Germany May 18, 1848 – The first German National Assembly (Nationalversammlung) opens in Frankfurt, Germany. March – The Frankfurt Parliament completes its drafting of a liberal constitution and elects Frederick William IV emperor of the new German national state. April 2, 1849 – Revolutions of 1848 in the German states end in failure. May 3, 1849 – The May Uprising in Dresden, last of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, begins. Switzerland November 3 – 29, 1847 – Sonderbund War, a civil war in Switzerland in which General Guillaume-Henri Dufour's federal army defeats the Sonderbund (an alliance of seven Catholic cantons) with a total of only 86 deaths. September 12, 1848 – One of the successes of the Revolutions of 1848, the Swiss Federal Constitution, patterned on the US Constitution, enters into force, creating a federal republic and one of the first modern democratic states in Europe. The Netherlands October 7, 1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands. November 3, 1848 – A greatly revised Dutch constitution is proclaimed. France March 1, 1840 – Adolphe Thiers becomes prime minister of France. September 30, 1840 – The frigate Belle-Poule arrives in Cherbourg, bringing back the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena to France. He is buried in the Invalides. December 15, 1840 – The corpse of Napoleon is placed in the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. February 23, 1848 – François Guizot, Prime Minister of France, resigns. 52 people from the Paris mob are killed by soldiers guarding public buildings. February 24, 1848 – Louis Philippe, King of the French, abdicates in favour of his grandson, Philippe, comte de Paris, and flees to England after days of revolution in Paris. The French Second Republic is later proclaimed by Alphonse de Lamartine in the name of the provisional government elected by the Chamber under the pressure of the mob. May 15, 1848 – Radicals invade the French Chamber of Deputies. June 22, 1848 – The French government dissolves the national workshops in Paris, giving the workers the choice of joining the army or going to workshops in the provinces. August 28, 1848 – Mathieu Luis becomes the first black member to join the French Parliament as a representative of Guadeloupe. November 4, 1848 – France ratifies a new constitution. The Second Republic of France is set up, ending the state of temporary government lasting since the Revolution of