The Road to the Franco-Prussian War

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of the Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune on the development of Impressionism, we must begin with an account of these interrelated events and their root causes, many of which can be attributed to the policies of Napoleon III during the Second Empire (1851-1870). Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (Figure 1) was elected President in December 1848 to head the new democratic government established in the wake of the revolution that deposed the July Monarchy (1830-1848). In 1851, he instigated a coup d’état, dissolving the republic, naming himself Emperor, and forming a new government. As its name suggests, the Second Empire was intended to revive the imperial ambitions of Louis-Napoleon’s uncle, Napoleon I. Accordingly, Napoleon III sought opportunities to expand and strengthen France’s empire and to weaken those of Austria and Russia, his primary European rivals. His initial ventures were successful. In 1853-56, France allied with the British and Ottoman Empires to defeat Russia in the Crimean War. In 1859, Napoleon III helped the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia to beat back an Austrian invasion, with the Emperor himself leading the charge at the Battle of Solferino. Victory in this conflict resulted in the French acquisition of the territories of Savoy and Nice, and ultimately led to the unification of Italy, which served as a ballast against Austrian power.

While these successes within Europe enhanced Napoleon III’s power and prestige, his imperial engagements beyond Europe’s borders brought mixed results. He solidified French control over its colony in Algeria (occupied since 1830) when he successfully implemented a series of anti-muslim discriminatory reforms to suppress nationalist resistance against French rule. In doing so, he achieved political and economic equality between the mainland and Algeria. In 1857, French forces invaded Vietnam, and in 1862 the country concluded a peace treaty that ceded the conquered territories to France. During Napoleon III’s reign, French power in West Africa was also extended through the establishment of military bases in Sudan and Egypt during the construction of the Suez Canal. However, Napoleon overreached significantly in his efforts to exercise influence over Mexico, and thereby to challenge the growing power of the United States. He collaborated with Mexican royalists in exile to invade Mexico and install the Hapsburg Archduke Maximilian—the former Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia and a descendant of Charles V, colonial ruler of New Spain—as Emperor of the Second Mexican Empire. His reign was short-lived: forces loyal to President Benito Juárez defeated the French army and in 1867 Maximillian was tried and executed for conspiring to overthrow the Mexican government (Figure 2). The abject failure of Napoleon’s plans for an allied Mexican Empire softened domestic support for his regime, such that, by the late 1860s, he found himself in a weak position.

Figure 1: Adolphe Yvon, Portrait of Napoleon III, 1868. Oil on canvas, 55.7 x 46.7 cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

Figure 2: Édouard Manet, The Execution of Maximilian, 1867–68. Lithograph with scraping, on ivory chine laid down on ivory wove paper, 34 x 43.8 cm. The Art Institute of  Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Figure 3: Franz von Lenbach, Portrait of Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, 1890. Oil on panel, 121 x 87.5 cm. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

Figure 4: Unknown, French soldiers by a cannon, 23 July, 1870. Photograph. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 

Meanwhile, the unification of Germany by Prussia also threatened Napoleon III’s imperial ambitions and ultimately led him to wage “one of the most disastrous wars in [France’s] history.”[1] In 1866, under the leadership of Minister-President Otto von Bismarck (Figure 3), Prussia defeated Austria in the Seven Weeks’ War. This victory led to the establishment in 1867 of a North German Federation under Prussian control, a development that dramatically shifted the balance of power within Europe. Bismarck then sought a way to draw the south German states into a Prussian-led Empire. The prospect of such a large and powerful neighboring state alarmed Napoleon and led to heightened tensions between the two principalities. The event which led directly to the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War was the candidacy of Prince Leopold of the Prussian royal Hohenzollern family in November 1869.[2] In the event that a Prussian became King of Spain, Hohenzollerns, who were rivals for European continental supremacy, would flank France. Following diplomatic maneuvers to block Leopold’s candidacy, in July 1870, Otto von Bismarck published the Ems Telegram to provoke the French government into declaring war on Prussia. This maneuver on behalf of Bismarck was a success. On July 19, 1870, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia.

France entered the war branded as “a frivolous aggressor with neither friend nor ally.”[3]

While Napoleon selfishly assumed war with Prussia would bring a relatively easy victory, he soon discovered that the French army (Figure 4) was outnumbered, outdated, and disorganized: his forces suffered a series of demoralizing defeats in the first weeks of the war.[4] The most crushing of these came at the Battle of Sedan on September 2, in which the Prussians defeated the French Army and captured Napoleon III, creating political chaos. At midnight on September 3, the moderate republican Jules Favre proclaimed the end of Napoleon’s empire and on September 4, 1870, a Government of National Defense was created in Paris. This new government, headed by General Louis-Jules Trochu, and made up of the elected deputies of Paris, including Jules Favre as minister of foreign affairs and Léon Gambetta as minister of the interior, was formed with the intent to carry on the defense of France. The following day, Leon Gambetta made a declaration at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris calling the Third Republic into being.[5]