Group of realms · 1805–1814

First French Empire

First French Empire brings together several realms, from 1805 to 1814. At its greatest recorded extent, in 1811, its lands covered about 1.24 million km².

One of the realms of French Colonial Empire. France's first colonial empire began with Jacques Cartier's voyages to the St Lawrence in 1534 and grew into New France, a vast fur-trading realm reaching down the Mississippi to Louisiana, plus rich sugar islands such as Saint-Domingue worked by enslaved Africans. Defeat by Britain in 1763 cost Canada and most of India, the Haitian Revolution freed Saint-Domingue, and Napoleon sold Louisiana in 1803.

See First French Empire on the map in 1811 →

On the map

1805–1814

Greatest extent

1811, about 1.24 million km²

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Wikipedia: First French Empire · Wikidata Q71084