Posted on 28/03/08
BIG EAU
As a soldier, Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was pretty much a dud. He started the Franco-Prussian War and was captured in the Battle of Sedan in 1870, a catastrophe that brought his long reign as France's emperor to a swift and inglorious end. But as a social engineer, Napoleon III was something of a whiz. His civic planner, Baron Haussmann, rebuilt Paris. The medieval slums were cleared and replaced with grand boulevards. Parks and sewage systems were created. The rail network was vastly expanded.
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