The Franco-Prussian War is an excuse. Franco-Prussian War
FRANCO-PRUSIAN WAR
1870 - 1871
Background of the war
After winning the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866 (see previous posts), Prussia sought to unite all German lands under its auspices, as well as weaken France. France, in turn, tried to exclude the possibility of a united and strong Germany.
The formal reason for the war was the claims to the Spanish throne, which were put forward by a relative of the Prussian king Leopold Hohenzollern. Queen Isabella of Spain deposed in 1868 II which led to the beginning of the revolution. After Germany and France put forward their candidacies for the Spanish throne. Leopold's claims were secretly supported by Otto von Bismarck. In Paris, they were outraged by the claims of Leopold. Napoleon III forced Hohenzollern to renounce the Spanish throne, and after that Napoleon's ambassador demanded that King Wilhelm of Prussia himself approve this refusal I which would be an insult.
This was taken advantage of by von Bismarck, who, as a result of diplomatic intrigue, forced France to declare war on Prussia. Thus, from the point of view of "big politics", France acted as the aggressor. "Guard! France again threatens the freedom of Germany!!" But in essence, Prussia needed this war, and it was Prussia that was better prepared for it.
Beautiful Germany on guard of the Rhine
MAIN PARTICIPANTS
Emperor of France Napoleon III
King of Prussia Wilhelm I
Chancellor of the North German Confederation
Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen
WAR CARDS
Detailed
Take it easy
unpretentious
fighting
The beginning of the war
By August 1, the French Army of the Rhine was ready to enter Germany. It consisted of the Guard, seven army corps and a cavalry reserve. The total number of French troops reached 200 thousand. The emperor himself assumed the main command over them, with General Leboeuf as chief of staff. By the same time, the advanced German troops (about 330 thousand), divided into 3 armies, deployed on the Trier-Landau line. Here it is necessary to clarify that although the war is called Franco-Prussian, in fact, an alliance of North German states came out against France, plus South German states joined this alliance. Thus, the war should be called Franco-German.
Already on July 28, at the military council in Metz, it turned out that the French army was completely unprepared, but public opinion required offensive actions, and the 2nd Corps of General Frossard was moved to Saarbrücken, where he followed (August 2) the first, inconclusive battle with the German detachment occupying this city.
Meanwhile, on August 3, the transfer of German troops to the border was completed, and the next day the 3rd Prussian (German) Army invaded Alsace and defeated the French division of General Douai, located near Weissenburg.
Then Napoleon III , abandoning the general command of the troops and leaving only the guards and the 6th corps at his disposal, entrusted the defense of Alsace to three corps (1st, 5th and 7th) under the command of MacMahon, and the troops stationed at Metz, subordinated to Marshal Bazin. Thus, the army, which did not differ in great fighting fervor, was divided.
In the future, a series of fierce battles followed, in which the Prussians / Germans invariably held the upper hand. The French retreated, the Germans pressed, and an interesting situation turned out. The Germans bypassed the French and near Metz they attacked to the East, and the French fought facing the West, i.e., the armies fought with an inverted front.
The defeat of the main forces of the French army
On the morning of August 16, Emperor Napoleon, who was with Bazaine's army, III left for Chalon. On the same day, French troops were attacked at Mars-la-Tour and Vionville by two corps of the 2nd German Army. This battle, tactically indecisive, strategically, was an important victory for the Germans. They intercepted Bazaine's direct retreat to Paris. Instead of using the temporary superiority of his forces to attack the enemy the very next day, Bazin on August 17 withdrew his troops to an impregnable, in his opinion, position under the very fortress of Metz. In the meantime, the 1st and 2nd German armies (over 250,000) were quickly drawn to the decisive point of the campaign. The location of Bazaine's troops became clear to the Germans only around noon on 18 August. On this day, they moved in a northerly direction in the morning. A stubborn general battle took place at Saint-Privat and Gravelotte, in which the Germans inflicted a decisive defeat on the French. The French army retreated to Metz, where it was blockaded.
Map of the Battle of Gravelotte - Saint-Privat
Blockade of Metz
The next day, the reorganization of the German military forces was carried out. The 4th Army (Meuse) was formed from the Guards, the 12th and 4th Corps of the 2nd Army, with the 5th and 6th Cavalry Divisions. She, along with the 3rd (with a total number of up to 245 thousand), was ordered to advance on Paris.
On the French side, meanwhile, a new army was formed near Chalons (about 140 thousand), under the command of MacMahon. The emperor himself came to this army. At first it was decided to take her to Paris, but public opinion rebelled against this, demanding Bazin's assistance, and, at the insistence of the new Minister of War, Count Palikao, MacMahon decided to perform such a risky operation. On August 23, his army moved to the Meuse River. This movement was delayed by food difficulties, and meanwhile, on August 25, exact information about him was received in the German headquarters. The 3rd and 4th German armies were moved to the north, across from McMahon, and managed to warn the French at the crossings over the Meuse. Repeated clashes with the German troops overtaking him pointed out to McMahon the danger that threatened him. He still had the opportunity to save his army, but instead he led it to the fortress of Sedan, which did not at all represent a reliable stronghold and was surrounded on all sides by dominant heights. The result was the Sedan catastrophe that followed on September 1, which ended in the capture of the entire French army of MacMahon, along with Emperor Napoleon III.
Maps of the Sedan disaster
Of the entire active French army, only the 13th Corps remained free, which was sent by the Minister of War to reinforce McMahon and had already reached Mézières, but, having learned on the evening of September 1 about what had happened at Sedan, he immediately began to retreat to Paris, pursued by the 6th German Corps.
The official news of the defeat at Sedan was received in the French capital on September 3, and the next day there, as a result of a mass action by the Parisians, Napoleon III was declared deposed, and the Government of National Defense was organized, which offered Germany peace, but, due to the excessive demands of the victorious enemy, the agreement did not take place.
Siege of Paris and end of the war
The Germans brought about 700,000 men into France during September and October. The French, apart from Bazaine's army locked up in Metz, had only comparatively insignificant reliable forces left. Together with Vinoy's corps, which managed to reach Paris, up to 150 thousand people could be counted in Paris, of which a significant part were of very dubious dignity. However, the Germans refused to storm Paris and surrounded it with a tight ring. Later, when heavy artillery was brought up, they began bombarding Paris.
Maps of the siege of Paris
Subsequently, the war took on the character of a struggle for Paris. A prominent role in the future was played by Leon Michel Gambetta. The hastily elected Government of People's Defense assigned Gambetta the post of Minister of the Interior. Before the new government could do anything, Paris was surrounded and cut off from the country. Gambetta on hot-air balloon flew out of Paris and two days later appeared in Tours, imbued with thought about saving their country.
Leon Michel Gambetta
France was completely disorganized, left without an army, without weapons and fortresses. Gambetta, invested with dictatorial powers, organized a defense in a month. The armies assembled by him for four months tried to unblock Paris and at least somehow improve the situation in the war.
Using the huge economic and human potential, Gambetta created new corps and armies, but the trouble was that he also tried to command them, not paying attention to the advice of the military. The newly created armies invariably suffered defeat. Several attempts by the Parisian garrison to break through were unsuccessful. Moreover, after 70 days of siege, the army capitulated in Metz. A series of bloody battles took place in the Orleans region, where the French tried to break through to Paris.
Meanwhile, the French, led by Gambetta, "produced" more and more new corps and armies. The armies of the Loire, 2nd Loire, Eastern, Northern armies were created. Moreover, even Giuseppe Garibaldi decided to help France and created his own "army". But this hero of Italy was a little mistaken - what is suitable for Italy and against all kinds of Italian "states" is completely unsuitable against German power. The Prussian General Staff never seriously considered this army. One demonstration of Badensky was enough XIV corps, so that the "valiant Garibaldians" began to retreat and evade the battle.
After the fall of Metz, the released German troops began to methodically capture all the fortresses in the combat area.
On January 19, 1871, the French made a new attempt to break out of the encircled Paris to the south, to the Loire, which ended in complete failure and the loss of more than 4 thousand people.
On January 22, a riot broke out in Paris, which, however, was soon suppressed. On January 28, a truce was concluded for 21 days. Pressed to the border, the French army of Klenshan (about 80 thousand) on February 1 crossed from Verrieres to Switzerland, where they laid down their arms.
Peace treaty
February 26, 1871 A preliminary peace treaty was signed at Versailles. On March 1, German troops entered Paris and occupied part of the city. After receiving news of the ratification by the French National Assembly of the preliminary treaty, they were withdrawn on 3 March. The final peace treaty was signed on 10 May in Frankfurt am Main.
France lost Alsace and Lorraine, and also pledged to pay an indemnity of 5 billion francs.
Losses of the French army
Total losses in the war
Birth of the German Empire
January 18, 1871 at Versailles Bismarck and Wilhelm I announced the reunification of Germany. Bismarck's dream came true - he created a single German state. The Empire was quickly joined by states that were not part of the North German Confederation - Bavaria and other South German states. Austria did not become part of the newly reunified Germany. The five billion francs that the French paid to the Germans as an indemnity became a solid foundation for the German economy. Bismarck became the second man in Germany, but this is only formal. In fact, the prime minister was practically the sole ruler, and Wilhelm I was not persistent and greedy for power.
So a new powerful power appeared on the continent - the German Empire, the territory of which was 540,857 km², the population was 41,058,000 people, and the army reached almost 1 million soldiers.
Proclamation of the German Empire
MAIN BATTLE OF THE WAR
PAINTINGS
DEDICATED TO WAR
As it turned out, the paintings based on this war are apparently invisible! She was portrayed by both the French and the Germans. There is romance, and tragedy, and drama. There is both realism and criticism. So here's a little, a little.
By secret defensive alliances (-):
Bavaria
Baden
Württemberg
Hesse-Darmstadt
139,000 dead and 143,000 injured
Franco-Prussian War- - a military conflict between the empire of Napoleon III and Prussia seeking European hegemony. The war, provoked by the Prussian Chancellor O. Bismarck and formally started by Napoleon III, ended in the defeat and collapse of the French Empire, as a result of which Prussia managed to transform the North German Confederation into a single German Empire.
Background to the conflict
Main article: Luxembourg question
The most important thing in this passage is the instruction to "limit the size of hostilities." It refers to Austria kept her from intervening in the war on the side of France.
Italy and the Franco-Prussian War
During the Franco-Prussian War, France, Austria-Hungary and Prussia tried to persuade Italy to their side. But none of the countries has been successful. France still held Rome, her garrison was stationed in this city. The Italians wanted to unite their country, including Rome in it, but France did not allow this. France was not going to withdraw its garrison from Rome, thus she lost a possible ally. Prussia was afraid that Italy might start a war with France, and tried in every possible way to achieve Italian neutrality in the outbreak of the war. Fearing the strengthening of Italy, Bismarck himself personally wrote to the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, asking him not to interfere in the war with France. On the part of Austria, although there were proposals for an alliance against Prussia, they did not have the same effect as Bismarck's words. The Prussian chancellor managed to achieve neutrality from Italy in this war.
Austria-Hungary and the Franco-Prussian War
German gunners near Paris.
Consequences of the war
Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles. Bismarck (in white in the center of the picture) wanted to unite the warring German principalities in order to achieve the creation of a conservative, Prussian-dominated German state. He embodied this in three military victories: the Second War for Schleswig against Denmark in , the Austro-Prussian-Italian War against Austria in , and the Franco-Prussian War against France in - gg.
The Franco-Prussian War took place in the period 1870-1871 between France and an alliance of German states led by Prussia (later the German Empire), which ended with the collapse of the French Empire, revolution and the establishment of the Third Republic.
Causes of the Franco-Prussian War
The root causes of the conflict were the determination of the Prussian Chancellor to unite Germany, where it occupies a fundamental role, and as a step towards this goal, it was necessary to eliminate French influence on Germany. On the other hand, the Emperor of France, Napoleon III, sought to regain, both in France and abroad, the prestige lost as a result of numerous diplomatic failures, especially those caused by Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In addition, the military power of Prussia, as shown by the war with Austria, posed a threat to French dominance in Europe.
The event that directly provoked the Franco-Prussian War was the candidacy of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmarinen, declared for the empty Spanish throne, vacated after the Spanish Revolution of 1868. Leopold, under the persuasion of Bismarck, agreed to take the vacant seat.
The French government, alarmed at the possibility of a Prussian-Spanish alliance resulting from the occupation of the Spanish throne by a member of the Hohenzollern dynasty, threatened war if Leopold's candidacy was not withdrawn. The French ambassador to the Prussian court, Count Vincent Benedetti, was sent to Ems (a resort in northwestern Germany), where he met with King William I of Prussia. Benedetti was instructed to demand that the Prussian monarch order Prince Leopold to withdraw his candidacy. Wilhelm was angry, but fearing an open confrontation with France, he persuaded Leopold to withdraw his candidacy.
The government of Napoleon III, still dissatisfied, decided to humiliate Prussia even at the cost of war. Duke Antoine Agenor Alfred de Gramont, French Foreign Minister, demanded that Wilhelm personally write a letter of apology to Napoleon III and assured that Leopold of Hohenzollern would not make any encroachments on the Spanish throne in the future. In negotiations with Benedetti at Ems, the Prussian king rejected French demands.
On the same day, Bismarck received Wilhelm's permission to publish a telegram of a conversation between the King of Prussia and the French ambassador, which went down in history as the "Ems dispatch". Bismarck edited the document in such a way as to increase French and German resentment and cause conflict. The Prussian chancellor believed that this move would in all likelihood hasten the war. But, knowing Prussia's readiness for a possible war, Bismarck expected that the psychological effect of France's declaration of war would rally the South German states and push them towards an alliance with Prussia, thereby completing the unification of Germany.
Beginning of the Franco-Prussian War
On July 19, 1870, France went to war with Prussia. The South German states, fulfilling their obligations under treaties with Prussia, immediately joined King Wilhelm in the common front of the struggle against France. The French were able to mobilize about 200,000 troops, but the Germans quickly mobilized an army of about 400,000. All German troops were under the supreme command of Wilhelm I, the general staff was headed by Count Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke. Three German armies invaded France, led by three generals Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz, Prince Friedrich Karl and Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (later King of Prussia and German Emperor Frederick III).
The first small battle took place on August 2, when the French attacked a small Prussian detachment in the city of Saarbrücken, near the Franco-German border. However, in major battles near Weissenburg (August 4), at Werth and Spicher (August 6), the French under the command of General Abel Douai and Count Marie-Edme-Patrice-Maurice de MacMahon were defeated. MacMahon was ordered to retreat to Chalons. Marshal François Bazin, who was in command of all French troops east of the city of Metz, pulled his troops to the city to hold positions, having received orders to defend Metz at any cost.
These orders divided the French forces, which subsequently failed to reunite. On August 12, the French emperor transferred supreme command to Bazaine, who was defeated at the battles of Vionville (August 15) and Gravelotte (August 18) and was forced to retreat to Metz, where he was besieged by two German armies. Marshal McMahon was assigned to free Metz. On August 30, the Germans defeated main building MacMahon in Beaumont, after which he decided to withdraw his army to the city of Sedan.
Battle of Sedan
The decisive battle of the Franco-Prussian War took place at Sedan on the morning of September 1, 1870. At about 7 o'clock in the morning, MacMahon was seriously wounded, and an hour and a half later, the supreme command passed to General Emmanuel Felix de Wimpfen. The battle continued until five o'clock in the afternoon, when Napoleon, who arrived at Sedan, took over the supreme command.
Recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, he ordered the white flag to be raised. The terms of surrender were discussed all night, and the next day Napoleon, along with 83,000 soldiers, surrendered to the Germans.
The news of the capitulation and capture of the French emperor caused an uprising in Paris. The Legislative Assembly was dissolved and France was declared a republic. Until the end of September, Strasbourg surrendered - one of the last outposts on which the French hoped to stop the German advance. Paris was completely surrounded.
On October 7, Léon Gambetta, minister of the new French government, made a dramatic escape from Paris in a hot air balloon. The city of Tours became the temporary capital, from where the headquarters of the government of national defense directed the organization and equipment of 36 military units. However, the efforts of these troops were useless, and they withdrew to Switzerland, where they were disarmed and interned.
Siege of Paris and German occupation at the final stage of the Franco-Prussian War
On October 27, Marshal Bazin surrendered at Metz, and with him 173,000 men. Meanwhile, Paris was under siege and bombardment. Its citizens, trying to stop the enemy with improvised weapons and going from lack of food to the use of domestic animals, cats, dogs and even rats, were forced on January 19, 1871 to begin negotiations for surrender.
On the eve of January 18, an event took place that was the culmination of Bismarck's tireless efforts to unify Germany. King Wilhelm I of Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. The formal surrender of Paris took place on 28 January, followed by a three-week truce. The French National Assembly, elected for peace negotiations, met in Bordeaux on February 13 and elected Adolphe Thiers as the first president of the Third Republic.
In March, an uprising broke out again in Paris and a revolutionary government, known as the anti-truce, came to power. Supporters of the revolutionary government fought desperately against the government troops sent by Thiers to suppress the uprising. Civil War dragged on until May, when the revolutionaries surrendered to the authorities.
The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on May 10, 1871, ended the Franco-Prussian War. According to the treaty, France transferred to Germany the provinces of Alsace (except for the territory of Belfort) and Lorraine, including Metz. In addition, France paid an indemnity of 5 billion gold francs ($1 billion). The German occupation was to continue until France paid the sum in full. This heavy duty was lifted in September 1873, and within the same month, after almost three years of occupation, France was finally free of German soldiers.
For Napoleon III, an unpleasant surprise was the quick and decisive victory of Prussia over Austria in 1866 and its consequences. As a "compensation", he demanded from Bismarck consent to the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to France, which had been a member of German-158 since 1815
Union, and since 1842 - Customs Union German states. But Bismarck had no intention of fulfilling his earlier promises. This led to a sharp deterioration in Franco-Prussian relations in the late 60s.
Luxembourg never fell to Napoleon III. His fate was decided by the London International Conference held in May 1867. It was attended by representatives of Austria-Hungary 1 , Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, France and Luxembourg itself. As a result of this conference, an agreement was signed that confirmed the independence and territorial integrity of Luxembourg. It was recognized as the hereditary possession of the Dukes of Nassau-Oran and declared a "perpetually neutral state" under the guarantees of all parties to the treaty, except for Belgium, which itself had a neutral status.
However, Napoleon III did not accept the diplomatic defeat. He began to prevent in every possible way the inclusion of the states of South Germany into the North German Confederation, at least without appropriate territorial compensation. To this end, he tried to use the dynastic contradictions between the Hohenzollerns and the Habsburgs, sharply exacerbated as a result of the war of 1866. He proposed to Franz Joseph a project for the formation of a South German Confederation led by Austria-Hungary. This union was to include the states of southern Germany. However, the government of Austria-Hungary, preoccupied with internal problems, reacted without enthusiasm to the proposal of Napoleon III, which remained without consequences.
Anticipating the possibility of a war with France, Bismarck prepared hard for it. As usual, he took care of the international isolation of the future enemy. The task was made easier for him by the fact that the expansionist policy of Napoleon III turned all the European powers against him: neither Great Britain, nor Russia, nor Austria-Hungary, even Italy showed any desire to help him in trouble. For reliability, Bismarck agreed in 1868 with Russia that she would not only remain neutral in the event of war, but also deploy large military forces on the border with Austria-Hungary, capable of keeping the Austrians from attempting revenge. As before, Bismarck took advantage of Russia's desire to achieve, with the help of Prussia, a revision of the Peace of Paris in 1856.
"As a result of a compromise between the government and the Hungarian national movement, the Austrian Empire in 1867 was transformed into the dualistic monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
Fearing to miss an opportune moment, Bismarck, in his usual manner, began to provoke France into an armed conflict. To do this, he took advantage of the differences between France and Prussia on a secondary issue - because of the candidacy to replace the Spanish throne. As a result of the revolution that took place in Spain in September 1868, Queen Isabella II fled abroad. The Cortes declared the throne vacant, and the government began searching for a new monarch. In 1869, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, an officer in the Prussian army and a relative of King Wilhelm I, received an invitation to take the throne. The French government strongly objected to his candidacy. Nevertheless, with the consent of the Prussian king, Prince Leopold on July 2, 1870 officially announced his consent to take the Spanish throne.
The French government took his decision as an openly hostile move on the part of Prussia. On July 5, the foreign minister, the Duke de Gramont, demanded that Leopold withdraw his candidacy. Tensions between the two countries have reached critical point, which is quite consistent with the intentions of Bismarck. However, contrary to his expectations, Wilhelm I, who was on the waters in the resort town of Emse, on July 12 announced his refusal to support the candidacy of Leopold 1. But the oral statement did not satisfy the French. The French ambassador Benedetti appeared on July 13 to the king with a demand to confirm in writing the obligation of Prussia never again to support the candidacy of a German prince for the Spanish throne. Wilhelm found this demand excessive and rejected it. By telegram, he informed Bismarck of the content of his negotiations with the French ambassador. Bismarck, as he later told in his memoirs, having deleted something from it, but without adding or changing a word in it, gave it such a look that it could make "the impression of a red rag on a Gallic bull." In this form, he published this document, which went down in history under the name of the Ems dispatch.
If the Ems dispatch made an impression on the French government, it was only because it had already made its choice. On July 15, at his request, the Legislative Corps voted in favor of war credits. In response, on July 16, Wilhelm signed an order to mobilize the Prussian army. On July 19, France declared war on Prussia. Bismarck got his way: he
1 After much turmoil, Alfonso XII, the son of Isabella II, became King of Spain in 1874.
managed to lure Napoleon into a trap. Moreover, before the whole world, and especially before German public opinion, France appeared in the role of an aggressor.
The very first serious battles on the border in early August ended in the defeat of the French army, which was forced to retreat deep into the country. One of its units under the command of Marshal Bazin was surrounded in the middle of August in the fortress of Metz. The other, under the command of Marshal McMahon, was pushed back to the city of Sedan, where on September 2 she surrendered to the mercy of the winner. Together with the troops of MacMahon, Napoleon III was also captured. In Paris, this caused widespread unrest, as a result of which the Second Empire fell and on September 4, 1870, France was proclaimed a republic. The new "national defense" government announced that it would continue the war to liberate the country. However, it did not have sufficient forces for this. On September 19, Paris was surrounded by German troops. The months-long siege began French capital. The capitulation of Metz on 27 October and the surrender of Orleans to the enemy on 4 December completed the military defeat of France. On December 27, the systematic shelling of the French capital began.
The fall of the Second Empire and the defeat of France in the war with the German states served as a prerequisite for solving the pressing problems of unifying not only Germany, but also Italy. Moreover, the government of the Italian kingdom showed exceptional promptness. Shortly after the deposition of Napoleon III, it declared the convention of 1864 on the guarantees of the inviolability of papal possessions null and void and brought its army into them. The success of the military operation was facilitated by the fact that the French troops were withdrawn from the Papal States with the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. On October 2, 1870, the inhabitants of the region and Rome voted in a plebiscite for joining the Italian kingdom. In 1871, a special law guaranteed the Pope the opportunity to fulfill his duties as head of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope's possessions were limited to the territories of the Vatican and Lateran palaces, as well as a country villa. Rome was declared the capital of Italy (until 1867 Turin was the capital, then Florence). However, the Pope refused to recognize the secular power of the kings of the Savoy dynasty and declared himself a prisoner of the Vatican 1.
1 The conflict between the secular state and the Pope dragged on for many decades and was settled only by the Lateran Accords of 1929, in accordance with them, the territory of Rome, on which the papal residences and headquarters The Catholic Church became officially known as the "State of the Vatican".
On January 18, 1871, a deeply symbolic event took place in the history of Germany as well. On the ruins of defeated France, under artillery cannonade in the Hall of Mirrors of the Grand Royal Palace in Versailles, the Prussian King Wilhelm I, in the presence of other German monarchs, dignitaries, military leaders, etc., announced that he was taking the title of Emperor - Kaiser. Along with the member states of the North German Confederation, the German Empire included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse. The constitution of the North German Confederation was taken as the basis for the constitution of the new state.
Franco-German War 1870-1 is a military conflict between France, on the one hand, and the North German Confederation and the South German states associated with them, on the other hand.
As you know, the war was declared by France, but it was directly planned by Prussia. France for Prussia is a hereditary enemy, led by Napoleon III, who claimed Hegemony in Europe after her active participation in the Crimean War.
Prussia, being one of the initiators of the unification of German lands according to the small German plan, actually reached the finish line for the unification of its lands by 1870. The war with France was supposed to be the trigger for the end of the unification process.
Regarding France, internal troubles within the empire of Napoleon III served as a pretext for war. France needed a small victorious war. At the same time, the French ruling circles hoped, as a result of the war with Prussia, to prevent the unification of Germany, in which they saw a direct threat to the predominant position of France on the European continent, and, moreover, to seize the left bank of the Rhine.
The highest tension between the relations of the two states was the diplomatic crisis associated with the question of a candidate for the vacant royal throne of Spain.
The impetus for the war was dynastic disputes over the Spanish throne. In 1868, a revolution took place in Spain, as a result of which Queen Isabella II was deprived of the throne. The people demanded a republic, while the ruling circles of Spain, meanwhile, were looking for a new monarch. In 1870, the throne was offered to a relative of the Prussian king, Prince Leopold from the side line of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Fearing to be between two fires, France began to insist that Leopold's candidacy as a contender for the throne should not be considered.
Thus, when the candidacy of Leopold became official, and the French ambassador to Prussia, Benedetti, appeared in Ems. In a conversation with him, the Prussian king limited himself to saying that he personally never wanted to win the Spanish throne for any of his relatives. At the end of this meeting, Wilhelm I immediately tried to bring to the attention of both Leopold himself and his father, Prince Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, that it would be desirable to renounce the Spanish throne. Which was done. King Wilhelm, in a dispatch sent by him on July 13 from Ems to Berlin to inform Prussian diplomatic agents abroad and representatives of the press, agreed with the first demand, but refused to satisfy the second. Prior to the publication of the dispatch, Bismarck deliberately changed its text in such a way that it acquired a tone and meaning offensive to the French government. He expected that in France they would believe her for at least one day, and that this would be quite enough to get the desired result - aggression from France.
The French government took this as a refusal and on July 19, 1870 declared war on Prussia. Masterfully played out by Bismarck, the provocation was a success. Prussia in the eyes of the public acted as a victimaggression.
The attitude of the European powers towards the Franco-Prussian conflict from the very beginning remained quite neutral. So, without stocking up on any ally, with an unprepared, much smaller and worse armed army, without decent military maps of his own country, Napoleon III began this fatal war for his dynasty and for France. (250 thousand against (France) - 400 thousand soldiers (Germany))
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