DBWI:The worst proposals for dealing with defeated nations in WWII

[LNSS]

Reading the news achieves from the 1940s, I have to say the ideas that were being discussed in the mainstream press for post-war France and Britain were eye raising.

To give you an idea, one of the most tame was the complete erradication of the french state, and some people, such as Friedrich Blumenthal and Herbert Siegler, were thinking splitting the country into various states vassal to Germany (1) was a good idea. This states would be partially germanized (the german language would be mandatory for all levels of education), the idea of a united french state would be erradicated, complete demilitarization and deindustrialization, and the agrarian economy and political structures were to be made completely reliant on Germany.

Alot of the German populace seems to have supported this option, as France had been defeated by Germany three times in a row by then, it's very existance was percieved as a threat to Germany's own. There were literally people whose greatgrandfathers, grandfathers, and fathers had all died fighting frenchmen in different wars.

In the end, cooler heads prevailed, and it's hard to believe France and Germany are now BFF.

What are some other ideas like this one?


(1) Siegler's idea which made the news around the world, was splitting France in six states in perpetual commonwealth with Germany. All of them would have the Kaiser as the nominal Head of State: Britanny, Occitania, Normandy, Orleans, Burgundy, and a Paris Free State.

 

[BeardedHoplite]

The Morganthau plan would be particularly hard on Germany as there the agriculture that could be set up would not have been enough to feed the current German population. It is doubtful the Allies would have much cared to drop food in either

 

[Simreeve]

"When this war is over, the Japanese language will be spoken only in Hell."

 

[RCAF Brat]

Reading the news achieves from the 1940s, I have to say the ideas that were being discussed in the mainstream press for post-war France and Britain were eye raising.

To give you an idea, one of the most tame was the complete erradication of the french state, and some people, such as Friedrich Blumenthal and Herbert Siegler, were thinking splitting the country into various states vassal to Germany (1) was a good idea. This states would be partially germanized (the german language would be mandatory for all levels of education), the idea of a united french state would be erradicated, complete demilitarization and deindustrialization, and the agrarian economy and political structures were to be made completely reliant on Germany.

Alot of the German populace seems to have supported this option, as France had been defeated by Germany three times in a row by then, it's very existance was percieved as a threat to Germany's own. There were literally people whose greatgrandfathers, grandfathers, and fathers had all died fighting frenchmen in different wars.

In the end, cooler heads prevailed, and it's hard to believe France and Germany are now BFF.

What are some other ideas like this one?


(1) Siegler's idea which made the news around the world, was splitting France in six states in perpetual commonwealth with Germany. All of them would have the Kaiser as the nominal Head of State: Britanny, Occitania, Normandy, Orleans, Burgundy, and a Paris Free State.

Yeah those were insane. There probably would have been another go around as the French would rebuild as soon as Germany quit paying attention to them. The OTL 'Peace with Honour' and France becoming Germany's 'Little Brother' broke the cycle of war between the two that had gone back at least to Napoleon. A decade later the yanks demonstrated why Germany and France had been wise to break the cycle. The Sino-American War was as bloody as either of the Great Wars, but barely lasted a quarter as long as either of them.

Also insane were the calls for anything other than OTL's 'White Peace' with Britain. The best the Germans could have done was maybe an under-the-table purchase of Cameroon or Tanzania. The British would still only have to go back to the pre-1937 stance of acknowledging German hegemony on the Continent (with the exceptions of Portugal and Royalist Italy) while Germany still accepts that it'll never again really have an overseas empire. Although her armies had been driven out of the Low Countries and her ally had fallen, Britain was not defeated. Not even close. The RAF and it's Dominion and imperial counterparts were both qualitatively and quantitatively superior to the KL. And the Royal Navy was not at the bottom of the North Sea. And recently declassified documents have revealed that the British actually won the race for the sunbomb, even though the Americans were the first to actually use one. Peace in Europe came just in time, literally weeks before Britain's superweapon could be tested in the Australian Outback.

 

[EternalCynic]

Well, with Spain and Italy under communist control, Germany could ill afford to risk another country going red. The fact it and Britain occupied all of France (save Algeria, which went commie) is a miracle.

We knew the communist bloc wasn't entirely unified a few years later, when the US shrewdly extracted itself from its interminable invasion of China by making peace and then executing the generals who were its scapegoats. No President could have allowed the Siege of Anqing to last another month, which is why Long ordered his "honorable retreat"!