Paris under Napoleon Each of the twelve arrondissements had its own mayor, but their power was limited to enforcing the decrees of Napoleon's ministers. After he crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Napoleon began a series of projects to make Paris into an imperial capital to rival ancient Rome. He built monuments to French military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the column in Place Vendôme, and the future church of the Madeleine, intended as a temple to military heroes; and began the Arc de Triomphe. To improve the circulation of traffic in central Paris, he built a wide new
Napoleon III Napoleon III Napoleon III (born Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870 and, as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the President of France from 1848 to 1852. He was the only president of the French Second Republic and the founder of the Second French Empire. The nephew and heir of Napoleon I, he was the first head of state of France to hold the title of president, the first elected by a direct popular vote and the youngest until the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. Barred by the Constitution