Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 44: Parisian citizens assist (seeking follow-up reading)
Bismarck walked slowly to Fabre, his face showing no emotion, and said word by word: "This war was started by France, and the responsibility should be borne by the French government.

Prussia paid too much for this war, and money alone could not make up for the pain in the hearts of the Prussian army and people.

If your government is unwilling to cede territory and pay compensation, that's fine, we can go to Paris to negotiate further."

Fabre knew the hidden threat in Bismarck's words. To put it nicely, he would go to Paris for further negotiations. To put it bluntly, if the French government did not agree to cede territory, the Prussian army would continue to attack Paris.

Once the French capital fell, it would no longer be easy for the French government to refuse to cede territory and pay compensation.

Seeing that Bismarck was not going to take any tough measures, Fabre had no choice but to change his strategy.

“Prime Minister Bismarck, ceding land will make tens of millions of French people unhappy and will cause endless troubles to the French government.

Please, for the sake of tens of millions of French people, do not let us cede land. We are willing to meet any demands of your government in terms of reparations and do our best to repay all the reparations. "

Fabre's strategy of using soft tactics did not work, but Bismarck remained unmoved and said with a smile: "Mr. Fabre, what do the French have to do with me?

Please don't forget that I am the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia and I only care about what the Prussians think.

If your country is still unwilling to cede land, I will be happy to go to Paris and negotiate with your government in person."

Seeing that all his strategies were ineffective against Bismarck, Fabre could only resort to his last trick, which was to delay time.

He handed Bismarck a thick French document and said sincerely: "Please take a look at these documents first, and then give us 15 days to consider. We will give you a reply in 15 days. Please believe in our sincerity."

Bismarck shook his head, took a document written in German, handed it to Fabre, and said, "Don't bother, Mr. Fabre. This is our document and our answer."

The surprise and worry in Fabre's eyes could no longer be hidden.

Submitting documents in German is not common in the diplomatic practices of European countries. Because France has long been the hegemon of Europe, diplomatic exchanges between European countries are basically conducted in French.

This is also the reason why French became the common language among European aristocrats. All European aristocrats would learn French, including Carlo, who had learned French before, so there was no problem with daily communication.

Bismarck's breaking of previous conventions was also a reminder to Fabre that France's days as the overlord of continental Europe were gone forever.

After Prussia defeated France, it naturally became the new overlord of the European continent, so it is not surprising that diplomatic documents were written in German.

This puzzled Fabre. Although he was a diplomat sent by the French government, he was not very professional in diplomacy.

More importantly, because all previous diplomatic exchanges were conducted in French, Fabre’s German was actually not that good.

Faced with such a document written entirely in German, a question emerged in Fabre's mind: What is this about?
Seeing Fabre's puzzled expression, Bismarck lost all patience, waved his hand and said, "Okay, Mr. Fabre, go back.

I hope you can take this document back to Paris. Before our troops arrive in Paris, I hope your government can give us a satisfactory answer. "

The peace talks eventually broke down, and Fabre had no choice but to return to Paris in disgrace.

On Bismarck's side, after ending this meaningless peace negotiation, he ordered the Prussian army to continue to Paris and force the French government to sign a peace treaty that satisfied Bismarck.

Because the army led by Napoleon III had surrendered, Bismarck's path to Paris was unobstructed.

However, the French government in Paris still had hope at this time, because they did not believe that the Prussian army would be so cruel as to directly bombard Paris.

You know, Paris is one of the largest cities in Europe, with a large number of French and other foreign tourists. As the capital of France, Paris also has diplomatic ambassadors from many European countries. Unless Prussia is willing to take the risk of offending all European countries, they do not have the courage to bombard Paris.

It was with this mentality that after the Prussian army approached Paris, the French government not only did not give in, but instead sent a letter to Bismarck.

The letter read: "When do you plan to bombard Paris? If you have any plans, please let us know in advance so that we can notify the ambassadors of various countries to evacuate."

This was a blatant reminder to Bismarck to consider the opinions of other European countries. It was true that Prussia could bombard Paris, but was it something that other countries wanted to see that Prussia could easily bully France, the former hegemon of Europe?

Although this is common sense, French politicians clearly underestimated Bismarck's courage.

Bismarck also immediately wrote back to the French government, in which he wrote: "What you asked is the highest military secret of Prussia, and I have no comment for the time being. If you need to evacuate foreign ambassadors in advance, you can do it now."

If it was just a reply to the French government, then this would be another meaningless threat.

For the experienced Bismarck, he would naturally not miss the delicate situation in Paris.

This letter was not only sent directly to the French government, but was also made public by Bismarck and sent to many newspapers in Paris.

This immediately caused heated discussion among the citizens of Paris.

It turns out that the new National Defense Government has been negotiating with Prussia for so many days and has only come up with the result of bombarding Paris. Doesn't this betray the former glory of France?
The angry citizens of Paris once again launched an uprising, intending to overthrow the capitalist-controlled National Defense Government and establish a French government that had the courage to resist the Germans.

This uprising was a spontaneous rebellion against the government by some radical nationalists. Due to the lack of support, it was quickly suppressed by the National Defense Government.

But at the same time, the fierce opposition from the people in Paris also caused panic among the French Defense Government.

The French government knew that the peace talks could not be delayed any longer and that a result must be reached as soon as possible so that it could free up its hands to stabilize the situation in Paris.

On April 1870, 4, the French National Defense Government signed a treaty of surrender. On April 5, the French government and Bismarck jointly signed a treaty of armistice, and France finally ushered in a brief peace.

Perhaps the people of Paris did not expect that their pressure on the government would make the French government even more accommodating to Prussia.

The armistice agreement, which was originally going to take a long time to negotiate, was signed, and the French government also forgot the bottom line of not ceding territory that it had maintained a few days ago.

According to the treaty signed by both parties, the French government had to hand over most of the artillery and ammunition of the Paris fortress to the Prussian army and pay a compensation of 2 million francs.

Bismarck also added an additional clause that the German army could enter Paris in triumphal procession and pass through the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris.

The history of the Arc de Triomphe can be traced back to the Napoleonic period in the early 19th century. In order to celebrate the victory over the Russian-Austrian coalition, Napoleon ordered the construction of a building that would allow returning soldiers to pass through, and the Arc de Triomphe was born.

However, because the construction plan of the Arc de Triomphe was overturned by Napoleon, the Arc de Triomphe was not completed until 1836.

Why did Bismarck want the Prussian army to pass through the Arc de Triomphe in triumph?

Because decades ago, Napoleon had defeated Prussia many times in his glorious record of conquering Europe. This is why France looked down on Prussia before the war.

As the Prime Minister of Prussia, Bismarck naturally wanted to wash away the shame of Prussia in this way, and at the same time return the same shame to France and the French people.

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(End of this chapter)