1.
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the First, but Emperor Napoleon III stressed his own imperial role as the foundation of the government. He had so often, while in prison or in exile and his answer was to organize a system of government based on the principles of the Napoleonic Idea. This meant that the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, ruled supreme. He himself drew power and legitimacy from his role as representative of the great Napoleon I of France, the anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852, was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the rather than on the benevolence of politicians.
He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire. One innovation was made, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage and this new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements and avertissements, in order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, for seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites, up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist, from till 1860 it was reduced to five members, Darimon, Émile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. On 2 December 1851 Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic and he thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly.
His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by a referendum that month that attracted an implausible 92 percent support. A new constitution was enacted in January 1852 which made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, however, he was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, in response to officially-inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the yes votes were manufactured out of thin air, the empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became Napoléon III, Emperor of the French. The constitution concentrated so much power in his hands that the only changes were to replace the word president with the word emperor
2.
Charles de Freycinet
Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet was a French statesman and four times Prime Minister during the Third Republic. He served an important term as Minister of War and he belonged to the Opportunist Republicans faction. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890, Freycinet was born at Foix of a Protestant family and was the nephew of Louis de Freycinet, a French navigator. Charles Freycinet was educated at the École Polytechnique and he entered government service as a mining engineer. He was sent on several special missions, including one to the UK. It was mainly Freycinets powers of organization which enabled Gambetta to raise army after army to oppose the invading Germans and he revealed himself to be a competent strategist, but the policy of dictating operations to the generals in the field was not attended with happy results. In 1871 he published a defence of his administration under the title of La Guerre en province pendant le siège de Paris. He entered the Senate in 1876 as a follower of Gambetta and he retained his post in the ministry of William Henry Waddington, whom he succeeded in December 1879 as Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
He passed an amnesty for the Communards, but in attempting to steer a course on the question of the religious associations, he lost Gambettas support. In January 1882 he again became Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and his refusal to join Britain in the bombardment of Alexandria was the death-knell of French influence in Egypt. He attempted to compromise by occupying the Isthmus of Suez, but the vote of credit was rejected in the Chamber by 417 votes to 75, and the ministry resigned. He returned to office in April 1885 as Foreign Minister in Henri Brissons cabinet and he came to power with an ambitious programme of internal reform, but apart from settling the question of the exiled pretenders, his successes were chiefly in the sphere of colonial extension. In spite of his skill as a parliamentary tactician, he failed to keep his party together. In April 1888 he became Minister of War in Charles Floquets cabinet — the first civilian since 1848 to hold that office. The introduction of the service and the establishment of a general staff, a supreme council of war.
His premiership was marked by heated debates on the clerical question and he failed to clear himself entirely of complicity in the Panama scandals, and in January 1893 resigned the Ministry of War. In November 1898 he once again became Minister of War in the Charles Dupuy cabinet, but resigned office on 6 May 1899
3.
Falloux Laws
Named for the Minister of Education Alfred de Falloux, they mainly aimed at promoting Catholic teaching. The 1851 law created a system, in which some primary education establishments were public and controlled by the state. The new law opened an era of cooperation between Church and state that lasted until the Ferry laws ended this in the early 1880s, the Falloux laws provided universal primary schooling in France and expanded opportunities for secondary schooling. In practice, the curricula in Catholic and state schools were similar, Catholic schools were especially useful in schooling for girls, which had long been neglected. This aim was achieved, the Falloux Law created a mixed system, public on one hand. This law allowed the clergy and members of orders and female. This exemption was extended even to priests who taught in secondary schools, the primary schools were put under the management of the curés. The Falloux Law created one academy for each department, decentralising the University and it reorganised the Superior Council of Education and academic councils, specifically by giving a large number of places to representatives of various religions, above all of Roman Catholicism.
Similarly, bishops were included in the academic councils and secondary education were divided between state establishments, and private establishments, headed by non-profit organisations or religious congregations. Supervision of schools was the joint responsibility of the mayor and the priest and they thought that the imperial education system, inherited from the First Empires reforms, excessively diffused Enlightenment and socialist ideas. Thus, they wanted the system to return to its basis during the Ancien Régime. However, the July Monarchy was much less friendly to this reactionary trend, although the Guizot Law of 1833 partially satisfied Catholics by authorising private teaching in primary education, it kept secondary and higher education under the Universitys supervision. Guizot generalised the écoles normales primaires, which were responsible for the training of teachers, after the 1848 Revolution, Lazare Hippolyte Carnot was named Minister of Public Instruction and prepared a draft reform.
He named the Republican Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire president of the commission which would write the draft. The latter would have made education mandatory for children of both sexes, as well as a three years of training for teachers, subsided by the state, although it favoured public schools, it still allowed private teaching establishments. Carnots draft was set aside after his resignation on 5 July 1848. The decree of 11 December 1848 made the law on education an organic law. A Legitimist, Falloux officially withdrew Carnots draft bill on 4 January 1849 and dissolved the Scientific, Falloux clearly aimed at restoring Roman Catholicism to the forefront of French schooling and society, describing his program in his Memoirs, God in education
4.
Senate (France)
The Senate is the upper house of the Parliament of France, presided over by a president. Indirectly elected by elected officials, it represents territorial collectivities of the Republic, the Senate enjoys less prominence than the lower house, the directly elected National Assembly, debates in the Senate tend to be less tense and generally receive less media coverage. Frances first experience with a house was under the Directory from 1795 to 1799. With the Restoration in 1814, a new Chamber of Peers was created, at first it contained hereditary peers, but following the July Revolution of 1830, it became a body to which one was appointed for life. The Second Republic returned to a system after 1848, but soon after the establishment of the Second French Empire in 1852. In the Fourth Republic, the Senate was replaced by the Council of the Republic, with the new constitution of the Fifth Republic enforced on 4 October 1958, the older name of Senate was restored. In 2011, the Socialist Party won control of the French Senate for the first time since the foundation of the French Fifth Republic, in 2014, the centre-right Gaullists and its allies won back the control of the Senate.
Until September 2004, the Senate had 321 senators, each elected to a nine-year term and that month, the term was reduced to six years, while the number of senators progressively increased to 348 in 2011, in order to reflect the countrys population growth. Senators were elected in every three years, this was changed to one-half of their number every three years. Senators are elected indirectly by approximately 150,000 officials, including regional councilors, department councilors, city councilors in large towns, however, 90% of the electors are delegates appointed by councilors. This system introduces a bias in the composition of the Senate favoring rural areas, the Senate has been accused of being a refuge for politicians that have lost their seats in the National Assembly. The senators elect a President from among their members, the current incumbent is Gérard Larcher. This happened twice for Alain Poher—once at the resignation of Charles de Gaulle, under the Constitution, the Senate has nearly the same powers as the National Assembly.
Bills may be submitted by the administration or by either house of Parliament, because both houses may amend the bill, it may take several readings to reach an agreement between the National Assembly and the Senate. This does not happen frequently, usually the two eventually agree on the bill, or the administration decides to withdraw it. The power to pass a vote of censure, or vote of no confidence, is limited, as was the case in the Fourth Republics constitution, new cabinets do not have to receive a vote of confidence. Also, a vote of censure can occur only after 10 percent of the sign a petition, if rejected. If the petition gets the support, a vote of censure must gain an absolute majority of all members
5.
Dreyfus affair
The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. The affair is often seen as a modern and universal symbol of injustice, the major role played by the press and public opinion proved influential in the lasting social conflict. The scandal began in December 1894, with the conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. After high-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquitted Esterházy after a trial lasting two days. The Army accused Dreyfus with additional charges based on falsified documents, activists put pressure on the government to reopen the case. In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France for another trial, the new trial resulted in another conviction and a 10-year sentence, but Dreyfus was given a pardon and set free. Eventually all the accusations against Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless, in 1906 Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army. He served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, the affair from 1894 to 1906 divided France deeply and lastingly into two opposing camps, the pro-Army, mostly Catholic anti-Dreyfusards and the anticlerical, pro-republican Dreyfusards.
It embittered French politics and encouraged radicalization, the museum created an online platform in 2006 dedicated to the Dreyfus Affair, giving the public access to these documents. After a closed trial, he was guilty of treason. He was deported to Devils Island, at that time, the opinion of the French political class was unanimously unfavourable towards Dreyfus. Certain of the injustice of the sentence, the family of the Captain, through his brother Mathieu, meanwhile Colonel Georges Picquart, head of counter-espionage, found evidence in March 1896 indicating that the real traitor was Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterházy. The General Staff, refused to reconsider its judgment, in July 1897 his family contacted the President of the Senate Auguste Scheurer-Kestner to draw attention to the tenuousness of the evidence against Dreyfus. Scheurer-Kestner reported three months that he was convinced of the innocence of Dreyfus and persuaded Georges Clemenceau, in the same month, Mathieu Dreyfus complained to the Ministry of War against Walsin-Esterházy.
A Dreyfusard declaration that rallied many intellectuals to Dreyfus cause, France became increasingly divided over the case, and the issue continued to be hotly debated until the end of the century. Antisemitic riots erupted in more than twenty French cities, There were several deaths in Algiers. The Republic was shaken, which prompted a sense that the Dreyfus Affair had to be resolved to restore calm, despite increasingly robust evidence to the contrary, Dreyfus was convicted again and sentenced to ten years of hard labour, though the sentence was commuted due to extenuating circumstances. Exhausted by his deportation for four years, Dreyfus accepted the presidential pardon granted by President Émile Loubet
6.
Alfred Dreyfus
Known today as the Dreyfus affair, the incident eventually ended with Dreyfus complete exoneration. The museum created a platform in 2006 dedicated to the Dreyfus Affair. Born in Mulhouse, Alsace in 1859, Dreyfus was the youngest of nine born to Raphaël. Raphaël Dreyfus was a prosperous, self-made, Jewish textile manufacturer who had started as a peddler, alfred was 10 years old when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in the summer of 1870, and his family moved to Paris following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany after the war. The childhood experience of seeing his family uprooted by the war with Germany prompted Dreyfus to decide on a career in the military. Following his 18th birthday in October 1877, he enrolled in the elite École Polytechnique military school in Paris, where he received military training, in 1880, he graduated and was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the French army. From 1880 to 1882, he attended the school at Fontainebleau to receive more specialized training as an artillery officer.
On graduation he was assigned to the Thirty-first Artillery Regiment, which was in garrison at Le Mans, Dreyfus was subsequently transferred to a mounted artillery battery attached to the First Cavalry Division, and promoted to lieutenant in 1885. In 1889, he was adjutant to the director of the Établissement de Bourges, a government arsenal. On 18 April 1891, the 31-year-old Dreyfus married 20-year-old Lucie Eugénie Hadamard and they had two children and Jeanne. Three days after the wedding, Dreyfus learned that he had admitted to the École Supérieure de Guerre or War College. His father Raphaël died on 13 December 1893, at the War College examination in 1892, his friends had expected him to do well. However, one of the members of the panel, General Bonnefond, felt that Jews were not desired on the staff, Bonnefonds assessment lowered Dreyfus overall grade, he did the same to another Jewish candidate, Lieutenant Picard. The protest would count against Dreyfus, the French army of the period was relatively open to entry and advancement by talent with an estimated 300 Jewish officers, of whom ten were generals.
However within the Fourth Bureau of the General Staff General Bonnefonds prejudices appear to have been shared by some of the new trainees superiors, the personal assessments received by Dreyfus during 1893/94 acknowledged his high intelligence, but were critical of aspects of his personality. Suspicion quickly fell upon Dreyfus who was arrested for treason on 15 October 1894, on 5 January 1895, Dreyfus was summarily convicted in a secret court martial, publicly stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devils Island in French Guiana. Dreyfus cried out, I swear that I am innocent, I remain worthy of serving in the Army. Picquart was silenced by being transferred to the desert of Tunisia in November 1896
7.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry and finance.
Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it.
When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
Kingdom of Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold; 1900.[3]
Kingdom of Bulgaria: Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Alexander - insignia in diamonds presented in 1902.[4]
Russian Empire: Knight of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called.
Spain: Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece - 22 June 1902 - invested by the Duke of Sesto, special representative of the Spanish King, in a ceremony in Paris.[5]
Thailand Knight of the Most Illustrious Order of the Royal House of Chakri
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 26.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
