few colonial places after it.]

Holland was the richest and most populous part and paid the most of the common expenses. The areas in the South blow the rivers and in the East beyond the Hollands Waterlinie were more or less glacis.

The Hollandic estates had no interest in taking Flanders or Antwerp (and thus inviting a potentiel rival).

OTOH, the House of Nassau-Orange was a regular noble family, with close related branches along the Rhine. If you start with William the Silent becoming Count of Holland and surviving a lot of additional assassination attempts, the Lower Country might become the core of a much bigger Nassauic domain. Perhaps by somehow inheriting the Klee-Gulik-Berg conglomerate (and thus keeping Brandenburg/Prussia far away from the Lower Rhine).
 
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