Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . theother princes, asking them to join in the requestwhich he had made to the King of Prussia, to assumethe title of Emperor which had been in abeyancefor over sixty years. So it came about that theletter by which the offer to the King was madehad really emanated from his own Chancellor. Itshews to what good purpose Bismarck used the con-fidence which, by his conduct in the previous nego-tiations, the King of Bavaria had been led to placein him. On the 18th of January, 1871, in the Palace of Ver-sailles, the King publicly assumed the new title;
Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . theother princes, asking them to join in the requestwhich he had made to the King of Prussia, to assumethe title of Emperor which had been in abeyancefor over sixty years. So it came about that theletter by which the offer to the King was madehad really emanated from his own Chancellor. Itshews to what good purpose Bismarck used the con-fidence which, by his conduct in the previous nego-tiations, the King of Bavaria had been led to placein him. On the 18th of January, 1871, in the Palace of Ver-sailles, the King publicly assumed the new title; afew days later Bismarck was raised to the rank ofPrince. A few days later Paris fell; the prolonged siegewas over and the power of resistance exhausted ;then again, as three months before, Favre asked foran audience, this time to negotiate the capitulationof the city ; we need not here dwell on the terms ofthe capitulation—we need only quote what Favrehimself says of Bismarcks attitude : I should be unfaithful to truth if I did not recognise. 1871] Wai with France. 371 that in these mournful discussions I always found theChancellor eager to soften in form the cruelty of hisrequirements. He applied himself as much as waspossible to temper the military harshness of the generalstaff, and on many points he consented to make himselfthe advocate of our demands. A few weeks were allowed for elections to beheld and an assembly to meet at Bordeaux, andthen once more M. Thiers appeared, to negotiatethe terms of peace. He knew that the demandswould be very heavy ; he anticipated that they wouldbe asked to surrender Alsace, including Belfort, andof Lorraine at least the department of the Moselle,with Metz ; he expected a large war indemnity—fivethousand million francs. The terms Bismarck hadto offer were almost identical with these, exceptthat the idemnity was placed at six thousand mil-lion francs. The part Thiers had to play was a verydifficult one ; he knew that if Germany insiste
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbismarckottofrstvon1
