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Updated: June 6, 2025
The writer of these lines passed through this country years ago where it is said that there were two hundred square miles of cemeteries instead of farms. In 1870-1871 came the Franco-Prussian War and once more these provinces were largely devastated. Somehow the people got an inkling that their land might go to Germany and at once they were up in arms about it.
But before the end of the second year many of the students discovered that life in town was more comfortable, and accordingly they gave up their university rooms. At the opening of the academic year 1870-1871 perhaps three-fourths, certainly two-thirds, were lodged in town. The change was significant.
It had held them secure during the great crisis of 1870-1871 and when the war cloud gathered in Austria and Servia they felt secure. Soon, however, it became plain that Germany had been planning for years to crush this little country like an egg shell. Four double-track lines of railway had been built up to the Belgian border.
She had for decades assumed at sea the same dictatorial attitude as France had maintained upon land under Louis XIV. and Napoleon I. The years 1870-1871 broke the French spell; the year 1884 has shown England that the times of her maritime imperialism also are over, and that if she does not renounce it of her own free will, an 1870 will come for the English spell too.
I am old enough to remember the beginning of the anti-German phase of that very ancient propaganda in England. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 left Europe very much taken aback. Up to that date nobody was afraid of Prussia, though everybody was a little afraid of France; and we were keeping "buffer States" between ourselves and Russia in the east.
Shaw would seem to hold Britain responsible for German militarism, but the facts he cites are against him there. "I am old enough," says he, "to remember the beginnings of the anti-German phase of military propaganda in England. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 left England very much taken aback.
The war of 1866, when Prussia represented Germany, lasted thirty-five days; the war against Denmark lasted six months and twelve days; the war against France lasted six months and nine days. Thirty-six German cavalry regiments did not lose a man during the whole campaign of 1870-1871; and the Sixth Army Corps was hardly under fire.
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