After the end of Franco - Prussian war, (which in this timelime started in 1867 because of Luxembourg crisis) Prussia annexs Luxembourg, Elsas - Lorraine, Dutch Limburg and occupies northern France. Could Prussia offer Belgium territorial exchange (Areland and Flandrian Limburg for Nord-pas-de-Calais)? Would Belgium accept that? If yes, how would be French and British reaction on that? How this would affect history of Europe?
What precisely is "Flandrian Limburg"? Anyways, if the Prussians gave land to Belgium from France, I imagine it would also try to comindate what would basically be a greater Flemish state. As for the stuff with Limburg, we should clear up some things. the Dutch King had earlier had the Duchy of Luxembourg join the German Confederation, on an economic basis. When the Belgians broke away, there was some land trading, and the French portions of Luxembourg were traded to Belgium, who gave up claims to others. The German Confederatoin demanded the 150,000 people lost to Belgium had to be made up, for by the Dutch, and thus the Duchy of Limburg joined the German Confederation. This excluded Maastricht (long Dutch, and part of the reason the Dutch have that tail of land) and Venlo, the second which was right on the German border. This was so the land had the 150,000 people. I did read once about some German generals in WWI wanting to 'snip the poodle tail', but that wasn't more for logistics. Anyways, need to ask if this is Prussia or the German Confederatuon diong this. I imagine that the South Germans and others would be very worried, as the Prussians are simply swallowing everyone up once more.