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The overall goal of Russia and Britain was to contain the expansion of the French Republic and to restore the monarchy in France. Austria was still weakened and in deep financial trouble from the War of the First Coalition and primarily sought to recover and come out stronger than it had entered. Due to this difference in strategy amongst the three major allied groups, the Second Coalition failed to overthrow the revolutionary regime and French territorial gains were confirmed from 1793. -
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought the United States about 828,000 square miles of territory from France. This territory stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Border. It is believed that France’s economic difficulties, the impending war with Great Britain, and the failure of France to put down a slave revolution in Haiti may have prompted Napoleon to offer Lousiana for sale to the United States. France gained about $15,000,000 in this exchange of the Louisiana Territory. -
Napoleon became known through his successful campaigns as a military dictator and later, in 1804, became emperor of France. In 1812 he thought that Russia may be plotting an alliance with England which led him to launch an invasion against Russians which failed and led to Europe uniting against him. Subsequently he stepped down from his throne in 1814 in favor of his son. When his offer was rejected, he abdicated and was sent to the island of Elba where he stayed for about a year. -
In March 1815 Napoleon escaped his island exile and returned to Paris where he regained supporters and reclaimed his throne as emperor of France in a period known as the Hundred Days. However his ruling didn’t last long when he was defeated in June 1815 during the bloody Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon’s defeat signaled the end of France’s domination over Europe. He abdicated for a second time and was exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he lived out the remainder of his days. -
Napoleon passed away on May 5,1821 on the island of Saint Helena where he was exiled to in 1815. He died at the age of 51, most likely from stomach cancer. There had been speculation that he had been plagued by stomach pain for years, due to the way that he posed with his hand over his stomach in paintings. He was buried on the island.In 1840 his remains were brought back to France and were entombed in a crypt at Les Invalides in Paris, where other French military leaders are interred. -
French’s invasion of Spain in 1823 was allowed by a secret treaty signed during the Congress of Verona, an international meeting held much like the meetings of the Congress of Vienna. France invaded Spain to restore absolute control to Ferdinand VII. France had a successful invasion with the restoration of the Ferdinand monarchy and the end of the Liberal Triennium, a period of time from 1820-1823 where France was controlled by a liberal government. -
The Franco-Prussian War was a war in which a coalition of German states led by Prussia defeated France. The war marked the end of French dominance in continental Europe and resulted in the unification of Germany. -
In 1889, Paris hosted a World’s Fair to mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Hundreds of artists sent in competing plans for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars. Eiffel et Compagnie, a consulting and construction firm owned by the acclaimed bridge builder, architect and metals expert Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel was granted commission. Maurice Koechlin was responsible for the concept and he had also previously worked with Eiffel on the Statue of Liberty. -
Dual Alliance, also called Franco-Russian Alliance, a political and military pact that developed between France and Russia from friendly contacts in 1891 to a secret treaty in 1894; it became one of the basic European alignments of the pre-World War I era. This alliance came to be because of the vengeance France felt for Germany due to the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian war and the loss of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, which they lost in the war. -
Britain and France signed the Entente Cordiale which helped resolve long standing colonial disputes in North Africa as well as establishing a diplomatic understanding between the two countries. France was trying to protect themselves against Germany which was growing in strength. Britain was also eager to control Germany, especially due to an ambitious German naval program, which - if successful, threatened to challenge Britain’s clear dominance at sea. -
On the afternoon of August 3, 1914, only two days after declaring war against Russia, Germany declared war against France. This initiated a long-held strategy for a two-front war against Russia and France. Hours later, France made its own declaration of war against Germany and sent troops out into the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which it had forfeited to Germany in the settlement that ended the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.