Satire portraying Otto von Bismark as a spider

A French satire of Prussian Otto von Bismark (1815-98) as a pickelhaubed spider in a web surrounded by flies named Frankfurt, Bavaria, Hanover, Hess and Denmark. A looks on alarmed towards a French Tricoleur, bayonet and broom rise to sweep his web away. After becoming Minister President of Prussia in 1862, Bismark pushed for German unification, fighting wars with both Denmark and Austria, increasing Prussia's territory. Feeling that its dominant position in continental Europe was under threat, France declared war on Prussia on 19th July 1870, when this rather optimistic propaganda piece was published. However it was the Prussians who swept the French armies away, capturing Emperor Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan arriving at the walls of Paris within two months of war being declared.