The Wounds of War

Marie Durand, a laundress in the 11th arrondissement, remembered the day the Prussian troops marched down the Champs-Élysées. "We stood there, silent as graves," she later wrote to her sister. "Some wept, others turned away. But I watched every moment. I wanted to remember what defeat looked like, so I would recognize victory when it came again." Marie's determination reflected a broader French resilience that would define the decade ahead.

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 had cost France dearly. Beyond the humiliation of Emperor Napoleon III's capture at Sedan, the nation lost Alsace-Lorraine to the newly unified German Empire and faced an indemnity of five billion francs—a sum so staggering that Bismarck expected it would cripple France for generations. The Prussian chancellor had miscalculated. France would pay off the debt in just three years, driven by a combination of patriotic fervor and financial innovation that saw citizens from all social classes purchasing government bonds.