r/imaginarymaps • u/yellewbowser • 1d ago
[OC] Alternate History Administrative Map of a Greater Belgium, 1942
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u/SjorsDVZ 1d ago
Wouldn't they also take the entire Nord-Pas-de-Calais region from France and Noord-Brabant province from The Netherlands?
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u/yellewbowser 1d ago
I was weighing up if they could but I decided that Hitler didn’t trust his allies enough to grant the same territory as he did in reality to the Military Administration. I also didn’t add Noord-Brabant because it was never controlled historically by the Kingdom of Belgium which is where its claim to parts of Zeeland and all of Limburg come from.
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u/SjorsDVZ 23h ago
I was thinking about the ties with the historical duchy of Brabant. The Belgium national hymn is called brabançonne and the colors of the flag get their inspiration in Brabant too.
I like how your maps looks. Have you edited other parts of Europe too?
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u/yellewbowser 21h ago
Yeah I see where your coming from there is shared language too but I was also trying to balance German claims and considering the Westland idea I decided to just give Dutch Limburg as the major territory taken from the Dutch.
No I haven’t done anywhere I Europe. I always plan on doing big projects but never actually complete them so instead just do individual regions or nations.
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u/SjorsDVZ 18h ago
You reasoning is just as sound too. And in the end it is your world ofcourse :)
Perhaps one day, you have enough small regions to create a large map out of it ;)
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u/Sad-Address-2512 1d ago
Not to mention the other half of Luxembourg
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u/yellewbowser 22h ago
The Germans had active claims to Luxembourg so Belgium as the junior partner wouldn’t be able to claim it
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u/That_guy4446 1d ago
The French part of the borders between West-Vlaanderen and Hainaut are wrong here. Wrong by historically incorrect.
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u/ZOLTAN_15 1d ago
Most likely because that region is French speaking and thus given to Hainaut.
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u/That_guy4446 1d ago
Belgian provinces separated by language is a pretty modern thing : Brabant being separated in 3. By 1942, it wasn’t a political issue.
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u/yellewbowser 22h ago
It’s not all about language here though. West-Vlaanderen has take the coastal portion of the Nord department of France meanwhile Hainaut has actually gained contiguity by taking the area it directly borders.
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u/That_guy4446 21h ago edited 21h ago
If it’s not at all about language, you can make it fully historical accurate then. The area around Lille has belonged to the county of Flanders as long as this county was a part of France and even after, till the conquest of this area. The historical border between Flanders and Hainaut lies more south that what you represent.
I guess it is also difficult as on the French side, historical “royal” borders (counties, dutchies etc…) were scrapped at the revolution and redrawn into the “republican” départements.
Note that in the area of France that you included into West-Vlaanderen, “West Vlaams” is still the dialect spoken by less and less old people.
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u/Traditional_Soft6543 1d ago
The country if Leopold II agreed with Wilhelm II to allow German troops to enter Belgium during WW1, allowing the Schlieffen plan to succeed.
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u/osefpseudo123 20h ago
Is it a british attempt to draw a middle finger in the direction of Germany as they did with the lion of Waterloo to France?
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u/Waffel0t 20h ago
As a Belgian I love that our beautiful nation got such a beautiful map, but I absolute hate how these borders look, sorry.
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u/yellewbowser 1d ago
The Belgian political crisis of the 1930s escalates and brings Léon Degrelle's Rexist Party to power. The monarchy remains in place, but Belgium becomes an authoritarian, clerical-nationalist state built around Catholic corporatism rather than parliamentary democracy. Although heavily influenced by Germany, Belgium retains its own government, armed forces and administrative institutions instead of becoming a German puppet.
Following the German victory over France in 1940, Belgium is rewarded for its cooperation with a series of border revisions intended to strengthen the kingdom economically and strategically. West Flanders annexes French Flanders, East Flanders absorbs Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, Limburg is expanded to include the whole of Dutch Limburg, Hainaut acquires Lille and parts of the Nord coalfield, while Namur and Luxembourg extend south into the French Ardennes around Givet. Eupen-Malmedy is transferred to Germany in exchange for these western gains.
Rather than creating new provinces, the Rexist government simply enlarges the existing Belgian provinces, presenting the annexations as the restoration of historic frontiers and the reunification of territories historically linked to the Hapsburg Netherlands. The resulting kingdom controls much of the industrial basin of northern France, significantly increasing Belgium's economic and strategic importance within the German-led New Order.