The Balance of Power in Europe after the Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71

The French declaration of war meant that the French had fallen into a trap prepared for them by Bismarck. Bismarck had plotted so as to persuade the independent south German states to join a union with Prussian-dominated north Germany. The causus belli was a dispute over the claim of a Hollenhozern to the Spanish throne. France not only protested, but insisted on guarantees. Bismarck edited the Prussian king's reply (the “Ems” telegram) into what was effectively a deliberate insult to France.

In the war France was without allies and fought with a poorly organized army. Its mobilization was slow and inefficient. The Germans outmaneuvered the French. In September 1870 one of the French armies, led by the Emperor, surrendered at Sedan with 80,000 men. By late October the main French army, encircled at Metz, also surrendered with 150,000 men. The Government of National Defence raised new armies, but these were unable to break the siege of Paris, which fell in January 1871. Also in January 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles the King of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Germany.

In the Frankfurt peace treaty France ceded Alsace and Lorraine and paid 5000 million francs in indemnity. The Germans marched in victory through Paris. Subsequently, Paris set up a Commune in March 1871, and French government troops stormed the city in late May 1871 with terrible atrocities. As a result of the German military success, it was widely believed that future wars would involve rapid mobilisation, rapid movement and would be over quickly. Conscription was essential. Russia exploited the situation in 1870 by repudiating the restrictions on her navy that had been imposed following the Crimean War. Italy occupied Rome in 1870. Germany emerged as the dominant power in central Europe.

The Great Powers

Germany

The German state was dominated by Prussia. The executive (the Kaiser and his Chancellor) was not subject to parliamentary control. The Kaiser, as Supreme War Lord, headed an authoritarian and militaristic regime. The Reichstag was elected by universal suffrage. Although it had no executive powers, it did have a veto, and successive Chancellors sought its co-operation. Bismarck dominated Germany from 1871 to 1890. After his fall in 1890 German foreign policy lacked coherence.

Germany grew to become the greatest industrial power in Europe, with growth in heavy industry and also in new industries such as chemicals and optics. By 1900 Germany had overtaken Britain as an industrial power and was second only to the US. Prussia's military victory in the Franco-Prussian war was probably due to Prussia's increased economic strength, which continued to grow after 1870. For example, by 1913 Germany was producing 219 million tons of coal in comparison to Britain's 292 million tons. By this time German output of coal exceeded that of France and Belgium combined. She had risen to be the second iron producing country in the world. The second industrial revolution followed the introduction of electricity (after Siemen's invention of the dynamo). The German chemical industry also grew.

The growth of Germany's population also outstripped that of France, and emigration from Germany virtually dropped to zero.

Comparison of the population (in millions) of Germany and France

Germany was an intensely militarized state. Modern warfare requires greater training and the use of conscription. Military service in Prussia lasted three years. After this time, men were required to serve in the reserve. This level of training and service was not paralleled in France. France introduced conscription as a response to the fall of the Empire following the Franco-Prussian war. Britain remained the only European country without conscription until 1916. Krupp's armaments factory of Essen developed the breech-loading steel canon. There was the development of the German railway and effective military planning to use the railway in the event of war.

But there was social tension within Germany arising from the political domination of the Junkers - the Prussian land-owning aristocracy. The historian Wehler claims that German foreign policy was a deliberate attempt to divert attention away from domestic issues so as to perpetuate the power of this class. In foreign policy Germany faced interesting choices over relations with Austria-Hungary, Russia and especially Britain. The Germans had to decide whether to rival Britain in trade and empire or ally with her.

France

The defeat of France in the war gave Germany a strategic advantage, but the people of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which had been ceded to Germany, identified with France. As a result, France could be expected to be always on the side against Germany in the event of any international alignment of powers.

During the course of the war, Emperor Napoleon III was captured and imprisoned, and he soon died. The French government was headed by Adolphe Thiers, a moderate liberal. There was an insurrection in Algeria. In March 1871 a revolt in Paris led to the establishment of the Paris commune. In 1875 France effectively became a Republic with the adoption of new constitutional laws, which confirmed France as a democratic republic. This established the Third Republic. In May 1877 the President of the Republic, Marshal Macmahon, tried to impose his own Prime Minister, but this was opposed by the chamber of Deputies, and Macmahon was forced to resign. Hence, the power of the President was diminished. One effect of this was to create executively weak governments, but there were some notable achievements nonetheless. Jules Ferry was able to give the French educational system a secular, non-religious and republican foundation. Théophile Delcassé, who was foreign minister between 1898 and 1905, developed the Anglo/French Entente Cordiale. George Clemenceau gave France effective leadership during the last years of the First World War.

France recovered from the 1870 war. Industrialisation was less complete than in Germany; agriculture still employed a large proportion of labour; population expansion was slower than the other great powers. 68% of the population lived on the land in 1876 and 56% in 1911, whereas in Germany by c1900 28% of the population was rural. France's recovery from the 1870 war was rapid, and in 1874 France paid off the indemnity to Germany six months in advance. In 1878 the International Exhibition was held in Paris.

France regained her position as a world power. The army was reorganised and a powerful navy constructed. France heavily invested capital abroad, especially in Russia. Although France was too weak to fight a war with Germany independently, the French people retained the idea of avranche (revenge) for 1870. It was a part of French national consciousness to hope for a war that would reverse the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt. The expansion of the French empire into Africa brought her into conflict with Britain. After 1870 the French adopted a liberal alliance with Britain. But in the 1880s Anglo-French colonial rivalries put an end to this. An alliance with Russia was concluded during the period 1892-94 that seemed hostile to Britain, but in the event proved to be the foundation of the coalition that fought against Germany in the First World War.