1-151-855 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Occupation of Paris by the Germans after the Franco-Prussian War, March 1871. A uhlan on horseback in a street strewn with rubble gazes up at the Arc de Triomphe. After the disastrous defeat of the French at Sedan and the capture of Napoleon III, the Prussians surrounded Paris on 9 September 1870. The city held out despite famine and great hardship until 28 January 1871, when an armistice was signed. Paris was then occupied by troops of the recently formed German Empire.