During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, you see, a smallpox epidemic had swept through Europe killing millions of citizens.

FORBES: When Americans Rejected Small Pox Vaccines

In the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the two nations together fielded close to two million troops, of whom nearly a half-million were killed or wounded.

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In 1871, Paris surrendered to the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian War.

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Showing up to spring training that early is like a high-school kid going back to class during Christmas break because he just felt like reviewing the Franco-Prussian War.

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His father was a successful industrialist from Alsace (which had fallen to the Germans after the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71), supplying him with an unusually handsome income for a man of his rank.

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Overtaken by Germany when it won the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, Alsace and a good part of Lorraine sent streams of refugees to Nancy, whose population nearly doubled in the last quarter of the 19th century.

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Yet a mere thirty years after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, when the smallpox epidemic swept through the United States, a whole host of intelligent people refused to be vaccinated, convinced that the vaccine did more harm than good.

FORBES: When Americans Rejected Small Pox Vaccines