James Baquet

When we hear the name “Napoleon,” we usually think of only one man. But the French leader’s nephew and son were also famous in their own ways, the former more than the latter.

His son, Napoleon Francois Joseph Charles Bonaparte, became known as Napoleon II, disputed successor to his father as emperor of the French for a few weeks in 1815.

Nearly four decades later, Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte — Napoleon I’s nephew by his younger brother — having been elected the first president of France (1848-1852) as Louis Napoleon, then seized power in an autocoup and had himself named Emperor Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, making him the last French monarch.

His reign ended when he was captured at the Battle of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War, in which the Kingdom of Prussia led the North German Confederation against Napoleon III’s short-lived Second French Empire. Napoleon III had declared war on Prussia in an attempt to take back the domination of Europe established by his uncle.

But Prussia was ready, and the war lasted only half a year, from mid-July 1870 until the fall of a besieged Paris on Jan. 28, 1871.

However, the turning point of that war was the Battle of Sedan on the first two days of September 1870. This took place near the obsolete fortress of Sedan, near the French/Belgian border.

The Germans were besieging one component of the French army in the city of Metz (from Aug. 19 to Oct. 27, 1870) when another French force attempted to come to its rescue, led by Marshal Patrice de MacMahon and Napoleon III. Caught in a pincers movement by the Prussians at the Battle of Beaumont on Aug. 30, this second French force withdrew to the fort at Sedan.

The ensuing battle, in which the French were outnumbered roughly three to two, ended in a surrender, with huge numbers of the French taken prisoner — including Napoleon III, ending his reign. The war sputtered on under a hastily-formed government in Paris, but the “handwriting was on the wall.” A few months after the January fall of Paris, the Treaty of Frankfurt was signed on May 10, 1871.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. not lasting long

2. attack from two sides

3. action of a legitimately-elected leader to make himself a dictator

4. hurriedly

5. outdated, old-fashioned

6. moment of decisive change

7. under attack

8. not agreed-upon

9. the outcome became clear

10. went along sporadically

ANSWERS: 1. short-lived

2. pincers movement 3. autocoup 4. hastily 5. obsolete

6. turning point 7. besieged

8. disputed

9. the handwriting was on the wall 10. sputtered on