ABSTRACT
The rapid rise of Prussia—Germany to a position of diplomatic and military dominance on the continent by 1871 was clearly the main change in the balance of power in Europe between 1865 and 1885. Russia’s adoption of a ‘revisionist’ stance towards European affairs, with the aim of exploiting suitable opportunities to revise the humiliating Black Sea clauses of the Treaty of Paris, initially favoured Napoleon III. Austria was castigated by Gladstone as a ‘foe to freedom’, while France was seen as a constant threat or a dangerous rival, whose conversion to Free Trade was only skin deep. In September 1870, the French army was humbled at the disaster of Sedan, bringing to an ignominious end Napoleon Ill’s Second Empire. The growth of tension between Prussia and France from 1867 to 1870 was, arguably, something that was of serious concern to Britain.
