Bismarck’s War: The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 was “not a war of angels,” according to this fine-grained chronicle from historian Chrastil (How to Be Childless). In July 1870, France declared war on Prussia over the succession to the Spanish throne, a crisis engineered by the “guiding hand” of Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck to ensure the dispute could not be resolved peacefully. Bismarck’s goal was to forge German unification through “shared victory” over the Second Empire of France under Napoleon III. When German soldiers crossed over into French territory, Chrastil notes, France “acted without precedent” to expel German civilians, laying the groundwork for “large-scale, forced migration and deportations” around the world in the 1880s and beyond. Chrastil argues that as the conflict continued, so too did the “intensification of brutality,” leading to the first international humanitarian intervention on behalf of civilians during wartime (when a Swiss group led residents of Strasbourg to safety), as well as the modernization of European militaries so that armies could mobilize and concentrate forces rapidly and on a large scale. Marshaling a tremendous amount of information, Chrastil clearly demonstrates how this conflict set the stage for the world-shattering violence of the 20th century. It’s an outstanding synthesis of a complex and vicious war. (Sept.)