WI France Partitioned/Split after Waterloo

[Rufus]

I can’t see a total dismembered of France, but it’s quite possible that France loses more territory. It would be interesting for example if France lost Alsace-Lorraine in 1815, instead of 1871. Maybe it becomes an independent kingdom that’s given to the king of Saxony, as compensation for the loss of Saxony proper (which is absorbed by Prussia)? Alsace-Lorraine would then be one of many German states, instead of a part of France, and if Germany still unifies it could include A-H even without a war with France.

 

[pompejus]

I thought that the concept of Alsace-Lorraine was basicly a creation of the 19th century and not something considered at the congress of Vienna or before.

 

[America'sFuhrer]

France could be stripped of a few border regions, but the more taken from France, the angrier they are later, like Germany was after the Great War. I could see Corsica given to the Kingdom of Sardinia, if only to quash Napoleon's legacy and separate France from his birthplace. A few Spanish border regions, like Catalonia and Navarre could go to the Spainiards without too much fuss.

 

[Mario]

If the Congress did not dare to give Corsica to the Kingdom of Sardinia, imagine to touch the rest of the French core.

 

[Emperor Constantine]

It seems to me that the allies didn't want to touch anything ruled by the Ancien Regimé, while everything else was fair game. That's why France lost its 1792 borders in the second treaty of Paris, but nothing else.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

As incredible as it seems, such a partition was not that far to become reality in OTL.

In 1815, some royalists from south-west of France actually wanted to create an independant kingdom of Aquitaine with Louis-Antoine, duc d'Angoulême, as its king.

Interesting… any sources on these royalists?

If the Congress did not dare to give Corsica to the Kingdom of Sardinia, imagine to touch the rest of the French core.

Then let us think of an even more disruptive Napoleonic wars that would cause the European powers to be even more vengeful.

 

[kham_coc]

Interesting… any sources on these royalists?



Then let us think of an even more disruptive Napoleonic wars that would cause the European powers to be even more vengeful.

Or, the British seize and hold it for a while

Interesting… any sources on these royalists?



Then let us think of an even more disruptive Napoleonic wars that would cause the European powers to be even more vengeful.

Wasn't there a couple of revolutions in Corsica? Could be its less of a handover, and more of a "we declare ourselves independent" sometime during the wars, and the French can't do anything about it because of the British navy.
It's one thing not to want to stoke tensions and take core territory, and another to say "no, you can't invade and annex a territory after we just got done with stopping you the last time".

 

[FouDuRoy]

Interesting… any sources on these royalists?

I personally learned this from reading this biography of Louis-Antoine, by François de Coustin:
https://books.google.fr/books/about/Louis_XIX_duc_d_Angoulème.html?id=ffw4DwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Here are some citations brought back in this book, about this project of kingdom of Aquitaine.

"On prêtait à Monseigneur le duc d'Angoulême des projets odieux qui ne tendaient à rien moins qu'à séparer les provinces méridionales du reste de la France ; et à en faire un royaume à part."
Translation: "Monsignore the Duke of Angouleme was credited with odious projects that tended to do nothing less than separate the southern provinces from the rest of France; and to make it a kingdom apart."
Source: Eugène-François-Auguste-Arnaud baron de Vitrolles, Mémoires, Paris, Gallimard, 1951
Author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_François_d'Arnauld

"C'est de l'idolâtrie pour Monseigneur le duc et pour Madame la duchesse d'Angoulême. La couleur blanche ne paraît le signe du royalisme que lorsqu'elle est liserée de vert... On ne peut le dissimuler, il y a ici une tendance à l'indépendance, un goût de devenir centre qui mérite toute l'attention : croyez que plus d'un Bordelais rêve le royaume d'Aquitaine."
Translation: "This is idolatry for Monsignore the duke and Madame the duchess of Angoulême. White color appears as the sign of royalism only when it is edged with green... It cannot be concealed, there is here a tendency towards independence, a desire to become a center which deserves all the attention: believe that more than one Bordeaux resident dreams of the kingdom of Aquitaine."
Source: Rapport sur des départements du Midi, 2 juillet. (Arch. Guerre.) Tournon à Barante, Bordeaux, 30 juillet. (Barante, Souv., II, 184.) Vitrolles, III, 213.
Author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_de_Tournon-Simiane

"On avait marqué pour le former tout le pays compris entre l'Océan, le Poitou, l'Auvergne, le Lyonnais, les Alpes, la Méditerranée et les Pyrénées. Le duc d'Angoulême se serait essayé à régner dans le petit royaume, en attendant que la porte de Saint-Denis se refermât sur Louis XVIII et Charles X."
Translation: "People had marked to form it all the country included between the Ocean, Poitou, Auvergne, Lyonnais, the Alps, the Mediterranean and the Pyrenees. The Duke of Angoulême would have experienced reigning in the small kingdom, waiting for the door of Saint-Denis to close on Louis XVIII and Charles X."
Source: Laure Junot duchesse d'Abrantès, Mémoires, souvenirs et journaux, Paris, Mercure de France, collection "Le Temps retrouvé", 2007.
Author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laure_Junot,_Duchess_of_Abrantès

Who precisely was part of this separtist movement is unclear. François de Coustin does not believe Louis-Antoine himself approved it. Maybe this is the reason why nothing concrete was ever done about it.
Unfortunately, I do not know much more about that story.