MotF 250: A World Made For Two

[Kaiphranos]

MotF 250: A World Made For Two

The Challenge

Make a map showing the effects of a marriage or love affair.

The Restrictions

There are no restrictions on when the PoD of your map should be. Fantasy, sci-fi, and future maps are allowed.

If you're not sure whether your idea meets the criteria of this challenge, please feel free to PM me or comment in the main thread.
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Entries will end for this round when the voting thread is posted on Monday, March 7, 2022 (extended by a week).
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PLEASE KEEP ALL DISCUSSION ON THE CONTEST OR ITS ENTRIES TO THE MAIN THREAD.
Any discussion must take place in the main thread. If you post anything other than a map entry (or a description accompanying a map entry) in this thread, you will be asked to delete the post.

Don't forget to vote on MotF 249!​

 

[NeonHydroxide]

Leopold II of Belgium is remembered with infamy by history for many reasons. One of the least discussed by modern historians relative to the importance its was given at the time was his reputation as a lecher with a taste for women much younger than him. In 1867, his wife, the highly respectable Marie Henriette of Austria, died in a freak horse riding accident, leaving Leopold free to conduct a scandalousness morganatic marriage with his Polish mistress - leading to a break between the court and Belgian politics which would last until Leopold's death and permanently damage the prestige and political authority of the Belgian throne.

The sole positive outcome, from a political perspective, of Leopold's decision was his new bride's ability to produce a male heir, suspiciously in less than nine months from the royal wedding (Polish women are particularly hard-working, they say). Prince Maxime proved a much more respectable, if stodgy and somewhat lazy, king than his father when he acceded to the throne in 1909. Maxime won the acclaim of his people and of the international community with his symbolic leadership during the First World War, and became a strong advocate for collective defense and alliance with the French during the interwar period.

In 1940, the German Army launched Case Yellow, its invasion of France and the Low Countries. Taken aback by the surprise German attack through the Ardennes forests, the Allied armies fought a desperate battle in the week of May 14 to prevent the German armored spearhead from reaching the English Channel. On May 16, the French government sacked long-serving Chief of Staff Maurice Gamelin, and replaced him with de Lattre de Tassigny, a much more dynamic general who immediately activated France's armored reserves for a desperate counterattack on the German southern flank. With German infantry unable to keep up with their armor, the French attack - though ultimately unsuccessful - forced the spearhead to slow to avoid the risk of encirclement, buying Allied forces time to withdraw forces from Belgium to plug the gap.

This would be one of many decisive moments of the Second World War, and perhaps the moment Germany came closest to winning the war - though darker days would lie ahead. Only days later, Maxime would order Belgium's unconditional surrender, forcing the Allies into another general retreat to the Somme. Only after weeks of hard fighting to come would the Germans finally be halted on the Oise river, mere kilometers from Paris. Nevertheless, as in the First World War, the German failure to exploit the first few decisive weeks of the campaign ultimately led to their defeat by attrition under the strain of the Allied blockade and air campaign.

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What if the (unsourced Wikipedia) rumor that Maxime Weygand was Leopold II's illegitimate son was true, and events had brought him to the Belgian throne? This could have removed Leopold III's ineffectual attempts at neutrality during the interwar period and possibly the person most responsible for France's poor response to Case Yellow - maybe giving the Western Allies a fighting chance in the campaign of 1940.