Soon after reaching Paris, Humboldt submitted a memorandum to the other allies which argued that the surest way of restricting France’s ability to threaten the peace of Europe in the future was to reduce her territorially. He also asserted that the allies had every right to exact indemnities to cover the expenses of the war they had been obliged to fight. He suggested that France be stripped of Flanders, Alsace-Lorraine and the Franche-Comté, along with the towns of Dunkirk, Lille, Strasbourg, Metz, Mulhouse and Belfort, the lion’s share of which would go to Prussia.
