September 2, 1870: The Battle of Sedan

Wilhelm Camphausen's painting of Napoleon III (left) and Bismarck after the battle

September 2, 1870: The Battle of Sedan is fought, in the Ardennes Forest, near France's border with Belgium. It is an utter disaster for the French Second Empire. It is the beginning of the German Second Reich.

Since the final fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, France went through the monarchies of Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis Philippe. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, son of Napoleon's brother Louis, was elected President following the Revolution of 1848, then seized full power in 1851, proclaiming himself Emperor Napoleon III. (Napoleon's son died in 1832, at age 21, without ever having reigned as Napoleon II.)

Napoleon III was popular among his people for several years. He modernized the French economy, focusing on railways. He reconstructed Paris with new boulevards and parks, and the architectural style that became known as "Second Empire Style," which would also become popular in America.

In foreign policy, he led the building of the Suez Canal in Egypt, assisted the unification of Italy to win their alliance, and negotiated a free trade agreement with Britain, bringing the old enemy nations closer together than ever before. So, unlike Le Petit Corporal, one of the greatest enemies Britain has ever had, Napoleon III is well-regarded by British people today.

Emperor Napoleon III

But he made 2 great mistakes in foreign policy: The attempted annexation of Mexico ended in disaster in 1867, and the Franco-Prussian War. Nervous about Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's maneuvering to unify the various small German states into a single country, Napoleon III attacked on July 19, 1870.

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck

A story which may be apocryphal tells of a German-owned firm in New York receiving a large order for arms from France. They wired Bismarck, and asked them how they should handle it. He replied that they should sell the French all the weapons they could afford, because his army would have them soon enough. 

The French were no match for the German troops. Finally, at Sedan, on September 2, with Napoleon III himself on hand, a German force commanded by Helmuth von Moltke, with King Wilhelm I of Prussia on hand, encircled the French troops, capturing 104,000 men, including the Emperor. Napoleon III personally surrendered to Wilhelm I, and sent word of his abdication as Emperor to Paris.

A Government of National Defense was formed on September 4. They considered having Henri, Comte de Chambord and Duke of Bordeaux, the grandson of the last legitimate King, Charles X, as a parliamentary monarch, Henri V, but he wanted to get rid of all symbols of the French Revolution of 1789-94, including the Tricolor Flag. The French people had grown too attached to the flag, and so he refused to take the throne. France has never had a monarchy again, no matter how powerless.

The Government of National Defense turned out to be useless. On September 19, Bismarck entered Paris. On January 18, 1871, at the Palace of Versailles, built by the most legendary of all French Kings, Louis XIV, the German Second Reich was proclaimed, with Wilhelm I as Emperor, or Kaiser. (Like the Russian title "Czar," the German title "Kaiser" comes from the Roman title "Caesar.")

Kaiser Wilhelm I

Taken into the German Empire were the eastern French territories of Alsace and Lorraine. France would take them back in World War I, then Germany would take the entirety of France in World War II, before Allied troops liberated the country. Unlike his grandson Wilhelm II, the great villain of World War I, and Adolf Hitler, that of World War II, Wilhelm I is still admired in Germany, as is Bismarck, the father of the nation, their George Washington.

Later in 1871, the Government of National Defense fell to the Paris Commune, but that didn't last long, either. A series of weak governments under the Third Republic led to France suffering terribly in both World Wars.

Napoleon III died in exile in London in 1873, after years of ill health, at the age of 64. His son, Prince Imperial Louis-Napoléon, never reigned as Emperor Napoleon IV, enlisted in the British Army, and died a hero's death in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, just 23. With him died the last serious hope for a return to monarchy in France.

In 2022, there are 3 pretenders to the French throne, none of whom has made much effort to reclaim it. The Legitimist claimant is Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, Duc d'Anjou, age 48, the would-be Louis XX, a direct descendant of Louis XV (but not XVI, XVII, XVIII or XIX), and also descended from Queen Victoria of Britain, Kings of Spain, and (through his mother) Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

The Orléanist claimant is Jean, Comte de Paris, 57, the would-be Jean IV, a direct descendant of Louis-Phillippe.

And the Bonapartist claimant is Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon, 36, the would-be Napoleon VIII, a direct descendant of the original Napoleon's brother, Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte.

Like George Washington, Charles de Gaulle probably could have had himself proclaimed King if he'd wanted it. Certainly, there were times when he acted more like a king than Washington ever did. His son, Philippe, served in the French Senate from 1986 to 2004. As of September 2, 2022, he is still alive, age 98.

UPDATE: Philippe de Gaulle died in 2024, at 102. His eldest son and heir, named Charles de Gaulle, turned 77 on September 25, 2025. From 1994 to 2004, he served in the European Parliament. In 1999, he switched to the National Front, a since-dissolved far-right party that often seemed to resemble Germany's Nazis, which would have horrified his grandfather and namesake, not to mention Napoleon III. "It was like hearing the Pope had converted to Islam," a family member said.

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September 2, 1870 was a Friday. This was the dawn of professional baseball, but before the 1st professional league. The biggest rivalry in the sport at the time was between the top team in what was then considered the West, the Cincinnati Red Stockings; and the top team in the East, the Brooklyn Atlantics.

On this day, the Red Stockings beat the Atlantics, 14-3. The Red Stockings finished the season 67-6, with 2 of their losses -- June 14, the 1st game they'd ever lost since their founding the preceding hear, and October 26 -- being dealt by the Atlantics.

March 18, 1890: The Kaiser Fires the Iron Chancellor

Otto von Bismarck

March 18, 1890: Kaiser Wilhelm II, the head of state for Germany, fires the head of government, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Effectively, this makes the Emperor the dictator of the largest and most powerful nation on the Continent of Europe.

Like the Russian term "Czar," the German term "Kaiser” is derived from the ancient Roman term "Caesar." We pronounce it "SEE-zer," but the Romans pronounced it "KIGH-zer."

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen was born on April 1, 1815 in Schönhausen, in Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany, then considered part of Prussia. A Junker, a member of the landed nobility in Prussia, he rose rapidly in politics under King Wilhelm I. He served as the Prussian ambassador to Russia and France, and in both houses of the Prussian Parliament.

In 1862, the Kaiser named him Prussia's Minister President and Foreign Minister. Under Bismarck's leadership, Prussia provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria and France. After Austria's defeat in 1866, he replaced the German Confederation with the North German Confederation, which aligned the smaller North German states with Prussia while excluding Austria.

In 1870, Bismarck secured France's defeat in the Franco-Prussia War with support from the independent South German states, before overseeing the creation of a unified German Empire under Prussian rule.

Following Germany's unification, he was given the aristocratic title Prince of Bismarck (Fürst von Bismarck). From 1871 onwards, his balance-of-power approach to diplomacy helped maintain Germany's position in a peaceful Europe.

While averse to maritime colonialism, Bismarck acquiesced to elite and popular opinion by acquiring colonies. As part of his domestic political maneuvering, Bismarck created the first welfare state, with the goal of undermining his Socialist opponents.

In the 1870s, he allied himself with the low-tariff, anti-Catholic Liberals, and fought the Catholic Church in what was called the Kulturekampf: "Culture Struggle." He was unsuccessful, with the Catholics responding by forming the powerful Germany Centre Party, and using universal male suffrage to gain a bloc of seats. Bismarck responded by ending the Kulturekampf, breaking with the Liberals, and forming a political alliance with the Centre Party to fight the Socialists.

A staunch monarchist, Bismarck ruled autocratically through a strong bureaucracy with power concentrated in the hands of the Junker elite. But on March 9, 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm I died, just short of his 89th birthday. And his son, Kaiser Friedrich III, was already dying of cancer of the larynx, and reigned for just 99 days, dying on June 15, 1888, at 56.

This elevated his son to the throne, and Kaiser Wilhelm II was just 29 years old. Given that he was 73, and did not know Friedrich was dying, he expected to die during Friedrich's reign, and had no plan for dealing with young Wilhelm on the throne. The new Kaiser opposed Bismarck's careful foreign policy, preferring vigorous and rapid expansion to enlarge Germany's "place in the sun."

Kaiser Wilhelm II, circa 1890

The final break came as Bismarck searched for a new parliamentary majority, as his Kartell was voted from power as a consequence of a fiasco over an anti-socialist bill. The remaining forces in the Reichstag were the Catholic Centre Party and the Conservative Party. Bismarck wished to form a new bloc with the Centre Party and invited Ludwig Windthorst, the parliamentary leader, to discuss an alliance.

That would be Bismarck's last political maneuver: Upon hearing about Windthorst's visit, Wilhelm was furious. In a parliamentary state, the head of government depends on the confidence of the parliamentary majority, and has the right to form coalitions to ensure their policies have majority support. However, in Germany, the Chancellor depended on the confidence of the Kaiser alone, and Wilhelm believed that the Kaiser had the right to be informed before his minister's meeting.

After a heated argument in Bismarck's office, Wilhelm -- to whom Bismarck had shown a letter from Czar Alexander III of Russia, describing Wilhelm as a "badly brought-up boy" -- stormed out, after first ordering the rescinding of the Cabinet Order enacted in 1851 by King Frederick William IV of Prussia, which had forbidden Prussian Cabinet Ministers from reporting directly to the King of Prussia and required them instead to report via the Prussian Prime Minister.

Bismarck, forced for the first time into a situation that he could not use to his advantage, wrote a blistering letter of resignation, decrying Wilhelm's interference in foreign and domestic policy. The letter, however, was published only after Bismarck's death.

After his dismissal, he was promoted to the rank of "Colonel-General with the Dignity of Field Marshal," so-called because the German Army did not appoint full Field Marshals in peacetime. He was also given a new title, Duke of Lauenburg, which he joked would be useful when travelling incognito. He was soon elected to the Reichstag as a National Liberal in a and supposedly safe Hamburg seat, but he was so humiliated by being taken to a second ballot by a Social Democrat opponent that he never actually took up his seat.

Bismarck entered into resentful retirement, and waited in vain to be called upon for advice and counsel. After his wife Johanna's death on November 27, 1894, his health worsened. He died on July 30, 1898, at 83. At the Bismarck Mausoleum, near his final home in Friedrichsruh, Schleswig-Holstein, his own sarcophagus is inscribed with the words, "A loyal German servant of Emperor Wilhelm I." This was an intentional snub of Wilhelm II.

Thanks to the ambitions and incompetence of Wilhelm II, the Empire ended after only 48 years. Had Friedrich III still been alive in the Summer of 1914, he would have been 82 years old, so it would hardly have been impossible for him to still be on the throne. Would World War I have been avoided? Or was there enough "war fever" in the Imperial German military that a war with Britain, or France, or Russia, causing the other alliances to kick in, was inevitable? We'll never know.

The Iron Chancellor's son, Herbert von Bismarck, was Foreign Minister from 1886 until 1890, resigning shortly after his father in protest. His son, Otto, thought he could change the Nazi Party from within, managed to save thousands of Croatian Jews from the Holocaust, before serving in the postwar Bundestag (federal legislature). Otto's son, Ferdinand, was a lawyer and a real estate tycoon. And Ferdinand's son, the Iron Chancellor's great-great-grandson, Carl-Eduard, Prince of Bismarck, is an investor and a former member of the Bundestag.

The capital of North Dakota, a State with a large German-American community, is named Bismarck. So was the leading German battleship of World War II.

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March 18, 1890 was a Tuesday. There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball was in Spring Training, football was out of season, hockey barely existed, and basketball was nearly 2 years away from being invented.

January 18, 1871: The Unification of Germany

Kaiser Wilhelm I

January 18, 1871: The member states of the North German Confederation and the south German states, aside from Austria, unite into a single nation-state, known as the German Empire. It would later be retroactively called the Second Reich. (The Holy Roman Empire, of AD 962 to 1806, was the First Reich.)

The Empire is proclaimed not in Germany, but in conquered territory: The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, France.

Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig, King of Prussia, is declared Wilhelm I, Deutscher Kaiser – Emperor of Germany. (Like the Russian term "Czar," the German term "Kaiser” is derived from the ancient Roman term "Caesar." We pronounce it "SEE-zer," but the Romans pronounced it "KIGH-zer.") The Constitution of the German Confederation comes into effect, abolishing all restrictions on Jewish marriage, choice of occupation, place of residence, and property ownership.

Otto von Bismarck

Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg, was proclaimed the 1st Chancellor of Germany. "The Iron Chancellor" would serve for 19 years, outlasting Kaiser Wilhelm I and his son Kaiser Friedrich I, before being dismissed by Friedrich's son, Kaiser Wilhelm II. Thanks to the ambitions and incompetence of Wilhelm II, the Empire ended after only 48 years.

France replaced its Second Empire with its Third Republic. That would be ended in 1940, by Germany's Third Reich.

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January 18, 1871 was a Wednesday. The only professional team sport yet to have taken hold in America was baseball, and this was the off-season. So there were no scores on this historic day.