With updates from the author, specially commissioned maps and 50 new
images, this is a concise overview of the Franco-Prussian War.
The Franco-Prussian War started in 1870 when Otto von Bismarck
engineered a war with the French Second Empire under Napoleon III, as
part of his plan to unite Prussia with the southern German states as a
new Germany. Stephen Badsey examines the build-up, battles, and impact
of the war, which was an overwhelming Prussian victory with massive
consequences. The French Second Empire collapsed, Napoleon III became an
exile in Britain, and King Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor of the new
united Germany. In the peace settlement that followed, Germany gained
the eastern French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, areas that were to
provide a bone of contention for years to come.
Updated and revised, with full-colour maps and new images throughout,
this is a concise study of the largest and most important war fought in
Europe between the age of Napoleon and the First World War, a war that
marked the beginning of the creation of modern Europe.