1870-71. The Prussian chancellor Bismarck put
forward a German candidate for the vacant
Spanish throne with the deliberate, and
successful, intention of provoking the French
emperor Napoleon III into declaring war. The
Prussians defeated the French at Sedan, then
besieged Paris. The Treaty of Frankfurt May
1871 gave Alsace, Lorraine, and a large
French indemnity to Prussia. The war
established Prussia, at the head of a newly
established German empire, as Europe's
leading power.