Organization vs.
Incompetence
I was disappointed in
reading Xavier history professor Rachel Chrastil’s history of the
Franco-Prussian War. To be sure it is very detailed, and it included many
personal vignettes, it leaves out much. In describing battles, she leaves out
maps denoting the positioning of the forces and while included in the text,
there should have been detailed exhibits consisting of the Tables of
Organization and Equipment of the respective forces. I would have also liked to
see some discussion in the economic sinews of war of both France and Prussia.
After tricking
Napoleon III into declaring war against Prussia via the infamous Ems dispatch
in July 1870, Prussia wipes France on September 2 at the Battle of Sedan.
Napoleon III is captured and immediately a republic is declared in France. The
war should have ended then and there, but France fights on for another year
bringing with concomitant carnage on both sides. Chrastil rightly attributes Prussia’s
victory to superior organization and generalship led by Helmut von Moltke over
France’s incompetence.
To me it would have
been a far better read if she spent more time on the big picture rather than
the minute details of the battle. However, one detail did stand out to me. Coralie
Cahen, a Jewish woman, helped organize the care for the French wounded and
became the Florence Nightingale of the war. Who knew?
Europe learned the wrong lesson from the war. Instead of being fearful of mass carnage, the continent began arming to the teeth that would reach its zenith in 1914.
For the full amazon URL see: Organization vs. Incompetence (amazon.com)
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