How important was the annexation of Alsace Loraine after the

>>1572442
>Would it have been possible for Germany and France to coexist even if Germany hadn't annexed the land.
Nope. The french have been hissy faggots with their heads up their own arses for pretty much all of their history.

>>1572442
Well Vicky 2 won't let you form Germany unless you annex that shit piece of land.

It was important for getting the Southern states on board with it.
They were afraid that a future French invasion would strike at Baden & Württemburg through Alsace.

It was populated by german peoples wasnt it? there would be no excuse for Germany to allow them in foreign hands or passing on the opportunity to annex them.

>>1572546
They spoke a German dialect, but they identified (and still identify) with France more than Germany.

AFAIK, Alsatians consider themselves...

1) Alsatians
2) French
***power gap***
3) Germans

>>1572546
This might be a novel concept to you but not everyone who speaks a dialect of German wants to be a part of Germany. Switzerland is a good example.

t. not even a frog

>>1572546
In WW1, the german military consider the Alsace Lorraine as ennemy land. Alsatians got really mad at the Reich.

>>1572442
Germany was butthurt enough to start a war against France in 1914 while controlling Alsace-Lorraine, so what makes you believe they'd have been more peaceful if France had it?

>>1574285
Blantent over simplification I'm not even trying to exonerate Germany but it really is a much more complex beast than that.

>>1572442
>Would it have been possible for Germany and France to coexist even if Germany hadn't annexed the land.
Yeah, certainly. What the Germans feared, and what forced Bismarck to diplomatically isolate them (eventually leading to the WW1 clusterfuck of alliances) was fear of revanchism. Bismarck himself wanted the French as an ally, and favored a gentle treatment: defeat them, give the German peoples a reason to unify, leave France relatively untarnished, maybe even form an anti-British trade block with them.

>>1572546
Every political delegation Alsace sent to Germany started by formally expressing discontent at the annexation of Alsace towards the rest of parliament. Every time. You'd think that's a pretty clear fucking clue that they wanted to be French.