WI: Jean/Juan III becomes King of France & Spain,

Entente, Central Powers, or neutral?

  • Entente

    Votes: 6 46.2%
  • Central powers

    Votes: 2 15.4%
  • Neutral

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • Total voters
    13
WI: Jean/Juan III becomes King of France & Spain, would he go Entente, Central Powers, or neutral in WWI? Rationale for each option;

Entente- Fear/Anger at Germany, desire for Alsace-Lorraine

Central Powers- Allies with fellow “strong” monarchs

Neutral- No reason to get involved
 
Why and, more importantly, how would he have become King of both countries?

Even more important is who are we talking about here? The only “JuanIII” I can find reference to was born in 1913 (King Alphonso XIII’s third don).
 
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Without France, there is no Entente and no WWI. It’s just Germany and Austria-Hungary (and perhaps the Ottomans) all gang-banging the shit out of Russia.
 
WI: Jean/Juan III becomes King of France & Spain, would he go Entente, Central Powers, or neutral in WWI? Rationale for each option;

Entente- Fear/Anger at Germany, desire for Alsace-Lorraine

Central Powers- Allies with fellow “strong” monarchs

Neutral- No reason to get involved

Who is this Jean/Juan ? the carlist pretender in Spain born in 1822 and dead in 1887 ?

The point is he is going to have to make a choice because :
- Spain and France are 2 different countries ;
- the age of dynastic union between several nations speaking different languages was over (although Austria-Hungary and the Russian empire still had a few years to live) ;
- and anyway it is highly unlikely that Britain and Germany would agree to a French-Spanish Union (remember that the French Prussian war in 1870/1871 was triggered by the Spanish succession crisis and the mere prospect of a junior Hohenzollern line considering accepting the Spanish crown).

But anyway let’s consider this ASBish what if does happens.

Britain supports this move because it then fears far more new Germany’s rise than it did OTL.
And Germany does not go to war against France at this prospect but, on the contrary, agrees to it in order to correct the tragic mistake of having annexed Alsace and a part of Lorraine.

This Jean/Juan of France is not going to be an all-powerful king. He will have to deal with a democratic regime in France and with a pressure for full democracy in Spain.

This will be a very flimsy political structure, much more than Austria-Hungary that had been united under the Habsburgs since the early 16th century.

So this French-Spanish Union will be strongly focused on domestic politics to strengthen itself.

This does not necessarily jeopardizes the french-Russian alliance but this would make Germany more cautious.

This may also make Britain less worried about Germany’s rise because there would be less risk of Germany dominating continental Europe.
 
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