The French Empire, officially known as the Second Empire of the French, was an imperial entity lasting between the coronation of Napoleon III in 1852 and the end of World War I in 1917. At the peak of its power in the 1890's, the French Empire was one of the largest economies in the world, controlled almost the entire northern half of the African continent as well as a massive landmass in Southeast Asia, and had a reliable set of client states in the Americas in Mexico, the CSA and Venezuela. During World War I, France aligned itself as a member of the Grand Alliance along with Russia, Italy and Spain in Europe, but attempting to fight a naval war against the superior British and launch an invasion of the better-equipped Germans proved futile, especially after the victory of the United Sta