1870 1871 La Guerre Franco Prussienne

After the capitulation of Sedan, on September 2, 1870, the Emperor Napoleon III was deposed, and the Second Republic was proclaimed on September 4 by a government of national defense in which Léon Gambetta figured. While France decides to continue the war, the Prussian armies and their allies march on Paris. For five months, they besieged the city, condemning the Parisians to starvation. Tragic events recorded in her diary by a young 20-year-old woman belonging to the intellectual bourgeoisie of the capital, Geneviève Bréton.

A look back at a cruel conflict, the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), which changed the political geography of Europe and sowed the seeds of a deep antagonism between France and Germany that culminated in two world wars. Excerpts from the diaries of the witnesses, photographs and painted panoramas tell the truth about a forgotten war.