Gallo-Preusvian War of 1870

The Gallo-Preusvian War of 1870 was a conflict between the **Gallian Republic** and the largest of the Grienzen state of **Preusvia**, which saw the Grienzen states unified against a common external foe. Preusvia's victory lead to the formation of the modern nation of **Grienzland** and the fostering of hostility against it within the defeated Gallian Republic.

## History and Causes

The **Kiersto-Preusvian War of 1866** had only concluded four years before in the defeat of **Kierstia** and victory of Preusvia and her allies. This war had caused the North Grienzen League to gain more members than ever before, lacking only Kierstia and **Bayernia** at that point. It was already proving to behave like a precursor to a proper formation of a unified state but still mostly focused on defensive and economic cooperation rather than actual political unity.

The growing strength of Preusvia caused great alarm in the Gallian Republic, and after failing to incite Kierstia to restart the previous war with an aim on revenge against Preusvia, the Gallians took matters into their own hands. Gallian diplomats insisted that reparations were due for a war from 54 years prior between the Gallians and the Preusvians, as well as claiming that Gallia had never been paid for its efforts in brokering a peace treaty between Preusvia and Kierstia. **King Walter II of Preusvia** refused to consider it, rejecting the Gallian diplomats without even hearing their full list of demands. This increased tensions considerably between the two nations and it was then that King Walter II began crafting plans to fight the Gallian Republic. He went to Bayernia personally to attempt to convince them to join the alliance, and they agreed, but only insofar as was necessary to mount a united defense of the Grienzen states. And so the Grienzen Defensive Alliance was formed in March 1870.

The official start of the war was the formation of a sweeping trade deal with the **Kingdom of Hispalia** that saw the tying of two major trade companies- one Preusvian and one Hispalian. The Gallians considered this cooperation unacceptable as strengthened bonds between two powerful nations on both sides would have been too dangerous to permit. As a result, the Gallians mobilized their army and invaded the **Rhein Province** in July 1870. The growing political unrest and demands for reform and increased rights by the numerous political parties and workers' unions played a large part in the push to start the war. An ethnically-united and nationally-unified Grienzland served as an excellent rallying foe for the Republicans to point the masses at, emphasizing the perfidious nature of King Walter II's refusal to repay reparations and the harsh economic impact this betrayal had caused.

Meanwhile the rest of **Uropa** sat out this war. Preusvia had secured the **Kiersto-Karpanian Dual Empire**'s neutrality through a private assurance, though this was likely unnecessary as the Kierstian army had not recovered from its loss four years earlier. Likewise, King Walter II had traveled to the **Rossiyan Federation** and **Grand Breteyne** to attempt to improve perceptions of the new Grienzen alliance of states. Though the official impacts of this were minimal, he managed to secure assurances that those large Uropan powers would at least sit out the brewing conflict between the Gallian Republic and Preusvia. This was aided by the memory of Gallia's near total conquest of Uropa 64 years prior and the lingering resentment toward them because of it.

## Outcome

The Gallians invaded in overwhelming numbers, but the Preusvian army successfully employed a tactic of hindering withdrawals and supply line raids, combined with decisive entrapments with devastating artillery barrages to grind the Gallian army to a halt. Once regarded as the strongest in the continent, the Gallian forces scattered into the many Grienzen states which marshaled their own forces to hunt down the survivors. Preusvian military advisors oversaw the regional confrontations with the Gallians, acting as liaisons with the state militias and reserve forces, leading them to resounding victory and mass captures of encircled Gallian troops.

The end result was the march on the Gallian capital of Paree, as unit after defending unit retreated or surrendered before the approaching unified Grienzen army. In an unparalleled display of efficient troop and logistic transportation, the combined Grienzen forces established a siege of Paree and demanded its surrender. Within the city, the divided populace fought and killed each other over whether to surrender or hold out, with the actual government having fled a mere day before the arrival of the Grienzens. After two months of besieging the city without any success at negotiating for surrender, the Grienzen army opened fire with its artillery, bombarding the capital from nearly all sides. Many historical buildings were damaged or destroyed in the artillery barrage or the fires that followed, with several thousand enemy combatants being killed in the process.

It was only after 20 days of bombardment that the Gallian Republic began to sue for a ceasefire, citing dangerously low morale among their remaining forces. The representatives they sent to Preusvia expressed fears of mutiny among the national guard, to which King Walter II reportedly responded, "Embrace the chaos now, while you still have heads to see it." They refused to relent for another five days but word of the deteriorating condition of the Paree defenders eventually pushed them over the limit and they finally conceded to a total surrender at the end of January 1871.

The superior tactics of the Preusvian leadership resulted in a completely asymmetrical distribution of casualties, with the Gallians losing up to 8 times as many men as the Grienzen forces. Estimates run 100,000 casualties among the Grienzen and possibly as many as 800,000 Gallian casualties, though this number is difficult to accurately assess due to the collapse of the Gallian command structure and the scattering of Gallian soldiers within Grienzland itself.

## Aftermath

### Grienzland

The decisive Preusvian victory provided the bedrock for the formation of the new **Grienzen Empire**. The other provinces were convinced of the possibility of defending their territory against their larger nations due to Preusvia's military might, and their experience at cooperating against a common enemy had instilled a sense of camaraderie that had not been universally present before then.

As part of the proceedings after the war, the Gallian Republic was forced to cede Alsace to the Rhein Province as well as several **Ifranian colonies**. The raw materials that could be exported from these colonies combined with the industrial output of Alsace only added to the power of the newly united Grienzland Empire, immediately boosting the new nation into the position of the most powerful in the world.

Many pushed for King Walter II to demand more from the Gallians, but he knew that as it was the rest of the world would be watching Grienzland to see how it conducted itself on the global stage, and he did not wish to appear power-hungry. The risk of uniting the rest of the world against them was simply too great. Even as it was, a growing sense of unease and distrust spread throughout Uropa regarding this new nation, thanks to the near effortlessness with which the Grienzens had defeated the larger and better armed Gallian military.

### Gallian Republic

In the Gallian Republic, the war spurred on the outbreak of widespread soldier revolts and a civilian uprising pushing Cooperatism, a hardline egalitarian movement seeking to abolish all gender and class differences and the dismantling of philosophical movements considered too similar to religions. In the capital of Paree, they successfully overthrew the struggling city government after an extended siege by Preusvian infantry and repeated bombardments by artillery. The militias worked together with citizen mobs to execute a vast number of government officials and academics, and they created the short-lived Paree Cooperatte, a crime-riddled and chaotic nation-state filled with violent struggles and numerous assassinations.

Within two months the Paree Cooperatte had collapsed, and a new iteration of the Republic was instituted. Taking cues from the Cooperatte, they made appeals to leading figures from it so as to mitigate the chances of a repeated insurrection. Whereas before the **Ascendancy of Man** had taken the form of intellectual journals and political news publications, now its ideas were given a seat in the largest political body it had the opportunity to influence to date in history. Many of the policies implemented in the Paree Cooperatte were reintroduced in a more gradual manner in the reformed government, with a greater emphasis on the supremacy of Humanity and demonization of **other Races**, and a reduced- but still present- importance on other egalitarian measures.

Additionally, the loss of the war was seen as a blight upon the otherwise honorable military history of the Gallian Republic. It would go on to be a major event taught in education of further generations, as a prime example of the failure of hierarchy to defend the wishes of the people. Much focus in modern Gallian primary education is put on emphasizing the loss of Alsace to the Rhein Province as a black dot upon the nation, inspiring a vengeful attitude in the populace that will only be satisfied once the region is reclaimed and their vengeance against Grienzland is claimed.

## Other Names

In Grienzland this war is frequently referred to as the War of Unification, though is sometimes called the Formation War by the clean slate patriots, and as the United Defense Against the Gallian Incursion of 1870 by the most educated of historians.

In the Gallian Republic, the most common name for the conflict is the Wretched War.

In the rest of Uropa this war was referred to simply as the Seven Months' War, though in the Rossiyan Federation there are some political clubs who write about it as the 'Tempering of the People's Spirit.'