Europe 1852: Second French Empire
2 December 1852
2 Dec 1852
The Crimean War
-27–68 The Julio-Claudian Dynasty
68–96 The Flavian Dynasty
96–192 The Nerva–Antonine Dynasty
192–235 The Severan Dynasty
235–285 The Crisis of the Third Century
285–1815 NO MAPS FOR THIS PERIOD YET
1815–1848 Congress Europe
1848–1850 The Springtime of Peoples
1850–1859 The Crimean War
1859–1862 Italian Unification
1862–1871 German Unification
1871–1914 Imperial Europe
1914–1918 The Great War
1918–1922 Armistice Europe
1922–1939 The Rise of Fascism
1939–1942 World War II: Blitzkrieg
1942–1945 World War II: Fall of the Third Reich
1945–1990 The Cold War
1990–2010 Post-Cold War Europe
2010–pres The Crisis of Europe
Second French Empire
2 Dec 1852 Second French Empire
28 Mar 1854 Outbreak of the Crimean War
5 Nov 1854 Siege of Sevastopol
30 Mar 1856 End of the Crimean War
1 Apr 1857 The Great Game
While the King of Prussia was backing down in Germany, the ambitious French President Louis-Napoleon was consolidating power in France. By 1852 he was ready to restore the French Empire with himself as Emperor Napoleon III. Although this alarmed the nations of Europe, where memories of the Napoleonic Wars were still strong, its importance was soon overshadowed by events further east.
