one of the most interesting parts of the Franco Prussian war is the fact that no other major European powers got involved and given that most of them would have had at least something to gain from joining one side or the other this raises a question why didn't any of the great Powers join the Franco Prussian War so we'll start with the easiest one to answer the United States there were two major reasons that the US didn't interfere the first was that America didn't care this stuff had basically no short-term effect on the United States and
American leaders had little interest in European politics in general the second reason was that the us had only recently ended its bloody and damaging Civil War launching some overseas War where much of the country was in ruins in order to help either an autocratic despot or a despotic autocrat would have been one of the worst ideas possible closer to the action the other great Powers had more interesting motives four years prior the austrians had been utterly defeated by Prussia and its Ally Italy the austrians were certainly looking for some form of Revenge but its loss
had almost brought about the collapse of the hapsburg monarchy and so the empire was in the process of major reforms this involved compromising with the hungarians hence the Austrian Empire's transformation into the austr Hungarian Empire and the hungarians did not want war especially so austrians could have greater say in Saxony or Bavaria also there was concern that it could leave them open to attack by either Russia or more likely Italy and as such they clearly weren't ready and the risks were too great whereas the Italians had been close allies with the prussians in the previous
major European war and so they would seem the most likely to get involved the problem was that Italy had positive relations with both Berlin and Paris without prussia's help in 1866 the Italians couldn't have driven the austrians out of Italy proper however however the prussians weren't willing to continue the war to help Italy expand further and France especially its Emperor Napoleon thei had played a vital role in both Italy's unification and its annexation of Venicia divided loyalties aside the main reason they couldn't join was a pragmatic one the Italian Army just wasn't good enough Prussia
and France were the two most capable land forces on the continent whereas Italy had struggled against the lackluster Austrian Army and as such it was seen as a terrible idea to do so similarly the Russians had mixed feelings about the combatants in that they were largely quite negative whil relations were somewhat good with Prussia it was seen as a rising Challenger for dominance in Eastern Europe whereas France had recently fought against the Russians and humiliated them in the Crimean War helping Prussia would have done little to Aid Russia except for making its neighbor more powerful
and aiding a country that was actively hostile to you was never going to happen to the north the British at this point were mostly isolationist when it came to European Affairs so long as the balance of power remained in check that is Prussia was an old Ally of Britain whereas France had made the unforgivable mistake of being France that said the expectation in London was that France was probably going to win but the plan was that Britain would then pressure France to not take too much and harm its old Ally and all of this is
why the Franco Prussian war never expanded into a much larger conflict the interests of the great Powers weren't served by fighting but instead by mediating the peace and since the new Germany didn't take too much everybody except France was mostly happy I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizet Sky Chappelle kitka Udan Wang wyan hocky Anthony beckets blue cardinal Alex Schwin a firefly Spencer Lightfoot Captain pyg the mcer the flying deand Gustav Swan Robert C Perkins shenin Michael hbert Castle Bravo Marvin CAU Winston kwood rod D Martin spinning
three plates Andy McGee kimun Yun Dan atanasio mza Ahmed Coppa tone Maggie Paskowski H from stav hav Arthur hos Jr kitro Remco hoyman Jim strumberg bet kabot Charles I first and Lord beak
