History of the North Sea the North Sea though they saw little action. The Austro-Prussian War (1866) resulted in Prussia's gaining full control of the Kiel Canal, allowing their Baltic ports access to the North Sea. France declared war on Prussia 19 July 1870 which initiated the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). The French Navy was, at the time far larger and superior to the North German Federal Navy, the Navy of the North German Confederation. Though the French did take a number of merchant ships bound to and from North Germany, shortages of manpower and coal, as well as conflicting orders, made the attempted blockade of
Ports of the Baltic Sea of total cargo volumes in the Baltic Sea in 2008. This table lists statistics (2002) (Świnoujście, Szczecin and Helsinki - 2004, Lübeck and Rostock - 2005, Gdynia, Klaipėda, Gdańsk, Riga, Liepāja - 2010) for the major ports of the Baltic Sea. Container traffic is given in terms of Twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo. Ports of the Baltic Sea There are over 200 ports in the Baltic Sea. When only those ports that handle a minimum of 50,000 tonnes of cargo annually, and where at least part of this cargo is international are taken into account, the number of ports reaches