Saarbrück to Paris, 1870: a strategical sketch

The Franco-War of 1870 marked an absolute watershed: France had been the military and cultural centre-point of mainland Europe for some centuries, its fashion copied, its armies feared and its language the language of diplomacy and the highest circles. Growing in power, prestige and ambition, the states of Germany stood in opposition to this hegemony, a newborn power with much to prove. Its dominant driving force was Prussia, under the determined statesman Bismarck. The French goaded the Germans