Talk:Austro-Prussian War

Use of new technologies, esp railroads

It would be nice if this article included a discussion of the use of new technologies, especially railroads, in the Austro-Prussian War. I would add it myself, but I'm not qualified. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.135.152.72 (talk • contribs) 05:03, 14 March 2005 (UTC).

Maps

Are there any maps associated with this page? Maps would help the greatly reader. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.80.55.73 (talk • contribs) 20:28, 9 November 2005 (UTC).

Map added - 52 Pickup 13:49, 30 October 2006 (UTC

) Königsgrätz was located in Bohemia, where about one third of the population was German. Therefore the German name.

Koninggratz is a seprate War?

The casualty list for the Austrians said 20,000 KIA,WIA etc for the entire war previously, but seeing as the battle of Koninggratz says for ONE BATTLE 25,000+ Austrian soldiers KIA and WIA. Now, I am inclined to believe the Battle article over the war article, as 1. The Prussians and Italians were outnumbered by Austria, and thus if more pf them were killed then the Austrians (as the war article would have us beieve previously, 20,000 V. 35,000) then the Austrians would have had the momentum to bring the fight to Berlin. 2. Most records I have read about Koninggratz put Austro-Germanic losses at around 23,000-29,000. And finally 3: Most of the Records for overall war deaths I have read give about 40,000-47,000 dead. I have altered the War article untill further notice. ELV —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.146.158.221 (talk • contribs) 05:07, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Casualties

The same anonymous contributor (User talk:71.146.158.221), who has a history of doing this to many articles (which immediately get reverted), has now twice changed the number of Austrian casualties with no explanation on the talk page:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Austro-Prussian_War&diff=71532878&oldid=71412833 - 20,000 became 40,000
• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Austro-Prussian_War&diff=90178730&oldid=88993557 - 40,000 became 60,000

I am reverting this back to 20,000 because this editor simply cannot be trusted. Gsd2000 13:03, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Contemporary military source says over 71 thousands just for Austria. I changed it, with reference and link to newspaper copy. Pavel Vozenilek (talk) 21:43, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Something that doesn't make sense

Under "Alliances" there is a sentence that reads: while the Russian Empire still bore a grudge against Austria from the Crimean War.

Why did the Russians have a grudge against Austria? I didn't think Austria participated in the Crimean war! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TehNomad (talk • contribs) 01:17, 19 December 2006 (UTC).

I think this is discussed in the Crimean War article. It's certainly discussed on that talk page. The Russians expect that the Austrians would support them in the diplomatic crisis in the near east, or at least would remain benevolently neutral. Instead, the Austrians made an alliance with the British and French, and sent an ultimatum to Russia demanding it evacuate the Danubian Principalities. Throughout the war, the main Russian armies were tied up in Poland to defend against a possible Austrian attack. The Russians felt that the Austrians, who owed them big-time from their intervention in the Hungarian Rebellion in 1849, had been complete ingrates, and held it against them more or less forever (although there were periods of marginally warmer Austro-Russian relations). john k 05:54, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Typo?

Shouldn't 'disillusion' be 'dissolution'? Just asking. Go easy, guys, I'm a complete newbie. Philip Trueman 13:22, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Citations needed - March 2007

Perhaps it is a bit presumptuous of me, but I have inserted the "citations required" template at the head of the "Causes" section. The section contains a vast amount of turgid, hard-to-follow debate on the interpretations of historians Feutchwanger (sp ?), A.J.P. Taylor and Carr, without once citing the works in which these are set out.

It seems to me that this huge section should be reduced to five or six simple declarative paragraphs, with perhaps one or two mentions of any academic disputes. I have separated out some of the military factors, but lack the knowledge of the political and diplomatic settings to tidy the complete section.

HLGallon 05:16, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I just looked at the section and found that the the references to the historians seem to take up a majority of the section. It makes the entire section seem biased and it also could be copied from somewhere...Typer525 ^Talk 15:38, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I have attempted to remove some of the "turgidity," but there is absolutely a huge Bismarck/Prussia bias in this section. I'm just trying to wipe away some of the easy grammar missteps before I can attack the actual content of the opening (which is just waaay too long anyway -- WWI and the Crimean War combined have a shorter "cause" description than this thing). But if this was copied from somewhere, the original author must have had a terrible editor.--ColorOfSuffering 20:51, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

The section looks a lot better now, though it could still use a few cites or references. I suspect that the section as it stood in March was not actually copied from anywhere; it looks suspiciously like original research. HLGallon 23:47, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Unification War/German Civil War

It is certainly not called the Unification War, as it is one out of three. Also, I can't remember ever having read German Civil War. If this is really used, how about some source. --128.176.238.180 14:23, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Clean up of Economic Factors

I have attempted to make this section more readable and relevant, but I don't have the knowledge to redo it properly. The references to so many historians seems a little unnecessary and confusing. Susanna144 11:14, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Clean up economics section

There has been a clean up tag on the economics section since 3-07. The section loosely attributed some quotes to five "experts", two of whom could be identified and have articles about them on WP to which we can link for purposes of credibility. The other three: J.Bruilly, Feutchwanger, and Carr are likely legitimate, but can not be easily identified or corroborated as experts on this subject. I suggest that any quotes within this article be referenced with footnotes or at least cite the work in the reference section if you are going to name-drop. However, I sense this was just a cut and paste from elsewhere. --Kevin Murray 01:06, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

"The first major war between two continental powers in many years" Really?

The first words in the "Course of the War" section currently say, "The first major war between two continental powers in many years..." I am puzzled how neither the Crimean War nor the Second War of Italian Independence would count as major wars between continental powers, nor would I say that the number of years between these and the Austro-Prussian War would count as "many years". Perhaps the editor was referring to the wars of Napoleon I, which certainly fit as major and having occurred many years before. If headcount is the criteria for a major war, the Crimean War seems large enough, and goodness knows that duration would not be a measure by which the Austro-Prussian war should be measured for "greatness".

I will grant that the results of this war were far more significant than the results of the other two named above, but I don't know that the importance of the outcomes is necessarily the best measure of major vs. minor wars.

Other esteemed editors' thoughts?

Mmccalpin (talk) 15:37, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

I completely agree with the above comment. I also note that 18 months later the incorrect statement remains unchanged. I have therefore changed it.

pmr (talk) 11:24, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Britain

There's a refence in the introdcution to the annexation of Hanover causing a lasting diplomatic split between Great Britian and Germany. Can someone detail what form this took, as Anglo-German relations in the late 19th Century always seemed quite cosy. Indisciplined (talk) 22:30, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

"Anglo-German relations in the late 19th Century always seemed quite cosy"

I hope your joking. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.68.115 (talk) 14:34, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Table of Contents

Does anyone else like the table of contents bumped up against the infobox like that? Personally, I think it looks crowded. I would change it now, but I wanted to see if anyone else had an opinion one way or the other...? ColorOfSuffering (talk) 03:59, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Hesse-Darmstadt

"Hesse-Darmstadt: Surrendered some of its northern territory (the Hessian Hinterland) to Prussia. The northern half of the remaining land (Upper Hesse) joined the North German Confederation". I think there is some confusion here. The only territory lost by Hesse-Darmstadt in 1866 was the part of Hesse-Homburg it had acquired earlier in the year when the ruling house of Hesse-Homburg died out. This was north of the Main, but was not part of Oberhessen. I do not understand "the Hessian Hinterland". The northern half of "the remaining land", i.e. the northern half of those parts of Hesse-Darmstadt which did not become part of Prussia, was called Oberhessen, i.e. "Upper Hesse"; so contrasting "the northern part" with "Upper Hesse" does not make sense. Maproom (talk) 15:53, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Literature

Can somone tell what literature they used,for this article? can somone send me message?--Serbianboy (talk) 11:12, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Can somone give me some literature?--VuXman ^talk 11:27, 19 April 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Serbianboy (talk • contribs)

When did it start?

As far as I can tell, the first date mentioned in this article is that for the battle of Koniggratz. When did the war itself start? Parsecboy (talk) 23:59, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

June 14. john k (talk) 03:24, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Battles

The following line was omitted during the merge from Battles of the Austro-Prussian War. I include it here for completeness' sake, and on the off chance someone can research the battle and add it as appropriate. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 14:48, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

• 27 June, Battle of Mnichovo Hradiste: Austrians fight a delaying action as they retreat into Bohemia

Proximate cause

The article mentions a lot of political, economic, and military background as setting the stage for the war, but doesn't go into much detail about the disagreement that led to the war. What kind of issues over administrating Schleswig-Holstein did Bismarck have? Was war declared immediately or were there further negotiations? And so on. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.247.99.5 (talk) 17:31, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Why not aim lower?

In the section Armaments and tactics, we read

In the Franco-Austrian War of 1859, French troops had taken advantage of the fact that the rifles of the time fired high if sighted for long range

Weren't the Austrians aware of this too? So why didn't they just aim lower? There must be something missing from this explanation. Maproom (talk) 14:13, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

The Austrian infantry concentrated on the Stosstaktik, marksmanship training was traditionally neglected - while the Prussian infantryman was required to fire 100 practice shots per year, the Austrian was allowed only twenty rounds per year, which meant that on average Austrian marksmanship (certainly that of the line infantry regiments) was notoriously poor. (The Austrians actually reduced their army budget means on peace-time target practice after they analysed their experiences from the 1859 war, thus failing to exploit the superior range and accuracy of the Lorenz rifle over the Dreyse gun.) 78.128.177.136 (talk) 05:05, 19 April 2011 (UTC)