Siege of Paris: July - November 1862
König Friedrich III arrived on the outskirts of Paris along with Otto von Bismark and General von Moltke, along with 40,000 fresh Prussian troops, on July 4th, 1862. His goal was to motivate, and push, his soldiers to surround and capture Paris. Quickly overriding General von Moltke, he ordered the City of Paris surrounded by the Prussian Army and all supplies cut off. His plan was to starve the city out, and cause its capitulation.
To try and defend the city, the Parisians rallied everyone to their side, students, men, women, even children were given rifles to try and hold back the Prussians, who made a few attempts at breaching the city's defenses. The most significant of this was when 10,000 Prussian Soldiers tried to enter the city by means of the Seine River, where their boats were quickly sunk by some quick-thinking students. [-3,000 Regulars from Prussia.]
1. French Students going to man the barricades of Paris.
The Siege lasted for another two months until in mid-September, König Friedrich ordered the massive Krupp Guns that had been shipped to the front line to start bombarding the city and her defenses. He wanted the city of Paris to fall, as he was unsure of how long his army could hold off the repeated attacks on their position by the French army. [-15,000 Conscripts from France. -9,000 Regulars from Prussia. -3,000 Conscripts from Prussia.]
Every day, thousands of pounds of lead and steel descended on Paris, but the stubborn French refused to give up their city, even when hundreds died of starvation, and a small Communist coup, inspired by the Worker's Commonwealth, started to take root in the Northern section of the city. Nevertheless, the Prussians continued with their assault, and a railroad from the Ruhr area to Paris was constructed simply to bring more ordnance and guns to the frontline.
2. The Prussian artillery on the outskirts of Paris.
Finally, on November 18th, the order was given by the French commander to raise the white flag of surrender. In order to try and save the city, the men, and the civilians, the French conceded defeat and let the Prussian forces march into the city and take the rest of the French Army, letting the men go home to their fields and farms, as long as they went on parole. [-30,000 Regulars from France. -95,000 Conscripts from France.]
Spurned on by the Capitulation of Paris, and the suspected offer of peace from the French, König Friedrich III and his Generals marched into the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace Versailles, where they promptly proclaimed the establishment of the German Empire, the legal successor state to the Kingdom of Prussia, and with Friedrich III crowned as the new
Deutscher Kaiser.
3. Proclamation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors.
Included in this delegation was a few members of the civilian government of Munich, Bavaria, calling themselves the Representatives of the Republic of Bavaria, signed an agreement with Kaiser Friedrich that would annex Bavaria to the German Empire, effectively giving the German Empire a reason to continue with the invasion of Bavaria, claiming it to be a territory of the German Empire.
4. Territory of the German Empire, with the Republic of Bavaria in light grey.
With the German Empire now dominating Central Europe, the allied powers of the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria, and the Empire of the French, now must face the German Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.