In 1870, Prime Minister Bismarck provoked France into declaring war on Prussia. The Franco-Prussian War was brief and brutal, with the Prussians defeating the French at Sedan. Napoleon III was taken prisoner and forced to abdicate, Paris was besieged, and 200,000 French soldiers were killed. King Wilhelm became Kaiser Wilhelm I, and German reunification was completed, forged with blood and iron. The price would be the disastrous first half of the 20th century.
