ABSTRACT
Once France could take stock of her position after the terrible year of 1870-1 she found herself in a world which had greatly changed since the triumph of Napoleon III at the Treaty of Paris in 1856, only fifteen years earlier. Then she had been incontestably the foremost power in Europe. Italy and Germany were still only geographical expressions, Russia had been vanquished, Great Britain was an ally. Now France’s débâcle had completed that rapid transformation of the map of Europe which had begun with the Italian war of 1859. It had obliged her to recall her troops from Rome-without any quid pro quo-and this withdrawal had spelt the doom of the Temporal power of the Papacy. The establishment of the Italian Government in the Eternal City had completed the unification of the new Italian kingdom. At the same time Russia had seized the chance afforded by war between two of the great powers of Europe to secure a modification of the Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris. Most momentous of all, Germany, through war with France, had at last attained national unity and France had been without an ally. Consequently, while France was prostrate, three of the other principal European states had profited from her fall. The balance of European power was completely altered. The new German Empire had proved to be the most formidable military state; it already outnumbered France by over 4,000,000 people1 and bid fair also to become the greatest industrial country on the Continent. The hegemony of Europe had passed from France to Germany, and Bismarck, not Thiers, was now the chief arbiter of continental destinies.
