154 German unification, wars of succession to the throne of Spain after a revolution had ejected its previous occupant The Spaniards asked a member of the Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern (the Prussian royal family) to accept the appointment of a constitutional king of Spain This proposal caused great indignation in France, which threatened war if a Hohenzollern accepted the throne The French felt that Hohenzollern princes in Spain and Germany would put them in a vise After some weeks of hesitation, the Hohenzollern prince Leopold withdrew his candidacy It appeared that after several years of diplomatic setbacks, the French had gained a victory However, a feeling developed that the renunciation was not enough They sent their ambassador to Prussia to the town of Ems, where the Prussian king William I was taking the waters The ambassador asked William to guarantee that he would never again permit the Hohenzollern to seek the throne The king refused to undertake such a task He then sent a telegram to Bismarck describing the incident This famous Ems Telegram was edited and abbreviated by Bismarck so that it appeared that the French ambassador had been brusque to the point of insult to the Prussian king, while the Prussian king had been equally short to the point of offense to the French ambassador The message was then published in an abbreviated form Public opinion in both countries was incensed The French declared war on July 15, 1870 THE THIRD WAR Although the Prussians and the French appeared equal, Prussia had certain advantages First, the French military was still somewhat demoralized from its ill-starred adventure in Mexico between 1863 and 1867 Second, parts of the French army were tied down in parts of Indochina and Algeria, where they were busily establishing the French overseas empire Finally, the Prussians ultimately had an advantage in manpower The South German states had to recognize the stipulations of their offensive and defensive alliances with Prussia that put their forces under Prussian command in the event of war The Prussians could also count on the manpower of the North German Confederation in addition to their own Altogether, there was an army of a unified Germany of 1.2 million as opposed to a French army of 500,000, some of whom were overseas The Prussians immediately acted upon prearranged battle plans Three armies were immediately formed for the purpose of invading French territories from three separate directions General Steinmetz advanced from the Moselle, Prince Frederick Charles from the Palatinate to Metz, and the crown prince from the upper Rhine to Strasbourg The war was fought in two phases; July–September and September–February At first, events went well for the French They advanced into the Saar district in late July 1870 and won a small victory So confidant were they of victory that they drew up plans for a partition of Prussia and a redistribution of the coal-rich Saar district They would soon be disillusioned as Prussia/Germany scored a number of victories in August On August and August the crown prince won victories over Marshal MacMahon at the Battles of Weissenburg and Worth and forced him to evacuate Alsace Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, fell by the end of the month The Germans also advanced into Lorraine and approached its capital of Nancy Two other German armies surrounded the troops of Marshal Bazaine at the key city of Metz and at bloody battles at Vionville and Gravelotte on August 16 and August 18 repulsed the attempts of the French to break out of the ring When Marshal MacMahon attempted to get around the German north flank to relieve Bazaine at Metz, he discovered the road was already closed When he attempted to break through against superior numbers of troops, he was decisively defeated at Sedan on September and surrendered together with his army and the emperor on September The war continued for another five months, but the French Empire fell The French request for an armistice was not accepted, due to their unwillingness to surrender Strasbourg, Metz, Toul, and Verdun The main German army then advanced against Paris, and the main fortresses of Metz and Verdun fell in September and Strasbourg in October The last frontier fortress, Belfort, fell in midFebruary 1871 In the meantime, Paris was besieged between late September and late January 1871, and most of northern France was the scene of battles The attempt by French troops from the north and the Loire Valley to relieve Paris failed, and ultimately it too fell on January 28, 1871 The last remaining efficient army of the French was pushed into Switzerland, where it was interned early in February 1871 A preliminary peace was signed on February 26 The official treaty that ended the war was the Treaty of Frankfurt, on May 10, 1871 In its provisions, Alsace, northern Lorraine, and the city of Metz were ceded to Germany (After the final formation of the German Empire, Alsace-Lorraine became a common province of the empire.) Moreover, France had to pay mil-