Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris

In the two decades between 1850 and 1870 Napoleon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann, created the modern city of Paris out of the congested and ill-equipped capital of the 18th century. They gave Paris many of its present major streets, its great municipal parks, the Central Markets, the Opera House and other well-known buildings, as well as a water supply system and a network of sewers that still serve the city. The various factors of the venture: the city's rapidly increasing po