Bismarck's Wars - Blood and Iron

The Spanish Government need to find a foreign noble to be the Spanish King. They chose a Germen, Leopold of Hohenzolen a relative of the Prussian King but Leopold is not keen but Bismarck is and grinds down the opposition of Leopold and the Prussian King. However such was hostile international opposition, Leopold has to withdraw. The French Government humilate Prussia further but Bismarck sends an insulting telegram which makes the French Government to make the foolish decision to declare war on Prussia.

In this episode I will deal with the outcome of the Seven Weeks. In the first part, I will deal with the decline in relations between France and Prussia and attempts to reform the French Army. Later I dealt with the creation of the Austro - Hungarian Empire, which gave the Hungarians a much greater role in running their half of this empire.

The Prussian Army of the Main defeats Austria's allies in Southern Germany. first the Bavarian Army and then the armies of the other South Germen states. The main Prussian Armies capture Prague and march to the very gates of Vienna. The Austrian Emperor realises that the war is lost and asks for peace terms. However the Prussian Army loses over 6,000 killed due to an outbreak of disease within their camps.

The Battle is seen as the decisive battle of the Seven Weeks War, it was indeed a major Prussian victory over the Austrian and Saxony Armies. However the Austrian Army had already been weaken by losses in the earlier battle and the Austrian Army commander now believed even before the battle that his army would be defeated and had asked the Austrian Emperor to make peace.

In this episode, I well tell of the advance of the Prussian First Army and the Army of the Elbe into Bohemia, they would fight and defeat the Austrian First Corp and the Saxon Corp. The fighting would prove the power of the Prussian Needle Rifles over the Austrian Smoothbore muskets as the two Prussian Armies advanced into Bohemia.

Bismarck achieved his aim of starting war between Prussian and Austria but the war would involve more those two states indeed it would include nearly all the Germen states. In many ways it was a Germen Civil War, indeed at the time in Germany, it was known as the Brother's War. In this episode I will look at those other Germen states and the size of their army and while they choose to side with Prussia or Austria.

In this episode, I discuss the next target for Otto von Bismarck war like intensions, the Austria Empire. While it might seem like a giant in central Europe, this multi ethnic empire had many problems including Nationalism and lack of money. I give a detailed biograph of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. I also outline the developing plans of the Prussian General Staff to attack Austria.

In this episode I look at the weapons that helped make the Prussian Army the powerful forces it was. The Needle Gun, a breach loaded rifle which gave the Prussian Infantry such a heavy rate of fire compared to the muzzle loaded smoothbore muskets of the Danish and Austrian Army. The Prussian artillery also the new breach loaded steel cannons.