Episode 1 of 2
Publication of the Ems Dispatch
- When
- 13 July 1870
- Where
- Bad Ems, Germany
The Ems Dispatch was published on 13 July 1870, serving as the immediate casus belli for the war between Prussia and France.
The dispatch, sometimes called the Ems telegram, was published on 13 July 1870. It incited the Second French Empire to declare war on the Kingdom of Prussia. The publication transformed a diplomatic rejection into a public incident that fueled French anger and political pressure for war.
Sources
- Ems dispatch Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-16
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.