a brief description of Franco-Prussian War
Definition 1
The Franco-Prussian War is a military confrontation between France and a bloc of German states led by Prussia. The duration of the conflict lasted about a year - from July 19, 1870 to May 10, 1871.
The reason was the contradictions between the leading European power France and the strengthened Prussia. France fought to maintain its own supremacy and tried to prevent the unification of the German lands. Prussia sought the opposite: to complete the unification of Germany and weaken France. The reason for the outbreak of hostilities was the conflict over the Spanish throne. Leopald Hohenzollern's desire to become a Spanish ruler was not approved by King William I of Prussia. The monarch understood that this would provoke a conflict with France. Leopold was supported by Otto von Bismarck.
The French and German armies were by that time at different stages of preparation for war. The Prussian army was considered the best in Europe, numbering more than a million well-trained and armed soldiers. In France, the army was almost half as large (about 570 thousand). Emperor Napoleon III opposed the ascension of Leopold Hohenzollern to the Spanish throne. He declared war on Prussia, but soon after the start of the offensive he was captured in a place with the main armed forces countries. At this time, a revolution took place in Paris, overthrowing the empire and proclaiming France a republic.
Prussian troops besieged the capital of France, and the second stage of the war began. The national character of the patriots' actions led to the conclusion of the preliminary Versailles Peace on February 26. On May 10, 1871, the final version of the terms of the peace treaty was signed in Frankfurt.
The results of the Franco-Prussian War led to enormous changes in Europe.
Political primacy in Europe passed from Napoleonic France to the German Empire in the person of the “Iron Chancellor” Bismarck.
After the signing of the peace treaty of 1871, a new era began international relations. Weak in recent times, Prussia becomes the leading power in Europe and the world. The annexation of Alsace and Lorraine created conditions for military-strategic superiority for Germany. Alsace moved the border with France beyond the Rhine and the Vosges Mountains, which was a difficult obstacle to overcome in an attack on Germany. Lorraine created a convenient springboard for an attack on France.
In France, the taking away of such important areas led to the emergence of the idea of revenge.
Definition 2
Revenge is the desire for revenge, retribution on the part of the losing side. The loser tries to change the results of the confrontation in a new clash.
Franco- Prussian war did not lead to the elimination of contradictions between countries. The danger of a new war between Germany and France has become a constant factor in the instability of the international situation in Europe.
Italy, having completed its unification, became the sixth great power in Europe. She, of course, could not compete with Germany and claim equality in the European concert.
Relations between Germany and Russia have become more complicated. The German Empire ousted Russia from its place as arbiter in disputes between German states. It acquired a dominant influence over all European countries. Countries have become potential rivals.
After the Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866, Prussia sought to unite all German lands under its rule and weaken France. France did not want a strong political enemy to appear on its borders, so war between them was inevitable.
Prussia strengthened significantly in the 19th century and became one of the leading countries on the continent. Having secured an alliance with Russia, Prussia began to unify the German lands without fear of a major war.
In 1868, a relative of the Prussian king, Leopold Hohenzollern, was a contender for the Spanish throne. France, not wanting to see him on the throne, put forward a demand to Wilhelm to withdraw Leopold's candidacy. King William, not wanting war, compromised and satisfied their demands. France put forward more stringent conditions, demanding that Leopold renounce his possible crown forever, provoking war. The answer to this demand was given not by Wilhelm, but by Chancellor O. von Bismarck, and quite sharply. In response to this, there was a violent reaction in Paris from French deputies, who immediately voted for war with Prussia, the date of which was June 19, 1870.
Already in the first days of the war, three German armies under the command of Wilhelm I, with the support of Otto von Bismarck and War Minister Roon, crossed into French territory, preventing them from starting a war on German territory. Already during the German occupation of Alsace and Lorraine, revolutionary unrest began in Paris.
Under the influence of the public, Napoleon III had to resign as commander-in-chief, transferring them to Marshal Bazin. Near Metz, Bazaine's army was surrounded by the Germans, and the path of the second army coming to its aid was blocked.
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At the Battle of Sedan on September 2, 1870, the main catastrophe of the French army occurred: 80 thousand soldiers surrendered and Napoleon III himself was captured.
Rice. 1. Battle of Sedan 1870.
General MacMahon's attempt to get through to Metz and Bazaine was repulsed by German troops and the latter remained completely surrounded by the enemy. The defeat at Sedan became known in Paris, and on September 4 a revolution took place. Crowds of people walked around the capital, demanding the abdication of the French emperor, and Parisian deputies announced the proclamation of the Third Republic.
Rice. 2. Captured Napoleon III talks with Bismarck after the Battle of Sedan.
The formed government was ready to make peace with Prussia, but Bismarck demanded Alsace and Lorraine from France, to which he received a decisive refusal from the head foreign policy in the new government of Jules Favre.
Two months after the start of the war, the Germans began the siege of Paris. It started on September 19, 1870. At the end of September 1870, Strasbourg fell, and the famine that began in Metz forced Bazaine to surrender to the German army.
Interesting: By October 1870, there were two French armies in German captivity with a total number of about 250 thousand people.
Meanwhile, the siege of Paris continued for 19 weeks. The headquarters of the German command was located in Versailles. There were about 60-70 thousand soldiers in the city, but the small amount of supplies gave rise to a terrible famine. In January 1871, the Germans brought siege artillery to the city and began shelling. Attempts to lift the siege were unsuccessful, and dissatisfaction with the command grew among the two million population of Paris.
On January 18, 1871, in one of the Versailles halls, the King of Prussia, in the presence of sovereigns of other principalities, was proclaimed Emperor of Germany.
Rice. 3. Map of the Franco-Prussian War.
On January 23, 1871, Jules Favre went to Versailles to ask for peace. On January 28, the act of surrender of Paris and a truce for three weeks was signed.
A preliminary peace treaty was concluded on February 26, and the final one was signed on May 20 in Frankfurt am Main. As a result, France lost Alsace and Lorraine and paid 5 billion francs in indemnity.
The result of the Franco-Prussian War was the unification of Germany. Victory in this war was of great importance, making Germany the strongest country in Europe.
In an article on history (8th grade), we talked briefly about the Franco-Prussian War. It should be noted that it turned out to be a disaster for ambitious France, which lost it on all counts. Germany has shown itself to be a powerful modern power, the main military-economic force in Europe.
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The Franco-Prussian War took place between 1870 and 1871 between France and an alliance of German states led by Prussia (later German Empire), ending with the collapse of the French Empire, revolution and the establishment of the Third Republic.
The root causes of the conflict were the determination of the Prussian chancellor to unite Germany, where Germany plays 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 demonstrated 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 position.
The French government, alarmed by the possibility of creating a Prussian-Spanish alliance as a result of 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 tasked with demanding that the Prussian monarch order Prince Leopold to withdraw his candidacy. Wilhelm was angry, but fearing open confrontation with France convinced 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, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, demanded that William personally write a letter of apology to Napoleon III and assure that Leopold Hohenzollern would not make any encroachments on the Spanish throne in the future. At negotiations with Benedetti in 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 “Emes dispatch.” Bismarck edited the document in such a way as to aggravate the resentment of the French and Germans and cause conflict. The Prussian Chancellor believed that this step would, in all likelihood, precipitate the war. But, knowing Prussia's readiness for a possible war, Bismarck hoped that the psychological effect of France's declaration of war would unite the South German states and push them towards an alliance with Prussia, thereby completing the unification of Germany.
On July 19, 1870, France went to war with Prussia. The South German states, fulfilling their obligations under treaties with Prussia, immediately joined King William 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 Charles and Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (who later became 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 received orders to retreat to Chalons. Marshal Francois Bazin, who commanded all French troops east of the city of Metz, pulled his troops towards the city to hold positions, receiving orders to defend Metz at any cost.
These orders divided the French forces, who were never able to reunite afterwards. 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 liberate Metz. On August 30, the Germans defeated McMahon's main corps in Beaumont, after which he decided to withdraw his army to the city of Sedan.
The decisive battle of the Franco-Prussian War took place in Sedan on the morning of September 1, 1870. At about 7 a.m. MacMahon was seriously wounded, and an hour and a half later, supreme command passed to General Emmanuel Felix de Wimpfen. The battle continued until five o'clock in the afternoon, when Napoleon, who arrived in Sedan, took over 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 thousand soldiers, surrendered to the Germans.
The news of the surrender and capture of the French emperor caused an uprising in Paris. The Legislative Assembly was dissolved and France was declared a republic. Before the end of September, Strasbourg, one of the last outposts where the French hoped to stop the German advance, capitulated. Paris was completely surrounded.
On October 7, the minister of the new French government, Leon Gambetta, made a dramatic escape from Paris to hot-air balloon. The city of Tours became the temporary capital, from where the government of national defense headquarters supervised the organization and equipment of 36 military units. However, the efforts of these troops proved futile, and they withdrew to Switzerland, where they were disarmed and interned.
On October 27, Marshal Bazaine surrendered at Metz, along with 173,000 men. Meanwhile, Paris was under siege and bombardment. Its citizens, trying to stop the enemy with improvised weapons and going from food shortages to the consumption of domestic animals, cats, dogs and even rats, were forced to begin negotiations for surrender on January 19, 1871.
The day before, January 18, an event occurred that became the culmination of Bismarck's tireless efforts to unify Germany. King William I of Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany in the Hall of Mirrors Palace of Versailles. The official surrender of Paris took place on January 28, followed by a three-week truce. The French National Assembly, elected to negotiate peace, 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-Armistice Government, came to power. Supporters of the revolutionary government fought desperately against 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 agreement, 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 US dollars). The German occupation was to continue until France paid the amount in full. This onerous duty was lifted in September 1873, and during the same month, after almost three years of occupation, France was finally free of German soldiers.
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, a war between France, on the one hand, and Prussia and other states of the North German Confederation and Southern Germany (Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt) on the other.
Goals of the parties
Prussia sought to complete the unification of Germany under its hegemony, weaken France and its influence in Europe, and France, in turn, to maintain predominant influence on the European continent, seize the left bank of the Rhine, delay the unification (prevent the unification) of Germany, and prevent the strengthening of Prussia’s position , and also prevent the growing crisis of the Second Empire through a victorious war.
Bismarck, who already considered a war with France inevitable since 1866, was looking only for a favorable reason to enter into it: he wanted France, and not Prussia, to be the aggressive party that declared war. Bismarck understood that to unite Germany under Prussian leadership, an external impulse was needed that could ignite a national movement. The creation of a powerful centralized state was Bismarck's main goal.
Reason for war
The reason for the war was a diplomatic conflict between France and Prussia over the candidacy of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a relative of the Prussian King William, to the vacant royal throne in Spain. These events caused deep discontent and protest on the part of Napoleon III, since the French could not allow the same Hohenzollern dynasty to rule in both Prussia and Spain, creating a danger to the French Empire on both sides.
On July 13, 1870, Prussian Chancellor O. Bismarck, trying to provoke France into declaring war, deliberately distorted the text of the recording of the conversation between the King of Prussia (William I) and the French ambassador (Benedetti), giving the document an insulting character for France (Ems Dispatch). However, at the end of this meeting, William 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.
But the French government was eager for war and on July 15 it began conscripting reservists into the army. On July 16, mobilization began in Germany. On July 19, the government of Napoleon III officially declared war on Prussia. Bismarck's diplomacy, taking advantage of the miscalculations of French foreign policy, ensured the neutrality of the European powers - Russia, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, which was beneficial to Prussia. The war began in an unfavorable situation for France, due to diplomatic isolation and the absence of allies.
Ready for war
Entering the war, Napoleon III hoped to isolate the North German Confederation from the South German states with a rapid invasion of the French army into German territory before the completion of mobilization in Prussia, and thus ensure at least the neutrality of these states. The French government was confident that, having gained a military advantage at the very beginning of the campaign, after the first victories over Prussia it would gain allies in the form of Austria, and possibly Italy.
The Prussian command had a carefully developed campaign plan, the author of which was Field Marshal Moltke. The French army, weakened by the colonial wars and corruption reigning at all levels of the state apparatus, was not ready for war. After mobilization, the French army in the metropolis as of August 1 numbered just over 500 thousand people, including 262 thousand in the active Rhine Army (275 thousand by August 6). The German states mobilized over 1 million people, including over 690 thousand in the field troops.
The French army was inferior to the Germans. in terms of quantity and quality of artillery weapons. German steel rifled guns with a firing range of up to 3.5 km far surpassed French bronze guns in their combat qualities. In infantry armament, the advantage was on the side of the French (!). Franz. rifled needle gun system Chaspo was better than Prussian guns Draize. German ground forces states were superior to the French army in terms of organization and level of combat training of personnel. The French Navy was stronger than the Prussian Navy, but did not influence the course of the war.
Progress of military operations. First stage
From the very beginning, military operations developed extremely unsuccessfully for France. When Napoleon III, who declared himself commander-in-chief of the armed forces, arrived at the fortress of Metz (Lorraine) to cross the border the next day in accordance with the campaign plan, he found here only 100 thousand soldiers, poorly provided with equipment and provisions. And when the first serious clashes between the two warring parties took place on August 4 at Werth, Forbach, and Spichern, his army was forced to take a defensive position, which further worsened its position.
On August 14 they imposed on the units Army of the Rhine battle near the village of Borni. It did not bring victory to either side, but delayed the crossing of the French troops across the Moselle for a whole day, which had dire consequences for them - the Prussian command had the opportunity to involve the French in two new bloody battles - on August 16 at Mars-la-Tour - Resonville and August 18 at Gravlot - Saint-Privat. These battles, despite the heroism and courage shown by the French soldiers, determined future fate The Army of the Rhine - retreat and wait for the moment of its complete defeat. The main culprit for this can be considered Bazina, which left the troops without the necessary leadership and reinforcements. Showing complete inactivity, he brought matters to the point that the army under his command was cut off from communications with Paris and blocked at the Metz fortress by a 150,000-strong Prussian army.
On August 23, a French army of 120 thousand men under the command of the marshal, hastily formed at Chalons, went to the aid of Bazin’s army. McMahon, without any clearly thought out strategic plan. The situation was also complicated by the fact that the advance of the French troops was extremely slow due to forced deviations from the main road in search of food.
The Prussians, advancing the bulk of their troops to the northeast at a much greater speed than MacMahon, captured the crossing of the Meuse River. On August 30, they attacked MacMahon's army near Beaumont and defeated it. The French were driven back to the surrounding area Sedana, where the emperor's headquarters was located. The 5th and 11th Prussian corps bypassed the French left flank and reached the vicinity of Sedan, closing the encirclement ring. Surrounded and disorganized, French troops concentrated in the fortress. He also took refuge there Napoleon III.
Sedan
On the morning of September 1, the Prussian army, without allowing the French to come to their senses, began the battle of Sedan (at that time it numbered 245 thousand people with 813 guns). She attacked the French division defending a village on the left bank of the Meuse. On the right bank, the Prussians managed to occupy the village of La Monselle. At 6 o'clock in the morning McMahon was wounded. The command was taken first by General Ducrot, and then by General Wimpfen. The first planned to break through the encirclement through Mezyar, and the second through Carignan. The road to Carignan was completely cut off, and it was too late to break through to Maizières, and the French army was forced to lay down its arms. By order of the emperor, a white flag was also raised on the central fortress tower of Sedan. The next day, September 2, the act of surrender of the French army was signed.
In the Battle of Sedan, French losses amounted to 3 thousand killed, 14 thousand wounded, 84 thousand prisoners (of which 63 thousand surrendered in the Sedan fortress). Another 3 thousand soldiers and officers were interned in Belgium. The Prussians and their allies lost 9 thousand people killed and wounded. More than 100 thousand captured French soldiers, officers, generals led by Napoleon III, 17 thousand killed and wounded, 3 thousand disarmed on the Belgian border, over 500 guns surrendered.
The Sedan disaster served as an impetus for the revolution on September 4, 1870. The Second Empire fell. France was proclaimed a republic. A government of bourgeois republicans and Orléanists, led by General L. J. Trochu (“government of national defense”) came to power.
Second stage of the war
Since September 1870 the nature of the war has changed. It became fair, liberating on the part of France and aggressive on the part of Germany, which sought to secede Alsace and Lorraine from France. To guide France's war efforts, the so-called government delegation to Tours (then to Bordeaux); from October 9 it was headed by L. Gambetta. Thanks to the active participation of the people in the defense of the country, the Turkish delegation managed to form 11 new corps with a total number of 220 thousand people in a short time. from reservists and mobiles (untrained army reserve).
The strategic position of France was difficult, the 3rd German. the army moved through Reims - Epernay to Paris; to the north, through Laon-Soissons, the Meuse army was advancing. On September 19, Paris was surrounded. There were about 80 thousand regular troops and about 450 thousand national guards and mobiles in the city. The defense of Paris relied on the bastions of the ramparts and 16 forts. The German command did not have sufficient forces for the assault and limited itself to a blockade.
Garrisons of many French. fortresses remaining in the German rear. troops continued to resist. South of Orleans was created Loire Army, in the Amiens area – Northern Army and in the upper Loire - Eastern Army. In the occupied territory of France, a guerrilla struggle of franc-tireurs (free riflemen) began (up to 50 thousand people). However, the operations of the newly created armies of France were carried out without sufficient preparation and were not coordinated with the actions of the Paris garrison and between themselves and did not lead to decisive results. The surrender of Marshal Bazaine, who surrendered a large army in Metz on October 27 without a fight, freed up significant enemy forces.
At the end of November, German troops pushed the Northern Army back from Amiens to Arras, and in January 1871 they defeated it at Saint-Quentin. In early November, the Loire Army carried out a successful attack on Orleans, but in early December and January 1871 it was defeated. In November, the Eastern Army launched an offensive from Besançon to the east, but in January 1871 it was defeated west of Belfort and retreated to Besançon, and then part of it retreated to Swiss territory and was interned. Attempts by the Parisian garrison to break through the blockade ring also ended in failure. In general, the “government of national defense” was unable to organize an effective rebuff to the enemy. Attempts to find support and assistance abroad were unsuccessful. Passivity and indecisive action contributed to the further defeat of France.
On January 18, 1871, the German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles. The Prussian king became Emperor of Germany.
End of the war. Truce and peace
The capitulation of Paris took place on January 28, 1871. The Trochu-Favre government fully accepted the difficult and humiliating demands of the winner for France: payment of 200 million francs indemnity within two weeks, surrender of most of the Parisian forts, field guns of the Parisian garrison and other means of resistance.
On February 26, 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 (March 1) of the preliminary treaty by the French National Assembly, they were withdrawn from the French capital on March 3.
The government's anti-people policy and the sharp deterioration in the situation of the working people led to a revolutionary explosion. On March 18, a popular uprising won in Paris (Paris Commune, massacres, Sacré-Coeur). In the fight against the Paris Commune, the German occupiers assisted the counter-revolutionary Versailles government (from February 1871 it was headed by A. Thiers). On May 28, the Commune fell, drowned in blood.
According to the Peace of Frankfurt 1871 (the agreement was signed on May 10), France transferred Alsace and the north-eastern part of Lorraine to Germany and pledged to pay 5 billion francs. indemnity (until March 2, 1874), until payment of which Germans were located in part of the country. occupation forces. The French government assumed all costs of maintaining the German occupation forces.
Conclusion
No one in Europe had any illusions about the durability of the peace treaty concluded in Frankfurt am Main. Germany understood that the results of the war would only lead to increased Fraco-German antagonism. France suffered not only a military defeat, but also a national insult. Revanchism was to capture the minds of many subsequent generations of the French. Having won the war, Germany achieved:
A) unification, transformation into a strong centralized state,
B) weakening France as much as possible in order to gain the strategic advantages necessary for success in the inevitable future war.
Alsace and Lorraine gave Germany more than just economic benefits. Thus, Alsace was of great defensive importance for Germany, because the offensive from France was now complicated by the chain of the Vosges Mountains. And Lorraine provided a springboard for an attack on France and access to Paris.
The Franco-Prussian War influenced not only the further development of relations between France and Germany, but also the entire course of history. Relative stability in Europe until 1871 was ensured by the fact that in the center of the European continent there was one strong state - France, which was surrounded by weak and small states acting as a “buffer”. This prevented the clash of interests of large states that did not have common borders. After the end of the war of 1871, France found itself surrounded by 2 warlike states that completed the unification (Germany and Italy).
He sought to unite all German lands under his rule, and the French Emperor Napoleon III tried to prevent this, not wanting to see another strong state in Europe, and even one neighboring France.
Reasons and reason for war
All that remained for the Prussian Chancellor to do to create a united Germany was to annex the South German states. But Bismarck was not going to limit himself to this: the Prussians were attracted French provinces Alsace and Lorraine, rich in coal and iron ore, which were so necessary for German industrialists.
Thus, the reasons for the Franco-Prussian war were obvious, all that remained was to find a reason. Both sides actively searched for him, and he was soon found. In July 1870, the Spanish government, preoccupied with finding a candidate for the royal throne, which was left without an owner after the next revolution, turned to the relative of the Prussian king, Prince Leopold. Napoleon III, who did not want to see another crowned representative next door to France, began to negotiate with Prussia. The French ambassador managed to achieve success in this. But, as it turned out later, a provocation was hidden here. Bismarck composed a telegram to the French emperor about Prussia's renunciation of the Spanish throne in a rather offensive tone for the French, and even published it in newspapers. The result was predictable - the enraged Napoleon III declared war on Prussia.
Balance of power
International situation, in which the Franco-Prussian War began, was more favorable for Prussia than for France. The states that were part of the French side took the side of Bismarck, but the French emperor was left without allies. Russia maintained a neutral position; diplomatic relations with Britain and Italy were hopelessly damaged thanks to the incompetent policies of Napoleon III. The only state that could enter the war on his side was Austria, but the Austrian government, which had recently been defeated in the war with Prussia, did not dare to get involved in a new battle with its recent enemy.
From the very first days the Franco-Prussian war revealed weak sides French army. Firstly, its numbers were seriously inferior to the enemy - 570 thousand soldiers versus 1 million for the North German Confederation. The weapons were also worse. The only thing the French could be proud of was their faster rate of fire. But the most important thing was the lack of a clear plan of military action. It was compiled hastily, and much of it was unrealistic: both the timing of mobilization and the calculations for a split between the allies.
As for Prussia, the Franco-Prussian war, of course, did not take either the king or the chancellor by surprise. Its army was distinguished by discipline and excellent weapons, and was created on the basis of universal conscription. Dense network railways in Germany made it possible to quickly transfer military units to Right place. And, of course, the Prussian command had a clear plan of action, developed long before the war.
Hostilities
In August 1870, the offensive began. The French corps were defeated one after another. On September 1, a battle began near the Sedan fortress, where Napoleon III was located. The French command was unable to avoid encirclement, and on top of that, the army suffered huge losses from cross-fire. As a result, the very next day Napoleon III was forced to surrender. Having captured 84 thousand people, the Prussians moved to French capital.
The news of the defeat at Sedan sparked an uprising in Paris. Already on September 4, a Republic was proclaimed in France. The new government began to form new armies. Thousands of volunteers took up arms, but the new authorities were unable to organize the country’s defense from the enemy. On October 27, Marshal Bazin’s huge army, numbering almost 200 thousand people, capitulated. According to historians, the marshal could well have repelled the Prussians, but chose to surrender.
On other fronts, Bismarck was also lucky. As a result, on January 28, 1871, a truce was signed in Versailles. The Franco-Prussian War is over. Right there in the palace French kings, was proclaimed. Half a century will pass, and in the same hall the Germans will sign, after Germany is defeated in the First World War. But so far this was far from happening: in May of the same year, the parties signed a peace treaty, according to which France not only lost Alsace and Lorraine, but also a tidy sum of 5 billion francs. Thus, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. not only united Germany, but also significantly weakened France economically.
