Franco-Prussian War - Aftermath
The results of the Franco-Prussian war were of enormous importance to Germany, France, and Europe as a whole. There can be no doubt that the war completed the work of Bismarck and consolidated Germany. The German empire was a direct outcome of the struggle, when the King of Prussia reluctantly consented to be crowned Emperor at Versailles on January 18th, 1871. France was strangely altered. She had entered the struggle as an Imperial power ; she emerged a Republic. For the moment the Revolutionary and Socialist parties ceased to exist in France, and the old divisions of party reappeared. In the Assembly there was a monarchical majority, but it was not united and there was no general enthusiasm for Orleans or Bourbon. As for the Bonapartes, their popularity did not outlive Sedan and the dishonour of their third catastrophe.
Russia had taken the opportunity of repudiating the obnoxious clauses of the Treaty of Paris. This had been done by Gortschakoff on October 2gth, 187o, though the bold move was probably suggested by Count Nicolaus Ignatieflf,* the most active and skilful of Russian diplomatists. The Italians, too, had seized their chance while France was too much engaged in her own affairs, and had established their power in Rome, and the ancient capital became the seat of government of united Italy. From this moment the Pope shut himself up as a prisoner in the Vatican. One remarkable feature of the war lay in the illustration that it afforded of the extraordinary recuperative powers of France. This power of recuperation is an ever-familiar feature in the story of the French people. No European nation has passed through so many political crises as France, but in every case she has recovered with wonderful vitality. Humbled, broken, wearied, and overcome, in a. few years' time all is changed, and France is herself again. So in this instance, the indemnity which would have crushed the commercial and financial resources of any ordinary nation, was paid off not only by the time stated in the Treaty of Frankfort, but long before. Besides this, although thousands of her male population had perished, although she could scarcely register a single victory during those terrible months of war, nevertheless the militant spirit still beat in the hearts of patriotic Frenchmen, and within four years of the peace it was possible for France to place in the field an army of 2,400,000 men.
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