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Bat Guano
File :-(, x)
The only picture I have of the Franco-Prussian War is of Otto von Bismarck consoling the French Emperor Napoleon III after his capture in the Battle of Sedan. Sedan was a catastrophe for France and one of the last times a national leader of a major power was captured while leading his troops in battle. The French Grand Army was surrounded, destroyed, and its remnants captured at Sedan. The French Government (sans its Chief Executive) quickly raised more armies, but they were also defeated by the Prussians who stormed through the countryside and laid siege to Paris. The French Government and aristocrats fled town (notably in hot air balloons) and the citizens took over the city and formed a commune. The French Government sued for peace, giving up the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, and allowed the Prussians to strut a victory parade through Paris after the French military stormed their own capital, took over control and hanged the leaders of the commune (along with a whole bunch of other peasants for their effrontery). This proved that the French Army was pretty ineffective in fighting the Prussians, but splendid at killing their own countrymen.
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