COLOMBO AMERICAN SCHOOL

Educating Transformative Leaders

HISTORY
9th GRADE
TEACHER: GLORIA SOUTO

NAME: ________________________________

DATE:___________________________

9: ___

INSTRUCTION: Read the following information highlighting important points. Then fill in the
table based on the information you have just read.
The Franco Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War, was a war in 1870-1871 lost by France to the German states under the leadership of
Prussia. The underlying causes of the conflict were the determination of the Prussian statesman Prince Otto
Edward Leopold von Bismarck to unify Germany under Prussian control and, as a step toward this goal, to eliminate
French influence over Germany. On the other hand, Napoleon III, emperor of France from 1852 to 1870, sought to
regain both in France and abroad the prestige lost as a result of numerous diplomatic reverses, particularly those
suffered at the hands of Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In addition, the military strength of Prussia,
as revealed in the war with Austria, constituted a threat to French dominance on the continent of Europe.
INITIATING INCIDENTS
The event directly precipitating the Franco-Prussian War was the candidacy of Leopold, prince of HohenzollernSigmaringen, for the throne of Spain, rendered vacant by the Spanish revolution of 1868. Leopold had accepted
the candidacy under persuasion from Bismarck. The French government, alarmed at the possibility of a PrussoSpanish alliance resulting from the occupancy of the Spanish throne by a member of the Hohenzollern dynastic
family, threatened Prussia with war if Leopold's candidacy was not withdrawn. The French ambassador to the
Prussian court, Comte Vincente Benedetti, was dispatched to Ems, a spa in northwestern Germany being visited by
William I, king of Prussia. Benedetti had been instructed to demand that the Prussian monarch order Prince
Leopold to withdraw his candidacy. William, although angered, gave Benedetti permission to communicate directly
with Leopold by telegraph. Leopold could not be reached, but his father, Prince Charles Anthony, wired a retraction
of the candidacy in the name of his son.
The government of Napoleon III, still not content, was determined to humiliate Prussia, even at the cost of war.
Antoine Agnor Alfred, duc de Gramont, the French foreign minister, demanded that William submit a personal
letter of apology to Napoleon III and a guarantee that the Hohenzollern candidacy would never be renewed. In an
interview with Benedetti at Ems, the Prussian king rejected the French demands. The same day, Bismarck obtained
William's authorization to publish the French demands and the Prussian rejection contained in what was known as
the Ems Dispatch. Bismarck edited the document in a manner calculated to aggravate the resentment of the
French and the Germans. The Prussian statesman realized that this move would in all probability precipitate war,
but he knew that Prussia was prepared, and he counted on the psychological effect of a French declaration of war
to rally the south German states to Prussia's cause, thus accomplishing the final phase in the unification of
Germany.
THE WAR BEGINS
On July 19, 1870, France declared war on Prussia. The south German states, in fulfillment of their treaties with
Prussia, immediately joined King William in a common front against France. The French were only able to mobilize
about 200,000 troops; the Germans, however, quickly marshaled an army of about 400,000 men. All German forces
were under the supreme command of William, with the great strategist Helmuth Karl Bernhard, Graf von Moltke, as
his chief of staff. Three German armies drove into France, led, respectively, by General Karl Friedrich von
Steinmetz, Prince Frederick Charles, and Crown Prince Frederick William, later Frederick III of Prussia and
emperor of Germany. The first engagement, a minor skirmish, was won by the French on August 2, when they drove
a small Prussian detachment from the city of Saarbrcken, near the border between France and Germany. In the
major battles at Weissenburg (August 4), at Wrth (August 6), and at Spichern (August 6), however, the French
under Marie Edm Patrice Maurice, comte de MacMahon were defeated. MacMahon was ordered to fall back on

Chlons. Achille Franois Bazaine, in command of all French troops east of the city of Metz, was directed to
maintain his positions. Metz itself was to be held at all costs. These orders split the French forces, which were
unable thereafter to regain their unity or freedom of action. On August 12 the French emperor handed the
supreme command over to Bazaine, who was badly beaten in the great battles of Vionville (August 15) and
Gravelotte (August 18), and forced into Metz. There he was besieged by two German armies. MacMahon then was
ordered to relieve Metz. On August 30 the Germans surprised and defeated MacMahon's leading corps at
Beaumont, whereupon he decided to withdraw his army to the town of Sedan.
BATTLE OF SEDAN AND CAPTURE OF NAPOLEON III
The decisive battle of the war opened in Sedan on the morning of September 1, 1870 ( see Sedan, Battle of). At
about 7:00 AM MacMahon was severely wounded, and an hour and a half later General Emmanuel Flix de Wimpffen
received the chief command. The battle continued until 4:15 PM, when Napoleon, who meanwhile had arrived in
Sedan, resumed command. Recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, he ordered the white flag to be hoisted.
Terms of surrender were negotiated during the night, and on the following day Napoleon, together with 83,000
troops, surrendered to the Germans.
Upon receiving intelligence of the capture of the French emperor, Paris rose in rebellion, the Legislative Assembly
was dissolved, and France was proclaimed a republic. Before the close of September, Strasbourg, one of the last
points at which the French had hoped to stem the German advance, capitulated, and Paris was completely
surrounded. On October 7 the minister of the new French government, Lon Gambetta, made a dramatic escape
from Paris by balloon, and with his chief assistant, Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet, established a provisional
capital in the city of Tours. From there they led the organization and equipment of 36 military divisions. The
efforts of these troops proved unavailing, however, and they were at length driven into Switzerland, where they
were disarmed and interned.
SIEGE OF PARIS, FRENCH CAPITULATION, AND GERMAN OCCUPATION
On October 27 Marshal Bazaine surrendered at Metz with 173,000 men. Paris, meanwhile, was subjected to siege
and bombardment. Its citizens, attempting to stave off the enemy with crude and makeshift weapons, and reduced
to eating cats, dogs, and even rats, were at length compelled, on January 19, 1871, to open negotiations for
surrender.
A day earlier, January 18, an event had occurred that represented the culmination of Bismarck's unremitting
efforts for the unification of Germany. William I, the Prussian king, was crowned emperor of Germany in the Hall
of Mirrors at Versailles. The formal capitulation of Paris took place on January 28, following which an armistice of
three weeks was arranged. A French national assembly, elected to negotiate the peace, convened at Bordeaux on
February 13 and chose Adolphe Thiers as the first president of the Third Republic. In March Parisians broke out in
revolt of the new assembly and organized a revolutionary government known as the Commune of Paris ( see Commune
of Paris, 1871). Opposing the armistice, they fought bitterly against government troops sent by Thiers to suppress
the revolt. The ensuing civil war lasted until May, when the revolutionaries surrendered.
The Treaty of Frankfurt, signed on May 10, 1871, ended the war between France and Germany. The treaty provided
that the French province of Alsace (excepting Belfort) and part of Lorraine, including Metz, were to be ceded to
the German Empire, and that France was to pay a war indemnity of 5 billion gold francs ($1 billion), submitting to
occupation by German troops until the amount was rendered in full. This heavy obligation was discharged in
September 1873, and during the same month, after an occupation of almost three years, France was at last freed
of German soldiers.

CAUSES

DURING THE WAR

CONSEQUENCES