1-151-845 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Prussian artillery battery in action, Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871. The seeds of the Franco-Prussian War were sown by the abdication of Queen Isabella of Spain. The vacant throne had been offered to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a distant relative of King William I of Prussia. Eventually, against the advice of Prussia's Chancellor, Bismarck, William I permitted the offer to be refused. The Emperor Napoleon III of France, who had not wanted a Prussian Prince enthroned in Spain, was not satisfied with this victory and demanded further guarantees that the matter would not later be resurrected. Prussia took umbrage, and the relationship deteriorated rapidly. France declared war on Prussia on 19th July 1870. The war was a disaster for the French. Their army suffered a humiliating defeat at Sedan, Napoleon was captured, and Paris was then besieged. An armistice was signed in 1871 under the terms of which France was forced to cede Alsace and most of Lorraine to what was now the German Empire.