Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary had entered into a second Three Emperors’ Alliance in 1881. Like the one before it, the agreement was designed by the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, to isolate France from potential allies and avoid rivalry between his two neighbours over territory in the Balkans.
Continuing tensions between Austria-Hungary and Russia over this region led to the agreement’s collapse in 1887 and forced Bismarck to find another way to maintain French diplomatic isolation.
Germany had already formed the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879, so the Reinsurance Treaty was created to ensure Russia continued to side with Germany. In return Germany agreed to a Russian sphere of influence in Bulgaria and the Black Sea.
By the time the treaty came up for renewal in 1890, Wilhelm II had become Kaiser of Germany. He insisted that Bismarck resign the Chancellorship in March that year, and argued that his personal relationship with Tsar Alexander III would be enough to avoid any future problems with Russia. Bismarck’s successor Leo von Caprivi was also unwilling to seek a renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty, meaning that it lapsed.
Without the treaty to tie St Petersburg to Berlin, the Russian government began to forge closer relations with France. France’s improving diplomatic situation was formalised in the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1892. This opened up Germany to the possibility of a war on two fronts, making the failure of the Reinsurance Treaty a contributing factor to the outbreak of the First World War.
Germany and Austria-Hungary had formed the defensive Dual Alliance in 1879 in which both countries agreed to assist each other if they were attacked by Russia and promised benevolent neutrality to the other in case of war with another nation.
Two years later Italy, which had North African imperial ambitions, was frustrated by France’s seizure of Tunisia. Wishing to secure a foreign alliance in case of future aggression from France, Italy consequently turned to Germany and Austria-Hungary, expanding their established relationship to form the Triple Alliance in 1882. The alliance provided Italy with German and Austro-Hungarian assistance in case France chose to attack, in return for which Italy would assist Germany if they were attacked. Meanwhile Austria-Hungary benefited from a guarantee that Italy would remain neutral in case of a war with Russia, removing the risk of a war on two fronts and providing some security amidst the rising tensions in the Balkans.
The alliance was renewed in 1887, 1907 and 1912. Meanwhile, in October 1883, Romania had secretly joined the Triple Alliance. This move was so secret that only King Carol I and a few senior politicians even knew.
However, similar to Italy’s involvement in the agreement, this did not result in Romania's joining the Central Powers when war broke out in 1914. Having based their decision on the fact that the first country to take offensive action was Austria-Hungary when it attacked Serbia, both Italy and Romania initially opted for neutrality. They claimed that, since the Triple Alliance was defensive, they were not duty bound to support the aggressor.
On 18 January 1871 Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed the first German Emperor.
Wilhelm had been made the President of the North German Confederation on its formation in 1867, and during the Franco-Prussian War took a leading role in the command of the combined German forces. Amidst the patriotic fervour that followed the successful German advance, in November 1870 the remaining states south of the river Main joined the North German Confederation.
On 10 December the Reichstag of the Confederation renamed itself the German Empire. Wilhelm was formally declared the German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on 18 January. The title was accepted grudgingly by Wilhelm who would have preferred ‘Emperor of Germany’ rather than ‘German Emperor’, but Bismarck warned that this would be dangerous as it suggested he had a claim to other Germanic lands such as Austria, Luxembourg and Switzerland. He also refused to be titled ‘Emperor of the Germans’, since this would have suggested he ruled with permission from the German people rather than by ‘the grace of God’. As a believer in divine right, this suggestion was unacceptable to him.
Three months later, on 14 April, the Reichstag adopted the German Constitution. This stated that the King of Prussia would be the permanent President of the confederation of states that formed the Empire. Therefore, the role of Emperor was tied to the Prussian crown.
The creation of the federal Empire made Wilhelm the head of state and president of the federated monarchies that made up the 27 constituent territories.
William I or Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the first head of state of a united Germany. He was de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858, when he became regent for his brother Frederick William IV, and he became king when his brother died three years later.
Under the leadership of William and his minister president Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. Despite his long support of Bismarck as Minister President, William held strong reservations about some of Bismarck's more reactionary policies, including his anti-Catholicism and tough handling of subordinates. In contrast to the domineering Bismarck, William was described as polite, gentlemanly and, while staunchly conservative, more open to certain classical liberal ideas than his grandson Wilhelm II, during whose reign he was known as Wilhelm the Great (der Große).
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen or Elsass-Lothringen) was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871, after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle department of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east of the Vosges Mountains. The Lorraine section was in the upper Moselle valley to the north of the Vosges.
The territory encompassed 93% of Alsace and 26% of Lorraine, while the rest of these regions remained part of France. For historical reasons, specific legal dispositions are still applied in the territory in the form of a "local law". In relation to its special legal status, since its reversion to France following World War I, the territory has been referred to administratively as Alsace-Moselle.
The modern history of Alsace-Lorraine was largely influenced by the rivalry between French and German nationalism.
France long sought to attain and preserve its "natural boundaries", which were the Pyrenees to the southwest, the Alpsto the southeast, and the Rhine River to the northeast. These strategic claims led to the annexation of territories located west of the Rhine river in the Holy Roman Empire. What is now known as Alsace was progressively conquered by Louis XIV in the 17th century, while Lorraine was incorporated in the 18th century under Louis XV.
In French foreign policy, the demand for the return of Alsace and Lorraine faded in importance after 1880 with the decline of the monarchists element. When the World War broke out in 1914, recovery of the two lost provinces became the top French war goal.
In the early 20th century, the increased militarization of Europe, and the lack of negotiation between major powers, led to harsh and rash actions taken by both sides in respect to Alsace-Lorraine during World War I. As soon as war was declared, both the French and German authorities used the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine as propaganda pawns.
Germans living in France were arrested and placed into camps by the French authorities. Upon occupying certain villages, veterans of the 1870 conflict were sought out and arrested by the French army.
The Germans responded to the outbreak of war with harsh measures against the Alsace-Lorraine populace: the Saverne Affair had convinced the high command that the population was hostile to the German Empire and that it should be forced into submission. German troops occupied some homes. The German military feared French partisans – or francs-tireurs, as they had been called during the Franco-Prussian War – would reappear.
German authorities developed policies aimed at reducing the influence of French. In Metz, French street names, which had been displayed in French and German, were suppressed in January 1915. Six months later, on July 15, 1915, German became the only official language in the region, leading to the Germanization of the towns’ names effective September 2, 1915.
Prohibiting the speaking of French in public further increased the exasperation of some of the natives, who were long accustomed to mixing their conversation with French language (see code-switching); however, the use even of one word, as innocent as "bonjour", could incur a fine. Some ethnic Germans in the region cooperated in the persecution as a way to demonstrate German patriotism.
German authorities became increasingly worried about renewed French nationalism. The Reichsland governor stated in February 1918: "Sympathies towards France and repulsion for Germans have penetrated to a frightening depth the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry". But in order to spare them possible confrontations with relatives in France but also to avoid any desertion from the Alsatian soldiers to the French army,[note 5] German Army draftees from Alsace-Lorraine were sent mainly to the Eastern front, or the Navy (Kaiserliche Marine). About 15,000 Alsatians and Lorrainers served in the German Navy.....
After the defeat of France in the spring of 1940, Alsace and Moselle were not formally annexed by Nazi Germany. Although the terms of the armistice specified that the integrity of the whole French territory could not be modified in any way, Adolf Hitler, the German Führer, drafted an annexation law in 1940 that he kept secret, expecting to announce it in the event of a German victory. Through a series of laws which individually seemed minor, Berlin took full control of Alsace-Lorraine, and Alsatians-Lorrainians could be drafted into the German Army. During the occupation, Moselle was integrated into a Reichsgau named Westmark and Alsace was amalgamated with Baden. Beginning in 1942, people from Alsace and Moselle were made German citizens by decree of the Nazi government.
Beginning in October 1942, young Alsatian and Lorrainian men were inducted into the German armed forces. Sometimes they were known as the malgré-nous, which could be translated in English as "against our will". A small minority, however, volunteered, notably the author of The Forgotten Soldier, known by the pseudonym Guy Sajer. Ultimately, 100,000 Alsatians and 30,000 Mosellans were enrolled, many of them to fight on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Red Army. Most of those who survived the war were interned in Tambov in Russia in 1945. Many others fought in Normandy against the Allies as the malgré-nous of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, some of which were involved in the Oradour sur Glane and Tulle war crimes. After the defeat of France in the spring of 1940, Alsace and Moselle were not formally annexed by Nazi Germany. Although the terms of the armistice specified that the integrity of the whole French territory could not be modified in any way, Adolf Hitler, the German Führer, drafted an annexation law in 1940 that he kept secret, expecting to announce it in the event of a German victory. Through a series of laws which individually seemed minor, Berlin took full control of Alsace-Lorraine, and Alsatians-Lorrainians could be drafted into the German Army. During the occupation, Moselle was integrated into a Reichsgau named Westmark and Alsace was amalgamated with Baden. Beginning in 1942, people from Alsace and Moselle were made German citizens by decree of the Nazi government.
Speaking Alsatian, Lorraine Franconian or French was prohibited under German occupation, and learning German was obligatory.
The city of Paris had been besieged by the Prussian army since September 1870. Following the surrender of the moderate republican government the following January many Parisians, of whom thousands had joined the ‘National Guard’ militia to defend the city, revolted. They refused to hand over the 400 cannons positioned in Paris to government forces and, on 18 March, killed Generals Clément-Thomas and Lecomte of the regular army who had been sent to take the cannons by force.
The government, regular forces and police subsequently evacuated the city for Versailles. The vacuum of power was filled by units of the National Guard. By the next evening the red flag of the Commune was flying over the Hôtel de Ville. Elections were called and, on 26 March, ninety-two representatives were elected to form the Commune council.
However, as a result of some nominees securing victories for multiple seats, and some candidates who had been nominated without their approval refusing to take up their seat, only 60 representatives actually joined the Council.
The results were declared on 27 March and the Council held its first meeting the following day. Within a week, however, the first skirmishes between the Commune’s National Guard and the regular army from Versailles had begun.
The refusal of the Communards to accept the authority of the French government led to the Commune being brutally suppressed by the regular French army in May during ‘The Bloody Week’. By 28 May the Commune had been defeated. Estimates say that between 10 and 50,000 Communards were killed or executed.
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire (and later, the Third French Republic) and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France's determination to restore its dominant position in continental Europe, which it had lost following Prussia's crushing victory over Austria in 1866. According to somehistorians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to draw four independent southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavariaand Hesse-Darmstadt—into an alliance with the North German Confederation dominated by Prussia. Some historians contend that Bismarck exploited the circumstances as they unfolded. None, however, dispute the fact that Bismarck must have recognized the potential for new German alliances, given the situation as a whole.
The causes of the Franco-Prussian War are strongly rooted in the events surrounding the gradual march toward the unification of the German states under Otto von Bismarck. In the midst of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Empress Eugénie, Foreign Minister Drouyn de Lhuys and War Minister Randon, worried that a Prussian victory might jeopardize France's status as the dominant power in Europe gained after the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, unsuccessfully urged Napoleon to implement an armed mediation which would consist in a mobilization and the massing of troops at France's eastern borders while the bulk of the Prussian armies were still engaged in Bohemia, as a warning that no territorial changes could be effected in Germany without France being consulted. As a result of Prussia's annexation of several German states which had sided with Austria during the war and the formation of the North German Confederation under Prussia's aegis, French public opinion stiffened and now demanded more firmness as well as territorial compensations. As a result, Napoleon demanded to Prussia a return to the French borders of1814, with the annexation of Luxembourg, most of Saarland, and the Bavarian Palatinate. Bismarck flatly refused what he disdainfully termed France's "politique des pourboires" (gratuity policy). He then communicated Napoleon's written territorial demands to Bavaria and the other southern German states of Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, which hastened the conclusion of defensive military alliances with these states. France had been strongly opposed to any further alliance of German states, which would have significantly strengthened Prussia militarily.
In Prussia, some officials considered a war against France both inevitable and necessary to arouse German nationalism in those states that would allow the unification of a great German empire. This aim was epitomized by Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's later statement: "I did not doubt that a Franco-German war must take place before the construction of a United Germany could be realised." Bismarck also knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the four southern German states to side with Prussia, hence giving Germans numerical superiority. He was convinced that France would not find any allies in her war against Germany for the simple reason that "France, the victor, would be a danger to everybody – Prussia to nobody," and he added, "That is our strong point." Many Germans also viewed the French as the traditional destabilizer of Europe, and sought to weaken France to prevent further breaches of the peace.
The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Prussian prince, to the throne of Spain. France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. The Hohenzollern prince's candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, but Otto von Bismarck goaded the French into declaring war by releasing an altered summary of the Ems Dispatch, a telegram sent by William I rejecting French demands that Prussia never again support a Hohenzollern candidacy. Bismarck's summary, as mistranslated by the French press Havas, made it sound as if the king had treated the French envoy in a demeaning fashion, which inflamed public opinion in France.
France mobilised its army on 15 July 1870, leading the North German Confederation to respond with its own mobilisation later that day. On 16 July 1870, the French parliament voted to declare war on Prussia, and the declaration of war was delivered to Prussia three days later. French forces invaded German territory on 2 August. The German coalition mobilised its troops much more effectively than the French and invaded northeastern France on 4 August. The German forces were superior in numbers, had better training and leadership and made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railways and artillery.
A series of swift Prussian and German victories in eastern France, culminating in the siege of Metz and the Battle of Sedan, saw French Emperor Napoleon III captured and the army of the Second Empire decisively defeated. A Government of National Defence declared the Third French Republic in Paris on 4 September and continued the war for another five months; the German forces fought and defeated new French armies in northern France. The French capital, Paris, was besieged and fell on 28 January 1871, after which a revolutionary uprising called the Paris Commune seized power in the city and held it for two months, until it was bloodily suppressed by the regular French army at the end of May 1871.
The German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian king Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismarck. They finally united most of Germany as a nation-state (Austria was excluded). The Treaty of Frankfurt of 10 May 1871gave Germany most of Alsaceand some parts of Lorraine, which became the Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen). Following this war, Bismarck maintained great authority in international affairs for two decades.
French determination to regain Alsace-Lorraine and fear of another Franco-German war, along with British apprehension about the balance of power, became factors in the causes of WW1.
