The Political and Monetary Situation in Europe in 1865

Abstract In 1865 the prestige of the second Empire in Europe had reached its zenith. The French army had not been defeated since 1815 and was considered by most, especially by the French themselves, as the best in the world. Napoleon III regarded himself as the arbitrator of European conflicts and felt he could encourage Prussian ambitions to unite part of Germany one day and support Austrian resistance to such a plan on another occasion. Bismarck travelled across France to pay a respectful visit to Napoleon in Biarritz, and Moltke, who was to besiege and seize Paris, was still an obscure Prussian general. The events of years following 1865, marked by a French defeat in Mexico, by embarrassment over the Prussian victory against Austria in 1866, and by humiliation after the war of 1870-1 against Germany, showed that most of the ‘grandeur’ of lmperial France was only a delusion. The French army had not kept pace with Prussian military reforms and the inconsistency of Napoleonic policy produced its bitter fruits.