Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War The unification of Germany threw all of Europe off its axis. With the formation of this new power there were now five major powers instead of four. This would work to unsettle age-old alliances and confuse the entire European continent for more than twenty years. Not least among the nations swept of their proverbial feet was France. France was a rival with the German alliance long before it merged into one state, but the new stability of a unified Germany made it a much more powerful entity. France scrambled to try and establish a sense of security, immediately demanding compensation in the form of the Rhines west bank and Belgium, which Bismarck quickly denied (Howard 40). It became quickly obvious that these two nations would be forced to a flashpoint and soon.As France feared for her safety, Germany feared as well. The recent revolutions and social upheavals in the Republic were not soon forgotten and Germany wanted to be safe from the possible flack that could be thrown her way by another such occurrence. Thus, Germany set her eye on recapturing the lands of Alsace and Lorraine from which Napoleon the Great had snatched decades before.No person worked harder at trying to cause war with France than German Chief of Staff Carl Moltke. He saw France as the hereditary foe (Hwd 41) and desired nothing more than to see her lose all of her ability to wage war on Germany. He begged often of Bismarck to go to war with their neighbor and drew up plans to do so.Finally, in 1866, with the building of four additional rail lines (Hwd 43) in Germany, Moltke was able to begin planning his attack.Meanwhile, the French began to catch on to what was heading their way. Warnings had been issued from Baron Stoffel, the French military attach in Berlin and from General Ducrot, commander of the 6th Military Division (Hwd 44). It seemed that the Germans were using the same tactic that they...
