Second French Empire
The Second French Empire was the imperial regime of France that existed between the French Second Republic and the Third French Republic, and a spiritual successor to Napoleon Bonaparte's First French Empire.
Withstanding for eighteen years, the empire had its capital of Paris surrounded and temporarily taken over by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War. This led Napoleon III to abdicate his throne, marking the end of the empire.
History[edit | edit source]
Establishment[edit | edit source]
In 1848, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of France. Due to the constitution, he could not be re-elected for another term, so in December 1851 he staged a coup and dissolved the National Assembly. Eventually, on 2 December 1852, the Second French Empire was proclaimed, with Louis-Napoleon becoming Emperor Napoleon III.[1]
Crimean War[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Crimean War
In 1853, Napoleon III sent a warship into the Black Sea 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 to the Danube river in response. Despite attempts at negotiation, diplomatic relations quickly soured as the French, the British, and the Ottomans 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 losing the key city of Sevastopol.[2]
Orsini affair[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Orsini affair
On 14 January 1858, both Napoleon III and his wife, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, attended a show at the theater opera of Rue le Peletier, only to be nearly assassinated by Italian anarchist Felice Orsini and his accomplices. While the emperor and empress survived with minor injuries, there were numerous civilian casualties from the bombs used during the attack.[3] Orsini and his cohorts were captured the next day,[4] and as a result of the incident, harsher government laws were enacted on the people of France and England.[5]
Final years[edit | edit source]
In 1867, maintaining his relationship with other nations, Napoleon III sent French Army officer Jules Brunet to help shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu modernize the Japanese Army.[6]
By 1870, France became engulfed in a war with Prussia, its Kaiser Wilhelm I, and the empire's growing power.[7][8] Within months of the war's start, Napoleon III was dethroned, ending the Second French Empire.[9]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (mentioned in Database entry only)
- Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Blade of Aizu (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑
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