What was the outcome of the Franco Prussian war of 1870?

Answer 1

It is easy to forget (and some history books don't mention it), that the Germany wasn't even a country until 1871, less than half a century before WWI. The beginnings of this state were in the conquests of Napoleon. The northern states had been occupied by France under Napoleon, until Prussia (the most powerful German state) Austria (East of what is now Germany), Russia, and Britain united to defeat the French. This made Prussia even more powerful, and created resentment between the Germans and French, as well as giving the northern German states a taste of what it was like to be part of a larger nation, and simultaneously sparking their sense of Nationalism. Germany as we know it was built by a thoroughly ruthless and Machiavellian man named Otto Von Bismarck. He wanted to create a united Germany out of what were at the time 38 separate states. Creating this united state was a challenge for several reasons. The other European powers didn't want to see another empire rising in their midst so soon after having had to put down the French. The various German states were independent and wanted to stay that way. He had to create his empire without building lasting resentments between the states he was seeking to unite and without alarming the other European powers. He did this basically by building a coalition, then provoking a state that was outside that coalition to attack it. This gave him an excuse to enlarge his military, increased the cohesiveness of the coalition he already had, and added another state to his coalition. He repeated this several times until the German states were under his control. Next he had to take on Austria, which at that time was officially the top dog in Germany. He needed to ensure the neutality of France. In order to do this, he offered to turn a blind eye if France annexed a part of southern Belgium, but didn't sign the offer. Then he cleverly provoked Austria to attack. Fours years later he opposed the French claim to the Spanish crown. When the French got it they demanded that the Germans never again try to claim it. In response, he published a telegramme insulting France. This ticked off the French people enough to declare war in 1870. The Austrians weren't all that upset with him because he'd worked hard to rebuild good relations with them, so they stayed out of it, and no one else really saw a reason to join with the French. As a result the French lost to a united Germany. Bismarck used this war to unite Germany, and build German pride and power by humiliating the French and forcing them to give Germany the territories of Alsace and Loraine, and demanding five years of reparations. It should be noted that at this time it was traditional for the winning power to demand reparations of the loser in European conflicts. In fact, the relatively light reparations Germany demanded of Austria were seen as a gesture of good will by the Austrians, and were part of Bismarck's diplomatic efforts to repair Germany's relationship with Austria after their war. However, the net effect was to build a lasting resentment against Germany in the hearts of the French. As a result, Bismarck was able to unite all the German states except Austria into a German Empire under Kaiser William I in 1871. Bismarck was Chancellor. By 1880 at the latest Germany was the military and economic 'top dog' in Continental Europe. The other European powers were uneasy about Germany's new power. After its war on France and its subsequent unification Germany had the strongest military of the continental powers, and was an industrial powerhouse. Its ultimate power was actually somewhat limited because unlike Britain and France, Germany was not a colonial power, so it did not have the massive resources at its disposal the other powers had in their colonies. However, by not competing with the other powers for colonial assets, Bismarck was able avoid conflict. However, eventually William I was replaced by a new Kaiser, William II, who was less willing to allow Bismarck to be the power behind his throne and in 1890 Bismarck resigned.

Answer 2

German nationalism with the idea of a united Germany. The Kingdom of Prussia needed an event to gather the states of Germany like Bavaria and a war was engineered by the Prussians to make the German states think France was a problem.

This along with long-time hostilities and memories of the defeat of Prussia and the German states by Napoleon lead to the one the few moderate wars from the Napoleonic Wars to World War I in Europe.