Bismarck’s War
If you want to understand 20th and 21st century European history, you really do need some background in the Franco-Prussian war. There&#x27;s obviously no specific moment when Germany became ascendant. It was a process that took several hundred years, going back to the efforts of Prussia to distinguish itself amongst the member polities of the Holy Roman Empire.<p>But the war did solidify or make official many important features of 20th century Europe. Namely, Germany as a unified whole with a German speaking core that defines its contemporary borders, the centralization of the rivalry between France and Germany, Germany as the dominant military and economic power of Europe, the stabilization of French Republicanism sans monarchy, the relative irrelevance of the Austrians, the end of a common belief in great power stabilization as a long term objective in favor of a more manichean struggle for dominance, etc.