Talk:Causes of the Franco-Prussian War

why was this article created without a summary in the original ariticle?

69.243.110.89 (talk) 02:02, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Section on Venetia is confusing

"Austria then attempted to guarantee Italy Venetia if they remained neutral, but they were unable to agree as an alliance bound them to Prussia." -- Are both "theys" referring to Italy? And the neutrality would be in case of another Austro-Prussian conflict? And did Italy have an alliance with Prussia? It's not mentioned elsewhere in the article.

"Napoleon III then committed a serious blunder by agreeing with Austria in a treaty to accept Venetia by allowing Austria to go to war with Prussia" -- is this to mean that if Austria joined France against Prussia, then France would reward Austria with Venetia? Dcheng (talk) 22:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Date of declaration of war

Near the end, the article states: "France officially declared war on 19 July 1870." However the following is on page 562 of Jasper Ridley's Napoleon III and Eugénie: "On the afternoon of 15 July, Ollivier informed the Chambers that France had declared war on Prussia." Italus (talk) 14:52, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I have now added the July 19th 1870 entry from Moritz Busch's Bismarck: Some secret pages from his history, Macmillan, New York (1898) Vol. I, p. 37--"Le Sourd, the French Chargé d'Affaires, delivered Napoleon's declaration of war at the Foreign Office" in Berlin. Italus (talk) 16:15, 8 March 2010 (UTC)