Originally posted by Timothy Ortiz
I'm almost positive that the Austrians were still using muzzel loading rifles, am I wrong
IIRC yes.
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IIRC yes.
No, the Austrians were still using muzzel loading rifles, and the Prussian forces could fire six times more rapidly while lying down unlike the Austrian forces. While this may not be the sole cause of the Prussian victory it was certainly an enourmous factor in how decisive it is.
I would argue the advantage was only slight. It gave them slightly better range and accuracy, but this is only a minor factor in battle. The circumstances you describe usually involved Prussians advancing on entrenched French troops.
The Chassepot was far superior to the Dreyse needle gun. The breech mechanism of the Dreyse leaked badly and the needle was very fragile. But like you say, this wasn't decisive in the 1870 war...
But this just prove that it wasn't the Dreyse gun that was the main reason for Prussian military superiority...
Prussian artillery played a far more decisive role in 1870 than infantry rifles. It totally outclassed French Artillery. But overall the main point was that the Prussian spent much more in their army than other nations which enabled them to field much troops overall better equiped trained and organized than other nations, and that was much more important than the respective qualities of the weapons.
Other nations fielded large army but did not fund them enough to train and equip them properly, and keep them in a high state of readiness, so that when war came the Prussians won crushing victories before the other countries could improve their military to match the Prussians'.
It took months to start correcting this situation through wartime emmergency expenditure and by that time the Germans had usually won the war.
In peace time introducing army reforms was a process that took years and usually faced bitter opposition as increasing military expenditure was not popular.
Thus the French efforts at modernizing the army under Niel in the 1860's resulted in almost nothing as the parliament refused to vote the necessary credits and laws.
Other nations fielded large army but did not fund them enough to train and equip them properly, and keep them in a high state of readiness, so that when war came the Prussians won crushing victories before the other countries could improve their military to match the Prussians'.
It took months to start correcting this situation through wartime emmergency expenditure and by that time the Germans had usually won the war.
In peace time introducing army reforms was a process that took years and usually faced bitter opposition as increasing military expenditure was not popular.
Thus the French efforts at modernizing the army under Niel in the 1860's resulted in almost nothing as the parliament refused to vote the necessary credits and laws.