is a writer living in Brooklyn.
History is famously full of conflicts celebrated by the victors and forgotten by the losers. But some are ignored on all sides. The Franco-Prussian War is one of the latter, but it is now excavated by Rachel Chrastil's Bismarck's War: The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe.
The German general staff was rapidly becoming the model for military organization around the world, thanks to the effort of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, its chief. The French didn't really have one. Other caprices didn't help. French plans involved the formation of three armies. Napoleon III decided on the spot to form one, then shortly after, to split it into two.
The Germans won a larger prize than anticipated. They didn't initially realize that Napoleon III was with the French army. He surrendered personally but did not surrender France — nor did he abdicate. The legitimacy of the resulting government was far from clear. The United States recognized it, but many did not. Bazaine, besieged in Metz, was a Bonapartist who didn't recognize the new regime. In any case, Paris was soon surrounded by the Germans.
Paris contained a number of top-shelf talents, many recently won over to the cause. Gustave Courbet was appointed head of a commission to safeguard art within the city. He commented of Bismarck, “Until Sedan, you even did us a favor ... but now that you have settled the score with Bonaparte, what business do you have with the Republic?" Victor Hugo, recently returned from exile for criticizing Napoleon III, was preaching resistance. Censorship and taxes on new periodicals were eliminated.
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