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Introduction
This Close-up deals with aspects of the conflict between France and Prussia, the latter allied with the North German Confederation and other German states in the South. We have decided to refer to this adversary – composed of several political entities – as “German”. Indeed, one of the main consequences of this conflict was the creation, following negotiations at Versailles, of a new European empire, the German Empire, under the leadership of Prussia, whilst the Second French Empire that Napoleon III had spent twenty years constructing, disappeared.
Beyond this major political consequence which dramatically affecting the state of play on the international chessboard, the War of 1870-1871 was remarkable in more ways than one.
First of all, contemporaries were astonished by how quickly it became obvious who was the winning side: At the beginning of the conflict, countries who were susceptible to forge alliances with or against one of the two camps remained cautious about the outcome. This did not last long.
The technological capacity of the two armies involved proved to be crucial, an aspect that became exacerbated during this war and which would become increasingly important in the conflicts that followed, right up to the present day.
The French army was disorganized and its general staff overconfident in the face of the superior artillery and organization of the Prussian army. By 1871, France’s defence policy would be turned upside.
The French defeat would not only have consequences for that country’s borders (and what consequences with 20th-century hindsight!), and for its regime and its military policy: it would leave a deep trauma in a society that had already been liberalising and polarising itself for the previous ten years. It would culminate in the bloody events of the Paris Commune.
published: May 2020 (compiled by RY and PH with contributions by JR)
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Documents
Napoleon III’s proclamation to the French people on 23 July 1870
Bismarck in the Franco-German war, 1870-1871, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 by Moritz Busch (1821-1899), London, Macmillan, 1879
The Franco-Prussian War and its hidden causes: translated from the French; with an introduction and notes by George Burnham Ives; by Emile Ollivier (1825-1913) and George Burnham Ives (1856-1930), London, Pitman, 1913
The origins of the war of 1870, new documents from the German archives, by Lord Robert Howard (1885-1954), Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1924
Prussia and the Franco-Prussian War …, by John Stevens Cabot Abbott, Boston, Russell, 1872
The Franco-German war of 1870-71, by Helmuth Graf von Moltke (1800-1891); translated by Clara Bell (1834-1927) and Henry W. Fischer (1856-1932), New York, Harper, 1892
Franco-German War of 1870: Source Book, by United States General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., The General Service Schools Press, 1922
The Empress Eugenie, 1870-1910: Her Majesty’s life since “the terrible year” by Edward Legge, New York, Scribner, 1910 (This volume also recounts the Emperor’s own story of Sedan and details his exile and last days, including reminiscences of the Prince Imperial. With illustrations and facsimile letters.)
The Battle of Sedan, by Captain Fitz-George, London, Stanford, 1871
Contemporary Newspapers
- Le Figaro, (in French) from the year 1870 (from the BnF archives on Gallica)
- On the Retronews.fr site (in French): The War of 1870, the Battle of Sedan and the French defeat, and the edition of the Petit Journal from 4 September 1870
- ‘Prince Bismarck and His Emperor’, article in The Spectator on 19 September 1874
- ‘The Bonapartist Restoration’ from the 26 January 1871 edition of the Daily News, printed in Public Opinion Vol. XIX, January – June 1871
Period maps
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Articles
Before the war
- The Congress of Paris, 25 February – 30 March 1856, a look at Edouard-Louis Dubufe’s painting, Marie de Bruchard, 2016
- Napoleon III and the War of the Duchies (1864), Marie de Bruchard, 2014
- October 1865: the Biarritz meetings, Marie de Bruchard, 2015
On the war
- The Ems dispatch: the telegram that started the Franco-Prussian War, Eymeric Job, 2019
- The Battle of Sedan, Eymeric Job, 2019
- ‘The Franco-Prussian War‘ entry on Britannica.com
Reactions to the war abroad and in art or literature
- A snapshot in time: English reactions to the Franco-Prussian War, Andrew McGinnis
- Caricatures from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Paris Commune, Morna Daniels
- War correspondence in Britain, University of Kent ‘Picturing the News’ website
- ‘Official Propaganda and the French Press during the Franco-Prussian War’, Hazel C. Benjamin for The Journal of Modern History [institution or membership access]
- The Franco-Prussian war in late-nineteenth century children’s literature, David Blamires, 2009, Cambridge, Open Book Publishers
- The Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath in French art, from the Dahesh Museum website
- ‘Overseas News in the Australian Press in 1870 and the Colonial Experience of the Franco-Prussian War’, Peter Putnis in History Australia, 2007
- ‘Canadian Illustrated News and the Franco-Prussian War (July 1870-February 1871)’, Canadian Illustrated News, 1869-1883, Sean Sullivan
Other
- British ambulances in the Franco-Prussian War (wikipedia article)
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Timelines
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Museums and places
Places and Museums
- Sedan Castle Museum (Chateau-Fort de Sedan)
- Museum of the Franco-Prussian War and the Annexation at Gravelotte (Musée de la Guerre de 1870 et de l’Annexion)
- Museum of the Last Cartridge at Bazeilles (Maison de la dernière cartouche)
- Museum of the Battle of Loigny (Musée de la guerre de 1870, Loigny la Bataille)
- Remembrance Trail – Battle of Loigny, 2 December 1870
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Bibliography
Selected English-language Bibliography on the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871
(For contemporary publications see our “documents” section).
Adriance, Thomas J., The Last Gaiter Button: A study of the mobilisation and concentration of the French army in the War of 1870, Westport Conn., 1987
Aronson, Theo, The fall of the Third Napoleon, New York, 1970
Ascoli, A day of battle: Mars-La-Tour 16 August 1870, London 1987
Badsey, Stephen, The Franco-Prussian War (Osprey Essential Histories), Oxford, 2003
Barry, Quintin, The Franco-Prussian War, 2 vols. Solihull, 2007
Blackbourn, David, History of Germany 1780-1918: The long Nineteenth Century, Oxford, 2003
Breuilly, John, Austria, Prussia and Germany, 1806-1871, Harlow, 2002
——, The formation of the First German Nation-State, 1800-1871, Basingstoke, 1996
Buchholz, Arden, Moltke and the German Wars, 1864-1871, New York, 2001
Carr, William, The origins of the wars of German unification, Harlow, 1991
Elliot-Wright, Philipp, Gravelotte-St. Privat 1870: End of the Second Empire, London 1993
Fermer, Douglas, Sedan 1870, Barnsley, Pen & Sword, 2008
Feuchtwanger, Edgar, Bismarck, London, 2002
Foot, Michael R. D., “The origins of the Franco-Prussian War and the remaking of Germany’, New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 10: The Zenith of European Power 1830-1870, Cambridge, 1960, pp. 577-602
Holmes, Richard, The Road to Sedan, London, 1984
Horne, Alistair, The fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71, London, 1965
Howard, Michael, The Franco-Prussian War: The German invasion of France 1870-1871, Routledge, 2001
Lerman, Katherine Anne, Bismarck, London, 2004
Medlicott, W. N., Bismarck and Modern Germany, London, 1965
Millman, Richard, British Foreign Policy and the coming of the Franco-Prussian War, Oxford, 1965
Milner, John, Art, War and Revolution in France 1870-1871, Yale, 2000
Shann, Stephen, Delperier, Louis, French army 1870-1871: Franco-Prussian War, 1: Imperial Troops, London, 1991
Showalter, Dennis, The Wars of German Unification, London 2004
Stone, David, ‘First Reich’: Inside the German Army during the War with France, 1870-1871, London, 2002
Taithe, Bertrand, Citizenship and Wars: France in Turmoil 1870-1871, London, 2001
Tombs, Robert, The war against Paris, Cambridge, 1981
Wawro, Geoffrey, The Franco-Prussian War, New York, CUP, 2010
For more books see The online books page : Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871
The “Franco-German” War of 1870-1871
