Hey Guys,
What if the Dutch Language, already a Germanic language, was actually far closer to German than it already is. As it is I believe many Dutch speaking people can read understand some German and vice versa due to the closeness of their languages. However it's speech that truly shows the difference between the two.
WI the difference between Dutch and German was more like the relationship between Austrian and German, a much closer relationship though still with some minor differences.
How would this be possible? How would this affect the development of the Low Countries over time? I know it would likely have huge consequences but I'd be interested in even minor changes.
It depends on how you mean "close."
Linguistically, they didn't participate in the High German Consonant Shift, for whatever reason, if they had, that would bring them closer. Alternatively, if Dutch had kept more of its Old Low Franconian inflections:
dag (day)
Singular (nom, gen, dat/acc): dag, dages, dag
Plural (nom/gen/acc, dat): dage, dagen
Keep du, dij, dijns as an active pronoun for informal use.
Keep the pronunciation of "en" in word-final position instead of not pronouncing the "n" there.
Keep at least the Middle Dutch adjective/definite article inflections
Keep the subjunctive form alive, possibly by adapting the German umlaut of the subjunctive form of strong verbs.
And keeping the dental fricative (þ, ð) would be nice, as an English speaker. Also, retaining l (houden would be houlden or something similar) and intervocalic d (meej was mede, lui was luyden, etc) would help.
That would get you 'closer' to German, while still keeping it Dutch, and it would improve readability of German to Dutch speakers.
As for history, this might not do very much to the Netherlands, other than making some scientific, poetic, fiction, and political literature more easily accessible or translatable. Perhaps some scientific ideas from the area of Germany could've gotten to the Dutch, and from there, into the New Netherlands, and thus into the hands of the British, or at least into the Dutch colonies.