Franco-Prussian War | |||||||
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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). |
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Belligerents | |||||||
French Empirea | Hesse-Darmstadt | ||||||
French Republicb | German Empired | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
909,951
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1,200,000
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
756,285
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116,696
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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 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.