1870-1871

The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) stemmed from North German Confederation Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck's (1815-1898) use of a meager conflict over Spanish succession to instigate a war with France. By selectively editing a telegram from Wilhelm I sent on July 13, 1871, Bismarck made it appear Wilhelm had insulted the French ambassador and refused to surrender a relative’s claim to the Spanish throne. Napoleon III, influenced by government officials, was convinced that a military victory against the German upstarts would shore up domestic support and renew France’s imperial image. France declared war on Prussia on July 19, 1871.¹ Bismarck used the French declaration to rope the southern German princedoms into the conflict. In 1866 each of these separate states agreed to treaties allying them with Prussian in the event of war against France. The collective German armies achieved success capturing Napoleon III himself on September 1, 1870, and laying siege to Paris.²

On January 18, 1871, Wilhelm I of Prussia and the North German Confederation met with southern German princes in the Hall of Mirrors at the Versailles Palace. At this meeting the north and south German states were united with Prussia and established a new German Empire, the result of thirty years of planning and negotiation. It was agreed that Wilhelm would be the Emperor of a new German nation and that individual princedoms would become separate federated states. Ten days later France capitulated to German forces, ending the Franco-Prussian War and ceding the Alsace-Lorraine region to the new German state. Germany’s victory created a modern state flush with human talent and massive stores of natural resources. The Prussian defeat of the Danish (1864), the Austrians (1866), and finally the French (1871) solidified the new Germany's military dominance over continental Europe for nearly fifty years. In the aftermath of the war, French national weaknesses were revealed, and the empire of Napoleon III collapsed, allowing republican governance returned to France.³