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The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 (Essential Histories)

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Despite the fact that the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 had major repercussions for later European history, there has been very works written about in the last forty years except for Michael Howard's excellent The Franco-Prussian War (1871) and Alistair Horne's The Fall of Paris (1967). Thankfully, Sandhurst professor Stephen Badsey has written an excellent summary of the Franco-Prussian War that is not a condensation of those previous works and which constitutes a fresh look at this neglected subject. Foremost in value, is the fact that Badsey's volume looks at the war in its entirety, rather than just the first action-packed month. Overall, Badsey's Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 is an excellent synopsis and reference source for this critical phase in the development of European military thought and weaponry.

After some brief sections detailing the background to the war, followed by equally brief sections on the opposing sides and the outbreak of war, Stephen Badsey moves into his main 24-page narrative of the war. This narrative is supported by ten maps: Europe in 1870, the main campaigns of the war, the battles on the frontier, the situation at Metz on 14-15 August 1870, the Battle of Mars-la-Tour, two maps on the Battle of Gravelotte-St Privat, the Battle of Sedan, the siege of Paris, and Europe after the war. The illustrations throughout the text are also excellent. Additionally, the concluding sections, such as Portrait of a Soldier, are also quite good. Overall, The Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871 probably packs more into the Osprey Essential Histories format than any other volume to date.

Badsey notes that the French performance in 1870 was so poor that it surprised both sides. Despite possession of superior weaponry (early machine guns, better breech-loading rifles), the French army was handicapped by sloppy staff work and a primitive reserve mobilization system. In essence, the French war machine was brave and well equipped, but totally disorganized. French senior leadership, including the Emperor Napoleon III, was so terrible as to defy rationale explanation. Amazingly, the French declared war on Prussia then had no plans or preparations for an offensive war. Furthermore, the French were diplomatically isolated and had to face an undistracted and increasingly unified German nation-in-being. Badsey notes that, "within a week of the fighting starting, two French armies ...were in full retreat." While the French army performed well at the tactical level - and came close to winning the major Battle of Gravelotte-St. Privat - it was clearly out-performed on the operational level and the two French armies always found themselves outmaneuvered by the Prussians. After a month of war, both French field armies and the Emperor were surrounded and combat ineffective.

Badsey's approach to this subject differs from the conventional interpretation, which tends to see the war as decided in the first four weeks. In particular, Badsey notes how naval power shaped the rest of the conflict, "but critically for this stage of the war, Prussia had no effective navy. French maritime trade and commerce were largely unaffected by the end of the Second Empire and so was French credit overseas; the French economy did not collapse, and the war continued to be financed, in part by borrowing on foreign money markets. French troops were brought back from garrisons overseas and weapons shipped in from other countries." While the newly raised and poorly trained armies of the Third Republic achieved few successes on the battlefield, Badsey notes that they did succeed in protracting the war far beyond what the Prussians had expected. Furthermore, the specter of revolution that appeared in Paris during the Communard scared the Prussians sufficiently to actually assist in rebuilding the French army in order to suppress that political cancer, lest it spread to other European countries. Thus, in Badsey's approach, the reader is presented with a more comprehensive look at the conflict than just a discussion of the frontier battles.

The Franco-Prussian War was also important for several changes in the western manner of warfare. The first Geneva Convention agreements had been signed just prior to the war by both Prussia and France, and the conflict was the first where prisoners and enemy wounded were treated much better than had been heretofore the case. Although war correspondents had appeared in the Crimean War and the American Civil War, their role increased in this war and the telegraph allowed them to report on the fighting in near real-time. While Badsey claims that the Prussian "terror" bombardment of Paris was an innovation in that it targeted civilians to achieve the city's surrender, in fairness, the French should get credit for that "innovation" when Louis XIV's army used mortars to devastate the German city of Koblenz in 1688.

However, Badsey's conclusion is a bit less sure, when he asserts that the result of the war was "the replacement of France by Germany as the dominant power in Europe." France before the war, which lacked any allies, was certainly not the "dominant power in Europe" that Badsey suggests, nor did Prussia's victory and German unification reduce Russian, British or Austrian influence in Europe. While there is no doubt that the war enhanced Germany's military reputation, it did not alter the essentially multipolar balance of power that had been prevalent in Europe before the war. Indeed, in the long run, the victory may have hurt Germany because France realized the need for alliances and assiduously went about coalition building for a future war. Germany on the other hand, which fought and won the war without allies, spent much less effort on cooperative diplomacy and paid for that mistake in 1914-1918.

For a simple look at the Franco-Prussian war, one needs to look no further than Stephen Badsey's "The Franco-Prussian War." His 92 page book covers all the battles and, in particular, the events leading to the war. All other events surrounding the war, such as the revolution in France that it caused, are covered though not explored in depth, as they are topics for other books.

It's apparent Stephen Badsey researched the topic well and writes for understanding, reflecting his lecturing background. The numerous maps are excellent; I have never read a book where every single placename is on an accompanying map; making the text and the battles easy to follow.

The "Essential Histories" series from Osprey could easily be compared to the Cliff Notes series. They'll give you a nice introduction to a topic you are not familiar with, but no real depth. Most volumns are under 100 pages; therefore, don't expect many "man in the trenches" stories.

This book is a nice introduction to a relatively small war that would have very much to do with the animosities of the two later World Wars. Grab this before you start your studies of the Great War.

This is a very well written, easy to read book. There are great illustrations and maps as well. If you don't know anything about the Franco-Prussian war this is THE BOOK you need to get.

The author writes, "The Franco-Prussian War was the largest and most important war fought in Europe between the age of Napoleon and the First World War." This volume is a good summary of the background to the war, its main battles, and its consequences. The war actually had three phases: in the first, the Prussian Army defeated the French Imperial Army of Napoleon III - this was when most of the heaviest fighting occurred; in the second phase, the French Republican Army attempted to continue the fight after the abdication of Napoleon III and the establishment of the Third Republic; in the final phase, the French Army fought and defeated an attempted revolution in the form of the Paris Commune, while the Prussian Army stood by and waited for a victor to emerge so they had someone with which to work out the details of the armistice.

The book is brief, less than a hundred pages, but gives a clear picture of the course of the war, and is illustrated with battle maps, paintings, prints, and lithographs of the time. It is a great introduction for someone interested in studying this important and often-neglected war. One important result of the war which makes it worthy of study is that the Prussian victory, its heavy-handed armistice terms, and its acquisition of the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, led simultaneously to the decline of French power on the continent as Prussian power and prestige grew with the establishment of the German Empire, and caused an enduring hatred and bitterness in France which directly led to the series of events culminating in the First World War.

The results of this war are still being felt in Europe today. This is a very good description of this war and its consequences, ie: WWI and WWII and much more. If you are into modern history, this is a must read.

This book, like nearly all in the Osprey series, starts off with an appraisal of the geopolitical history and situation that lead to the war. It then gives an overview of the military forces involved. It does a particularly good job at addressing the states of the armies and high commands but is a little weak with respect to mid-level officer corps. It also emphasizes, correctly, that the main weapons advantages on each side were the superior French rifle, on the one hand, and the German artillery, on the other. All this done relatively well, especially considering it is only done in about 15 or so pages, about half of which are illustration. With respect to illustration, one of the book's weakness' is that it does not provide color plate illustrations of troops or equipement. Hence for figurine and diaroma builders would be of no use.

The book then continues with a history of how the war transpired. Here the author does an excellent job, again considering the relatively short length of the text. Then the book concludes with the repurcussions. This includes a consolidated Germany, bad French-German relations and weakening of France's positiion from many position (i.e., diplomatic and military position relative to position before war, etc.). Although the book mentions the transfer of Alsace-Loraine to Germany it, unfortunately, does so in only a passing manner. This was the one factor that led, more to any other, to the extremely poor French-German relations that played a major role to the diplomatic wrangling (i.e., French - Russian alliance) that led to WWI. Bismark foresaw this and urged that Alsace-Lorraine never be taken away from France and afterwards to return it. Unfortunatlye the book makes no reference to Alsace-Lorraine and the post-war period.

All and all a very good introduction to a reader who wishes to bring himself/herself up to speed on the topic in about an hour and half's worth of reading.

Excellent overview of the Franco-Prussian War. Chapters are dedicated to: the cultural, political, and military conditions in France and Germany (which included Prussia and the North German Confederation, Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg) prior to the outbreak of the war; the immediate cause for the declaration of war; the major military maneuvers in the war; individual French and German perspectives on the conduct of the war; the end of the war; and the results of the war.