jctoussaint a écrit :
Citer :
Jules Favre aurait refusé cette proposition de paix, croyant à un sursaut national comme en 1793.
Jules Favre croyait à un sursaut national? Si c'est vrai alors il n'a rien fait pour créer ce sursaut à la différence de Gambetta. De plus, quel est l'intérêt de commencer à négocier dans une situation de faiblesse si on pense que quelques mois plus tard on pourra négocier en force?
En fait, mes sources venaient de
ce site, mais maintenant, j'y vois plutôt comme un pamphlet visant à faire de Napoléon III une victime des Républicains. J'hésitais à parler de ce site pour citer mes sources, car il ne me paraissait pas historiquement pertinent, surtout depuis que Jean-Marc Labat (que je remercie au passage) m'a conseillé de lire ce qu'en a pensé Jules Favre.
D'ailleurs, le fait que Bismarck ait désiré l'Alsace-Lorraine dès les premières négociations de paix me paraît beaucoup plus logique pour assurer la sécurité du nouvel Empire Allemand. L'article
Alsace-Lorraine du Wikipédia anglais en fournit les arguments principaux :
"However, domestic politics of the new Empire might have been the decisive factor. Although it was effectively led by Prussia, the German Empire was a new and highly decentralized creation. The new arrangement left many senior Prussian generals with serious misgivings about leading diverse military forces to guard a pre-war frontier that, except for the northernmost section was part of two other states of the new Empire - Baden and Bavaria. As recently as the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, these states had been Prussia's enemies. Both states, but especially Bavaria had been given substantial concessions with regards to local autonomy in the new Empire's constitution, including a great deal of autonomy over military matters. For this reason, the Prussian General Staff argued that it was prudent and necessary that
the new Empire's frontier with France be under their direct control. Creating a new imperial territory (Reichsland) out of formerly French territory would achieve this goal since although an imperial territory would not be officially a part of Prussia, as it would be administered directly from Berlin it would effectively be controlled by Prussians.
Thus, by annexing territory Berlin was able to avoid delicate negotiations with Baden and Bavaria on such matters as construction and control of new fortifications, etc. The governments of Baden and Bavaria, naturally, were in favour of moving the French border away from their territories."