1870 in France

Events from the year 1870 in France.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – Napoleon III (abdicates 4 September, monarchy abolished)

Events

 * February - Denis Vrain-Lucas is sentenced to 2 years in prison for multiple forgery, in Paris.
 * 20 April - Constitutional referendum reaffirms the status of the Second French Empire.
 * 14 July - Ems Dispatch published, serving as a casus belli for war between France and Prussia.
 * 15 July - French army mobilizes.
 * 16 July - Corps législatif votes to declare war on Prussia.
 * 19 July - France declares war on Prussia: opening of the Franco-Prussian War.
 * 4 August - Battle of Wissembourg: Prussian forces overwhelm the French garrison at Wissembourg.
 * 6 August
 * Battle of Spicheren, near Saarbrücken: Prussian victory.
 * Battle of Wörth: decisive Prussian victory.
 * 14 August - Battle of Borny-Colombey: Prussian victory; French retreat upon Metz.
 * 15 August - Siege of Strasbourg begins.
 * 16 August - Battle of Mars-la-Tour: Prussian victory.
 * 18 August - Battle of Gravelotte: Prussian victory.
 * 30 August - Battle of Beaumont: Prussian victory.
 * 31 August - Battle of Noiseville: Prussian victory.
 * 1–2 September - Battle of Sedan: decisive Prussian victory. Napoleon III surrenders himself and the entire Army of Châlons and declares the Second Empire dissolved.
 * 3 September - Siege of Metz begins with French forces besieged.
 * 4 September - Third Republic declared in Paris. Government of National Defense established. Empress Eugenie flees to England with her son.
 * 19 September - Siege of Paris begins.
 * 27–30 September - Battle of Le Bourget, part of the siege of Paris: Prussian victory.
 * 28 September - Siege of Strasbourg ends with French surrender.
 * 30 September - Battle of Chevilly, part of the siege of Paris: Prussian victory.
 * 8 October - Leon Michel Gambetta escapes besieged Paris in a hot-air balloon.
 * 18 October - Battle of Bellevue, near Metz: Prussian victory.
 * 23 October - Siege of Metz ends with French surrender.
 * 3 November - Siege of Belfort begins with French troops besieged.
 * 9 November - Battle of Coulmiers: French victory over Bavarian forces.
 * 11 November - French retake Orléans.
 * 27 November - Battle of Amiens: Prussian victory.
 * 28 November - Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande: Prussian victory.
 * 29 November - Battle of Villiers, largest of the French sorties from besieged Paris, begins.
 * 2 December - Battle of Loigny-Poupry, Prussian victory.
 * 3 December - Battle of Villiers ends with Prussian victory.
 * 3–4 December - Second Battle of Orléans: Prussians recapture Orléans.
 * 23–24 December - Battle of Hallue results in stalemate.

Arts and literature

 * February - Sculptor Aimé Millet is appointed professor at the École des Arts décoratifs.
 * 25 May - Léo Delibes' ballet Coppélia debuts at the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris.
 * 28 June - Claude Monet marries his mistress and model Camille Doncieux in Paris; Gustave Courbet is a witness.

Births

 * 25 January - Henry Bordeaux, writer and lawyer (died 1963)
 * 28 April - Frédéric Justin Collet, pathologist and otolaryngologist (died 1966)
 * 20 June - Georges Dufrénoy, post-impressionist painter (died 1943)
 * 27 July - Hilaire Belloc, French-born English man of letters (died 1953 in the United Kingdom)
 * 24 September - Georges Claude, engineer, chemist and inventor (died 1960)
 * 30 September - Jean Baptiste Perrin, physicist and Nobel laureate (died 1942)
 * 8 October - Louis Vierne, organist and composer (died 1937)
 * 10 December - Mary Bonaparte, eldest daughter of Prince Napoléon Bonaparte of Canino (died 1947)

January to June

 * 19 January - Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, spree killer, executed (born 1849)
 * 1 February - Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, Marshal of France (born 1794)
 * 19 February - Nathaniel de Rothschild, founder of the wine-making branch of the Rothschild family (born 1812)
 * 20 June - Jules de Goncourt, writer (born 1830)

July to December

 * 15 August - Ardant du Picq, Colonel and military theorist (born 1819)
 * 2 September - Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut, general and statesman (born 1785)
 * 23 September - Prosper Mérimée, dramatist, historian and archaeologist (born 1803)
 * 25 October - Etienne-Michel Faillon, Roman Catholic historian (born 1800)
 * 28 October - Jean-Pierre Falret, psychiatrist (born 1794)
 * 29 October - Jules Baroche, statesman and Minister (born 1802)
 * 24 November - Comte de Lautréamont, poet (born 1846 in Uruguay)
 * 28 November - Frédéric Bazille, painter, killed in action (born 1841)
 * 5 December - Alexandre Dumas, père, writer (born 1802)
 * 26 December - Marie Dominique Bouix, Jesuit canon lawyer (born 1808)

Full date unknown

 * Jacques-François Ochard, painter (born 1800)