The War of Nations was a war fought between July 19, 1870, when the feuding nations declared war, and ended on May 10, 1872, when the nations ended the war by signing the Treaty of Frankfurt. Fought originally between the Second French Empire, the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Bavaria against the Kingdom of Prussia and its German allies and the Kingdom of Italy; by war's end it was between the Third French Republic, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy. The war saw the rise and fall of nations, and set the stage for the events that evolved into greater wars and larger nations that continued to exist even in the modern day.