PART 2:
“The power of the joint blow will end this silly idea of German Unification”- Napoleon III
The Reaction:
Robbed of their chief diplomatic asset, Bismarck, the Prussians found themselves facing a war on two fronts; although Austria was weakened, France was the primary continental power in Europe and it was clear they were facing an uphill struggle. The crisis was however expedient in rallying German opinion around Prussia through the threat of French invasion and the betrayal of the Austrians. This is reflected on a speech given by Wilhelm I to the North German Parliament three weeks after the war began:
“There is no doubt that the Austrians have played the key role in the majority of the winding course of German history. But here the Hapsburgs menace has shown his true colours. Austria has sold its German soul to the common enemy of the Germans, to stop Germans uniting under one government and one system. This they have been trying to do unaltered since Napoleon. But there is hope for the German people. I know, as I have known before, the striking ingenuity and resilience of the Germans. We resisted the French for a brutal 20 years, to come out victorious despite the gross disadvantages. This, by the grace of grace, will be the spirit that will carry us forward to the great battlefields that now have to follow this act of aggression committed by the French. For God and the fatherland, all Germans will resist foreign malice, resist the marauding armies of Napoleon, and resist tyranny and despotism. Because the emperor, cowering in his capital, does not know this. The spirit of Germany will never be broken”.
This speech, widely publicised, was a rallying call. The government of North Germany was soon inundated with soldiers wishing to enlist, even from previously sceptical Hanoverians, Saxons and even New Silesians, although some began to use the war to co-ordinate regionalist resistance, especially in Hanover. The speech outraged Junkers and worried members of the government, though. Prussian identity seemed to melt under the heat of national patriotism, and Junkers fretted that their rights and privileges would be subsumed under a Greater German feeling in the case of victory. But the war was a Godsend for the struggling Prussian apparatus in their conquests, and German public opinion was firmly behind them.
In Austria, the situation was much different. Revanchists as well as German liberals, unwilling to give up the dream of unifying Germany under Austria, agitated constantly for war after the humilliations of Prague. Disgruntled Austrian citizens had blamed the Prussian indemnity extracted as a result of the Peace of Prague for the increase in the burden of taxation, and the predominantly German circle wished to used the war as an opportunity to walk back on the Compromise of 1867 and re-establish Austrian hegemony within the whole empire. However, the optics were not good for many Germans; why was Austria intervening against the national cause? The Hungarians also were extremely dissatisfied, fearing the war was a pretext to roll back the 1867 compromise. Franz Jospeh offered his personal reassurances that under no account would he row back the compromise, although many Hungarians remained susipicous. Low level resistance cropped up in Hungary and among some German groups, especially those being conscripted.
Neither Russia nor Britain joined immediately. Britain was unhappy about the potential for further Prussian expansion but was unwilling to intervene to help the French just yet. Gladstone wanted to avoid if at all possible foreign conflict. Russia was watching closely and preparing for intervention. Napoleon III, who had usurped the title of defender of Christians in the Balkans was loathed and the Austrian betrayal in Crimea not forgotten. A French-Austrian victory would bring a very real threat closer to Russian borders, but pan-Slavist opinion was turned very much against a German state. Bismarck emerged from political disgrace to be sent a special envoy to Russia and negotiations for a Prusso-Russian alliance began in earnest. But much was now resting on the Prussian military plan- known secretly as Operation Black Eagle, to knock Austria out of the war. Now it was over to Moltke.