 In France, Louis Philippe abdicated on February 24, 1848, opening way to the Second Republic (1848–52), which lasted until Napoleon III's December 2, 1851 coup d'état and the establishment of the Second Empire (1852–1870).The monarchist movement came back into force only after the 1870 defeat by Prussia and the crushing of the 1871 Paris Commune by Orléanist Adolphe Thiers.Legitimists and Orléanists controlled the majority of the Assemblies, and supported Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta, as president of the "Ordre moral" government.