AP European History Unit 11: Nationalism M. Holloway Ems Dispatch

When Queen Isabella of Spain abdicated her throne in 1868 a member of a junior branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty was approached as a possible successor. Fearing an encirclement by a Prussian led alliance, France opposed this candidacy of a Hohenzollern prince to replace Queen Isabella. Emperor Napoleon III of France demanded in July 1870 that King Wilhelm I of also definitively oppose it.

The Ems Telegram was originally a telegram sent by Heinrich Abeken of the Foreign Office acting under the instructions of King Wilhelm I, at a time when the king was staying at the spa town of Ems, to Bismarck which, although acceptably polite and diplomatic as it left Ems, when published after selective, and procatively intended, amendments were made by Bismarck precipitated the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

Prince Bismarck acted as he did because he wished to associate yet more of "The Germanies" with Prussian leadership but also because he considered the way in which French opposition to the Hohenzollern candidature had developed to be somewhat humiliating to Prussia.

Original Ems Dispatch The Abaken Text, Ems, July 13, 1870 “To the Federal Chancellor, Count Bismarck: His Majesty the King (Wilhelm) writes to me: M. Benedetti intercepted me on the Promenade in order to demand of me most insistently that I should authorize him to telegraph immediately to that I shall obligate myself for all future time never again to give my approval to the candidacy of the Hohenzollerns should it be renewed. I refused to agree to this, the last time somewhat severely, informing him that one dare not and cannot assume such obligations à tout jamais [forever]. Naturally, I informed him that I had received no news as yet, and since he had been informed earlier than I by way of Paris and Madrid, he could easily understand why my government was once again out of the matter. Since then His Majesty (Wilhelm) has received a dispatch from the Prince [father of the Hohenzollern candidate for the Spanish Throne]. As His Majesty (Wilhelm) has informed Count Benedetti that he was expecting news from the Prince, His Majesty (Wilhelm) himself, in view of the above mentioned demand and in consonance with the advice of Count Eulenburg and myself, decided not to receive the French envoy again but to inform him through an adjutant that His Majesty (Wilhelm) had now received from the Prince conformation of the news which Benedetti had already received from Paris, and that he had nothing further to say to the Ambassador. His Majesty (Wilhelm) leaves it to the judgment of Your Excellency (Bismarck) whether or not to communicate at once the new demand by Benedetti and its rejection to our ambassadors and to the press.”

Bismarck’s edited version: “After the reports of the renunciation by the hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern had been officially transmitted by the Royal Government of Spain to the Imperial Government of France, the French Ambassador (Benedetti) presented to His Majesty (Wilhelm) the King at Ems the demand to authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King would oblige himself for all future time never again to give his approval to the candidacy of the Hohenzollerns should it be renewed.

His Majesty the King thereupon refused to receive the French envoy again and informed him through an adjutant that His Majesty had nothing further to say to the Ambassador.”

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Bismarck ensured that the amended version was released to the newspapers and telegraphed to all of Prussia's foreign embassies. He fully expected that both the content, and the manner of release, would act as "red rags to the Gallic Bull". It was critical, in Bismarck's view, that France be perceived as the attacking power.

French court circles gratified Bismarck's deeper purposes by viewing his version of the Ems Telegram to be intolerable and thus war was declared by the French Empire on the on July 19th, 1870.

The south German states in fear of a French invasion, joined with the North , effectively setting to one side their other fear of "Prussianization". France, which was hitherto seen as a most considerable military power, was soundly defeated by a Prussian led coalition of German forces within two months. In January 1871, in the fabulous Hall of Mirrors in the just outside Paris, Wilhelm I was crowned kaiser (Caesar - Emperor) of the new (Second) .

This Franco-Prussian War was not formally ended until May of 1871. The peace settlement humiliated France, laying ground for future conflict. Germany received an indemnity payment of five billion francs and the territories of Alsace and Lorraine.

Imperial Germany was now, in Bismarck's own estimation, a satisfied power ready for peace. Bismarck was appointed Chancellor to the new Empire and endeavoured to diplomatically ensure that there would not be any European war that might give the French an opportunity to attempt to recover Alsace-Lorraine.

The effective "balance of power" in Europe was however completely transformed. In the five short years 1866-1871, Bismarck's Germany had become the most powerful country in continental Europe. In 1871 Imperial Germany had a rapidly expanding population of some 39 millions. Before the century had run its course Germany was rivaling previously preponderant Britain in terms of overall industrial output.

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