154 years ago today, February 26, 1871 (January 8, 1871 in the lunar calendar), the Franco-Prussian War ended in the defeat of France. On February 26, 1871, the Franco-Prussian War ended in the defeat of France. The Franco-Prussian War was a war that broke out in Prussia to unify Germany and compete with France for hegemony on the European continent. But the war was launched by France and ended with Prussia winning a complete victory and establishing the German Empire. In Germany and France, this battle was called the German-French War. Causes of the War Prussia defeated Denmark and Austria in 1864 and 1866 respectively in order to unify Germany, but France still controlled the southern German states behind the scenes and obstructed German reunification. To this end, at the instigation of Prussian Prime Minister Bismarck, a dispute was created over the succession of the Spanish throne, causing the French Emperor Napoleon III to declare war on Prussia. Prussia used this to unite the German nation and attack France. After the war passed, after the French Emperor declared war, France immediately formed the Rhineland Army and assembled on the French-German border. The regiment had a total of eight armies, with approximately 220,000 people, with Napoleon III as commander-in-chief and Lebuf as chief of general staff. France wanted to seize Frankfurt and force Prussia to surrender; but at the same time, the Prussian army also gathered three legions, about 470,000 people, with William I as commander-in-chief and Moltke as chief of general staff. Prussia planned to use its superior forces to concentrate on attacking Alsace and Lorraine, defeat the French army on the border, and then attack Paris to force France to surrender. The war began with the French army attacking the Prussian army in the Saarbrucken region on August 2, 1870. But by August 4, the Prussian army had successfully defeated the French army and entered the counterattack stage. At the same time, the French army lost one after another in the other battlefields and was forced to retreat to the border and turn to the defense. By mid-August, the French army had been divided into two by the Prussian army. One of the 170,000-strong Rhinine Corps led by Marshal Bazin was surrounded by the Prussian army at Fort Metz; the other of more than 120,000 troops led by Napoleon III and Marshal McMahon was forced to retreat to Sedan after fierce fighting with the Prussian army on August 30. From September 1 to 2, the French and French armies fought a decisive battle at Sedan, namely the Battle of Sedan. On the morning of September 1, the Prussian army occupied Frizi, Dunsheri and other places, successfully cut off the path for the French army to withdraw westward, and intercepted the French army from behind. At noon that day, the Prussian army also completed the encirclement of the French army and used powerful artillery to carry out the attack. In the afternoon, after several failed attempts by the French army to break through, Napoleon III was forced to send a letter to William I at 4:30 p.m. expressing his willingness to "hand over his sword to His Majesty." On September 2, Napoleon III officially surrendered to the Prussian army with 83,000 officers and soldiers. In this battle, the French army lost 124,000 people, while the Prussian army lost only more than 9000 people. France was in an uproar, and the bourgeoisie took the opportunity to launch a coup in France, overthrow the monarchy and establish a defense government. The Franco-Prussian War ended with the collapse of the Second French Empire and the surrender of the French bourgeois government. The Treaty of Frankfurt, the Franco-Prussian Armistice, was extremely harsh: France ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Germany and paid compensation of 5 billion francs. This also led to the outbreak of the proletarian revolution in Paris on March 18, France. On January 18, 1871, King William I proclaimed the establishment of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, and he himself became the first emperor. Germany was unified. However, the feud between Germany and France in this war laid the foundation for the outbreak of World War I in the future.