France became a major power under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties in the 16th-18th centuries, and, after the overthrow of the monarchy in the French Revolution (1789), briefly dominated Europe under Napoleon. Defeated in the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1), the country suffered much destruction and loss of life in the First World War and during the Second World War was occupied by the Germans. France was a founder member of the EEC in 1957