Editing Jules Favre (section)

== Franco-Prussian War and Third Republic ==

[[Image:Jules Favre 1865 Nadar.jpg|thumb|right|Jules Favre in 1865, photo taken by [[Nadar (artist)|Nadar]].]]

With [[Adolphe Thiers]] he opposed the [[Franco-Prussian War|war against Prussia]] in 1870, and at the news of the defeat of Napoleon III at [[Battle of Sedan|Sedan]] he demanded the deposition of the emperor. Favre opposed the removal of the government from Paris during the siege.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In the [[government of National Defence]] he became vice-president under [[Louis Jules Trochu|General Trochu]], and minister of foreign affairs, with the onerous task of negotiating peace with victorious Germany. He proved to be less adroit as a diplomat than he had been as an orator, and committed several irreparable blunders. His famous statement on 6 September 1870, that he "would not yield to Germany an inch of territory nor a single stone of the fortresses" was a piece of oratory which [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]] met on the 19th by his declaration to Favre that [[Alsace]] and [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]] had to be ceded as a condition of peace.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He arranged for the [[Armistice of Versailles|armistice of 28 January 1871]] without knowing the situation of the armies, and without consulting the government at [[Bordeaux]]. By a grave oversight, he neglected to inform [[Léon Gambetta]] that the [[Armée de l'Est|Army of the East]] (80,000 men) was not included in the armistice, and it was thus obliged to retreat to neutral territory. He showed no diplomatic skill in the negotiations for the [[Treaty of Frankfurt (1871)|Treaty of Frankfurt]], and it was Bismarck who imposed all the conditions. He withdrew from the ministry, discredited, on 2 August 1871, but remained in the Chamber of Deputies as a member of the [[Opportunist Republicans|Opportunist]] parliamentary group, ''Gauche républicaine''. Elected [[Senate of France|Senator]] on 30 January 1876, he continued to support the government of the republic against the reactionary opposition until his death on 20 January 1880.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}