Ems dispatch

<p>The Ems dispatch , sometimes called the Ems telegram, was published on 13 July 1870; it incited the <a href="/facts/Second_French_Empire/5oS28M6v">Second French Empire</a> to declare war on the <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Prussia/x796l7vx">Kingdom of Prussia</a> on 19 July 1870, starting the <a href="/facts/Franco-Prussian_War/DU9aBkVB">Franco-Prussian War</a>. The actual dispatch was an internal telegram sent by <a href="/facts/Heinrich_Abeken/MD1jSzQu">Heinrich Abeken</a> from Prussian King <a href="/facts/Wilhelm_I/6tKlMGlq">Wilhelm I</a>'s vacationing site at <a href="/facts/Bad_Ems/Tv9fVHNL">Ems</a> to <a href="/facts/Otto_von_Bismarck/4EGd7TCI">Otto von Bismarck</a> in Berlin, describing demands made by the French ambassador concerning the Spanish succession. Bismarck, the chancellor of the <a href="/facts/North_German_Confederation/r6nCk0lR">North German Confederation</a>, released a statement to the press, stirring up emotions in both France and Germany.
</p><p>The name referred to <a href="/facts/Bad_Ems/Tv9fVHNL">Bad Ems</a>, a resort spa east of <a href="/facts/Koblenz/xEH5atWb">Koblenz</a> on the <a href="/facts/Lahn/3jyDxlcf">Lahn</a> river, then in <a href="/facts/Hesse-Nassau/xlX3RRNp">Hesse-Nassau</a>, a new possession of <a href="/facts/Prussia/fs1wEGrk">Prussia</a>.
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Ems dispatch open-in-new

Ems dispatch