Franco-Prussian War

Napoleon knew how outmatched the French Army was, but the thing was by this point he had given concessions to the republicans so he was basically just a hereditary President. When he tried to expand the army, the Legislature blocked him from doing so saying it was an unnecesary "militarization" of french society. Then he tried to reform the army so it'd at least have a better quality if not quantity, but the legislature managed to block it for so long at by the time they let it through it was too late. The entire war was a false flag created by the jacobins to depose the Emperor.

Add to this the Emperor was extremely sick by then. If He had had an operation before the war, He may have had the strength to fight the republicans politically, and the diplomatic accumen to avoid the war. Every single evil star in the universe aligned against Him it seems.

That's the wrong Moltke, mate.

Interesting! Is there any source to this so I can read more? Also, do you think Bismarck or the prussian government was involved I this?

>he couldn't even win a war against one country that he outnumbered
he didn't outnumber them, though

Looks like they grabbed the wrong Wilhelm too.

what I love is that a goodly amount of french are of the opinion that this isn't in any part their own nation's fault

How was French people response to the war at the moment? Did they feel like it was their war? Did they follow their leaders and generals until the very end? Whether the answer is yes or no, that's what it matters, not the opinion of today's people.

Are there any detailed articles about the ex-HRE from 1848 to 1871?

go look at the actual battle statistics, germans almost always outnumbered the french until later in the war. mobilization on the french part was ass

Well, I was being hyperbolic when I said the war itself was created by the Jacobins. Bismarck started the war, but the French Republicans damn well did everything they could to intentionally lose it so the Emperor would be deposed. Idk if they were actively collaborating with the germans but they knew what they were doing. Had Nappy remained an absolute monarch France would have had a good shot at winning the war, or at least getting a peace without losing any territory.

Then why did Napoleon III's prime minister go to war through the support of the legislature with the support of the conservative faction upon N III's request while the republicans were the ones with a higher share of opposition?

>deploy 133% as many men as the Germans
>have a peak field strength only 75% that of Germany

Just how fucking bad were the French logistics?

it's only that the french didn't yet understand trains

>2
I originally posted that Nap was betrayed. Its very hard to find an English biography of him as Republicans wrote him off as a bad boi evil retard for obvious propaganda reasons as they basically fucked over france in order to achieve an ideological victory. They even claimed the 3rd republic was a temporary measure in order to crown a new king, which obviously didn't happen but it explains why the 3rd republic was complete fucking shit.

Learn French basically or you won't learn much about Nap III.

The politics of the 3rd republic are so chaotic and power so hard for anyone to hold the government itself was a total failure and France only really coasted along because of the Empire that its monarchs had managed to create for it.

Couldn't be troubled to study the stupid americans and their primitive civil war.

>Bismarck
>von Moltke
>von Roon
How can France even compete?

>Learn French basically or you won't learn much about Nap III.
>mfw I dropped because didn't see any use in it

*Edits Your Dispatch*

>How was French people response to the war at the moment?
cryout about a mistranslated telegram and ask for war in every big city of france makes you pretty much responsable

I too naively believed i wouldn't need to learn any languages to read old texts

That was the government and parliament. I meant the common people.

Russia’s actions in Prussian success was undoubtedly significant. Austria was kept back from any ideas of coming to France’s aid,by Russia amassing 300,000 troops on Austria’s border, enabling Prussia to focus all manpower on her Western frontier.

“Prussia will never forget,” gushed the newly minted German Emperor, William, “that she owes it to you that the war has not taken on extreme dimensions.” In reply, Alexander wrote back: “Let the friendship which unites us assure the happiness and glory of our two countries.”

Russia’s part in the unification of Germany guaranteed her that triumphant power’s support and protection at the beginning of the 1870’s, allowing the Tsar to inform Europe, in the Great Power manner, that the dignity of his empire was too important to take notice of the terms dictated to it, as a defeated power, fifteen years previously at the treaty of Paris.

Imagine being this brainwashed by Paradox
I fucking hate americans so much

Did Russia backed up Prussia because of the holly alliance?

>en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Alliance

The exact moment France lost its badass card in Europe.

Holy Alliance only activates when Liberal/Nationalist Radicals start chimping out.

Say: like 1848 when Europeans helped each other stamp out the revolutions.

>That was the government and parliament.
no, the common people was asking for war too

Note that a lot of those casualties are entire armies being surrounded and having to surrender. And people blame the generals of WW1 for thinking it would be a war of movement: this was their last reference point for large scale warfare. The Russo-Japanese war did shake things up and some did realise the potential consequences of modern weapons, but less than a decade isn’t enough for tactics and strategies to entirely revolutionise, all the higher ups in Europe had been taught and trained by people who used the 1870 war as examples.

Go look at primary sources and you’ll see that while it was definitely a blow to the prestige of the French army it didn’t permanently damage their reputation. They went from basically uncontested top dog to a contested one. However, people had seen what the Prussians were capable of, that maybe “Army with a state” wasn’t just a meme.

Jacobins??
You are unhinged.

France had the largest army outside of Russia. They had the best rifle.
Their army was imitated worldwide.
They had been victorious.

The budget for military expenditures required more conquests to fill the coffers.

Almost as much had been spent on Hausmann's modernization of Paris.

The Hapsburgs were also part of the Holy Alliance.

German propaganda.

What garbage.

WRONG on every point.

How stupid are you??

It's true tho

I despise the french with all of my existence. Anything coming out of france should be shot if alive and then burned either way. I hope that even if their colonies do not colonize them back like they are doing right now, that country will one day be nothing but a small note in a history book.

Worthless piece of frog shit detected

Not him, but what has Paradox to do with that?

calm down nigel

the French was still grasping the usage of railroad,misuse their advantages in rifles and proto-machineguns as artillery piece and still rely to much on the spirit of elan
lessons learned here could've made world war 1 a much briefer yet perhaps as bloody of an experience

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Most aesthetic war

nigel doesn't hold this level of contempt for france, only a jealous indignation that inspires slander, this is a far deeper resentment

Are you memeing or is this true?

Did the Germans study the American civil war? The French had fought in the Crimean War, so it's not like they didn't have relatively recent military experience.

oh... then is wrong I guess

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Thanks user, I really enjoyed these :)
Have a machu pichu

no, he is right, the french genuinely believe that the war was not their fault even when they (the common people) were the one pushing Napi to war

You are right, I meant that the common belief is clearly wrong.

Not him, but German observers of the American Civil War learned how useful trains are for troop transport and used it as one of their main means to move troops around. The French did not. There's some credence to anons claim, but it's only part of the story (albeit a large one and one of the main reasons for quick German victory)

lmao you've been swallowing too much republishit propaganda faggot.

It's true, they literally had trains backed up for miles trying to deliver troops. The Germans were ahead of the curve on trains, they had all the various states connected via trains before the French had even connected two cities via train.

492k vs 730 k regular

>Gee it was a fair fight, even that France was advantaged by the number

Nap III is neglected though I wouldn't say he's totally neglected. Concerning the war itself, I can't suggest anything to you as undergrad history doesn't go deep into military matters.

However, if you want a general overview of the Second Empire, Plessis's book is excellent and has been translated in English:

A. Plessis, J. Mandelbaum (trans.), The Rise and Fall of the Second Empire 1852-1871

More narrowly on the politics of the Second Empire:
T. Zeldin, The Political System of Napoleon III

If you're interested in France in the ninetenth century in general, or if you just want context for the pre/post- Nap, Robert Tomb's book is very good:
R. Tombs, France 1814-1914

totally ignored*