I'm looking to play a game as Germany and if I win I was wondering what would be the best way to represent historical accuracy? I'm thinking annex Poland the Baltic and the ussr up to Urals in the East and in the West annex allice Loraine and lux. While also puppeting France UK and the low countries ( and any other I have to take) what are your thoughts?
As far as I can gather from historical documents and inferences, Germany's plans for postwar Europe were as follows:
They intended to leave France and the U.K. as puppets, of course taking a nice share of land for themselves (most likely Alsace-Lorraine from France, and the area bordering the channel from England). Not to mention, the Italians would have most likely been given a slice of Savoie, up to the port of Marseilles (in addition to Egypt and Sudan to connect their African colonies, Greece, Albania, and parts of the Adriatic coast). The Nazis also intended for expanding German settlement in the eastern part of France, as can be seen by
this map. Furthermore, France and Britain would be left as German client states, economically and politically dependent on the Reich. As far as the other counties in Europe, Spain would have most likely joined some sort of anti-American "Fascist Bloc" with Germany (I am assuming in this alt history scenario that Germany did not invade America, especially given how impractical this would be), alongside Turkey and maybe Portugal (if they chose to still remain neutral, even in the event of a German victory, they would be risking the threat of German invasion). Switzerland would most likely have been invaded after the finishing of the eastern front, as Hitler had often expressed his desire to absorb their German speaking population, and the Nazis had even drafted
plans to invade Switzerland. Finally, as for Sweden, their fate would have most likely been similar to what happened to Denmark (surrendered under threat of imminent invasion). Of course, the swedes threatened that they would blow up the iron mines if the Germans invaded (which was the main reason why Germany didn't invade them), however after the Germans had won the war, the swedes tune might have changed. This is especially due to the inevitable loss of life, and large-scale torture and punishment that would've surely accompanied the intentional caving of the iron mines (probably similar to how the Nazis
executed over 5000 people following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
As for the eastern front, the Germans had agreed with Japan to split the Soviet Union along
this line if the Japanese invaded Siberia. In the event of Axis victory, this is probably what would have happened.
As far as the aftermath of the war goes, Germany, Japan and Italy would have probably formed the bulwark of an aforementioned Fascist Bloc, opposing an American "Democratic Bloc", and the Cold War would begin. If Germany had invaded the US (even though this would be very difficult and highly unlikely) and could successfully occupy America (if they had beaten the Americans to the nuclear bomb, perhaps. But this, too is unlikely: see the note at the bottom), then a deterioration in relations and eventual Cold War would have likely resulted in a German Bloc vs a Japanese Bloc.
(Note about the German Nuclear Project: it is very unlikely that Germany could have beaten the US to the bomb. Their nuclear project lacked funding, especially after 1941, in which year the German government had decided that
nothing of war-ending benefit would come from a nuclear project. By the late war, they realized how horribly wrong they were, but it was far too late to start up their nuclear project again at that point.)
I hope this helps
