France was afraid of a unified Germany because it feared a strong neighbour on its eastern border. For Bismarck it was clear that as long as France was in a position to do something against it, Germany could not be unified. Luckily, the Spanish government gave him the chance to act again. At the end of the 1860s, the Spanish government offered a Hohenzollern prince - a relative of the Prussian Hohenzollern King Wilhelm I -  the Spanish throne. Bismarck encouraged the prince to accept the offer to become King of Spain. However, a Hohenzollern on the Spanish throne was unacceptable to France because it feared being surrounded by Hohenzollern kings. King Wilhelm did not want to start trouble with France, so the prince turned down the Spanish offer. But this was not enough for France. The French government asked Wilhelm to guarantee that the prince would never try to become King of Spain. The demand was presented to King Wilhelm I by French ambassador in the spa town of Bad Ems. Wilhelm refused to promise, but in a friendly way. He sent Bismarck a telegram (the so-called Ems telegram = Emser Depesche) to tell him why he had refused the French ambassador‘s new demand. Bismarck carefully cut and rearranged the King‘s words to create the impression that Wilhelm I had openly insulted and humiliated France. When Bismarck‘s version of the King‘s telegram was published in the press, France felt openly provoked and declared war on Prussia. Fearing a French attack, the south German states joined the North German Confederation, fulfilling Bismarck‘s dream. After only two months. France was totally defeated by the Prussian and other German forces. On 18 January 1871, in the Palace of Versailles in France, Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor of the new German Empire. The peace treaty of Frankfurt-on-Main humiliated France and laid the ground for the future conflict of both countries. In the settlement, the German Empire - demanded reparations of five billion francs - annexed the territories of mostly German speaking Alsace and coal-producing Lorraine - stationed an army in France for four years until the reparations were paid. Germany was now „satiated“ and „ready for peace“, said Bismarck