According to some historians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to draw four independent southern German states—Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt—into an alliance with the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation; other …

Origins of the war The immediate cause of the Franco-German War, however, was the candidacy of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (who was related to the Prussian royal house) for the Spanish throne, which had been left vacant when Queen Isabella II had been deposed in 1868.

The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of a Prussian prince to the throne of Spain – France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. Six days later, France declared war on Prussia and Southern German States immediately sided with Prussia.

A large French army was assembled and advanced to break the German siege at Metz. As they advanced towards Metz, the French were lured into a trap at Sedan by the Prussian and German forces. The French army suffered a catastrophic defeat at Sedan, and this battle decided the war in Prussia’s favor.

By the terms of the final treaty, signed on May 10, 1871, at Frankfurt am Main, Germany annexed the French provinces of Alsace (excluding Belfort) and Lorraine; the French were also ordered to pay an indemnity of five billion francs.

In 1871 he formed the German Empire with himself as Chancellor while retaining control of Prussia. His diplomacy of realpolitik and powerful rule at home gained him the nickname the “Iron Chancellor.” German unification and its rapid economic growth was the foundation to his foreign policy.

revolutions and political instability

If you’re talking about the idea of Italian unification from a historical perspective (Seeing as your question is found under the History tab), we can say that having a unified Italy would have made it a stronger country that would perhaps be a more important regional and world player in terms of politics and economy.

The Franco-Austrian War of 1859 was the agent that began the physical process of Italian unification. The northern Italian states held elections in 1859 and 1860 and voted to join the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a major step towards unification, while Piedmont-Sardinia ceded Savoy and Nice to France.

Why did the Italian states take so long to unify? One of the reasons was simply because the Pope was in the way and no one wanted to cross him. Until the wars of unification, the Pope ruled a piece of land in central Italy called the Papal States that divided the peninsula in half.