What if the Frankish Empire Reunited Today?

At its territorial height in the year 814 AD, the Frankish Empire was one of the most significant powers in Europe at its time, and under the rule of its glorious ruler, Charlemagne, it controlled a massive portion of Europe and stretched continuously from Brittany, in Western France, all the way to Poland. However, history was cruel to the Franks and gradually the empire began to diminish in size and power after constant threats and invasions from neighbouring external countries until the empire finally ceased to exist in 843, paving the way for other new civilizations to seize control of the region. But what if it reunited today?

As always, the first thing we need to think about a reunited Frankish Empire is the population and land it would control. To start off, a total of 22 countries would lose all or some of their territory to the empire: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Slovenia, Switzerland and Vatican City. All of these would be located in Europe.

Due to so many countries making up the empire, it would have a significant land area, specifically standing at 460,000 Square miles (1,200,000 Sq km). This would make it the 26th largest country in the world, larger than others like Colombia (1,141,000 Sq km) and Ethiopia (1,104,000 Sq km), but smaller than South Africa (1,221,000 Sq km) and Mali (1,240,000 Sq km).

Despite being smaller than South Africa by land area, the Frankish Empire would have more than 4x of its population, at a sweltering 267 Million. This is gargantuan and would be enough to make it the 5th most populous country in the world, even ahead of other very populated countries like Pakistan (221 Million), Brazil (212 Million) and Nigeria (206 Million), but behind Indonesia (273 Million) and the United States (331 Million). Germany would be the most populous country within itself with an already large population of 84 Million, accounting for 31% of the entire empire.

As well as a huge population and land area, a reunited Frankish Empire would also boast some big cities. The empire's capital city would be a hard choice to make as the historic capital was Aachen, a small city in Germany with a population of just 538,900, and has little to no significance today, which wouldn't really be a good option. So in my opinion, Berlin would be the next most obvious choice as it is already the capital city of modern-day Germany, the most powerful country within the empire, and also is a very important hub for Europe, with a moderate population of 4,750,000. Paris would be the most populous city, though, with a massive megacity population of 11,400,000. Here would be the rest of the top 10 most populous urban areas within the Frankish Empire:

Similar to its population and land, a reunited Frankish Empire's economy would be as equally impressive, if not more. Starting off, the empire's Nominal GDP would stand at a whopping $11.580 Trillion, which is huge and would be easily put it in 3rd place, even enough to more than double the huge economies of Japan ($5.378 Trillion), an independent Germany ($4.319 Trillion) and the United Kingdom ($3.124 Trillion), but still remaining significantly behind only the 1st and 2nd place contenders, China ($16.642 Trillion) and the United States ($22.675 Trillion).

Due to having such a large GDP, the empire's Nominal GDP Per Capita would also be very high, standing at a strong $43,370, which would be enough to secure it as a high-income country. This would also place it in 31st place, overall, ahead of the conditions in Japan ($42,928) and Andorra ($40,887), but slightly behind an independent France ($44,995) and the United Kingdom ($46,344).

The Frankish Empire would also most probably re-join the European Union, as practically all of the modern-day countries making it up are already members of the union today, including Germany and France, which are the two most powerful and dominant countries in it.

The next topic we need to think about a reunited Frankish Empire is the religious and ethnic groups prevalent within its borders.

Starting off with Religion, Christianity would be the most followed faith in the empire, accounting for the vast majority of the population at 76%, split between 63% Catholic and 13% Protestant. Islam would be the last major religion in its borders, at 8%. The final percentage of the Frankish population would be made up of Atheists and other irreligious people at a significant 16%.

Focusing on Ethnic Groups now, Germans would be the largest ethnicity, accounting for just about 30% of the population, which isn't a clear majority of 50%, however, already giving a sense of how diverse the empire would really be. French people would be next, represented by 19%, followed by Italians at 15%, Dutch at 5%, Catalans at 2.6% and Czechs at 2.2%. The final 11.2% of the empire's population would be a mix of various other tiny ethnic groups within its borders.

The Frankish Empire's Linguistic groups would be fairly similar to its Religious and Ethnic groups, bringing us to the next topic. German would also be the most spoken language in its borders, with 34% of the population being able to natively speak it, which would be closely trailed by French at 26.5%, being the second most spoken language. This would be followed by Italian at 16%, Dutch at 9% and Czech at 3%. The last 11.5% of the Franks would be speakers various other tiny languages spoken.

One specific official language for the empire would be quite difficult to predict but I predict that there would be many different official languages, based on the most spoken of them, like German, French and a few others.

The last topic we need to think about a reunited Frankish Empire is its military size and would be very interesting to talk about. Starting with manpower, the empire would possess a massive 636,750 active-duty personnel, which would be the 7th largest force in the world, even larger than other huge militaries like Iran (610,000 troops) and South Korea (599,000 troops), but having less troops than Pakistan (654,000 troops) and Russia (1,014,000 troops). In addition to this, the Franks' military would also possess an extra 463,200 troops, bringing its army to a total of 1,099,750.

The budget to fund this big military would also be very huge, standing at around $144 Billion, or 1.2% of the empire's entire Nominal GDP. This would be the 3rd highest budget in the world, larger than India ($71.1 Billion) and Russia's ($65.1 Billion) budgets, but unsurprisingly significantly behind the juggernauts of China ($261 Billion) and the United States ($732 Billion).

The Frankish Empire would also be a Nuclear Power, inheriting all of France's warheads which would bring its stockpile to around 300 nukes at its disposal.