Napoleon III

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Napoleon III (1808–73) ( Louis Napoleon) Emperor of the French (1852–70), nephew of Napoleon I. He twice attempted a coup in France (1836, 1840). Returning from exile after the February Revolution (1848), Napoleon was elected president of the Second Republic. In 1851 he assumed autocratic powers and established the Second Empire (1852), taking the title Napoleon III. His attempt to establish a Mexican Empire under the Archduke Maximilian ended in disaster, and in 1870 he was provoked by Bismarck into the Franco-Prussian War. Napoleon's defeat at Sedan led to a republican rising that ended his reign.

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