2-501-873 - Art Media-Private Collection/Heritage Images

'Que le Peuple Veille', allegory of the French Republic, Franco-Prussian War, 1870. The Third Republic was proclaimed in September 1870 after the defeat of the French at the Battle of Sedan and the capture of Napoleon III brought the Second Empire to an end. The previous Republics of 1792 and 1848 were short-lived, being respectively ended by Napoleon's coup of the 18 Brumaire (1799) and that of Louis-Napoleon to establish the Second Empire (1852). The Third Republic endured until France's capitulation to the Nazi invaders in 1940. From a private collection.