1866

Alarmed by Otto von Bismarck’s progress in uniting the Germanic states of Central Europe, the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Prussian efforts to put a German prince on the Spanish throne, and the prospect that a unified Germany might displace France as the dominant European power, in July 1870 France mobilized its army and declared war on Prussia. The Franco-Prussian War had begun.

Most European observers of the conflict expected France to defeat and humble the Prussians in short order. But instead of a victory that would assure its continued dominance in Europe, the French were dealt a catastrophic defeat that permanently altered the balance of power and signaled the arrival of a new dominant power on the European stage.

In the first week of August France suffered three stinging defeats, and nearly 200,000 French soldiers were trapped and besieged in the city of Metz. A large French army commanded by Napoleon III himself marched to the relief of Metz and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Sedan. Napoleon III and over 100,000 of his men were taken prisoner. By mid-September Paris was encircled and besieged. By December the soldiers and civilians in the city were starving.

Meanwhile, the war had cemented the union of the Germanic states, just as Bismarck had expected it would. On January 18, 1871, the previously independent south German states united with the dozens of states and principalities in the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation, creating the German Empire—exactly what France had most feared.

Ten days later, the French Government of National Defense surrendered, and a Prussian army marched into Paris. Over 47,000 civilians had been killed or wounded during the siege, along with over 24,000 French soldiers.

Elsewhere across France, the story was the same. The French Army of the Loire was defeated at Orleans, Le Mans, and Amiens, and finally annihilated at the Battle of St. Quentin. After the French Army of the East was defeated in the Battle of the Lisaine, the last intact French army, some 87,000 men, streamed across the border into neutral Switzerland, threw down their weapons, and were interred.

The armistice and the fall of Paris on January 28, 1871 had effectively ended the war. It ended officially with the signing of the Treaty of Frankfurt on May 10. Under the terms of the treaty France was required to pay an indemnity of five billion francs (in gold) and large areas of Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to the German Empire. For France it was a humiliating and embittering defeat. For the German Empire, now united for the first time in history, the war established it as the new dominant power in Europe. For both, it sowed the seeds of a future and much bloodier conflict.

The painting depicts the French Army of the East being disarmed in Switzerland on February 1, 1871.