Chapter 24

THE WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY.

Napoleon III.--The Mexican Expedition--Withdrawal of the French and death of Maximilian--The Luxemburg Question--Exasperation in France against Prussia--Austria--Italy--Mentana--Germany after 1866--The Spanish Candidature of Leopold of Hohenzollern--French declaration--Benedetti and King William--Withdrawal of Leopold and demand for guarantees--The telegram from Ems--War--Expected Alliances of France--Austria--Italy--Prussian plans--The French army--Causes of French inferiority--Weissenburg--Wörth-- Spicheren--Borny--Mars-la-Tour--Gravelotte--Sedan--The Republic proclaimed at Paris--Favre and Bismarck--Siege of Paris--Gambetta at Tours--The Army of the Loire--Fall of Metz--Fighting at Orleans--Sortie of Champigny--The Armies of the North, of the Loire, of the East--Bourbaki's ruin-- Capitulation of Paris and Armistice--Preliminaries of Peace--Germany-- Establishment of the German Empire--The Commune of Paris--Second Siege-- Effects of the war as to Russia and Italy--Rome