Franco-Prussian War and Siege of Paris

Franco-Prussian War and Siege of Paris (1870-1). Under Napoleon III, France unwisely embarked on war with Prussia in the summer of 1870. Against a background of smouldering confrontation, the official casus belli was a dispute over the candidate for the Spanish throne; less officially, a diplomatic snub, leaked in the famous Ems dispatch, provoked an outbreak of bellicosity in Paris. The outcome was a humiliating defeat for France. Superior manpower and deployment led to a series of Prussian victories in August, and the French emperor was captured at Sedan on 2 September. A republic was proclaimed in Paris on 4 September, and a government of national defence hastily assembled as the capital was besieged by the Prussian army. The siege lasted until January 1871, its later stages bringing severe hardship to the Parisians.

The French capitulation of 28 January 1871 was followed by nation-wide elections in February, and the resulting government, led by Adolphe Thiers, negotiated with Prussia; by the Treaty of Frankfurt (10 May 1871), France paid a heavy indemnity and ceded the two captured provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, thus inspiring over 40 years of revanchism. Meanwhile, the circumstances of the siege combined with political and social tensions in Paris to produce the uprising known as the Commune (March-May1871). The long-term result of France's crushing military defeat was deep-seated anxiety about German technological and demographic superiority, later reinforced by the events of the 20th c.

[Sian Reynolds]