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Chapter III, Part II
Chapter III, Part II: The War Preparations
Prussia's Reaction
Prussia's initial reaction, which was equal to Chancellor Bismarck's, was joy: the war with France would finally allow Prussia to show its political and military superiority over France, who would be put into its true place, and at the same time they would be gaining a faithful ally in Spain. This was formalized when, on July 21st, all Europe woke up to an official note, sent by the Prussian government, in which Prince Leopold definitely accepted the Crown of Spain and Wilhelm I showed his support. The note added that Leopold would travel to his new country as soon as the danger for both himself and his family ended, a danger cause by the French's cocky and defying attitude as the meddled in Spain's internal affairs. Of course, the note and the attitude displayed on it did nothing but anger the French even more, which suited Bismarck just fine.
The Prussian Armed Forces could already count on the support of the Catholic German states, which had declared war against France on the 21st, and they also had two unique elements that gave them certain advantages over the French: their recruiting system was based on universal military service, which meant a great number of potential soldiers, and the existence of a branch of the army called General Staff, which so far did not exist in other armed forces and which was exclusively dedicated to administration, logistics and planning. It was something that gave them a great advantage, as the Prussians would be better able to plan a fast and organized mobilization of the great number of troops that would be required for the war against France.
Thanks to their preparations, the Prussians had 1,200,000 soldiers ready for battle eighteen days after the mobilization order was given. Due to their numerical superiority, the Prussian higher echelons of the Army, led by General Moltke, made plans that would allow them to make use of the extensive German railway network and, at the same time, force the French into traps. In the first place, they would let the French troops enter in Germany (raising, at the same time, the Southern German nations' fear of French imperialism, which also played into Bismarck's plans) and then launch massive enveloping movements that would allow them to surround and destroy the enemy formations. These maneuvers would be facilitated by the Dreyse needle gun, which was the main infantry rifle used by the Prussian troops and which had played a decisive role in the Prussian victory in the Battle of Königgrätz in the Seven Weeks War, and the famed Krupp six-pound cannon, the Prussian artillery's most distinguished weapon due to its lethal power and its average 4,500 meters of range.
The Prussian Army's main weapons, the Dreyse needle gun and the Krupp six-pound cannon.
With these strategies in hand, their main objective would be to, first, destroy all French troops that invaded German territory, and then enter into France, where a series of debilitating victories would allow them to reach, besiege and conquer Paris, with which they hoped to force the surrender of French authorities and their acceptance of German terms.
France's Reaction
The mood in France was a bit double-sided: on one side, they were finally going to hand Prussia the defeat they deserved, and reinforce France as the great power of Continental Europe, but, on the other side, it would be a war with two fronts very far away from each other. However, all worries were brushed away in the wave of nationalism and that hit the nation, especially after certain memorandums of the French Imperial Forces stated that defeating Spain, Prussia and its German allies in a two front war was, not only possible, but almost certain.
However, soon France realized that they were completely alone, due to Napoleon III's diplomatic mistakes: Belgium and Luxembourg had made it clear to them that they would send their armies to fight the Germans nor let the French pass through, as the memory of Napoleon's willingness to annex them both was still fresh; Portugal and Italy had stated their unwillingness to fight against Spain (which both nations wished to have better relationships with) and Prussia (which had helped Italy very recently), and Italy added the French support for the Pope as another reason not to help; Denmark had learned its lesson from 1864; Russia was too far away to act fast enough in this war; and the United Kingdom had reminded them that their actions were very much against the Quadruple Alliance of 1834, by which United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal would agree to work together to maintain stability in the Iberian Peninsula, and thus considered France would now have to sleep in the bed they had made.
In the end, the only ally Napoleon III could find was Austria-Hungary, and their support was conditioned to the support of the German Catholic states for France, something made impossible after the former declaration of war against the latter, and Austria-Hungary stated their neutrality on July 22nd. Ironically, Austria's declining prevented the entrance of the Russian Empire in the war... on the Prussian side: a secret pact between Prussia and Russia stated that both nations would be automatically allied to each other if Austria-Hungary were to ally with France at any moment.
The French Imperial Army was a professional army, formed by about 500,000 soldiers, most of which were battle-hardened veterans from the many wars France had been part of, or started, in the last decades: the Crimean War, the colonization of Algeria, the Second Italian War of Independence or the French Intervention in Mexico, among others. The number of soldiers could be at least doubled when adding the forces of the National Guard, a reserve corps created in 1866 during the military reorganization started after the end of the Seven Weeks War. There was also the French Foreign Legion, which could be counted on to protect the colonies, as well as helping to defend Metropolitan France if there was risk of invasion of the metropolis.
Two technical inventions that had been recently introduced in the French Armed Forces were heavily weighing in the French generals' conviction that victory would fall on their side: the Chassepot rifle, a single-shot breech-loading rifle with the highest power, accuracy and penetration amongst the existent rifles at that time; and the Reffye and Bollée mitrailleuses, static weapons that were able to shoot 100 rounds per minute at 2000 yards.
The Chassepot rifle and the Reffye mitrailleuse, which were expected to help France gain victory.
The French strategy was simple: in the German front, they would invade the Rhineland, take Saarbrücken and then advance to smash the German forces before they managed to group together and use their numerical superiority as an advantage, while the Spanish front would consist of following the path the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis had taken in 1823 to restore Fernando VII's absolutist monarchy, entering Spain through the passes of La Junquera and Fuenterrabía and advancing in three corps, one along the northern coast, the second towards the south of Spain and the third along the Mediterranean coast.
Spain's Reaction
Spanish society saw, astonished, how the election of their new king had suddenly turned into an international crisis and a declaration of war by France. At first, the people of Spain had wanted to avoid war against their northern neighbors, whom they still held (although that feeling had diminished very fast) as their allies. However, when the news that Napoleon III intended to impose 12-year-old Alfonso, Isabel II's son, as the King of Spain, the Spanish exploded in a never seen wave of French-hating popular nationalism, an explosion that many would later compare to the one that sparked the Dos de Mayo and started the Peninsular War. General Prim's government, which had decreed high levels of conscription to face the Napoleonic menace for the second time in a century, did nothing to prevent this: instead, they did as much as possible to fan the flames as high as possible, reminding the people of the innumerable French affronts to the Motherland, like their support for the hated Bourbons, their constant interventions in Spain and their blocking Spanish attempts to recover its rightful place in the world, like their pressure to force Spain to sign the Wad-Ras Treaty to establish peace with Morocco, a peace that gave Spain much less than what it deserved after the smashing victories its armies had gained (Prim conveniently “forgot” that the greatest pressure had come from the United Kingdom, not France).
Unfortunately, the war was but the last in a series of events that were preventing Prim from implementing his plan for the elimination of the unfair recruitment system of quintas (by which one out of every five men had to serve in the army, but that could be avoided by paying a certain price, which only the high-class families were able to pay) and replace it with a professional army similar to the one used by the United Kingdom and France. However, the ugly situation of the Spanish treasury and the revolts and rebellions had forced Prim to maintain conscription. The disproportionate number of officers in the army (a trend started after the First Carlist War, when the Vergara Embrace allowed the Carlist officers that accepted Isabella II to join the Royal Army with the same rank they held in the Carlist Army) and the lack of experience in foreign conflicts (save for a few honorable exceptions, such as the African War, the brief re-annexation of Santo Domingo and the First Pacific War) had weighed down on the Armed Forces and prevented their modernization. This was fortunately compensated by the construction of a powerful navy (the fourth in the world) and the use of the Berdan Rifle (a weapon between the Dreyse needle gun and the Chassepot in terms of quality) since 1867 as the Army's regulated weapon.
The Spanish Army main infantry weapon, the Berdan rifle.
These, however, did not mean the Spanish Army should be underestimated: the hard situation, with limited economic and material resources, was balanced with how, with a little motivation, the Spanish soldiers became fearsome fighters, something that the French learned themselves during the Peninsular War.
All sides thought that Spain's role and military strategy would be only defensive, using their limited forces to prevent the entrance of French troops into Spanish territory, as they awaited for the development of events in the French-German frontline. However, things would be a bit different than what everybody expected.
Prussia's Reaction
Prussia's initial reaction, which was equal to Chancellor Bismarck's, was joy: the war with France would finally allow Prussia to show its political and military superiority over France, who would be put into its true place, and at the same time they would be gaining a faithful ally in Spain. This was formalized when, on July 21st, all Europe woke up to an official note, sent by the Prussian government, in which Prince Leopold definitely accepted the Crown of Spain and Wilhelm I showed his support. The note added that Leopold would travel to his new country as soon as the danger for both himself and his family ended, a danger cause by the French's cocky and defying attitude as the meddled in Spain's internal affairs. Of course, the note and the attitude displayed on it did nothing but anger the French even more, which suited Bismarck just fine.
The Prussian Armed Forces could already count on the support of the Catholic German states, which had declared war against France on the 21st, and they also had two unique elements that gave them certain advantages over the French: their recruiting system was based on universal military service, which meant a great number of potential soldiers, and the existence of a branch of the army called General Staff, which so far did not exist in other armed forces and which was exclusively dedicated to administration, logistics and planning. It was something that gave them a great advantage, as the Prussians would be better able to plan a fast and organized mobilization of the great number of troops that would be required for the war against France.
Thanks to their preparations, the Prussians had 1,200,000 soldiers ready for battle eighteen days after the mobilization order was given. Due to their numerical superiority, the Prussian higher echelons of the Army, led by General Moltke, made plans that would allow them to make use of the extensive German railway network and, at the same time, force the French into traps. In the first place, they would let the French troops enter in Germany (raising, at the same time, the Southern German nations' fear of French imperialism, which also played into Bismarck's plans) and then launch massive enveloping movements that would allow them to surround and destroy the enemy formations. These maneuvers would be facilitated by the Dreyse needle gun, which was the main infantry rifle used by the Prussian troops and which had played a decisive role in the Prussian victory in the Battle of Königgrätz in the Seven Weeks War, and the famed Krupp six-pound cannon, the Prussian artillery's most distinguished weapon due to its lethal power and its average 4,500 meters of range.
The Prussian Army's main weapons, the Dreyse needle gun and the Krupp six-pound cannon.
With these strategies in hand, their main objective would be to, first, destroy all French troops that invaded German territory, and then enter into France, where a series of debilitating victories would allow them to reach, besiege and conquer Paris, with which they hoped to force the surrender of French authorities and their acceptance of German terms.
France's Reaction
The mood in France was a bit double-sided: on one side, they were finally going to hand Prussia the defeat they deserved, and reinforce France as the great power of Continental Europe, but, on the other side, it would be a war with two fronts very far away from each other. However, all worries were brushed away in the wave of nationalism and that hit the nation, especially after certain memorandums of the French Imperial Forces stated that defeating Spain, Prussia and its German allies in a two front war was, not only possible, but almost certain.
However, soon France realized that they were completely alone, due to Napoleon III's diplomatic mistakes: Belgium and Luxembourg had made it clear to them that they would send their armies to fight the Germans nor let the French pass through, as the memory of Napoleon's willingness to annex them both was still fresh; Portugal and Italy had stated their unwillingness to fight against Spain (which both nations wished to have better relationships with) and Prussia (which had helped Italy very recently), and Italy added the French support for the Pope as another reason not to help; Denmark had learned its lesson from 1864; Russia was too far away to act fast enough in this war; and the United Kingdom had reminded them that their actions were very much against the Quadruple Alliance of 1834, by which United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal would agree to work together to maintain stability in the Iberian Peninsula, and thus considered France would now have to sleep in the bed they had made.
In the end, the only ally Napoleon III could find was Austria-Hungary, and their support was conditioned to the support of the German Catholic states for France, something made impossible after the former declaration of war against the latter, and Austria-Hungary stated their neutrality on July 22nd. Ironically, Austria's declining prevented the entrance of the Russian Empire in the war... on the Prussian side: a secret pact between Prussia and Russia stated that both nations would be automatically allied to each other if Austria-Hungary were to ally with France at any moment.
The French Imperial Army was a professional army, formed by about 500,000 soldiers, most of which were battle-hardened veterans from the many wars France had been part of, or started, in the last decades: the Crimean War, the colonization of Algeria, the Second Italian War of Independence or the French Intervention in Mexico, among others. The number of soldiers could be at least doubled when adding the forces of the National Guard, a reserve corps created in 1866 during the military reorganization started after the end of the Seven Weeks War. There was also the French Foreign Legion, which could be counted on to protect the colonies, as well as helping to defend Metropolitan France if there was risk of invasion of the metropolis.
Two technical inventions that had been recently introduced in the French Armed Forces were heavily weighing in the French generals' conviction that victory would fall on their side: the Chassepot rifle, a single-shot breech-loading rifle with the highest power, accuracy and penetration amongst the existent rifles at that time; and the Reffye and Bollée mitrailleuses, static weapons that were able to shoot 100 rounds per minute at 2000 yards.
The Chassepot rifle and the Reffye mitrailleuse, which were expected to help France gain victory.
The French strategy was simple: in the German front, they would invade the Rhineland, take Saarbrücken and then advance to smash the German forces before they managed to group together and use their numerical superiority as an advantage, while the Spanish front would consist of following the path the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis had taken in 1823 to restore Fernando VII's absolutist monarchy, entering Spain through the passes of La Junquera and Fuenterrabía and advancing in three corps, one along the northern coast, the second towards the south of Spain and the third along the Mediterranean coast.
Spain's Reaction
Spanish society saw, astonished, how the election of their new king had suddenly turned into an international crisis and a declaration of war by France. At first, the people of Spain had wanted to avoid war against their northern neighbors, whom they still held (although that feeling had diminished very fast) as their allies. However, when the news that Napoleon III intended to impose 12-year-old Alfonso, Isabel II's son, as the King of Spain, the Spanish exploded in a never seen wave of French-hating popular nationalism, an explosion that many would later compare to the one that sparked the Dos de Mayo and started the Peninsular War. General Prim's government, which had decreed high levels of conscription to face the Napoleonic menace for the second time in a century, did nothing to prevent this: instead, they did as much as possible to fan the flames as high as possible, reminding the people of the innumerable French affronts to the Motherland, like their support for the hated Bourbons, their constant interventions in Spain and their blocking Spanish attempts to recover its rightful place in the world, like their pressure to force Spain to sign the Wad-Ras Treaty to establish peace with Morocco, a peace that gave Spain much less than what it deserved after the smashing victories its armies had gained (Prim conveniently “forgot” that the greatest pressure had come from the United Kingdom, not France).
Unfortunately, the war was but the last in a series of events that were preventing Prim from implementing his plan for the elimination of the unfair recruitment system of quintas (by which one out of every five men had to serve in the army, but that could be avoided by paying a certain price, which only the high-class families were able to pay) and replace it with a professional army similar to the one used by the United Kingdom and France. However, the ugly situation of the Spanish treasury and the revolts and rebellions had forced Prim to maintain conscription. The disproportionate number of officers in the army (a trend started after the First Carlist War, when the Vergara Embrace allowed the Carlist officers that accepted Isabella II to join the Royal Army with the same rank they held in the Carlist Army) and the lack of experience in foreign conflicts (save for a few honorable exceptions, such as the African War, the brief re-annexation of Santo Domingo and the First Pacific War) had weighed down on the Armed Forces and prevented their modernization. This was fortunately compensated by the construction of a powerful navy (the fourth in the world) and the use of the Berdan Rifle (a weapon between the Dreyse needle gun and the Chassepot in terms of quality) since 1867 as the Army's regulated weapon.
The Spanish Army main infantry weapon, the Berdan rifle.
These, however, did not mean the Spanish Army should be underestimated: the hard situation, with limited economic and material resources, was balanced with how, with a little motivation, the Spanish soldiers became fearsome fighters, something that the French learned themselves during the Peninsular War.
All sides thought that Spain's role and military strategy would be only defensive, using their limited forces to prevent the entrance of French troops into Spanish territory, as they awaited for the development of events in the French-German frontline. However, things would be a bit different than what everybody expected.
- Milarqui
- Word Count: 1.8k