Kilometers vs. miles in Nineteenth-century Europe?

I think that miles would be right for England as it was miles in Ireland at the time (we were still under British rule then). Not so sure about Germany though.

I believe the metric system came as a result of Napoleon trying to undermine the English Imperial System of Weights and measures.

However, Germany in the 1870s is only just unifying as the German state we would recognize, with the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 (if I recall) being the point at which Prussia establishes itself as cock-of-the-walk and Austria (the previous leading German state) is kicked out of "Germany."

However, at the time you are talking there would have been likely some German states that felt an affinity towards England OVER France and vice-versa.

All of which is heading to the whole mess of alliance, ententes and informal handshakes that resulted in one Austrian Duke being killed and pulling almost the entire continent (and beyond) into war.

I don't think I help much here, did I?

Miles certainly in England. We still think in miles which are ultimately derived from Roman measurement.
Germany was a signatory to the Metre Convention in 1875. I've no idea what units they used prior to that

What about medieval France? My WIP2 is set during 1096-1098 and I think I removed all references to miles, yards, feet and inches and substituted metric measurements.

Surely they didn't measure in miles etc in Medieval France ?

euclid said:

What about medieval France? My WIP2 is set during 1096-1098 and I think I removed all references to miles, yards, feet and inches and substituted metric measurements.

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The metric system was developed during the French Revolution. Metric measurements are anachronistic in a medieval setting.

euclid said:

Surely they didn't measure in miles etc in Medieval France ?

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With the usual caveats re relying on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_units_of_measurement. Looks like foot (pied) is fine. For travel distance, however, you need league (lieue), about two miles.

The good news is, that early there would have been considerable local variation in the definitions, so you don't need to worry much about how accurate any conversions are.

I'm guessing someone was being facetious.