July 19 in Victorian History
What the Victorians were up to on this date, year by remarkable year.
1870
The Franco-Prussian War begins
France declares war on Prussia over a diplomatic insult -- the Ems Dispatch, doctored by Bismarck. Within weeks the French armies are encircled; within months Napoleon III is a prisoner and Paris under siege. The war will topple an emperor and create a German empire.