French Colonial Empire: Did you mean...?

Of all the careers that soared to meteoric heights during the chaotic decade of the French Revolution (1789-1799), none was more spectacular nor impactful than that of Napoleon Bonaparte...

The Battle of the Nile (1-2 August 1798), or the Battle of Aboukir Bay, saw a British fleet led by Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) destroy a French fleet at Aboukir Bay near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile River. It...

The Quasi-War (1798-1800) or 'Half War' was a limited, undeclared naval conflict fought between the United States and the First French Republic. Hostilities arose when French privateers began attacking neutral American shipping, resulting...

Life in Colonial America was difficult and often short but the colonists made the best of their situation in the hopes of a better life for themselves and their families. The early English colonists, used to purchasing...

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was a Corsican-born French general and politician who reigned as Emperor of the French with the regnal name Napoleon I from 1804 to 1814 and then again briefly in 1815. He established the largest...

The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident that occurred in 1797-98, involving diplomats from the United States and Revolutionary France. Amidst rising tensions between the two nations, President John Adams sent envoys to Paris to negotiate...

African slave life in Colonial British America was far worse than slavery practiced in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans. The indigenous tribes took people as slaves in raids, enslaved those...

The Fashoda Incident of 1898 occurred in Sudan and caused a diplomatic crisis between the British and French empires. A small French force claimed authority over the town of Fashoda...

The Battle of Neerwinden saw the major defeat of a French republican army by an allied force of Austrians and Dutch during the War of the First Coalition (1792-97), part of the broader French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802...

In this gallery of seven maps, we examine the vast overseas territories of the Spanish Empire from the late 15th century to the 19th century. The empire reached its height during the Age of Exploration and included...