- 1799: A revolutionary general named Napoleon Bonaparte stabilizes the unruly government.
He becomes Emperor in 1804.
His emperorship puts a hiatus on France's struggle toward a Republic-- this is well-symbolized by Napoleon's moving into the former royal seat of power at Versailles.
The Emperor's taste for power and conquest lead to the colonization of large swathes of North Africa. He is defeated at Waterloo in 1815.
-Mid-19th century: The Paris that still largely remains today is constructed by Baron Haussmann, under the direction of Napoleon III.
Wide boulevards and a sewer system replace most of the narrow, cramped medieval and Renaissance-era streets of the city.
-1870: Following a disastrous war with the Prussians, the third Republic
is declared, marking the beginning of democratic institutions in France.
The Belle Epoque opens, another artistically and culturally fertile time in Paris history. Art nouveau architecture and artistic movements like impressionism take the world by storm.
-1920's and 1930's: Paris is one of the world's most important hotbeds of experimentation in art and literature. Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso
and the "Lost Generation" of English-speaking writers like Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound make Paris their home.
