Power is war, which seems to be the unchangeable iron law in human history. /kloc-Before the middle of the 0/9th century, the divided Germany had a long-term debate on the issue of reunification, but it failed to form a situation of solving the problem by force. However, when Prussia completed the "Military Revolution" in 1960s, a new military power appeared on the European continent, which no longer tolerated talking about territory and sovereignty, followed by a series of military struggles with the powerful countries that tried to maintain the division of Germany by means of "blood and iron". Mainly three large-scale wars
1. The war between Prussia, Austria and Denmark
This war was launched by Prussia and Austria against Denmark in order to capture Schleswig and the Principality of Holstein. Schleswig and Holstein are located in southern Denmark, and their strategic position is very important. The residents of Holstein are basically Germans and participated in the German Confederation. The northern part of Schleswig is dominated by Danes and the southern part by Germans, who did not participate in the German Confederation. Traditionally, the two areas will never be separated. It is precisely because of geographical and ethnic reasons that these two regions have become the focus of attention and competition in some European countries. As early as 1848- 1850, Prussia launched a war against Denmark in order to seize the two principalities occupied by Denmark. Due to the intervention of Britain, France, Russia, Sweden and other powers, the war failed.
1863165438+1October, Denmark merged Schleswig into the kingdom of Denmark in violation of the new constitutions adopted by the London Protocol 1850 and 1852. Opus and Austria demanded the abolition of the Constitution, and in February 1863+65438, 22,000 troops occupied Holstein and the Grand Duchy of Lauenburg in the German Federation. At the same time, the two countries began to prepare for war against Denmark.
1864 65438+1October 16, the two countries issued an ultimatum to Denmark, demanding the restoration of Schleswig's status. After the Danes refused the ultimatum, more than 60,000 Puao Coalition troops crossed the Schleswig border on February 1 day under the command of Prussian Marshal Frange. Britain, France and Russia refused to support Denmark's territorial claims, so Denmark was isolated diplomatically.
On February 6th, the Danish army with 38,000 men could not hold the position of Dane Walker near Schleswig. Under the command of Lieutenant General de Mesa, it retreated to the fortress position near Diebold via flensburg. An army retreated to the north of jutland to defend the fortress of Fredericia. At the beginning of March, Prussia and Austrian allied forces surrounded Fredericia, and on April 18, they captured the Duport position in one fell swoop. On April 29th, the Danish army abandoned Fredericia and retreated to Alsace and the Philippine Islands. The Danish fleet defeated the Prussian sub-fleet near Rü gen Island on March 17 and the Austrian sub-fleet on Helgolan Island on May 9, but these victories failed to determine the outcome of the war. On April 25th, representatives of Britain, France, Russia and the warring countries held peace talks in London. /kloc-in may of 0/2, an armistice agreement was signed, valid until June 26th. But the peace talks have made no progress.
On June 29th, the joint forces of Prussia and Austria resumed their attack and occupied the whole of jutland in mid-July. 16 July, the armistice agreement was signed again; 10 year 10 on October 30th, the peace treaty was signed in Vienna. According to the provisions of the peace treaty, Denmark gave up its territorial claims to Schleswig and Holstein. Under the careful planning of Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck, Prussia intends to cede Holstein to Austria. Schleswig was under Prussia's jurisdiction, thus creating premeditated Pu 'ao friction.
2. The Puao War
Also known as the "Seven-Week War". This is an important war between Prussia and Austria for the dominance of Germany.
After the war between Prussia, Austria and Denmark, Bismarck immediately prepared to go to war with Austria. He took advantage of the old feud that Russia hoped Austria would support and Austria ignored in the Crimean War, and stabilized Russia's inaction. He vaguely hinted to the French emperor Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte that after the war, he would give French territory "compensation" in exchange for France's neutrality; He also used Italy's growing anti-Austrian sentiment to form a military alliance with Italy against Austria. 1On June 8th, 866, Bismarck invaded Holstein on the pretext that the Austrian Parliament unilaterally discussed the future of this region, thus destroying the agreement between the two countries. On the other hand, Austria put forward a motion to sanction Prussia at the Confederate Parliament in Frankfurt, which was passed. Bismarck declared that the Confederate Constitution had been destroyed and the German Confederacy needed to be reorganized, and put forward a draft of reorganization excluding Austria. This became the fuse of war.
17 June, Austria declared war on Prussia, and the war officially broke out. At that time, Prussia was well prepared, and the number of troops that could be put into war reached 630,000; Austria has only 300,000 troops. After Italy declared war on Austria on June 20th, Austria had to use 80,000 of them to form the Southern Corps to deal with Italy. In this way, Prussia has obvious advantages in power comparison.
After the start of the war, under the command of General Mao Qi, the chief of staff, Pu Jun launched an attack on the 250-kilometer-wide front of Bohemia in three ways: the second army under the command of Crown Prince friedrich wilhelm,127,000 men, advanced from the northeast to Mingxing Graz; Prince Frederick Carr's 1 Legion, with 97,000 men, advanced from the north to Reichenberg; General Bittenfield's third army, the Iberian Army, with 50,000 men, attacked from the northwest in the direction of Mingxing Graz. After the occupation of Dresden on June 22nd, the Elbe Army merged with the 1 Army. Subsequently, Pu Jun attacked in two ways, and its task was to annihilate Benedek's army in the final battle and capture Vienna.
The Austrian Northern Army, led by General Benedek, gathered near Olmi and advanced towards Pu Jun. Because of unclear enemy situation and lack of unified command, Pu Jun moved slowly when passing through the mountain pass. Benedek was sure to conquer Pu Jun one by one, but the action was slower than that of Pu Jun, which made the Prussian Army pass the mountain pass smoothly. From June 27th to 30th, Pu Jun launched several battles near Nahed and Mü nchenggraz, forcing Austrian troops to retreat. On July 3rd, the two sides fought the biggest battle in the whole war in the Graetz area of Sadovac. Once again, Benedek missed all the fighters who annihilated Pu Jun. They started fighting one after another and went to war one after another. As a result, the Austrian army was defeated, about 1.8 thousand people were killed and 24 thousand people were captured. Only because of Pu Jun's command error failed to organize the pursuit in time, the Austrian army was spared from being annihilated.
After the war in Sadova, the Austrian army had to shrink its forces to defend Vienna. It incorporated the remnants of the Northern Army Corps, organized the 1 Danube Army Corps, and incorporated two troops from Italy into the Army Corps. At this point, according to General Mao Qi's plan, Pu Jun can muster, quickly capture Vienna and completely destroy the Austrian ruling center. However, the cunning Bismarck didn't want to weaken Austria too much. He was worried that the protracted war might lead to Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte's armed intervention. Therefore, he changed Mao Qi's strategic deployment and instructed Pu Jun to give up attacking Vienna and attack Hungary instead. Faced with the danger of losing Hungary, Austria had to stop its military operations and signed an armistice agreement with Prussia on July 22nd. On August 23rd, the two sides signed a peace treaty in Prague. Prussia acquired Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, Frankfurt am Main and other places. Austria withdrew from the German Federation, and the old Federation collapsed.
1867, the North German Federation with Prussia as the center was established, including 19 states and 3 free cities.
3. Franco-Prussian War
This is a battle for Prussia and France to weaken each other's strength and improve and expand their dominant position among European powers, and it is also a decisive war for Prussia to finally gain the dominant position in Germany. The cause of this war is that on the eve of the Puo War, Bismarck hinted that he would cede territory to Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte in order to maintain French neutrality, but later Bismarck said nothing about it, and Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte was extremely dissatisfied with being cheated. After the Puao War, the relationship between the two sides became increasingly tense, and both sides were preparing for a large-scale expansion of their troops, brewing a big fight. Prussia, in particular, not only mobilized a large number of troops and weapons and equipment to participate in the war, but also General Mao Qi, Chief of General Staff, has drafted and revised the operational plan. War is inevitable. Bismarck finally found an "appropriate" excuse for the war on the issue of succession to the Spanish throne. 1in February, 870, Bismarck sent people to commune with the Spanish interim government and invited Wang Weilian's cousin Baron Arklow to be king in Spain. This kind of thing was common in the history of European countries at that time, but Bismarck had other plans. He tried to unite the two countries through this plan, which led to France being attacked by both sides. Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte felt that the close relationship between Germany and Spain was extremely unfavorable to him, so he protested to Prussia and threatened to go to war with any country whose people came to Spain as kings. In fact, King Pu neither knew nor approved Leopold's acceptance of the Spanish throne. On July 3rd, Spain's Echo revealed that Leopold was strongly opposed by King Pu after he ascended the Spanish throne, and Leopold himself officially stated that he would not go to Spain to be king. However, Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte was still uneasy about this, so he ordered the ambassador to Pope to meet Wang Pu and asked Wang Pu to promise never to agree to Leopold's succession to the Spanish throne. Wang Pu refused to give such a guarantee and telegraphed Bismarck. Bismarck, after plotting with Mao Qi and Secretary of the Army Ron, revised the original message and published it in the newspaper, insulting and provoking the French. This incident immediately caused a shock in France. Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte became angry from embarrassment and declared war on Prussia on July 65438, 2009.
The commander-in-chief of the French army is the French emperor Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, and the chief of staff is Loeb. They tried to pre-empt, concentrated their forces and quickly crossed the border, rushed in the direction of Frankfurt, cut off the ties between North and South Germany, and forced the southern German States to remain neutral and beat Prussia with all their strength. But in fact, the mobilization and assembly of the French army is slow. Until the end of July, about 220,000 people from eight armies gathered at the border. At the beginning of August, they were organized into two legions, led by Marshal McMahon and Marshal Bazin respectively. The commander-in-chief of Pu Jun is Wang Pu William I, and the chief of staff is Mao Qi.
Prussia plans to concentrate superior forces, attack Alsace and Lorraine, try to annihilate the main force of the French army in the Franco-Prussian border area or drive it to the north of France, and then attack Paris. By the end of July, due to Pu Jun's careful mobilization and the use of railway transport troops, three legions, about 470,000 people, had assembled at the border and were fully equipped. On August 2nd, the French army first attacked Pu Jun in the Saarbrü cken area, but there was no strong combat action. Pu Jun turned to attack on August 4th. The French army met with Pu Jun's attack in the unfavorable position in the border area, and suffered repeated losses in the battles of Visamburg, Walter and Spikelen from August 4 to 6. Bazin hesitated, sometimes determined to retreat to Sharon to meet McMahon, and sometimes determined to defend in Metz. When it was finally decided to retreat to Sharon, the opportunity had been lost and Pu Jun was approaching. After the Battle of Mars latour in August 14 and the Battle of Lott-St. Privat in Glaveau in August 18, the Bazin Legion was surrounded by the 2nd Legion of Pujundi 1. McMahon led the army back to Sharon. He is going to lure the enemy deep and fight Pu Jun at the gates. The imperial government was worried that further retreat would cause unrest or revolution in China and sent it to rescue Bazin. So McMahon led the army from Reims to Metz on August 22nd. At this time, there was a false news from Berlin. Said that in addition to besieging Mace's troops, Pu Jun was determined to push all the way to Paris. In fact, the Third Army of Pujun continued to pursue McMahon's troops. Boldly detour to the right, cooperate with the newly formed 4th Army Corps, and lay siege to the French army led by McMahon together with Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte who was embedded at that time. 1 September, the Franco-Prussian armies fought a decisive battle in Sedang, and the French army was defeated. Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte raised a white flag in Sedang Central Tower, and at the same time sent someone to submit a surrender letter to King Pu. On September 2, Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte met Bismarck in Li Tongxue Village, and the French army formally surrendered. In the battle of Sedang, the French army was killed or injured 17000, and captured 103000, including 39 generals.
Sedang campaign is a typical complete siege battle, and it is one of the decisive battles in the history of war, with great influence. After the Battle of Sedang, the Prussian army moved in and continued to advance. After the news reached Paris, people's revolutionary mood rose rapidly. On September 4th, a revolution broke out in Paris, which overthrew the Second Empire of France and established the Third Republic of France, ending the era of dynastic rule in French history. Therefore, the battle of Sedan was a turning point in the Franco-Prussian War. The obstacle of German national reunification was removed, but Bismarck wanted to occupy French territory, and this war has become a naked hegemonic aggression against Prussia. On September 19, 2009, Pu Jun surrounded Paris, burning and looting everywhere. The French interim government, under the banner of "national defense", not only failed to organize resistance, but betrayed the people's armed forces. On September 28th, the French army surrounded by Pu Jun surrendered. 10 year1On October 28th, Marshal Bazin, who was besieged in Metz, surrendered. 187 1 In March, Prussia and France formally signed a peace treaty, and France ceded land for compensation and dissolved its regular army. At this point, the Franco-Prussian War ended.