Answer:
The Franco Prussian War was the final war in the creation of the German nation. Prussia was the largest and most powerful of the German-speaking states after Napoleon's downfall. Slowly, over about 50 years, Prussia gained control of the smaller German states, winning wars with Austria and Denmark. France was threatened by Prussia's expansion. France and Prussia were at odds over a secret document called the Ems Dispatch and the possible choice of a Hohenzollern for the leader of Spain. France felt that with a strong standing army they could easily defeat Prussia. Prussia was joined by all of the German states in mobilizing. They defeated the French at Sedan and in several other battles, and laid siege against Paris. Paris fell, and the Kaiser declared that Germany was now one nation.
In one of the sadder incidents at the end of the war, many people in Paris formed a commune movement that refused to recognize the surrender or the new French government. The French army was now aided by the Germans and drove the communards out of the city center. They retreated to the famed Pere-Lachaise Cemetery where the last 117 survivors, ragged and starved, finally surrendered. French and German troops then executed all of them against the wall of the cemetery.