Lord Palmerston intervens in Schleswig

Even if he does look like moving, Bismarck can easily buy him off by inviting him to supervise a plebiscite in Schleswig (which those nationalistic halfwits in Copenhagen will immediately slap France in the face by rejecting), and maybe adding a half-promise of a free hand in Luxembourg and maybe even the Francophone parts of Belgium.

How can Bismarck promise Belgium to France? It wasn't his to give and France would immediately come into conflicte with Britain the moment it tries to gain any part of Belgium. France (and Napoleon III) knows it, so any promise of any part of Belgium is basicly worthless.
 
Yes, but it was Denmark who had violated that treaty - and in 1863/4 the alliance with Prussia against Polish nationalism was much more important.


The Danes achieved the remarkable feat of annoying liberal and conservative opinion alike - by at one and the same time denying the principle of nationality (which Napoleon III cared about) and repudiating an international treaty (which annoyed the more conventional type of ruler).

Had I been Bismarck, I think I'd have been utterly convinced that God was actively intervening on my side, by making all my potential enemies - in Copenhagen, Vienna and Paris alike - behave like total nincompoops " - - prius dementat" and all that.
 
What British army?

The bulk of it was in Canada, and couldn't be removed till all possibility of a clash with the Union had passed. We might have scraped together a fiddling liuttle auxiliary corps from somewhere

About 16 battalions moved to Canada for the Trent Affair, of the 151 total in the army. The stations of the British army as at April 1864 are available on the Nafziger collection. From a quick scan coupled with prior experience, there seems to be one infantry division ready at Aldershot, a second which could be created by taking troops from stations in the UK, a third which could be created by calling out the militia to take over the remaining UK garrisons, and a cavalry division. For comparison purposes, the Danish army mustered three infantry divisions and one cavalry division.
 
How can Bismarck promise Belgium to France? It wasn't his to give and France would immediately come into conflicte with Britain the moment it tries to gain any part of Belgium. France (and Napoleon III) knows it, so any promise of any part of Belgium is basicly worthless.


Oh, I'm sure he'll avoid any definite cxommitments; but iirc he dangled such possibilities before Nappy in the aftermath of the Seven Weeks War.
 
Oh, I'm sure he'll avoid any definite cxommitments; but iirc he dangled such possibilities before Nappy in the aftermath of the Seven Weeks War.

What I want to say is that Napoleon III must have been stupid to put any value on such a promise and although I don't have a high opinion of Napoleon III, he was not that stupid.
 
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