Louis-Napoleon
The Second Republic resurrected this three-word revolutionary motto, which remains the national motto of France today.
What is "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité"?
This French prefect of the Seine was responsible for the massive, transformative urban redesign of Paris, featuring wide boulevards and new sewers.
Georges-Eugène Haussmann (or Baron Haussmann)?
The primary goal of creating wide, straight boulevards was to improve traffic and provide better access to light and air, but it also served a military purpose: preventing the construction of these during revolts.
What are barricades?
This European island nation, rich in coal and iron resources, is where the Industrial Revolution first began around the 1760s.
What is Great Britain (or England)?
This American is credited with the commercial production of a practical, long-lasting incandescent light bulb in 1879.
Who was Thomas Edison?
To address massive unemployment in 1848, the provisional government established these state-funded centers that were later bloodily shut down in the "June Days."
What were the National Workshops (Ateliers Nationaux)?
France's victory alongside Britain and the Ottoman Empire in this mid-19th-century conflict against Russia marked Napoleon III’s re-entry into European power politics.
What was the Crimean War?
Haussmann was appointed to this important civil service role, serving as the head administrator of the Seine department from 1853 to 1870.
Prefect of the Seine?
This was the first industry to be mechanized, with key inventions like the Spinning Jenny and the Power Loom.
What is the textile industry (or cotton industry)?
This French scientist invented a method of preserving food and liquids through heat that now bears his name.
Louis Pasteur?
The Revolution of 1848 is credited with establishing this for the first time in France, allowing over 9 million men to vote regardless of property ownership.
What is Universal Male Suffrage?
The Second Empire ended abruptly when Napoleon III surrendered after the decisive French defeat in this 1870 battle during the Franco-Prussian War.
What was the Battle of Sedan?
This grand opera house, designed by Charles Garnier, was the architectural centerpiece crowning the intersection of several new boulevards in Napoleon III's new Paris.
What is the Opéra Garnier (or Palais Garnier)?
This technological advancement, perfected by James Watt, became the primary power source for factories, trains, and ships.
What is the steam engine?
The first successful transmission of intelligible human speech over an electrical wire, the telephone, took place in this country in 1876.
What is the United States (or U.S.A.)?
After the Assembly refused to amend the constitution to allow him a second term, Louis-Napoleon staged a coup on this specific, symbolic date in 1851.
What is December 2 (the anniversary of Napoleon I’s coronation and victory at Austerlitz)?
This iconic Parisian market, known as the "Belly of Paris," was rebuilt during the Second Empire with magnificent cast-iron and glass pavilions.
What is Les Halles?
This term is used to describe the distinct, standardized look of the apartment buildings lining the new boulevards, with their uniform height, beige stone façades, and continuous balcons filants (running balconies).
What is Haussmannian architecture (or Haussmann style)?
Unlike Britain, France's widespread industrialization was significantly delayed, taking off in earnest only after this major political upheaval and its subsequent wars concluded.
What was the French Revolution (and Napoleonic Wars)?
In 1895, the Cinématographe, an all-in-one motion picture camera and projector, was patented in France by this pair of brothers.
Who were the Lumière brothers (Auguste and Louis)?
Before he became president, Louis-Napoleon spent time in prison for two failed attempts to stage a coup against the July Monarchy, including one at this northern French fortress.
What is the Fortress of Ham (or Fort Ham)?
This influential author was a prominent political critic and opponent of Napoleon III, leading him to live in self-imposed exile during the entire Second Empire.
Who was Victor Hugo?
Critics gave Haussmann this harsh nickname due to the massive number of medieval buildings and old neighborhoods he ordered to be torn down for his projects.
What is "The Demolisher" (le Démolisseur)?
This economic system, which was fundamentally cemented by the Industrial Revolution, relies on the private ownership of the means of production and investment for profit.
What is capitalism?
This 1850s method of industrial production revolutionized construction by blowing air through molten pig iron to rapidly remove impurities like carbon, leading to the first inexpensive mass production of steel.
What is the Bessemer Process?