Paris during the Second Empire
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
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 for finance, commerce, fashion, and the arts. The population of the city grew dramatically, from about one million persons to two million, partially because the city was greatly enlarged through the annexation of eleven surrounding communes. These additions, which led to the creation of eight new arrondissements, brought the city to its present boundaries. In 1853, Napoleon III and his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugene Haussmann, began a massive public works project, constructing new boulevards and parks, theaters, markets and monuments, a project he continued seventeen years until his downfall.
Napoleon III's building projects were still unfinished when he was drawn into the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870. The French army was quickly defeated at the Battle of Sedan on 1 September 1870. Napoleon was captured by the Prussians and swiftly deposed by the French legislature (the Corps législatif) on 4 September 1870, an event that marked the beginning of the French Third Republic. However, construction of his new boulevards continued under the Third Republic, and the street plan and architectural style of Napoleon III and Haussmann are still largely preserved and visible in the center of Paris.
In The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire, German philosopher Walter Benjamin, writes about this era.
