Between coercion and conciliation: Franco-German relations in the bismarck era, 1871-90

Abstract

"The great powers of our age are like passengers, unknown to one another, who have accidentally come together in a railroad car," Otto von Bismarck told Prince Orlov in 1879. "They all watch each other, and when one of them sticks his hand in his pocket, the passenger next to him prepares his own revolver in order to be ready to shoot first."1 Bismarck’s description of the Great Powers was an accurate depiction of European politics after 1871, when mutual suspicion grew at an alarming rate. Its most symptomatic expression could be found in the relations of France and the newly united Germany. In the years that followed the Peace of Frankfurt, Franco-German relations can be divided into three periods: from 1871 to 1877 relations were relatively poor, as Bismarck feared a war of revenge and the restoration of a monarchy that might conduct it; from 1877 to 1885 relations between the two countries steadily improved, as republican sentiment became firmly entrenched in France and both countries made efforts in the direction of conciliation; but with the fall of the Ferry government in 1885 relations once again became icy, a trend that ultimately culminated in the Franco-Russian alliance in the early 1890s.