Chanzy, Antoine Eugène Alfred

Chanzy, Antoine Eugène Alfred

(äNtwän` özhĕn` älfrĕd` shäNzē`), 1823–83, French general. After service in Algeria, Italy, and Syria, he was refused a major command in the Franco-Prussian WarFranco-Prussian War
or Franco-German War,
1870–71, conflict between France and Prussia that signaled the rise of German military power and imperialism. It was provoked by Otto von Bismarck (the Prussian chancellor) as part of his plan to create a unified German
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 because he was distrusted by the emperor Napoleon III. After the fall of the empire he was put in command of the Army of the Loire and opposed the Prussians with great skill. Chanzy was elected to the national assembly. Captured by the Commune of Paris in 1871, he was detained for several days. Chanzy was later governor-general of Algeria (1873–79) and ambassador to Russia (1879–81), and in 1875 he was made senator for life. Nominated for president without his approval in 1879, he received a large vote in the election.