A Duel of Nations: Germany, France, and the Diplomacy of the War of 1870-1871 by David Wetzel (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Duel of Nations: Germany, France, and the Diplomacy of the War of 1870-1871 by David Wetzel Dirk Bönker A Duel of Nations: Germany, France, and the Diplomacy of the War of 1870-1871. By David Wetzel. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012. Pp. xvi + 310. Paper $26.95. ISBN 978-0299291341. A decade ago, David Wetzel published an important study of the political origins of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71, in which he offered a welcome counterpoint to the Prusso-centrism of most accounts of the outbreak of that war (A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War [Madison, 2001]). With A Duel of Nations, Wetzel has now published the long-awaited sequel. It offers a multilayered analysis of the diplomacy of the war itself, focusing on the key French and Prussian decision makers, yet also extending to the statesmen of the other leading powers in Europe, from Britain to Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire. The analysis covers the span of the entire war, ranging from its declaration in July 1870 to the collapse of the Second Empire and the subsequent formation of a new Republican government in France, to the armistice in late January 1871 and the ratification of the preliminaries of peace by the French National Assembly on March 1, 1871. Like its predecessor, the book is an impressive piece of scholarship. Well written and incisively argued, it is based on a clear command of the available secondary literature and printed primary sources, as well as vast multinational archival research, mostly involving diplomatic records and personal papers. Two issues emerge as central to the diplomacy of this mid-nineteenth century war of nation and empire: first, the question of international intervention and the [End Page 698] localization of the war, and, second, the challenge of ending war and negotiating peace. Exploring these issues from the perspectives of the major participants, Wetzel superbly shows how Otto von Bismarck dealt, ultimately successfully, with the interrelated tasks of localizing the war and bringing it to a successful conclusion. The Prussian minister president worked hard to prevent an internationalization of the war, from the specter of a League of Neutrals in the first weeks of war to the repercussions of the Russian decision to use the war to advance the empire's interests in the Black Sea by annulling the Black Sea clauses of the Peace of Paris of 1856. Bismarck also resisted the efforts of Prussian army leaders to fight the war to some imaginary military "finish," and he focused on finding French leaders willing and capable of both accepting defeat on France's behalf and negotiating peace on Prussian terms. This included representatives of the old Imperial Regime, as well as those of the new Republic. Wetzel also succeeds at reconstructing the tortured struggles of Jules Favre, Louis Adolphe Thiers, and other representatives of the post-Napoleonic government to admit that the war was lost following the catastrophic defeat of the armies of the Second Empire, and then to accept the consequences. Their efforts to end the war took place in a fast-developing, turbulent situation, defined by the realities of continuing Prussian military dominance, limited international support, and tumultuous French politics, which not only countenanced a restoration of imperial rule but also involved the flourishing of radical politics. Moreover, demands for peace ran up against the will of some members of the new government, led by Léon Gambetta, the new charismatic Secretary of War. This group wanted to fight, at all costs, a nationalist-republican guerre à outrance based on a combination of newly raised provincial armies and guerilla warfare behind Prussian lines. All in all, Wetzel has written a concise overview of the diplomacy of the war of 1870-71. He does not cover uncharted terrain, however, or make a bold new argument. In fact, Wetzel wisely presents his book as an up-to-date diplomatic history in English that heavily draws on the work of others—including the outstanding work of historian Eberhard Kolb on Bismarck's diplomacy and peacemaking, which is only available in German (Der Weg aus dem Krieg...