On this date in 1864, Denmark ended the Second Schleswig War by signing Schleswig, Holstein, and a player to be named at a later date over to the Prussians, whose Dreyse "needle gun"-armed hordes had overrun southern Denmark anyway and, well, possession was nine tenths of the law.
The Austrians had allied with their fellow Deutsche-speakers in the fracas, and to celebrate their joint victory, the Prussians stomped the holy heck out of them a year and a half later, then took a couple year breather before beating France to a paste.
Europe in the latter half of the 19th Century was a generally peaceful place, but every time there was a dustup, it seems that it was called the "Something-Prussian War". Cops call that "the usual suspects"; authors call it "foreshadowing".
Nicely worded, Tam. Foreshadowing indeed.
ReplyDeleteAnd if socialism and a nanny state can make the GERMANS into pacifists . . . we should all be afraid.
ReplyDeleteWe should all be very afraid.
Verification word: what Uma Thurman told John Travolta in Pulp Fiction: Disco.
On the other hand the Prussians and the Dane eventually had a referendum for the people living there as to whether they believed themselves danes or Germans and some fraction of theland was handed back to the Danes.
ReplyDeleteMy thought one which has always been: Guys, far cheaper to START with that.
Like Winston said, the Hun is either at your throat or at your feet.
ReplyDeletewv: gicap (the nickname for the new XDM9)
Lest we not forget, the last war the Krauts won was almost 140 years ago, and that was only against the French.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Frogs would have won, had the politicians in Paris not micromanaged each battle, refusing to allow any serious amount of casualties.
Better soldiers, dramatically better weapons, and the only really good general in the war.
A scary thought indeed, if extropolated into our future.
Max Boot has a chapter on the Prussian-Austrian war (and the needle gun) in "War Made New":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/War-Made-New-Weapons-Warriors/dp/B001G8WDI2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225497196&sr=8-1
Also a bunch of other stuff, from Gustavus Adolphus to Curtis LeMay. He's chosen some very interesting inflection points of technology and tactics.
And I'm a history buff, and had no idea that Francis I and his cannons conquered all of Italy in about 7 weeks. Not that it will win you free drinks in bars or anything, but interesting stuff.