

Photo Credit: The French Imperial Guard advances on Magenta. Stiff Austrian resistance and the confined nature of the terrain combined to slow the French advance toward Austrian-held Milan.
By Eric Niderost
On April 20, 1859, Emperor Franz Josef paid a respectful visit to Prince Klemens Wensel von Metternich’s place at Rennweg in Vienna. Metternich was a legend in his own time. The prince was occasionally reviled but also revered as statesman with an international reputation. Metternich was a leading figure in European politics and diplomacy in the decades just following the turbulent Napoleonic Wars. Although the 86-year-old had been out of power for more than a decade, the Aus
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A perfectly useless military action that only emboldened Louis Napoleon to later think he could take on Bismarck in the Franco-Prussian War. That disaster then set the stage four decades later for WW I, whose effects are still felt today.