The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, [b] then the French Empire ( French: Empire Français; Latin: Imperium Francicum) after 1809 and also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial empire was the second largest colonial empire in the world only behind the British Empire; it extended over 13,500,000 km 2 (5,200,000 sq mi) of land at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. In terms of population however, on the eve of World War II, France and her colonial possessions ...
During the Second French Empire, the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (1852–1870), Paris was the largest city in continental Europe and a leading center of finance, commerce, fashion, and the arts. The population of the city grew dramatically, from about one million to two million persons, partly because the city was greatly enlarged, to its ...
The Second French Empire Middle years The Prince-President in 1852, after the coup d'état. The 1851 referendum gave Louis Napoleon a mandate to amend the constitution. Work began on the new document in 1852. It was officially prepared by a committee of eighty experts but was actually drafted by a small group of the Prince-President's inner circle.
Second Empire may refer to: Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783. Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) Second French Empire (1852–1870) Second Empire architecture, an architectural style associated with the Second French Empire. Second German Empire, sometimes used to describe the German ...
The French Third Republic ( French: Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe République) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France during World War II led to the formation of the Vichy ...
Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo ( pronounced [ˈsiŋko ðe ˈmaʝo] in Mexico, Spanish for "Fifth of May") is a yearly celebration held on May 5 to celebrate Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, [1] [2] led by General Ignacio Zaragoza. Zaragoza died months after the battle from an illness, and a larger ...