Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/398

 386 THE MODERN NATIONS Napoleon as a Prussian intrigue ; the negotiations on the subject between France and Prussia were easily given a turn which roused furious indignation throughout the French and German nations, and on July 19th war was declared. In numbers, in discipline, in armament, in geneial- ship, the Germans, who answered solidly to the call of Prussia, Franco- proved immeasurably superior. The French Prussian fought with desperate valour. Within a month a War# series of desperate engagements, culminating in the slaughter at Gravelotte where thirty thousand men fell — more Germans than French — had been fought, with practically invari- able success for the Germans. A great French army was shut up in Metz under Bazaine. A fortnight later the emperor with another great army was defeated at Sedan, and compelled to capitulate, Napoleon himself surrendering. Paris proclaimed the empire at an end, and set up a republican government of national defence. Before the end of September Paris was invested ; in October the German forces before Metz were released by the surrender of Bazaine with 150,000 men. A desperate resistance was organised in the provinces, but it was overwhelmed by the German troops, while Paris was starved almost to the last gasp, and was finally subjected to a tremendous bombardment. In January negotiations were opened which ended in the capitulation of Paris, and the transfer to Prussia of Alsace and Lorraine, while France was saddled with the payment of a huge indemnity. The war, by withdrawing Napoleon's protection from the pope, gave Victor Emmanuel his opportunity of incorporating Rome in the Italian kingdom, and making it his capital. It made France a republic for the third time, and a republic she has remained ever since, though the stability of her government has more than The New once been threatened. But its most significant German outcome was the establishment of the new German Empire. Empire with the King of Prussia as hereditary emperor. The southern states, excluded from the North German Federation, were included in the new empire. Each state remains in many respects self-governing, but for purposes of war, foreign policy, and commerce, the whole is under the