ABSTRACT
Napoleon III's attempt to remind Prussia – and Europe – that it would not be allowed to ignore France's interests took place at a fashionable spa, Bad Ems. For Prussia the issue was its future as the great power. The episode is also a classic case of opportunities created by the informal spa setting becoming a pitfall. The purpose of all the alternatives to official diplomatic channels was to achieve a political object with a minimum of publicity or delay, but the public character of the Ems episode and the absence of the main decision maker, Bismarck, defeated both purposes. Bismarck's grand design was to unite under the Prussian crown all the German states that had been loosely tied for a thousand years, first in the Holy Roman Empire and then in the German confederation. During the Austro-Prussian Seven Weeks' War of 1866, France wanted to impose peace on Prussia before Austria had been defeated.
