(Victorian Era) How did France lose the Franco-Prussian War?

I've recently become interested in the Franco-Prussian war which erupted in 1870-1871 and i was always astounded on how quickly the French got their asses handed to them in just a few months. Can anyone explain it to me? I do know that the french had a few advantages over the prussians like the chassepot rifle. But i just can't see how FRANCE...FRANCE (see how emphasized it? lol) lost the war so quickly. I mean the Austrians had suffered the same fate a few years back, surely they would've looked into and learned to not make the same mistake that austria did...which was underestimate the prussians lol

Napoleon III was arrogant and didn't count on the Germans unifying for the war.

im guessing he probably gravely underestimated Otto then too huh?

Yes.

The Prussians also previously won three other wars, so their ego probably also helped. Also the Prussians weren't too far behind on technology, either. They had the Krupp artillery and the breach-loading Needle Gun, as well. At the same time it was improper use of the Mitirallieuse on the French part, as I believe they used it as long-range artillery and not a rapid-fire close-range gun. The concept of a Machine Gun-like weapon wasn't really grasped I guess yet.

And in terms of the army administrations during the war. Was the french army's staff run by a donkey? I just can't fathom how unorganized they were during the start of the war. Especially in terms of the conscription they had (I believe) 200,000 men ready against 400,000 Prussians and their allies at the start. correct me if im wrong please haha

plus the railroad help the Prussian greatly

Prussia had a much better system of railways & a much more modern army. Furthermore Prussia also had the advantage of numbers. The french mobilized some 83k to the front lines in the beginning of the war while the prussians managed to mobilized 380k.

One of E. Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels deals with the Franco-Prussian war. Available in English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_D%C3%A9b%C3%A2cle

From Amazon


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