ABSTRACT
For France, 1840 was at once the most needless and the most important diplomatic crisis since 1815, an assessment made all the more painful by the French government's unique responsibility for its outbreak. Choosing to play for high stakes with losing cards, she barely escaped disaster. Loss of international face was rebuke enough. Yet this crisis produced a result many times more serious than the issues involved: it set the states of Germany on a collision course with France, confirming the supposition of both Germans and French that each was the other's principal military adversary. German nationalism was aroused, and the German people contemplated the cession of territory to France with increasing repugnance. The development of France's railroad lines illustrated the army's domestic isolation, its lack of influence in day-to-day political affairs. Politics had already heavily influenced the composition of the army, ensuring that France would retain its small, long-service, professional force.
