Was Napoleon IIIs neutrality during the Austro-Prussian War the biggest French blunder of all time?
With the benefit of hindsight, Napoleon III’s failure to ally himself with the Austrians against Prussia in 1866 certainly ranks very high in the list of French military blunders. To have fought the Prussians not only with Austria as an ally, but also before the other significant German states added their forces to those of Prussia, would surely have been advantageous for France. But we cannot know whether even that alliance would have sufficed to beat Prussia. Almost everybody (except the Prussians) understimated Prussia’s military superiority at that time. With Austria humbled, four years later Prussia – by then supported by Bavarians, Saxons, etc. – crushed France with almost contemptuous ease. So, yes, Napoleon’s failure to take the one opportunity to (possibly) beat Prussia in 1866 did indeed lead to the creation of the German Empire … and thereby to Europe’s calamitous 20th Century.
