The German Question, Part Fifty-Two

"Bismarck" Part Four/A "Prelude To War With France"

After Prussia's defeat of Austria and the formation of the North German Confederation, Emperor Napoleon III of France was in a bit of a precarious situation. There were rumblings in France from people who wanted more liberties, thus keeping the possibility of a revolution very much on Napoleon III's mind. Foreign policy blunders, including an attempt to install a French-backed ruler in Mexico (which failed), gave continued hope to French revolutionaries. After much damage to his prestige, Napoleon III needed a success to gain the support of a solid majority of the French people.

While Prussia's position strengthened greatly with the defeat of Austria, the south German states remained outside of Prussia's control, although Bismarck secretly signed alliances with these states, which guaranteed mutual assistance in any war, the importance of which would soon be realized.

There were numerous and complex diplomatic maneuvers in the time between the Austro-Prussian War and the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War; too many to go into here, but just briefly, Napoleon III wanted allies against Prussia to help tie down Prussian forces. He used Austria's humiliation at the hands of Prussia to try to lure her to side with France in a war against Prussia, and further, to try to get Austria to have the south German states follow Austria's lead. Austria wanted Italy drawn into any alliance against Prussia, but Italy wanted all French troops withdrawn from Rome, where they stood guard in protection of the Papacy. A French withdrawal would have given Italians control of their designated capital, which still remained outside of the new Italian nation. This demand put Napoleon III in a bind. With unrest in France so prevalent, he did not want to stir the pot further by permitting Italy to occupy Rome and antagonize French Catholics (France was an overwhelmingly Catholic country). Also working against Napoleon III was the fact that Bismarck had worked out agreements with Russia, essentially guaranteeing that Russia would remain neutral in a Prussian war with France, or that Russia would actually go to war with Austria, if the Austrians sided with France.

Prior to the Austro-Prussian War, Bismarck had negotiated with Napoleon III (see previous articles for more detail) to keep France neutral. He offered to "consider" Napoleon's desire to take over Belgium and Luxembourg, and perhaps other (German) territory along the Rhine River.* Later, after Austria's defeat, Napoleon III's representative reminded Bismarck of his promise to "consider" territory for France. Again, Bismarck outwitted the French by skillfully getting the French representative to put the matter in writing (no recording devices in those days). Bismarck then later released this letter, which brought cries of indignation from others against Napoleon III.** As to Luxembourg, Napoleon III tried to buy it from the Dutch king, but Prussia and other German states strongly objected, bringing the parties to the point of war. A special meeting of the major European powers in London resolved the matter by guaranteeing Luxembourg's independence and neutrality, and by requiring that Prussia withdraw its troops. Napoleon III lost out on territory again.***/****

To be continued..... (A Word History is below the notes)

* Belgium was not German territory, but at that point in time, Luxembourg, a personal possession of the Dutch king, was still a member of the German Confederation. Napoleon III was also interested in other German areas on the west bank of the Rhine River. Napoleon III made a serious error (from the French point of view) by not getting Bismarck to commit to territorial adjustments, rather than Bismarck's foxy "consideration" of such. (See Note 2)

** Napoleon III had earlier guaranteed the independence of Belgium. His new attempts to take over Belgium brought him sharp rebuffs from Great Britain; thus alienating another potential ally against Prussia.

*** Luxembourg, which was granted independence after the Prussian victory over Austria and the dissolution of the German Confederation, became a member of the (German) Customs Union ("Zollverein") and had Prussian troops stationed there. If Napoleon III had succeeded in buying Luxembourg, those troops would have been removed, giving him a better strategic position in any potential war with Prussia. On the other hand, Bismarck's military advisers naturally wanted to retain their military presence in Luxembourg, which is along the northern French border.

**** Napoleon III also lost the "public relations" war, as he was seen, correctly, as trying to take over other countries. While we are now approaching the point in this series where the Germans came to be seen by much of the world as the aggressors, up to that point, and for a couple of centuries previous, France was often, but not always, seen as an aggressor nation, and this certainly was not limited to Napoleon or his nephew, Napoleon III. That does not mean that other nations didn't periodically have similar aggressive intentions,"  back then.

WORD HISTORY:
Blitz-This word is more commonly part of the World War Two era compound German word "Blitzkrieg" in English, or just "blitz" for the American football term "to rush the quarterback." In England the shortened form "Blitz" has been used for the German air attacks on the United Kingdom in 1940 during World War Two, commonly known there as "the Blitz." This word goes back to Indo European "bhleg," or some sources say "bhel," which had the meaning of "shine, burn." This spawned the Old Germanic verb form "blikkatjan," which meant "to brighten, to flash" (this also gave Old English the noun "blæcern," meaning "candle light"). This then gave Old High German "blecchazzen," with the same meaning. Later this became "bliczen," which then simply meant "to flash," with the obvious progression to modern "blitzen," and the derived noun form "Blitz," which means "lightening" (all German nouns are capitalized; thus the capital "B"). Just for your information, the meaning of the names in the Christmas story with the reindeer "Donner" and "Blitzen," is "Thunder" and "Lightening."