The Franco-Prussian War 1870

Patricia Barry 2014.

Franco-Prussian Relations The aggressive attitudes of

Prussia were causing many difficulties in Europe.

There were very deep anti-French feelings towards Prussia following the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s.

This hostility increased in France under the Second Empire and Emperor Napoleon III Napoleon III

Prussia At this time,

Germany as a country did not exist.

It was a collection of about one hundred German states, of which Prussia was the largest. Map showing Prussian expansion from 1700 to 1871

During the 19th century, the

Prussian army had become the most powerful in Europe.

The French philosopher, Voltaire, commented: « Prussia isn't a country with an army; it’s an army with a country. »

The Prussian army

A desire for unification Bismarck, the Prussian

Chancellor, wanted to unify all the German states.

However, he foresaw that to do this, he would somehow need to consolidate German unity.

One way of doing this could be a victorious war against France.

Bismarck

An opportune moment In 1870, Bismarck saw

that the time was right The French army was

not prepared for war: Its artillery was weak Its tactics were old-

fashioned and unsuited to modern warfare

The generals were old and lacked courage.

A pretext for war. However, in the end

it was the French who declared war!

The Spanish throne had become vacant. William II, the king of Prussia, proposed a Prussian candidate – his cousin.

The King of Prussia: William II

No to a Prussian candidate.

Obviously, the prospect of having Prussian neighbours both to the North and the South (in Spain) was totally unacceptable to the French.

http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/wiseman/Alternate/Alternative-Europe

S p a i n

The declaration of war.

The French called the proposal of a Prussian candidate a “provocation”.

On 19th July 1870, they declared war against Prussia, thanks to a controversial leaked telegram in which the punctuation had been “tweaked”.

Source: wikipedia

The combat The conditions for

embarking on war were unfavourable for the French. The country was

diplomatically isolated, and…

Had a badly organised army, which was inferior in number to the Prussians.

The war.  Defeats for the

French were numerous

The French had to withdraw their troops from Alsace.

The Prussians invaded France

Defeat at Sedan. Even worse, at Sedan

in Lorraine, Emperor Napoleon III was taken prisoner by the Prussians and interned.  

The defeated Emperor with victorious Bismarck

Sedan

His army had to surrender.

It was the fall of his (the Second) Empire.

The Prussians arrive at Paris

The Prussian armies marched on Paris.

By 18th September 1870, about 400,000 Prussians had arrived before Paris.  

The siege begins. By the next day,

19th September, 1870, the city was surrounded, in spite of fierce resistance.

The Siege of Paris had commenced.

The siege

Paris — The city was too proud to surrender to the enemy

The siege lasted from 20th September 1870 to 28th January 1871

Siege statistics.

The PrussiansCOMMANDANT Maréchal Helmuth von

MoltkeFORCES PRESENT 206 000 foot soldiers 34 000 cavalry 898 campaign artillery 240 siege engines

in all 240 000 menLOSSES 10 000 killed and

wounded 2 000 missing

The FrenchCOMMANDANT Général Louis TrochuFORCES PRESENT 355 000 foot soldiers 5 000 cavalry 1 964 canons

in all 400 000 menLOSSES 16 000 killed and

wounded 8 000 missing

L’artillerie prussienne The city of Paris was

defended by two sizeable rings of fortifications which included 94 forts.

Von Moltke’s troops occupied the high ground around the capital, and installed their artillery there.

They then began to shell the City walls and houses which terrified Parisians.

In the city. For three months no-

one could enter or leave the city, except by hot air balloon!

During the siege, the only means the city had to communicate with the outside world was through using these balloons.

ICRC / F. Boissonnas / hist-01774-09a

Hot air balloons. This was the first

« aerial » war. Microfilms were used for

the first time, permitting the transmission (and conservation) of huge amounts of official documents

Microfilm was also used to transfer private mail into Free France.

The first « Montgolfière* post»

Here’s a stamp which commemorates the centenary of the first « air mail » !

The first balloon, the Neptune, left Paris loaded up with 125 kilos of mail.

After a flight of 3h 15 mins it landed 75km from the city.

* The French word for Hot Air Balloon is Montgolfière, named after its inventors, the Frères Montgolfier.

Preparation of a Montgolfière.

This photo shows a group inflating the balloon and getting ready before the flight.

People took great risks. Firstly, it was impossible to maintain the balloons in a good condition during the siege.

Once in the air, the Prussians tried to shoot them down.

Even one tiny hole in the balloon would swiftly put an end to its flight!

A courageous balloonist from the

era described his dangerous flight: « I can hear the enemy cannon

thundering at our city gates; in my imagination I can see the Prussians waiting for me, guns raised and spitting a hail of bullets into my aerial craft. »

An account from a balloonist

Resistance. Nobody and nothing could

enter or leave the capital and this presented many problems.

How were people going to feed themselves, defend the city and replace arms and bullets?

Parisians chose not to surrender and everyone contributed to the resistance against the Prussians.

What to eat? Parisians were

deprived of food and were dying from hunger.

They ate cats, dogs, rate and mice…and even these animals were no longer to be seen on the streets.

A Christmas dinner. The menu that follows

was offered by a restaurant during the siege. It was a special menu for Christmas day. There was no more fresh meat or vegetables.

People had come down to eating the animals from the Paris Zoo as no-one could feed them any more.

It’s clear from reading it that the chef had a sense of humour!

CAFÉ VOISIN. G. Braquessac,

261, rue Saint-Honoré. 

99e JOUR DU SIÈGE le 25 décembre 1870

 HORS D'ŒUVRE

Butter - Radishes – Stuffed donkey’s head

-Sardines

SOUPS Kidney bean purée

with croûtons Elephant ConsomméENTREES Fried pike Roasted camel English

style Kangaroo stew Roasted bear ribs in a

pepper sauce

ROASTS Leg of wolf, with a

kid sauce Cat flanked with rats Watercress salad Terrine of Antelope

with truffles Cèpe Mushrooms in a

Bordeaux wine sauce Petits pois in butter  

DESSERTS

Rice cake with jam Gruyère cheese

VINSPREMIER SERVICE Xérès Mouton Rotschild

1846 Latour Blanche 1861 Ch. Palmer 1864 DEUXIEME SERVICE Romanée Conti 1858 Bellenger frappé Grand porto 1827

Café et liqueurs 

Parisians were dying of hunger On 26th January, General

Trochu asked for an armistice. On 28th January, Paris

surrendered.

Surrender.

La Commune

The post war period was marked by a dreadful insurrection called: « la Commune ».

La Commune The people of Paris were:

Left feeling hopeless because of their deprivations,

Totally exhausted because of the hardships of a long siege,

Humiliated because of the surrender to the Prussians who were continually showing off

Whipped up through revolutionary propaganda

Exasperated by the new repressive laws passed by the National Assembly.

The Communards So they joined up

with the National Guard, and then the troops of Paris.

They formed a revolutionary Council called the « Commune de Paris ».

The army of Versailles.  The government

retreated to Versailles

With the help of an army comprising returned soldier-prisoners from Prussia, they began to put siege to the capital.

The Communards fall a statue of the Emperor.

The re-taking of the Paris

The Army of Versailles entered Paris on 21st May

They succeeded in taking the capital street by street.

There were furious battles – it was a veritable carnage – during the course of a week known as « the week of blood ».

The defeat of the

Communards On 27th May, the last barricade

fell. More than 30,000 Parisian

« communards » had died.

Repression A severe repression

followed lasting may long months.

There were 20,000 to 35,000 executions,

50,000 arrests 10,000 imprisoned

and /or deported for life to Guyana or New Caledonia .

The execution of two Communards.

The Peace Treaty was signed in

Frankfort on 10th May 1871. France had to hand over Alsace and

Lorraine to Prussia France was sentenced to pay war

reparations to Prussia of 5 billion gold francs.

And the end of the story…?

The Franco-Prussian war left a bitter

heritage which would last for decades. People in France wanted to seek revenge for the humiliations that they had suffered. They wanted Alsace and Lorraine back as part of France.

This war would be one of the causes of the First World War (1914 – 1918).

Heritage.