Stock Photo - France, History, 19th Century, Louis-Napoléon -Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873 was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte Elected President by popular vote in 1848, he initiated a coup d´état in 1851, becoming dictator before ascending the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I´s coronation He ruled as Emperor of the French until 4 September 1870 He holds the unusual distinction of being both the first titular president and the last monarch of France Napoleon III is primarily remembered for several military ventures, including the French participation in the Crimean War, the conquest of Senegal, the Second Opium War, the Cochinchina Campaign, the Second Italian War of Independence, the Franco-Mexican War, the Taiping Rebellion, the 1866 campaign against Korea, the Boshin War, and the Franco-Prussian War Domestically, Napoleon´s reign was a major period of industrialisation for the French economy He also oversaw a major renovation of Paris that created the outline of the modern city The Second French Empire was overthrown three days after Napoleon´s disastrous surrender at the Battle of Sedan in 1870, which resulted in both the proclamation of the French Third Republic and the cession of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine to the newly-formed German Empire