od, he met with a
fair degree of success. It looked very much, immediately after the
Prusso-Austrian War of 1866, as if Prussia could not count then or
for some time to come on the support of the south German states in
any enterprise in which Prussian influence would be predominant. The
attitude of these south German states toward Prussia at that time
was of such a nature that the French Government could hardly be
blamed in thinking that in a possible conflict between France and
Prussia they might be found on the side of France, or at least could
be counted upon not to be on the side of Prussia.

This conflict, it was clear, was to come soon. For under the able
leadership of the Prussian Prime Minister, Bismarck, Prussia was
gradually more and more increasing in power and influence and
intruding on the French leadership in European affairs. That it came
as early as 1870 was partly due to the French expectations of
support on the part of the south German states which we have just
mentioned, and partly to the general unrest which made itself felt
in France as a result of the lack of success of the recent foreign
policy of Napoleon III.

It is unnecessary to recite here the immediate causes as well as the
details of the result of this war, all of which have been considered
in the history of Germany of this period, and we shall, therefore,
content ourselves with the repetition of the fact that the south
German states disappointed French expectations by not only refusing
to support France, but by openly and actively supporting Prussia,
because the immediate cause of the Franco-Prussian War was
considered by them a matter of national importance affecting all
German-speaking people alike. The fall of Sedan, resulting in the
capture of Napoleon III himself, brought the downfall of the second
empire and the end of the monarchistic form of government in France.

The next few years are among the darkest in French history. In
February, 1871, M. Thiers had been made the executive head of
France, and it became his task to conclude the peace with Germany
which was ratified by the French Assembly on May 18, 1871. Previous
to that, on March 18, 1871, insurrection had broken out in Paris,
and a separate government had been set up by the people known as the
Commune. This revolution was put down only after the hardest kind of
fighting between the forces of the Commune and the Government
troops, and after more than $150,000,000 worth of