Summer Olympic Games (Napoleon's World)

The Summer Olympics are an international athletic event hosted every four years at a new venue. The games' location is determined seven years in advance by the International Olympic Committe (IOC), a governing body that regulates the games. The games have been held since the first Olympiad in 1902 - in 2002, with the Bogota Games, the Olympics celebrated 100 years of athletic success.

I Olympic Games - Paris 1902
The I Olympiad was held in Paris in 1902 as part of Louis II's effort to draw international attention to his newly redesigned Paris, and to distract from his ongoing Purges of eastern Europe. The Olympics were considered a major success as the nations of the world came together to compete in a variety of athletic events.

II Olympic Games - Berlin 1906
The Games were at the time considered a largely Imperial operation - the success of the Paris games four years prior encouraged the German industrial elite to play host to the games, and it was an opportunity to remodel the city to their needs.

III Olympic Games - Paris 1910
Returning again to Paris, the 1910 games continued the tradition of the past two as an exhibition of French Imperial economic might - as well as a military parade, and grand, opulent new buildings designed exc that alusively for the event, including the Paris Colosseum.

IV Olympic Games - Chicago 1914
The Chicago games were the first Olympiad hosted outside of the Empire - they were considered an achievement and a signal of America's emergence as a world power in the 20th century. The Imperial response was somewhat tepid, and many Imperial athletes refused to attend.

V Olympic Games - London 1918
England's new government put in a convincing bid to host the games, but they were a financial and athletic failure. The challenge proved too much for the fledgling government, and soon thereafter the Socialist Revolution would topple the English Republic.

VI Olympic Games - Rome 1922
The failure of the London games proved that governance of the games should return to the Empire. The Empire set the games in the Papal States, but it was Imperial businessmen who ran the games.

VII Olympic Games - Dublin 1930
After the 1926 games were cancelled in lieu of the Pacific War, Dublin played host to the 1930 games, as they had planned all along. It was a chance to showcase the growth of the Irish Republic and the French Empire lended enormous assistance to the success of the games in their ally's capital. The games were a tremendous success and helped Dublin emerge as a world city in the booming 1930's, even through the Irish War that same decade.

VIII Olympic Games - Los Angeles 1934
The Los Angeles Olympic Games were held as the second Olympiad on US soil, and helped establish Los Angeles as one of America's major cities, which it had slowly been developing into over the past few decades.

IX Olympic Games - Paris 1946
An eight-year hiatus of Olympics was caused by the violent French Civil War, and the reliance of the Games on Imperial support and funds created a lack of ability for the competition to occur. However, the new Emperor Sebastien threw together a haphazard Olympiad in 1946 in order to attempt to showcase his power and legitimacy in the Empire. It was also an opportunity to remodel and rebuild the war-torn country; in one of the Olympics' most uplifting moments, the 1946 Olympiad helped bring the ravaged Empire back together.

X Olympic Games - Kyoto 1950
Japan's emergence as a world power was never on display more than in 1950, when one of the most profitable Olympic Games in history was held. It was the first Olympiad to be broadcast on television in the United States. The Kyoto games would lead in the enormous financial success in Japan for the next twenty years.

XI Olympic Games - Addis 1954
Africa's strongest nation, and a moderate regional power in the mid-20th century, held the 1954 games. Despite enormous foreign investment, the Addis games failed to match the high expectations fostered by Kyoto four years previous. It was the first Olympiad to feature the growing international sports of soccer and baseball, and in a huge upset, the hosting Ethiopia soccer team won a massive victory over favored Argentina.