19th Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1801 | 9 February | War of the Second Coalition: The Treaty of Lunéville was signed after the victory of the French Republic against the Second Coalition states (led by the Austrian and Russian Empires), marking the end of the war with only Britain left fighting France. |
| 1802 | 25 March | War of the Second Coalition: The Treaty of Amiens established a peace between France and the United Kingdom. |
| 1803 | 2 May | Louisiana Purchase: France sold Louisiana to the United States of America, renouncing its last territorial possessions on continental North America. |
| 18 November | Battle of Vertières: The viscount of Rochambeau was defeated and forced to surrender to the revolutionary army of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. | |
| 1804 | 1 January | Haitian Revolution: Dessalines declared the independence of Haiti. |
| 18 May | Napoleon was declared Emperor by the Senate, marking the beginning of the First French Empire and the end of the French Consulate. | |
| 2 December | Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in Notre-Dame de Paris. Napoleon had Pope Pius VII in attendance to indicate approval of the Church. | |
| 1805 | 2 December | War of the Third Coalition: The French Empire is victorious at the decisive Battle of Austerlitz which marks the end of the Third Coalition (Austria, Russia, United Kingdom, Sweden and others) against France and its client states. |
| 1806 | 12 July | Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, and created the Confederation of the Rhine, a union of French client states composed of 16 states in present-day Germany. |
| 1807 | 14 June | War of the Fourth Coalition: The French Empire is victorious at the decisive Battle of Friedland which marks the end of the Fourth Coalition (mainly Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) against France and its client states. |
| 1808 | 2 May | Beginning of the Peninsular War which will last until Napoleon's defeat against the Sixth Coalition in 1814. |
| 1809 | 5 July | War of the Fifth Coalition: The French Empire is victorious at the decisive Battle of Wagram which marks the end of the Fifth Coalition (mainly the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom) against France and its client states. (to 6 July) |
| 1812 | 14 September | War of the Sixth Coalition: The Fire of Moscow marks the beginning of French retreat after the French invasion of Russia. The First French Empire reached the height of its power and declined henceforth with the disastrous Battle of Berezina. The Sixth Coalition will go on to win the war and Napoleon will be exiled in Elba. |
| 1814 | 24 April | First Restoration: The House of Bourbon was briefly restored with Louis XVIII as King of France in an intermediate period of the Napoleonic Wars. |
| 1815 | 18 June | Hundred Days: Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon is defeated by Seventh Coalition armies, definitively ending the First French Empire and the Napoleonic Wars, and marks the start of almost half a century of peace throughout Europe. |
| 1815 | 7 July | Second Restoration: With Napoleon exiled in Saint Helena, the House of Bourbon was again restored. Louis XVIII became King of France until his death on September 16, 1824. |
| 1823 | April | French invasion of Spain: France started its invasion of Spain, eventually succeeding and restoring the monarchy, ending the Liberal Triennium. |
| 1830 | July | July Revolution or French Revolution of 1830: the conservative House of Bourbon is overthrown and replaced by the more liberal Orleans Monarchy with Louis-Philippe becoming King of France. |
| 1831 | 22 November | First Canut revolt: first clearly defined worker uprising of the Industrial Revolution. |
| 1839 | 9 March | Pastry War: Victorious French troops withdraw from Mexico after their demands were satisfied. |
| 1848 | February | February Revolution or French Revolution of 1848: Republican riots forced King Louis-Philippe to abdicate and flee to England. |
| 20 December | Louis Napoleon Bonaparte starts his term as the first president of the French Republic. | |
| 1851 | 2 December | Exactly one year after his coup d'état, president Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Napoleon III of France, ending the Second Republic and creating the Second French Empire with him as dictator. |
| 1854 | 28 March | Crimean War: France and Britain formally declared war on Russia. |
| 1860 | Following the Franco-Sardinian victory over the Austrian Empire in the Second Italian War of Independence, Italian regions of Nice and Savoy were transferred to the French Empire as a reward. | |
| 18 October | Second Opium War: British and French troops entered the Forbidden City in Beijing. | |
| 1866 | 31 May | French intervention in Mexico: French troops start withdrawing from the country. |
| 1871 | 10 May | Franco-Prussian War: France's loss marked the downfall of Napoleon III and led to the end of the Second French Empire. The Third Republic was subsequently declared and Napoleon III exiled to the United Kingdom until his death. |
| 26 March | The Paris Commune was declared and lasted 2 months before being violently suppressed by Adolphe Thiers' government. | |
| 31 August | Adolphe Thiers began his term as president of France. | |
| 1873 | 24 May | Patrice de Mac-Mahon began his term as president of France. |
| 1879 | 30 January | Jules Grévy began his term as president of France. |
| 1887 | 3 December | Marie François Sadi Carnot began his term as president of France. |
| 1894 | 4 January | The Franco-Russian Alliance was confirmed. |
| 27 June | Jean Casimir-Perier began his term as president of France. | |
| November | The Dreyfus affair begins, creating a scandal which will mobilize intellectuals and divide the French population for a decade. | |
| 1895 | 17 January | Félix Faure began his term as president of France. |
| 1899 | 18 February | Émile Loubet began his term as president of France. |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of French History
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