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I like it, though I do agree that the borders should be fixed up a bit.
Or you could go a lesser route and recreate the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
hell you could create the events so that the German AI could choose either. make things a bit interesting.
 
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I am glad to see so many comments after the end of the war against syndicalism. It is good to know that everyone liked it.:)

Anyway, I wanted to share with you all an idea I had about what the Germans could do with their occupation zone. Although making little kingdoms and duchies would be interesting, it is not really realistic for the 20th century. Therefore, here is my idea: the Franco-Dutch Federation/Union.
francodutchunion.png


This new country could become a very powerful ally to the Germans, which with the end of the war have taken control of not only a portion of northwestern france but also the netherlands and flanders-wallonia. This new state could be ruled either from Amsterdam or Brussels, and would be led by the long exiled Dutch royal family, with both Dutch and French government ministers. This new state would have a pretty good industrial base, and could provide a very secure buffer between Germany and the Entente.

Thoughts?

I like it when my ideas are put into practise :D

However that federation would need to be less of a Dutch thing and more of a joint Benelux operation. Depending on what the Germans want from it, of course. Do they want a centralized state capable of fielding a strong army? Then by all means hand it all to the Dutch, but make sure they have enough bayonets to keep the Francophones down when they get sick of having Wilhelmina ordering them what to do. (Keep in mind, in 1816-1830 there was already exactly such a construction, and it ended with the Francophones and Catholics winning a war of secession with French support.)

A solution which would be more suitable for long-term stability would be to set this state up as a confederation, with a Dutch-speaking part (Netherlands + Flanders) governed by the Dutch royals from Amsterdam or some new capital closer to Antwerp, and a French speaking part governed from Brussels by someone sympathetic to the Catholic and Francophone cause. It could be a gouverneur elected by an assembly of the provincial estates. (He shouldn't be directly elected, that would be too much democracy for a German-sponsored artificial state.) The confederation could have a rotating presidency with little executive power, but intense economic integration. Kind of like the EU. With all those the French areas included, it would actually be a fairly balanced construction. But the obvious downside would be that this confederation does not have a strong executive and probably also not a strong army except for territorial defense.

In any case, once the French pick themselves up again, they will surely challenge the legitimacy of the new state. If a large part of the citizens of this state ends up hating their government, that just spells trouble for Germany and (by extension) the US. It will help the stability of this state immensely if they can get a strong economy and good prosperity running right away, before the rest of France picks itself up from the devastation that the US conquest brought over the country. The Netherlands are mostly untouched and much of Belgium saw only brief fighting, so they have a head start there.

Either the citizens become reconciled to their state... which might make them forget that once upon a time there was a France which they were proudly part of... or they become bitter and start conspiring with the irredentist regime in Paris, and that means Germany needs tanks and nuclear warheads and a fortified border to keep their hold on the land they conquered.

BTW it would speak volume for the attractiveness and stablity of this state if at some point Germany felt secure enough to let the provinces it conquered in WW1 vote on whether to stay with the Reich or join the (con)federation. This would mean Liege, Bastogne and Arlon, which were Belgian until Belgium stopped existing after the first Weltkrieg. Once Europe becomes quiet again, they ought to have a choice under which regime they want to live.
 
I like it, though I do agree that the borders should be fixed up a bit.

Give Troyes to France - use the rivers as a boundary IIRC the Germans didn't actually take that unless they grabbed it at the end. If they did have it as 'Germany shows it's magnaniminity' and hand it over to France. Give (Chaumont? Whatever, the one above Dijon) to Germany,

You should clean up the borders a little bit.

No way, I think the borders are nice :D

Liege, Arlon and Bastogne could join the (con)federation eventually but the border with France should stay where it is. Not one inch of land should be returned to the state that three times in a row picked fights with Germany (1871, 1914, 1941) and lost each one of them.
 
That's a great country idea with great borders. I support it 100%!
 
Give Troyes to France - use the rivers as a boundary IIRC the Germans didn't actually take that unless they grabbed it at the end. If they did have it as 'Germany shows it's magnaniminity' and hand it over to France. Give (Chaumont? Whatever, the one above Dijon) to Germany,


+1.

West European Confederation sounds nice!

Indeed, because after all it's far more than the historical "Pays Bas".
 
How about creating a Flanders with the rest of the Netherlands added (or a reverse with the Netherlands joining Mittleeuropa and receiving Flanders as a reward) and a Wallonia with German-occupied France included?

BTW, what about Genova? Does the USA recognize the French Communes seizure of the area from the Swiss, or will they return the area to the Swiss, similiar to the situation with the Sudetenland in real life?
 
My opinion: Troyes to the americans in exchange for Amsterdam, Reims and Chaumont integrated in the Reich and what is left in an unite Dietsland, or Flanders, or whatever you want to call it.
 
Why do you all want to pull Troyes out of the German sphere?? If the Kaiser gives up one inch of French land, the next day the Frenchies will demand the rest too.

No compromise with those cheese eating warmongers! The border should stay where it is.
 
My proposal. The area north of Paris is questionable.

ta1mv8.jpg
 
I would like to see the free city of Amsterdam. Give it a wee bit of Industry and some land forts and it'll be fine. I can imagine such a city becoming a fortress state.
 
I would like to see the free city of Amsterdam. Give it a wee bit of Industry and some land forts and it'll be fine. I can imagine such a city becoming a fortress state.

I like this guy. Also a free city of Paris, a la Nikopol

I wish I'd sent myself a copy of the story from home then I'd upload img's :rofl:

I got a copy!

butnt030.jpg
 
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That proposal is good, cept for Germany to give all that land to America, maybe they should keep Troyes and get Dijon in return to be part of Germany herself. Everyone (except for those stupid French) wins!

Well good plan, but don't forget that some Frenchies are part of the Entente.
National France has claims and rights.
 
No emperor who beat the Frenchies twice can ever really die.

He is now sleeping under the Kyffhaeuser mountain, next to Friedrich Bararosse, and will reappear in the hour of greatest need.

And he does not approve of handing any territory over to the French or their American puppet masters. :mad:
 
How about Grossdietsland as a name? To show how it's a greater version of the traditional Dietsland, with forced-resettlement of the native Francophones in favour of Lowland settlers? The rationale could be that the Kaiser does not wish to have any treacherous Frenchmen in Mitteleuropa, and so gives them all 2000 marks and tells them to leave to American-controlled France.

It would give the US authorities something else to add to their list of 'reasons we need to eventually go to war with Germany'!