The Second French Empire and Napoleon III

The Second French  Empire  was an 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III between the Second Republic and the Third Republic in France. The period lasted from 14 January 1852 to 4 September 1870. The empire was authoritarian in its early years but enjoyed economic growth and pursued a favorable foreign policy. Liberal reforms were gradually introduced after 1859, but measures such as a low-tariff treaty with Britain alienated French businessmen, and political liberalization led to increased opposition to the government. In 1870 a new constitution establishing a quasi-parliamentary regime was widely approved, but France’s defeat at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War was followed by an uprising in Paris on Sept. 4, 1870. This resulted in the overthrow of the government, the abdication of Napoleon III, and the end of the Second Empire.

 

Napoleon III, whose full name was Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, was the first President of France from 1848 to 1852, and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 until he was deposed in absentia on 4 September 1870. He was a nephew of Napoleon I and cousin of the disputed Napoleon II. He was the first person elected to the presidency of the Second Republic in 1848, and he seized power by force in 1851 when he could not constitutionally be reelected. He later proclaimed himself Emperor of the French and founded the Second Empire, reigning until the defeat of the French Army and his capture by Prussia and its allies at the Battle of Sedan in 1870.

 

Napoleon III was a popular monarch who oversaw the modernization of the French economy and filled Paris with new boulevards and parks. He expanded the French overseas empire, made the French merchant navy the second largest in the world, and personally engaged in two wars. Napoleon III also promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made the country an agricultural exporter. He negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier Free Trade Agreement with Britain and similar agreements with France’s other European trading partners. In Italy, Napoleon III supported the efforts of Victor Emmanuel II, king of Piedmont-Sardinia, to unify Italy. The French armies defeated the Austrians at Magenta and Solferino. In exchange for his help, France was given the Savoy and the County of Nice.