v11_1959 - 20 francs or Napoléon III tête laurée 1862 Paris F.532/3

SECOND EMPIRE

(2/12/1852-4/09/1870)

Napoleon III laureate head

1860 marks the beginning of the liberal empire and, outside, a free trade agreement is signed with England, Cambodia becomes a French protectorate on April 11, 1863 and the Mexican campaign, which begins in 1863, goes last four years. The right to strike is granted on May 25, 1864. The republican and royalist opposition becomes more important. In the steel industry, the invention of the Martin furnace competed with Bessemer's process. France, by the convention of September 14, undertakes to evacuate Rome on condition that Italy respects the integrity of the pontifical territory. The French, defeated at Puebla in 1863, withdrew from the Mexican trap in 1866. Maximilian I of Austria, Emperor of Mexico, was executed on June 19, 1867. France supported Italian claims in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The Austrians were crushed at Sadowa in 1866. Italy recovered Venetia in 1866. The French troops crush in Mentana the troops of Garibaldi who were going to invade the Papal State. The Universal Exhibition of 1867, with the visit of Alexander II of Russia, marks the peak of the Regime.