The Second French Empire was the imperial regime of France that took place between the French Second Republic and the Third French Republic. Withstanding for eighteen years, the Second French Empire had its capital Paris surrounded and temporarily taken over by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War. This led for Emperor Napoleon to fall and lose his rulership and thus the dissolvement of his empire.
History[]
On 14 January 1852, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was declared president of France for ten years after dissolving the National Assembly. However, by December, he re-established an empire and became Emperor Napoleon III.[1]
In 1853, Napoleon III sent a warship to push Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I to acknowledge French Catholicism as the official religion over the Holy Land's Christian sites. However, this angered Tsar Nicholas I, who sent two corps as a responses. Despite negotiations, diplomatic relations were useless as French, British, and Ottoman forces allied themselves against the Russians' own expansion. For the next three years, their discord became known as the Crimean War. In 1856, the Russians sued for peace after they lost the city of Sevastopol.[2]
Orsini affair[]
- Main article: Orsini affair
On 14 January 1858, both Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie de Montijo attended a premiere at the theater opera of Rue le Peletier, only to be nearly assassinated by Italian anarchist Felice Orsini and his accomplices. Fortunately, both the emperor and empress survived the bombings with little injuries, but they were massive amounts of civilian casualties.[3] Orsini and his cohorts were found the next day[4] and as a result, harsher government laws were enacted on both French and English governments.[5]
Last years of the empire[]
In 1867, maintaining his relationship with other nations, the Emperor of France sent Officer Jules Brunet to aid shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu to modernize the Japanese Army.[6] By 1870, the Second French Empire became engulfed in a war with Prussia, their leader Kaiser Wilhelm I, and their empire's growing power.[7][8] Within months of the war, Napoleon III was dethroned and his empire fell as well.[9]
Appearances[]
- Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Blade of Aizu
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot
References[]
- ↑ Second French Empire on Wikipedia
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Syndicate – Database: Crimean War
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 15
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 16
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy – Chapter 18
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Blade of Aizu
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 11
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 12
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 14