The Rest of the World 1878-1888
France and Prussia
France and Prussia enjoyed entirely opposite fates during the latter 19th century. France went spiralling into decline, lost its monarchy for a second time and looked to rejuvenate itself in the fountain of liberalism. Prussia on the other hand crushed each of its illustrious neighbours in a series of military conflicts and finally ascended beyond the rank of a regional power to become a superpower in its own right – and it did so through the use of the nation’s ancient ideals of militarism and authority.
The Orleanists had come power in 1830 following the July Revolution that overthrew one King, Charles X, and placed another on the throne, Louis Philippe I. After 1830 France’s new constitutional monarchy enjoyed mixed relations with its neighbours. During its mini Golden Age during the 1850s and early 60s France had aligned itself with Prussia against Austria and Britain whilst it maintained a tense relationship with its Southern neighbour in Spain. However as Prussian military successes piled up the French moved away from the Prussia, fearing the growing trend towards unification in Germany. France became very isolated following its shift away from Prussia and during the 1860s there seemed to be a genuine risk of war with Spain as the Spanish invaded French protected Brazil at the start of the decade and then in 1868 the violently reactionary Carlos VI came to the throne – his policies were clearly at odds with those of liberal France.
From the 1860s and into the 1870s France went into a clear decline, without friends and with a struggling economy the French could do little as British and Spanish industry out produced them and Prussia grew in strength at the cost of the collapsing Russian and Austrian Empires. In late 1880 France once again flirted with war with Spain over the Ottoman Empire before backing down.
However in 1881 France found a new hope for diplomatic security when Philippe VII ascended to the throne. Philippe was a close friend of Carlos VI of Spain and like the Spanish King he had a strong liking for monarchical authority. However unlike the Spaniard he was a constitutional monarch. Therefore Philippe decided to make a play for power that would undermine his Prime Minister and improve his own popularity – he arranged an agreement known as the Entente Cordial with Spain. The Entente settled disputes in South America between Brazil and the Madrid Pact nations (and guaranteed French authority in Brazil), secured some level of access to trade with the Spanish Empire, a Non-Aggression Pact was signed as was a Mutual Protection Pact – if any nation invaded either Spain or France the other would support the attacked power. Carlos VI, the Legitimist claimant to the French throne, he agreed to lay discuss abandoning his claim to the French crown altogether. It was a diplomatic coup and Philippe’s popularity reached new heights for an Orleanist Monarch.
With stability in international affairs and a healthy economy the Kingdom of France looked to be in a strong position. However across the Rhine trouble was brewing. Ever since the collapse of Austria in the 1860s and 70s Prussia had rapidly advanced towards its goal of unifying the German states. In 1883 Prussia re-imagined the German Confederation – the Confederation was now effectively an alliance of states all politically and economically dominated by Prussia. Austria was expelled from the Confederation whilst a handful (Oldenburg, Frankfurt and Bremen) of German city states refused to join remain in the new Confederation whilst Bohemia was given special status as a ‘friend’ of the Confederation (it was still under Prussian Dominion but was respected as a non-German nation).
These developments were unacceptable and pressure was quickly put upon France, and the new King in particular, to settle the problem. In 1884 Philippe travelled to Berlin to try and convince Prussia to dismantle the new Confederation – after being personally insulted by a rather uncouth Prussian diplomat he returned to France with only one thought in his mind. In order to preserve its security France would have to make war with the German Confederation. Despite strong opposition from his government Philippe pushed France to go to war in 1885 as a large army invaded the Rhineland. This clear aggressive action made the French alliance with Madrid void but France still enjoyed an overwhelming advantage over Prussia and her allies in Germany, Denmark and Bohemia.
With a proud army of well over 100,000 men the French streamed into the Saar where they met a small Prussian force of around 22,000 under the command of a little known General called von Hindenburg. The result of this clash was complete and utter humiliation for the French army that suffered horrendous losses. In the Autumn of 1885 the French were forced to withdraw from German territory with their standing army in tatters as they called upon the French people in a mass mobilisation.
The following year the French crossed the Rhine and invaded Baden, hoping to avoid the powerful Prussian army by attacking the least loyal of the German allies. Despite the initial overwhelming of the Badenese Army the Germans threw everything they had into defending Baden. For the rest of 1886 the two nations – Germany and France – did battle over the territory of Baden sending untold thousands of men to their graves. The fighting was only ended by a feinted attack by Hindenburg’s Army of the Saar – fearing a Prussian offensive into Alsace that could leave their troops on the East bank of the Rhine vulnerable the French withdrew.
In the Spring of 1887 the Prussians and their allies drew together all their strength for one almighty offensive into France. At the Battle of Sedan the French army was destroyed and just weeks later the Prussians surrounded Paris. By this stage Philippe had already fled and within the besieged capital the French government, answering the calls of the people on the streets, officially deposed the French King and established the Second Republic of France.
In May the new government of the French Republic signed peace with Prussia – achieving it at a terrible cost. France agreed to leave German affairs to the Germans (effectively abandoning hope of dismantling the Prussian dominated German Confederation) and most tellingly of all ceded the majority German region of Alsace-Lorraine that was humiliatingly named Elass-Lothringen on the peace treaty.
Philippe quickly made his way to Spain and to the court of his lifelong friend Carlos VI. From Madrid Philippe and the French monarchist movement would seriously influence Spanish foreign policy towards and anti-French stance against the new Republic.
Austria
In Austria the process of rebuilding a broken Empire required compromise. In the year 1883, after being expelled from the German Confederation, the Austrian Empire was abolished entirely. In its place arose the Austro-Hungarian Empire – a new realm in which the German and Hungarian peoples of the Empire would join together in the mutual desire to oppress the Slavs and Italians.
The post-compromise Habsburg Empire made a clear statement in intent when in 1885 it swiftly invaded and annexed the Veneto which had been allowed to break free two decades before.
Romania
In the Balkans 1888 was the year of the Romanian Revolution. In the city of Bucharest, capital of Wallachia, some 200,000 people lined the streets and demanded the proclamation of a Romanian state in the culmination of a century of rapidly rising nationalism. The Prince happily accepted the proposal and on January 8th the Principality ceased to exist and was replaced by the Kingdom of Romania. On January 12th the new Kingdom demanded that Moldova submit to the new Kingdom. After the Prince refused Romania threatened war, only the intervention of Russia prevented conflict as the Tsar effectively forced the Moldovans to join Romania. The new Kingdom was quick to abolish all links with the Sublime Porte and threw itself wholeheartedly into the embrace of Tsarist Russia.
Frustratingly, however, multiethnic Transylvania refused to join the Kingdom and Russia was too fearful of Austria and Prussia to strong arm the Transylvanians in the same way as the Moldovans.
Overview
The 1880s had produced clear winners and losers. Britain, Spain, Prussia, Mexico and the USA were all winners as each enjoyed large-scale economic success and some succeeded on the political stage as well. However Russia and France were the losers. France had been humiliated in war by a weaker alliance of states, had lost an integral part of its territory, had suffered a revolution and worst of all its industrial sector was not even 2/5s of the size of even its 1880 level. Russia meanwhile had struggled with internal problems throughout the decade and at the same time had lost 2/3s of its industry.
