Franco-Prussian War

Franco-Prussian War
Part of the wars of German unification
Clockwise from top left: Prussian infantry at the Battle of Spicheren; Jeanniot's 1886 La ligne de feu (Battle of Mars-La-Tour); Werner's depiction of the capitulation of Sedan; Neuville's 1873 Les dernières cartouches (Battle of Bazeilles).
Date 19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871 (9 months and 3 weeks) Location France and Rhine Province Result German victory  • Fall of the Second French Empire  • Formation of the French Third Republic  • Formation of the German Empire  • Treaty of Frankfurt  • German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine
Belligerents
French Empirea	North German  Confederation  Prussiac Baden  Bavaria Württemberg Hesse-Darmstadt
French Republicb	German Empired
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon III  (POW) F. A. Bazaine  (POW) Louis Jules Trochu Patrice de MacMahon  (POW) Léon Gambetta	William I Otto von Bismarck Helmuth von Moltke Crown Prince Friedrich Prince Friedrich Karl Karl F. von Steinmetz Albrecht von Roon
Strength
909,951 492,585 active 417,366 Garde Mobile	1,200,000 300,000 regulars 900,000 reserves and  Landwehr
Casualties and losses
756,285 138,871 dead 143,000 wounded 474,414 captured	116,696 28,208 dead 88,488 wounded
a Until 4 September 1870. b From 4 September 1870. c Leading member of the North German Confederation. d From 18 January 1871.

Baden
 Bavaria
Württemberg

909,951

1,200,000

756,285

116,696

The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War (German: Deutsch-Französischer Krieg, French: Guerre franco-allemande), often referred to in France as the War of 1870 (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871), was a conflict between the Second French Empire of Napoleon III and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The conflict was caused by Prussian ambitions to extend German unification and French fears of the shift in the European balance of power that would result if the Prussians succeeded. Some historians argue that the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked a French attack in order to draw the independent southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt—into an alliance with the North German Confederation dominated by Prussia, while others contend that Bismarck did not plan anything and merely exploited the circumstances as they unfolded.