Napoleón III (Carlos Luis Napoleón Bonaparte; 20 de abril de 1808 - 9 de enero de 1873) fue el primer presidente de Francia de 1848 a 1852, y el último monarca de Francia como segundo emperador de los franceses desde 1852 hasta que fue depuesto el 4 de septiembre de 1870.
Antes de su reinado, Napoleón III era conocido como Luis Napoleón Bonaparte . Nació en París como hijo de Luis Bonaparte , rey de Holanda (r. 1806-1810), y Hortensia de Beauharnais . Napoleón I era el tío paterno de Luis Napoleón, y uno de sus primos era el disputado Napoleón II . Luis Napoleón fue el primer y único presidente de la Segunda República Francesa , elegido en 1848. Tomó el poder por la fuerza en 1851 cuando no pudo ser reelegido constitucionalmente. Más tarde se proclamó emperador de los franceses y fundó el Segundo Imperio , reinando hasta la derrota del ejército francés y su captura por Prusia y sus aliados en la batalla de Sedán en 1870.
Napoleón III fue un monarca popular que supervisó la modernización de la economía francesa y llenó París de nuevos bulevares y parques. Expandió el imperio colonial francés , convirtió a la marina mercante francesa en la segunda más grande del mundo y participó personalmente en dos guerras. Mantuvo el liderazgo durante 22 años y fue el jefe de estado francés que reinó más tiempo desde la caída del Antiguo Régimen , aunque su reinado finalmente terminaría en el campo de batalla.
Napoleón III encargó una gran reconstrucción de París llevada a cabo por el prefecto del Sena, el barón Georges-Eugène Haussmann . Amplió y consolidó el sistema ferroviario en todo el país y modernizó el sistema bancario. Napoleón promovió la construcción del Canal de Suez y estableció la agricultura moderna, que puso fin a las hambrunas en Francia y convirtió al país en un exportador agrícola. Negoció el Tratado de Libre Comercio Cobden-Chevalier de 1860 con Gran Bretaña y acuerdos similares con otros socios comerciales europeos de Francia. Las reformas sociales incluyeron dar a los trabajadores franceses el derecho de huelga, el derecho a organizarse y el derecho de las mujeres a ser admitidas en una universidad francesa.
En política exterior, Napoleón III pretendía reafirmar la influencia francesa en Europa y en todo el mundo. En Europa, se alió con Gran Bretaña y derrotó a Rusia en la Guerra de Crimea (1853-1856). Su régimen ayudó a la unificación italiana derrotando al Imperio austríaco en la Segunda Guerra de Independencia de Italia y más tarde anexó Saboya y Niza a través del Tratado de Turín como recompensa diferida. Al mismo tiempo, sus fuerzas defendieron los Estados Pontificios contra la anexión por parte de Italia. También fue favorable a la unión de los Principados del Danubio en 1859 , que resultó en el establecimiento de los Principados Unidos de Moldavia y Valaquia . Napoleón duplicó el área del imperio colonial francés con expansiones en Asia, el Pacífico y África. Por otro lado, la intervención en México , que tenía como objetivo crear un Segundo Imperio Mexicano bajo la protección francesa, terminó en un fracaso total.
A partir de 1866, Napoleón tuvo que enfrentarse al creciente poder de Prusia, ya que su ministro presidente Otto von Bismarck buscaba la unificación alemana bajo el liderazgo prusiano. En julio de 1870, Napoleón declaró a regañadientes la guerra a Prusia tras la presión del público en general. El ejército francés fue derrotado rápidamente y Napoleón fue capturado en Sedán. Fue destronado rápidamente y se proclamó la Tercera República en París. Tras ser liberado de la custodia alemana, se exilió en Inglaterra, donde murió en 1873.
Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, más tarde conocido como Luis Napoleón y luego Napoleón III, nació en París la noche del 19 al 20 de abril de 1808. Su padre era Luis Bonaparte , hermano menor de Napoleón Bonaparte , quien lo nombró rey de Holanda desde 1806 hasta 1810. Su madre era Hortense de Beauharnais , hija única de la esposa de Napoleón, Josefina, de su primer matrimonio con Alexandre de Beauharnais . Fue el primer príncipe Bonaparte nacido después de la proclamación del imperio . [1]
Como emperatriz, Josefina había propuesto el matrimonio de Luis y Hortensia como una forma de producir un heredero para el Emperador, quien estuvo de acuerdo, ya que Josefina era para entonces infértil. [2] Luis y Hortensia tuvieron una relación difícil y solo vivieron juntos por breves períodos. Su primer hijo, Napoleón Carlos Bonaparte , murió en 1807 y, aunque separados y padres de un segundo hijo sano, Napoleón Luis , decidieron tener un tercer hijo. Reanudaron su matrimonio por un breve tiempo en Toulouse a partir del 12 de agosto de 1807 y Luis Napoleón nació prematuramente, (al menos) tres semanas antes de los nueve meses. Se sabía que Hortensia tenía amantes y los enemigos de Luis Napoleón, incluido Víctor Hugo , difundieron el rumor de que era hijo de un hombre diferente, pero la mayoría de los historiadores coinciden hoy en que era el hijo legítimo de Luis Bonaparte. [3] [4] [5]
Luis Napoleón fue bautizado en el palacio de Fontainebleau el 5 de noviembre de 1810, con el emperador Napoleón como su padrino y la emperatriz María Luisa como su madrina. Su padre se mantuvo alejado, una vez más separado de Hortensia. A la edad de siete años, Luis Napoleón visitó a su tío en el Palacio de las Tullerías en París. Napoleón lo acercó a la ventana para que viera a los soldados desfilando en la Place du Carrousel de abajo. Luis Napoleón vio por última vez a su tío con la familia en el Château de Malmaison , poco antes de que Napoleón partiera hacia la Batalla de Waterloo . [6]
Todos los miembros de la dinastía Bonaparte se vieron obligados a exiliarse tras la derrota de Napoleón en la batalla de Waterloo y la restauración borbónica de la monarquía en Francia. Hortensia y Luis Napoleón se mudaron de Aix a Berna , a Baden y, finalmente, a una casa junto al lago en Arenenberg, en el cantón suizo de Turgovia . Recibió parte de su educación en Alemania, en la escuela secundaria de Augsburgo , Baviera . Como resultado, durante el resto de su vida, su francés tuvo un ligero pero notable acento alemán. Su tutor en casa fue Philippe Le Bas , un republicano ardiente e hijo de un revolucionario y amigo cercano de Robespierre . Le Bas le enseñó historia francesa y política radical. [7]
Cuando Luis Napoleón tenía 15 años, su madre Hortense se trasladó a Roma , donde los Bonaparte tenían una villa. Pasó su tiempo aprendiendo italiano , explorando las ruinas antiguas y aprendiendo las artes de la seducción y las aventuras románticas, que utilizó a menudo en su vida posterior. Se hizo amigo del embajador francés, François-René, vizconde de Chateaubriand , el padre del romanticismo en la literatura francesa , con quien permaneció en contacto durante muchos años. Se reencontró con su hermano mayor Napoléon-Louis; juntos se involucraron con los Carbonari , sociedades revolucionarias secretas que luchaban contra la dominación de Austria en el norte de Italia. En la primavera de 1831, cuando Luis Napoleón tenía 23 años, los gobiernos austriaco y papal lanzaron una ofensiva contra los Carbonari. Los dos hermanos, buscados por la policía, se vieron obligados a huir. Durante su huida, Napoléon-Louis contrajo sarampión . Murió en los brazos de su hermano el 17 de marzo de 1831. [8] Hortense se unió a Luis Napoleón y juntos evadieron a la policía y al ejército austríaco y finalmente llegaron a la frontera francesa. [9]
Hortensia y Luis Napoleón viajaron de incógnito a París, donde el antiguo régimen del rey Carlos X acababa de caer y había sido reemplazado por el régimen más liberal de Luis Felipe I , el único monarca de la Monarquía de Julio . Llegaron a París el 23 de abril de 1831 y se instalaron bajo el nombre de "Hamilton" en el Hotel du Holland en la Place Vendôme . Hortensia escribió una apelación al rey, pidiendo quedarse en Francia, y Luis Napoleón se ofreció como voluntario como soldado raso en el ejército francés . El nuevo rey aceptó reunirse en secreto con Hortensia; Luis Napoleón tenía fiebre y no se unió a ellos. El rey finalmente aceptó que Hortensia y Luis Napoleón pudieran quedarse en París siempre que su estadía fuera breve y de incógnito. A Luis Napoleón se le dijo que podía unirse al ejército francés si simplemente cambiaba su nombre, algo que indignado se negó a hacer. Hortensia y Luis Napoleón permanecieron en París hasta el 5 de mayo, el décimo aniversario de la muerte de Napoleón. La presencia de Hortensia y Luis Napoleón en el hotel se hizo conocida y se realizó una manifestación pública de duelo por el Emperador en la Place Vendôme, frente a su hotel. Ese mismo día, Hortensia y Luis Napoleón recibieron la orden de abandonar París. Durante su breve estancia en París, Luis Napoleón se había convencido de que el sentimiento bonapartista aún era fuerte entre el pueblo francés y el ejército. [1] Fueron brevemente a Gran Bretaña y luego volvieron al exilio en Suiza. [10]
Desde la caída de Napoleón en 1815, en Francia existía un movimiento bonapartista que aspiraba a que un Bonaparte volviera al trono. Según la ley de sucesión establecida por Napoleón I, el derecho pasó primero a su propio hijo, declarado «rey de Roma» al nacer por su padre. Este heredero, conocido por los bonapartistas como Napoleón II , vivía prácticamente en prisión en la corte de Viena bajo el título de duque de Reichstadt. El siguiente en la sucesión era el tío mayor de Luis Napoleón, José Bonaparte , seguido por Luis Bonaparte, pero ni José ni Luis tenían interés en volver a entrar en la vida pública. Cuando el duque de Reichstadt murió en 1832, Luis Napoleón se convirtió en el heredero de facto de la dinastía y en el líder de la causa bonapartista. [11]
En el exilio con su madre en Suiza, Luis Napoleón se alistó en el ejército suizo , se entrenó para convertirse en oficial y escribió un manual de artillería (su tío Napoleón se había hecho famoso como oficial de artillería). Luis Napoleón también comenzó a escribir sobre su filosofía política, ya que, como sugirió el historiador inglés de principios del siglo XX HAL Fisher , "el programa del Imperio no era la improvisación de un aventurero vulgar", sino el resultado de una profunda reflexión sobre la filosofía política napoleónica y sobre cómo ajustarla a los cambiantes escenarios nacionales e internacionales. [12] Ya en 1832 presentó una reconciliación entre el bonapartismo y el republicanismo a través del principio de la soberanía popular. Creía que existía un emperador fuerte para ejecutar la voluntad del pueblo. [1] En 1833, a los 25 años, publicó sus Rêveries politiques o «sueños políticos», a los que siguió en 1834 Considérations politiques et militaires sur la Suisse (Consideraciones políticas y militares sobre Suiza), y en 1839 Les Idées napoléoniennes (Ideas napoleónicas), un compendio de sus ideas políticas que se publicó en tres ediciones y se tradujo a seis idiomas. Basó su doctrina en dos ideas: el sufragio universal y la primacía del interés nacional. Abogó por una «monarquía que procure las ventajas de la República sin los inconvenientes», un régimen «fuerte sin despotismo, libre sin anarquía, independiente sin conquista». [13] También pretendía construir una comunidad europea de naciones más amplia. [1]
«Creo», escribió Luis Napoleón, «que de vez en cuando se crean hombres a los que llamo voluntarios de la providencia, en cuyas manos está puesto el destino de sus países. Creo que soy uno de esos hombres. Si me equivoco, puedo perecer inútilmente. Si tengo razón, entonces la providencia me pondrá en posición de cumplir mi misión». [14] Había visto el entusiasmo popular por Napoleón Bonaparte cuando estaba en París, y estaba convencido de que, si marchaba a París, como lo había hecho Napoleón Bonaparte en 1815 durante los Cien Días , Francia se levantaría y se uniría a él. Comenzó a planear un golpe de estado contra el rey Luis Felipe .
Luis Napoleón planeó que su levantamiento comenzara en Estrasburgo . El coronel de un regimiento se unió a la causa. El 29 de octubre de 1836, Luis Napoleón llegó a Estrasburgo, con el uniforme de oficial de artillería; reunió al regimiento a su lado. La prefectura fue tomada y el prefecto arrestado. Desafortunadamente para Luis Napoleón, el general que comandaba la guarnición escapó y llamó a un regimiento leal, que rodeó a los amotinados. Los amotinados se rindieron y Luis Napoleón huyó de regreso a Suiza. [15]
Luis Napoleón fue muy popular en el exilio y su popularidad en Francia creció continuamente después de su fallido golpe de Estado en 1836, ya que lo estableció como heredero de la leyenda de Bonaparte y aumentó su publicidad. [1]
El rey Luis Felipe había exigido al gobierno suizo que devolviera a Luis Napoleón a Francia, pero los suizos señalaron que era un soldado y ciudadano suizo y se negaron a entregarlo. El rey respondió enviando un ejército a la frontera suiza. Luis Napoleón agradeció a sus anfitriones suizos y abandonó voluntariamente el país. Los demás amotinados fueron llevados a juicio en Alsacia y todos fueron absueltos.
Luis Napoleón viajó primero a Londres, luego a Brasil y luego a la ciudad de Nueva York. Allí conoció a la élite de la sociedad neoyorquina y al escritor Washington Irving . Mientras viajaba para conocer más de los Estados Unidos, recibió la noticia de que su madre estaba muy enferma. Se apresuró a regresar a Suiza lo más rápido que pudo. Llegó a Arenenberg a tiempo para estar con su madre el 5 de agosto de 1837, cuando ella murió. Finalmente fue enterrada en Rueil , en Francia, junto a su madre, el 11 de enero de 1838, pero Luis Napoleón no pudo asistir, porque no se le permitió ingresar a Francia. [16]
Luis Napoleón regresó a Londres para un nuevo período de exilio en octubre de 1838. Había heredado una gran fortuna de su madre y alquiló una casa con 17 sirvientes y varios de sus viejos amigos y compañeros de conspiración. Fue recibido por la sociedad londinense y conoció a los líderes políticos y científicos de la época, incluidos Benjamin Disraeli y Michael Faraday . También realizó una considerable investigación sobre la economía de Gran Bretaña. Paseó por Hyde Park , que más tarde utilizó como modelo cuando creó el Bois de Boulogne en París. [17] Pasó el invierno de 1838-39 en Royal Leamington Spa en Warwickshire . [18]
Viviendo en la comodidad de Londres, no había renunciado al sueño de regresar a Francia para tomar el poder. En el verano de 1840 compró armas y uniformes e hizo imprimir proclamas, reunió un contingente de unos sesenta hombres armados, alquiló un barco llamado Edinburgh -Castle y el 6 de agosto de 1840, cruzó el Canal de la Mancha hasta el puerto de Boulogne . El intento de golpe se convirtió en un fiasco aún mayor que el motín de Estrasburgo. Los amotinados fueron detenidos por los agentes de aduanas, los soldados de la guarnición se negaron a unirse, los amotinados fueron rodeados en la playa, uno fue asesinado y los demás arrestados. Tanto la prensa británica como la francesa ridiculizaron a Luis Napoleón y su complot. El periódico Le Journal des Débats escribió: "Esto supera la comedia. Uno no mata a los locos, simplemente los encierra". Fue llevado a juicio, donde, a pesar de una elocuente defensa de su causa, fue sentenciado a cadena perpetua en la fortaleza de Ham , en el departamento de Somme , en el norte de Francia. [19] [20]
El registro de la fortaleza de Ham del 7 de octubre de 1840 contenía una descripción concisa del nuevo prisionero: «Edad: treinta y dos años. Altura: un metro sesenta y seis. Cabello y cejas: castaños. Ojos: grises y pequeños. Nariz: grande. Boca: normal. Barba: morena. Bigote: rubio. Barbilla: puntiaguda. Cara: ovalada. Tez: pálida. Cabeza: hundida en los hombros y hombros anchos. Espalda: encorvada. Labios: gruesos». [21] Tenía una amante llamada Eléonore Vergeot , una joven de la ciudad de Ham, que dio a luz a dos de sus hijos. [22]
Durante su estancia en prisión, Luis Napoleón escribió poemas, ensayos políticos y artículos sobre diversos temas. Colaboró con artículos en periódicos y revistas regionales de ciudades de toda Francia, llegando a ser un escritor muy conocido. Su libro más famoso fue L'extinction du pauperisme (1844), un estudio de las causas de la pobreza en la clase obrera industrial francesa, con propuestas para eliminarla. Su conclusión: "La clase obrera no tiene nada, es necesario darles propiedad. No tienen otra riqueza que su propio trabajo, es necesario darles trabajo que beneficie a todos... no tienen organización ni conexiones, no tienen derechos ni futuro; es necesario darles derechos y un futuro y criarlos ante sus propios ojos por medio de la asociación, la educación y la disciplina". Propuso varias ideas prácticas para crear un sistema bancario y de ahorro que proporcionara crédito a la clase obrera y para establecer colonias agrícolas similares a los kibutz que más tarde se fundarían en Israel. [23] Este libro fue ampliamente reimpreso y circulado en Francia, y jugó un papel importante en su futuro éxito electoral.
Luis Napoleón estaba ocupado en prisión, pero también descontento e impaciente. Era consciente de que la popularidad de su tío aumentaba constantemente en Francia; Napoleón I fue el tema de poemas heroicos, libros y obras de teatro. Grandes multitudes se habían reunido en París el 15 de diciembre de 1840 cuando los restos de Napoleón fueron devueltos con gran ceremonia a París y entregados al rey Luis Felipe, mientras que Luis Napoleón solo pudo leer sobre ello en prisión. El 25 de mayo de 1846, con la ayuda de su médico y otros amigos en el exterior, se disfrazó de trabajador que transportaba madera y salió caminando de la prisión. Sus enemigos más tarde lo llamaron burlonamente "Badinguet", el nombre del trabajador cuya identidad había asumido. Un carruaje lo esperaba para llevarlo a la costa y luego en barco a Inglaterra. Un mes después de su fuga, su padre Luis murió, convirtiendo a Carlos Napoleón en el claro heredero de la dinastía Bonaparte. [24]
Luis Napoleón recuperó rápidamente su lugar en la sociedad británica. Vivió en King Street, St James's , Londres, iba al teatro y cazaba, renovó su amistad con Benjamin Disraeli y conoció a Charles Dickens . Volvió a sus estudios en el Museo Británico . Tuvo un romance con la actriz Rachel , la actriz francesa más famosa de la época, durante sus viajes a Gran Bretaña. Más importante para su futura carrera, tuvo un romance con la rica heredera Harriet Howard (1823-1865). Se conocieron en 1846, poco después de su regreso a Gran Bretaña. Comenzaron a vivir juntos, ella acogió a sus dos hijos ilegítimos y los crió con su propio hijo, y proporcionó financiación para sus planes políticos para que, cuando llegara el momento, pudiera regresar a Francia. [25]
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En febrero de 1848, Luis Napoleón se enteró de que había estallado la Revolución Francesa de 1848 ; Luis Felipe, ante la oposición de su gobierno y su ejército, abdicó. Creyendo que finalmente había llegado su hora, partió hacia París el 27 de febrero, abandonando Inglaterra el mismo día en que Luis Felipe abandonaba Francia para exiliarse en Inglaterra. Cuando llegó a París, se encontró con que se había declarado la Segunda República, dirigida por un Gobierno Provisional encabezado por una Comisión dirigida por Alphonse de Lamartine , y que diferentes facciones de republicanos, desde los conservadores hasta los de extrema izquierda, competían por el poder. Escribió a Lamartine anunciándole su llegada, diciendo que "no tenía otra ambición que la de servir a mi país". Lamartine respondió cortésmente pero con firmeza, pidiendo a Luis Napoleón que abandonara París "hasta que la ciudad estuviera más tranquila, y no antes de las elecciones para la Asamblea Nacional ". Sus consejeros más cercanos le instaron a quedarse e intentar tomar el poder, pero él quería mostrar su prudencia y lealtad a la República; mientras sus consejeros permanecieron en París, regresó a Londres el 2 de marzo de 1848 y observó los acontecimientos desde allí. [26]
Luis Napoleón no se presentó a las primeras elecciones para la Asamblea Nacional , celebradas en abril de 1848, pero sí lo hicieron tres miembros de la familia Bonaparte, Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte , Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte y Lucien Murat ; el nombre Bonaparte aún tenía poder político. En las siguientes elecciones, celebradas el 4 de junio, en las que los candidatos podían presentarse en varios departamentos, fue elegido en cuatro departamentos diferentes; en París, estuvo entre los cinco candidatos principales, justo detrás del líder conservador Adolphe Thiers y Victor Hugo . Sus seguidores eran en su mayoría de izquierdas, del campesinado y de la clase trabajadora. Su panfleto sobre «La extinción del pauperismo» circuló ampliamente en París, y su nombre fue aclamado junto con los de los candidatos socialistas Barbès y Louis Blanc . [27]
Los dirigentes republicanos moderados del gobierno provisional, Lamartine y Cavaignac , consideraron que arrestar a Luis Napoleón era un peligroso revolucionario, pero una vez más éste los superó en maniobras. Escribió al presidente del gobierno provisional: «Creo que debo esperar a regresar al corazón de mi país, para que mi presencia en Francia no sirva de pretexto a los enemigos de la República». [28]
En junio de 1848, estalló en París el Levantamiento de las Jornadas de Junio , dirigido por la extrema izquierda, contra la mayoría conservadora de la Asamblea Nacional. Cientos de barricadas aparecieron en los barrios obreros. El general Louis-Eugène Cavaignac , líder del ejército, primero retiró a sus soldados de París para permitir que los insurgentes desplegaran sus barricadas, y luego regresó con una fuerza abrumadora para aplastar el levantamiento; del 24 al 26 de junio, hubo batallas en las calles de los barrios obreros de París. Se estima que cinco mil insurgentes murieron en las barricadas, quince mil fueron arrestados y cuatro mil deportados. [29]
La ausencia de Luis Napoleón en París significó que no estuvo relacionado ni con el levantamiento ni con la brutal represión que siguió. Todavía estaba en Londres el 17 y 18 de septiembre, cuando se celebraron las elecciones para la Asamblea Nacional, pero fue candidato en trece departamentos. Fue elegido en cinco de ellos; en París, recibió 110.000 votos de los 247.000 emitidos, la mayor cantidad de votos de cualquier candidato. Regresó a París el 24 de septiembre y esta vez ocupó su lugar en la Asamblea Nacional. En siete meses, había pasado de un exilio político en Londres a un lugar muy visible en la Asamblea Nacional, mientras el gobierno terminaba de redactar la nueva constitución y se preparaba para la primera elección de un presidente de la República Francesa. [30]
La nueva constitución de la Segunda República , redactada por una comisión que incluía a Alexis de Tocqueville , exigía un ejecutivo fuerte y un presidente elegido por voto popular a través del sufragio universal masculino, en lugar de ser elegido por la Asamblea Nacional. [31] Las elecciones estaban programadas para el 10 y 11 de diciembre de 1848. Luis Napoleón anunció rápidamente su candidatura. Había otros cuatro candidatos para el puesto: el general Cavaignac, que había liderado la represión de los levantamientos de junio en París; Lamartine, el poeta-filósofo y líder del gobierno provisional; Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin , el líder de los socialistas; y Raspail , el líder del ala extrema izquierda de los socialistas. [32]
Luis Napoleón estableció su cuartel general de campaña y su residencia en el Hôtel du Rhin, en la Place Vendôme . Iba acompañado de su compañera, Harriet Howard, que le concedió un importante préstamo para ayudarle a financiar su campaña. Rara vez asistía a las sesiones de la Asamblea Nacional y rara vez votaba. No era un orador dotado; hablaba lentamente, en un tono monótono, con un ligero acento alemán debido a su educación suiza. Sus oponentes a veces lo ridiculizaban, uno de ellos comparándolo con "un pavo que se cree un águila". [33]
La campaña de Luis Napoleón atraía tanto a la izquierda como a la derecha. Su manifiesto electoral proclamaba su apoyo a "la religión, la familia, la propiedad, la base eterna de todo orden social", pero también anunciaba su intención de "dar trabajo a los desocupados; velar por la vejez de los trabajadores; introducir en las leyes industriales aquellas mejoras que no arruinen a los ricos, sino que promuevan el bienestar de cada uno y la prosperidad de todos". [34]
Los agentes de campaña de Luis Napoleón, muchos de ellos veteranos del ejército de Napoleón Bonaparte, consiguieron apoyo para él en todo el país. Luis Napoleón obtuvo el apoyo a regañadientes del líder conservador Adolphe Thiers , que creía que podría ser el más fácil de controlar; Thiers lo llamó "de todos los candidatos, el menos malo". [35] Obtuvo el respaldo de L'Evenement , el periódico de Victor Hugo, que declaró: "Tenemos confianza en él; tiene un gran nombre". [36] Su principal oponente, el general Cavaignac, esperaba que Luis Napoleón llegara primero, pero que recibiría menos del cincuenta por ciento de los votos, lo que significaría que la elección iría a la Asamblea Nacional, donde Cavaignac estaba seguro de ganar.
Las elecciones se celebraron los días 10 y 11 de diciembre. Los resultados se anunciaron el 20 de diciembre. Se esperaba ampliamente que Luis Napoleón ganara, pero la magnitud de su victoria sorprendió a casi todo el mundo. Obtuvo 5.572.834 votos, o el 74,2 por ciento de los votos emitidos, en comparación con los 1.469.156 de Cavaignac. El socialista Ledru-Rollin recibió 376.834; el candidato de extrema izquierda Raspail 37.106, y el poeta Lamartine sólo 17.000 votos. Luis Napoleón ganó el apoyo de todos los segmentos de la población: los campesinos descontentos con el aumento de los precios y los altos impuestos; los trabajadores desempleados; los pequeños empresarios que querían prosperidad y orden; e intelectuales como Víctor Hugo. Obtuvo los votos del 55,6 por ciento de todos los votantes registrados y ganó en todos los departamentos de Francia excepto cuatro. [37]
A finales de diciembre de 1848, Luis Napoleón trasladó su residencia al Palacio del Elíseo y colgó inmediatamente un retrato de su madre en el tocador y un retrato de Napoleón I, con su ropa de coronación, en el gran salón. Adolphe Thiers le recomendó que vistiera ropa de «sencillez democrática», pero, siguiendo el modelo de su tío, eligió en cambio el uniforme de general en jefe de la Guardia Nacional y eligió el título de «príncipe presidente». [38]
Luis Napoleón también hizo su primera incursión en la política exterior, en Italia, donde siendo joven se había unido al levantamiento patriótico contra los austriacos. El gobierno anterior había enviado una fuerza expedicionaria, que había sido encargada y financiada por la Asamblea Nacional para apoyar a las fuerzas republicanas en Italia contra los austriacos y contra el Papa. En cambio, la fuerza recibió la orden secreta de hacer lo contrario, es decir, entrar en Roma para ayudar a restaurar la autoridad temporal del Papa Pío IX , que había sido derrocado por los republicanos italianos, incluidos Mazzini y Garibaldi . Las tropas francesas fueron atacadas por los soldados de Garibaldi. El príncipe presidente, sin consultar a sus ministros, ordenó a sus soldados que lucharan si era necesario en apoyo del Papa. Esto fue muy popular entre los católicos franceses, pero enfureció a los republicanos, que apoyaban a la República romana . [38] Para complacer a los republicanos radicales, le pidió al Papa que introdujera reformas liberales y el Código Napoleónico en los Estados Pontificios . Para ganar el apoyo de los católicos, aprobó la Ley Falloux en 1851, que restableció un papel más importante para la Iglesia católica en el sistema educativo francés. [39]
Las elecciones para la Asamblea Nacional se celebraron el 13 y 14 de mayo de 1849 , sólo unos meses después de que Luis Napoleón se convirtiera en presidente, y fueron ganadas en gran medida por una coalición de republicanos conservadores —a los que los católicos y monárquicos llamaban «el Partido del Orden »— liderados por Thiers. Los socialistas y republicanos «rojos», liderados por Ledru-Rollin y Raspail, también obtuvieron buenos resultados, ganando doscientos escaños. Los republicanos moderados, en el medio, obtuvieron muy malos resultados, obteniendo sólo 70 u 80 escaños. El Partido del Orden tenía una clara mayoría, suficiente para bloquear cualquier iniciativa de Luis Napoleón. [40]
El 11 de junio de 1849, los socialistas y los republicanos radicales intentaron tomar el poder. Ledru-Rollin , desde su sede en el Conservatorio de Artes y Oficios , declaró que Luis Napoleón ya no era presidente y llamó a un levantamiento general. Aparecieron algunas barricadas en los barrios obreros de París. Luis Napoleón actuó con rapidez y el levantamiento duró poco. París fue declarado en estado de sitio, la sede del levantamiento fue rodeada y los líderes arrestados. Ledru-Rollin huyó a Inglaterra, Raspail fue arrestado y enviado a prisión, los clubes republicanos fueron cerrados y sus periódicos clausurados.
La Asamblea Nacional, ya sin los republicanos de izquierda y decidida a mantenerlos fuera para siempre, propuso una nueva ley electoral que imponía restricciones al sufragio universal masculino, imponiendo un requisito de residencia de tres años. Esta nueva ley excluía a 3,5 de los 9 millones de votantes franceses, los votantes que el líder del Partido del Orden, Adolphe Thiers, llamó despectivamente "la vil multitud". [41] Esta nueva ley electoral fue aprobada en mayo de 1850 por una mayoría de 433 a 241, poniendo a la Asamblea Nacional en una trayectoria de colisión directa con el Príncipe-Presidente. [42] Luis Napoleón rompió con la Asamblea y los ministros conservadores que se oponían a sus proyectos en favor de los desposeídos. Se aseguró el apoyo del ejército, recorrió el país haciendo discursos populistas que condenaban a la Asamblea y se presentó como el protector del sufragio universal masculino. Exigió que se cambiara la ley, pero su propuesta fue derrotada en la Asamblea por una votación de 355 a 348. [43]
Según la Constitución de 1848, Luis Napoleón debía dimitir al final de su mandato. Buscó una enmienda constitucional que le permitiera sucederse a sí mismo, argumentando que cuatro años no eran suficientes para implementar plenamente su programa político y económico. Recorrió el país y obtuvo el apoyo de muchos de los gobiernos regionales y de muchos miembros de la Asamblea. La votación en julio de 1851 fue de 446 a 278 a favor de cambiar la ley y permitirle presentarse de nuevo, pero esto no alcanzó la mayoría de dos tercios necesaria para enmendar la constitución. [44]
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Luis Napoleón creía que contaba con el apoyo del pueblo y optó por conservar el poder por otros medios. Su medio hermano Carlos, duque de Morny , y algunos asesores cercanos comenzaron a organizar discretamente un golpe de Estado . Entre ellos se encontraban el ministro de guerra Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud y oficiales del ejército francés en el norte de África para proporcionar apoyo militar al golpe. En la noche del 1 al 2 de diciembre, los soldados de Saint Arnaud ocuparon silenciosamente la imprenta nacional, el Palacio Borbón , las oficinas de los periódicos y los puntos estratégicos de la ciudad. Por la mañana, los parisinos encontraron carteles por toda la ciudad que anunciaban la disolución de la Asamblea Nacional, la restauración del sufragio universal, nuevas elecciones y el estado de sitio en París y los departamentos circundantes. Dieciséis miembros de la Asamblea Nacional fueron arrestados en sus casas. Cuando unos 220 diputados de la derecha moderada se reunieron en el ayuntamiento del distrito 10 , también fueron arrestados. [45] El 3 de diciembre, el escritor Victor Hugo y algunos otros republicanos intentaron organizar una oposición al golpe. Aparecieron algunas barricadas y unos 1.000 insurgentes salieron a las calles, pero el ejército avanzó con fuerza con 30.000 soldados y los levantamientos fueron rápidamente aplastados, con la muerte de unos 300 a 400 opositores al golpe. [46] También hubo pequeños levantamientos en las ciudades republicanas rojas más militantes del sur y el centro de Francia, pero todos fueron sofocados el 10 de diciembre. [47]
Luis Napoleón siguió al autogolpe de Estado un período de represión de sus oponentes, dirigida principalmente contra los republicanos rojos. Cerca de 26.000 personas fueron arrestadas, incluidas 4.000 sólo en París. Los 239 reclusos que fueron juzgados con mayor severidad fueron enviados a la colonia penal de Cayena . [48] 9.530 seguidores fueron enviados a la Argelia francesa , 1.500 fueron expulsados de Francia y otros 3.000 fueron obligados a residir fuera de sus hogares. [49] [ página requerida ] Poco después, una comisión de revisión liberó a 3.500 de los condenados. En 1859, los 1.800 prisioneros y exiliados restantes fueron amnistiados, con la excepción del líder republicano Ledru-Rollin, que fue liberado de prisión pero se le exigió que abandonara el país. [48]
El 17 de febrero de 1852 se decretó una estricta censura de prensa. No se podía publicar ningún periódico que tratara cuestiones políticas o sociales sin permiso del gobierno, se aumentaron las multas y se amplió la lista de infracciones de prensa. Después de tres advertencias, un periódico o revista podía ser suspendido o incluso clausurado definitivamente. [50]
Luis Napoleón quería demostrar que su nuevo gobierno contaba con un amplio mandato popular, por lo que el 20 y 21 de diciembre se celebró un plebiscito nacional para preguntar si los votantes estaban de acuerdo con el golpe. Los alcaldes de muchas regiones amenazaron con publicar los nombres de los electores que se negaran a votar. Cuando se les preguntó si estaban de acuerdo con el golpe, 7.439.216 votantes dijeron que sí, 641.737 votaron que no y 1,7 millones se abstuvieron. [51] La imparcialidad y legalidad del referéndum fue inmediatamente cuestionada por los críticos de Luis Napoleón, [52] pero Luis Napoleón estaba convencido de que se le había dado un mandato público para gobernar.
Tras los resultados, muchos cuestionaron la validez de un resultado tan inverosímilmente desigual. [52] Uno de esos críticos fue Víctor Hugo, que en un principio había apoyado a Luis Napoleón, pero que se había enfurecido por el golpe de Estado y partió hacia Bruselas el 11 de diciembre de 1851. Se convirtió en el crítico más acérrimo de Luis Napoleón, rechazó la amnistía que se le ofreció y no regresó a Francia durante veinte años. [53]
El referéndum de 1851 dio a Luis Napoleón el mandato de enmendar la constitución. El trabajo sobre el nuevo documento comenzó en 1852. Fue preparado oficialmente por un comité de ochenta expertos, pero en realidad fue redactado por un pequeño grupo del círculo íntimo del Príncipe-Presidente. Bajo la nueva constitución, Luis Napoleón fue reelegido automáticamente como presidente. Según el Artículo Dos, el presidente ahora podía cumplir un número ilimitado de mandatos de 10 años. Se le dio la autoridad absoluta para declarar la guerra, firmar tratados, formar alianzas e iniciar leyes. La Constitución restableció el sufragio universal masculino y también mantuvo una Asamblea Nacional, aunque una con autoridad reducida. [54]
El gobierno de Luis Napoleón impuso nuevas medidas autoritarias para controlar la disidencia y reducir el poder de la oposición. Una de sus primeras medidas fue ajustar cuentas con su antiguo enemigo, el rey Luis Felipe, que lo había enviado a prisión de por vida y que había muerto en 1850. Un decreto del 23 de enero de 1852 prohibía a la familia del difunto rey poseer propiedades en Francia y anulaba la herencia que había dejado a sus hijos antes de convertirse en rey.
La Guardia Nacional, cuyos miembros habían participado en ocasiones en manifestaciones contra el gobierno, fue reorganizada y utilizada en gran medida sólo en desfiles. Los funcionarios del gobierno debían llevar uniforme en las ocasiones oficiales formales. El Ministro de Educación recibió el poder de despedir a los profesores de las universidades y revisar el contenido de sus cursos. A los estudiantes de las universidades se les prohibió llevar barba, considerada un símbolo del republicanismo. [55]
El 29 de febrero de 1852 se celebraron elecciones para una nueva Asamblea Nacional, y todos los recursos del gobierno se emplearon en favor de los candidatos que apoyaban al Príncipe-Presidente. De los ocho millones de votantes habilitados, 5.200.000 votos fueron para los candidatos oficiales y 800.000 para los candidatos de la oposición. Alrededor de un tercio de los votantes habilitados se abstuvieron. La nueva Asamblea incluyó a un pequeño número de opositores a Luis Napoleón, entre ellos 17 monárquicos, 18 conservadores, dos demócratas liberales, tres republicanos y 72 independientes. [55]
A pesar de que ahora ostentaba todo el poder de gobierno en la nación, Luis Napoleón no se conformaba con ser un presidente autoritario. Apenas se había secado la tinta de la nueva y severamente autoritaria constitución cuando se propuso proclamarse emperador. Tras la elección, el príncipe-presidente emprendió una gira nacional triunfal. En Marsella , colocó la primera piedra de una nueva catedral , una nueva bolsa de valores y una cámara de comercio. En Burdeos , el 9 de octubre de 1852, pronunció su discurso principal:
Algunos dicen que el Imperio es la guerra. Yo digo que el Imperio es la paz. Como el Emperador, tengo muchas conquistas que hacer... Como él, quiero... arrastrar a la corriente del gran río popular esas corrientes laterales hostiles que se pierden sin provecho para nadie. Tenemos inmensos territorios sin arar que cultivar; caminos que abrir; puertos que cavar; ríos que hacer navegables; canales que terminar, una red ferroviaria que completar. Tenemos, frente a Marsella, un vasto reino que asimilar a Francia. Tenemos todos los grandes puertos del Oeste que comunicar con el continente americano por las comunicaciones modernas, de las que todavía carecemos. Tenemos ruinas que reparar, falsos dioses que derribar, verdades que necesitamos hacer triunfar. Así es como veo el Imperio, si el Imperio se restablece. Éstas son las conquistas que estoy considerando, y ustedes, a mi alrededor, que, como yo, quieren el bien de nuestro país, son mis soldados. [56]
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Drouyn de Lhuys , dos veces ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, comentó más tarde que "el Emperador tiene deseos inmensos y capacidades limitadas. Quiere hacer cosas extraordinarias pero sólo es capaz de extravagancias". [57]
Cuando Luis Napoleón regresó a París, la ciudad estaba decorada con grandes arcos, con pancartas que proclamaban: «A Napoleón III, emperador». En respuesta a las peticiones inspiradas oficialmente para la devolución del imperio, el Senado programó otro referéndum para el 21 y 22 de noviembre de 1852 sobre si nombrar emperador a Napoleón. Después de un inverosímil 97 por ciento de votos a favor (7.824.129 votos a favor y 253.159 en contra, con dos millones de abstenciones), el 2 de diciembre de 1852, exactamente un año después del golpe, la Segunda República fue oficialmente terminada, reemplazada por el Segundo Imperio Francés . [58] El príncipe-presidente Luis Napoleón Bonaparte se convirtió en Napoleón III, emperador de los franceses . Su nombre real trata a Napoleón II , que nunca llegó a gobernar, como un verdadero emperador (había sido reconocido brevemente como emperador del 22 de junio al 7 de julio de 1815). La constitución de 1852 se mantuvo; Concentró tanto poder en manos de Napoleón que el único cambio sustancial fue reemplazar la palabra "presidente" por la palabra "emperador".
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Una de las primeras prioridades de Napoleón III fue la modernización de la economía francesa, que se había quedado muy por detrás de la del Reino Unido y algunos de los estados alemanes. La economía política había sido durante mucho tiempo una pasión del Emperador. Durante su estancia en Gran Bretaña, había visitado fábricas y patios de maniobras; en prisión, había estudiado y escrito sobre la industria azucarera y las políticas para reducir la pobreza. Quería que el gobierno desempeñara un papel activo, no pasivo, en la economía. En 1839, había escrito: "El gobierno no es un mal necesario, como afirman algunas personas; es, en cambio, el motor benévolo de todo el organismo social". [59] No defendía que el gobierno se involucrara directamente en la industria. En cambio, el gobierno asumió un papel muy activo en la construcción de la infraestructura para el crecimiento económico; estimulando el mercado de valores y los bancos de inversión para proporcionar crédito; construyendo ferrocarriles, puertos, canales y carreteras; y proporcionando capacitación y educación. También abrió los mercados franceses a los bienes extranjeros, como las vías ferroviarias de Inglaterra, obligando a la industria francesa a ser más eficiente y más competitiva. [60]
El período fue favorable para la expansión industrial. Las fiebres del oro en California y Australia aumentaron la oferta monetaria europea. En los primeros años del Imperio, la economía también se benefició de la mayoría de edad de los nacidos durante el baby boom del período de la Restauración . [61] El aumento constante de los precios causado por el aumento de la oferta monetaria alentó la promoción de las empresas y la inversión de capital.
A partir de 1852, Napoleón fomentó la creación de nuevos bancos, como el Crédit Mobilier , que vendía acciones al público y otorgaba préstamos tanto a la industria privada como al gobierno. El Crédit Lyonnais se fundó en 1863 y la Société Générale en 1864. Estos bancos proporcionaron financiación para los principales proyectos de Napoleón III, desde el ferrocarril y los canales hasta la reconstrucción de París.
En 1851, Francia tenía sólo 3.500 kilómetros de vías férreas, en comparación con los 10.000 kilómetros de Inglaterra y los 800 kilómetros de Bélgica , un país con una vigésima parte del tamaño de Francia. A los pocos días del golpe de Estado de 1851, el ministro de Obras Públicas de Napoleón lanzó un proyecto para construir una línea ferroviaria alrededor de París , conectando las diferentes líneas independientes que llegaban a París desde todo el país. El gobierno proporcionó garantías para préstamos para construir nuevas líneas e instó a las compañías ferroviarias a consolidarse. Había 18 compañías ferroviarias en 1848 y seis al final del Imperio. En 1870, Francia tenía 20.000 kilómetros de vías férreas conectadas con los puertos franceses y con los sistemas ferroviarios de los países vecinos que transportaban más de 100 millones de pasajeros al año y transportaban los productos de las nuevas acerías, minas y fábricas de Francia. [62]
Se crearon nuevas líneas navieras y se reconstruyeron los puertos de Marsella y Le Havre , que conectaban a Francia por mar con los Estados Unidos, América Latina, el norte de África y el Lejano Oriente. Durante el Imperio, el número de barcos de vapor se triplicó y, en 1870, Francia poseía la segunda flota marítima más grande del mundo después de Inglaterra. [63] Napoleón III respaldó el mayor proyecto marítimo de la época, la construcción del Canal de Suez entre 1859 y 1869. El proyecto del canal fue financiado por acciones de la bolsa de valores de París y dirigido por un ex diplomático francés, Ferdinand de Lesseps . Fue inaugurado por la emperatriz Eugenia con una representación de la ópera Aida de Verdi . [64]
La reconstrucción del centro de París también fomentó la expansión comercial y la innovación. El primer gran almacén, Bon Marché , abrió en París en 1852 en un edificio modesto y se expandió rápidamente, aumentando sus ingresos de 450.000 francos al año a 20 millones. Su fundador, Aristide Boucicaut , encargó un nuevo edificio de vidrio y hierro diseñado por Louis-Charles Boileau y Gustave Eiffel que abrió en 1869 y se convirtió en el modelo de los grandes almacenes modernos . Pronto aparecieron otros grandes almacenes: Au Printemps en 1865 y La Samaritaine en 1870. Pronto fueron imitados en todo el mundo. [65]
El programa de Napoleón también incluía la recuperación de tierras agrícolas y la reforestación. Uno de esos proyectos en el departamento de Gironda drenó y reforestó 10.000 kilómetros cuadrados (3.900 millas cuadradas) de páramos, creando el bosque de las Landas , el bosque de pino marítimo más grande de Europa.
Napoleón III inició su régimen lanzando una serie de enormes proyectos de obras públicas en París, contratando a decenas de miles de trabajadores para mejorar el saneamiento, el suministro de agua y la circulación del tráfico de la ciudad. Para dirigir esta tarea, nombró a un nuevo prefecto del departamento del Sena , Georges-Eugène Haussmann , y le dio poderes extraordinarios para reconstruir el centro de la ciudad. Instaló un gran mapa de París en una posición central en su despacho, y él y Haussmann planificaron el nuevo París. [66]
La población de París se había duplicado desde 1815, sin que se hubiera producido un aumento de su superficie ni un desarrollo de su estructura de calles y callejones medievales muy estrechos.
Para dar cabida a la creciente población y a aquellos que se verían obligados a abandonar el centro por la construcción de nuevos bulevares y plazas, Napoleón emitió un decreto en 1860 para anexar once comunas (municipios) en las afueras de París y aumentar el número de distritos (barrios de la ciudad) de doce a veinte. De este modo, París se amplió hasta sus límites modernos con la excepción de los dos grandes parques de la ciudad ( Bois de Boulogne y Bois de Vincennes ) que pasaron a formar parte de la capital francesa en 1920.
Durante el reinado de Napoleón III y una década después, la mayor parte de París era una enorme obra en construcción. Su ingeniero hidráulico jefe, Eugène Belgrand , construyó un nuevo acueducto para traer agua limpia desde el río Vanne en la región de Champaña , y un nuevo y enorme depósito cerca del futuro Parque Montsouris . Estas dos obras aumentaron el suministro de agua de París de 87.000 a 400.000 metros cúbicos de agua al día. [67] Cientos de kilómetros de tuberías distribuían el agua por toda la ciudad, y una segunda red, que utilizaba el agua menos limpia del Ourcq y el Sena , lavaba las calles y regaba el nuevo parque y los jardines. Reconstruyó por completo las alcantarillas de París e instaló kilómetros de tuberías para distribuir gas para miles de nuevas farolas a lo largo de las calles de París. [68] [ página necesaria ]
A partir de 1854, en el centro de la ciudad, los trabajadores de Haussmann derribaron cientos de edificios antiguos y construyeron nuevas avenidas para conectar los puntos centrales de la ciudad. Los edificios a lo largo de estas avenidas debían tener la misma altura, construirse con un estilo arquitectónico similar y estar revestidos con piedra de color crema para crear el aspecto característico de los bulevares de París.
El emperador construyó dos nuevas estaciones de tren: la Gare de Lyon (1855) y la Gare du Nord (1865). Completó Les Halles , el gran mercado de productos agrícolas con pabellones de hierro fundido y cristal en el centro de la ciudad, y construyó un nuevo hospital municipal, el Hôtel-Dieu , en el lugar de los edificios medievales en ruinas de la Île de la Cité . El hito arquitectónico característico fue la Ópera de París , el teatro más grande del mundo, diseñado por Charles Garnier para coronar el centro del nuevo París de Napoleón. [69]
Napoleón también quería construir nuevos parques y jardines para la recreación y el descanso de los parisinos, particularmente aquellos en los nuevos barrios de la ciudad en expansión. [70] [ página requerida ] Los nuevos parques de Napoleón se inspiraron en sus recuerdos de los parques de Londres, especialmente Hyde Park , donde había paseado y paseado en un carruaje mientras estaba en el exilio; pero quería construir a una escala mucho mayor. Trabajando con Haussmann y Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand , el ingeniero que dirigió el nuevo Servicio de Paseos y Plantaciones, trazó un plan para cuatro parques principales en los puntos cardinales de la brújula alrededor de la ciudad. Miles de trabajadores y jardineros comenzaron a cavar lagos, construir cascadas, plantar césped, parterres y árboles, y construir chalets y grutas. Napoleón III transformó el Bois de Boulogne en un parque al oeste de París. Al este, creó el Bois de Vincennes y, al norte, el Parc des Buttes-Chaumont . Al sur se creó el Parque Montsouris . [70] [ página necesaria ]
Además de construir los cuatro grandes parques, Napoleón hizo que se renovasen y replantasen los parques más antiguos de la ciudad, incluido el Parc Monceau , antiguamente propiedad de la familia Orléans , y el Jardin du Luxembourg . También creó unos veinte pequeños parques y jardines en los barrios como versiones en miniatura de sus grandes parques. Alphand denominó a estos pequeños parques "salones verdes y floridos". La intención del plan de Napoleón era tener un parque en cada uno de los ochenta "quartiers" (barrios) de París, de modo que nadie estuviera a más de diez minutos a pie de un parque de ese tipo. Los parques fueron un éxito inmediato entre todas las clases de parisinos. [71]
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Soon after becoming emperor, Napoleon III began searching for a wife to give him an heir.[citation needed] He was still attached to his companion Harriet Howard, who attended receptions at the Élysée Palace and traveled around France with him.[citation needed] He quietly sent a diplomatic delegation to approach the family of Princess Carola of Vasa, the granddaughter of deposed King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden. They declined because of his Catholic religion and the political uncertainty about his future, as did the family of Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a niece of Queen Victoria.[citation needed]
The Emperor fell in love with a 23-year-old Spaniard noblewoman, Eugénie du Derje de Montijo. She received much of her education in Paris. Her beauty attracted Napoleon III, who, as was his custom, tried to seduce her, but Eugénie told him to wait for marriage. The civil ceremony took place at Tuileries Palace on 22 January 1853, and a much grander ceremony was held a few days later at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. In 1856, Eugénie gave birth to a son and heir-apparent, Napoléon, Prince Imperial.[72]
With an heir to the throne secured, Napoleon resumed his "petites distractions" with other women.[citation needed] Eugénie faithfully performed the duties of an empress, entertaining guests and accompanying the Emperor to balls, opera, and theatre. She traveled to Egypt to open the Suez Canal and officially represented him whenever he traveled outside France.[citation needed]
Though a fervent Catholic and conservative on many other issues, Eugénie strongly advocated equality for women. She pressured the Ministry of National Education to give the first baccalaureate diploma to a woman and tried unsuccessfully to induce the Académie française to elect the writer George Sand as its first female member.[73]
In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and around the world as a supporter of popular sovereignty and nationalism.[74] In Europe, he allied himself with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1854–1856). French troops assisted Italian unification by fighting on the side of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In return, France received Savoy and the county of Nice in 1860. Later, however, to appease fervent French Catholics, he sent soldiers to defend the residual Papal States against annexation by Italy.[75][76][page needed]
In a speech at Bordeaux shortly after becoming Emperor, Napoleon III proclaimed that "The Empire means peace" ("L'Empire, c'est la paix"), reassuring foreign governments that he would not attack other European powers in order to extend the French Empire. He was, however, determined to follow a strong foreign policy to extend France's influence and warned that he would not stand by and allow another European power to threaten its neighbour.
At the beginning of his reign, he was also an advocate of a new "principle of nationalities" (principe des nationalités) that supported the creation of new states based on nationality, such as Italy, in place of the old multinational empires, such as the Habsburg monarchy (or Empire of Austria, known since 1867 as Austria-Hungary). In this he was influenced by his uncle's policy as described in the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène. In all of his foreign policy ventures, he put the interests of France first. Napoleon III felt that new states created on the basis of national identity would become natural allies and partners of France.[77]
Lord Palmerston as Britain's Foreign Secretary and later Prime Minister had close personal ties with leading French statesmen, notably Napoleon III himself. Palmerston's goal was to arrange peaceful relations with France in order to free Britain's diplomatic hand elsewhere in the world.[78] Napoleon at first had a pro-British foreign policy and was eager not to displease the British government, whose friendship he saw as important to France. After a brief threat of an invasion of Britain in 1851, France and Britain cooperated in the 1850s with an alliance in the Crimean War and a major trade treaty in 1860.[79]
War scares were consistently worked up by the press nonetheless. John Delane, editor of The Times, visited France in January 1853 and was impressed by its military preparedness. He expressed his conviction that "Louis-Napoleon was resolved on a forward foreign policy".[80] Napoleon III was actually determined to increase the country's naval power. The first purpose-built steam-powered battleship (worryingly christened after Napoleon I) was launched in 1850, and the fortification of Cherbourg was strengthened. This led to the extension of the breakwater of Alderney and the construction of Fort Clonque.[81]
From the start of his Empire, Napoleon III sought an alliance with Britain. He had lived there while in exile and saw Britain as a natural partner in the projects he wished to accomplish. An opportunity soon presented itself: In early 1853, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia put pressure on the weak Ottoman government, demanding that they give Russia a protectorate over the Christian peoples of the Balkans as well as control over Constantinople and the Dardanelles. The Ottoman Empire, backed by Britain and France, refused Russia's demands, and a joint British-French fleet was sent to support the Ottoman Empire. When Russia refused to leave the Danubian Principalities it had occupied, Britain and France declared war on 27 March 1854.[82]
It took France and Britain six months to organize a full-scale military expedition to the Black Sea. The Anglo-French fleet landed thirty thousand French and twenty thousand British soldiers in the Crimea on 14 September and began to lay siege to the major Russian port of Sevastopol. As the siege dragged on, the French and British armies were reinforced and troops from the Kingdom of Sardinia joined them, reaching a total of 140,000 soldiers, but they suffered terribly from epidemics of typhus, dysentery, and cholera. During the 332 days of the siege, the French lost 95,000 soldiers, including 75,000 due to disease. The suffering of the army in the Crimea was carefully concealed from the French public by press censorship.[83]
The death of Tsar Nicholas I on 2 March 1855 and his replacement by Alexander II changed the political equation. In September, after a massive bombardment, the Anglo-French army of fifty thousand men stormed the Russian positions, and the Russians were forced to evacuate Sevastopol. Alexander II sought a political solution, and negotiations were held in Paris in the new building of the French Foreign Ministry on the Quai d'Orsay, from 25 February to 8 April 1856.[82]
_-_Napol%C3%A9on_III_(1808-73),_Emperor_of_the_French_-_RCIN_406011_-_Royal_Collection.jpg/1280px-Edouard_Boutibonne_(1816-97)_-_Napol%C3%A9on_III_(1808-73),_Emperor_of_the_French_-_RCIN_406011_-_Royal_Collection.jpg)
The Crimean War added three new place names to Paris: Alma, named for the first French victory on the river of that name; Sevastopol; and Malakoff, named for a tower in the center of the Russian line captured by the French. The war had two important diplomatic consequences: Alexander II became an ally of France, and Britain and France were reconciled. In April 1855, Napoleon III and Eugénie went to England and were received by the Queen; in turn, Victoria and Prince Albert visited Paris. Victoria was the first British monarch to do so in centuries.[84]
The defeat of Russia and the alliance with Britain gave France increased authority and prestige in Europe. This was the first war between European powers since the close of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, marking a breakdown of the alliance system that had maintained peace for nearly half a century. The war also effectively ended the Concert of Europe and the Quadruple Alliance, or "Waterloo Coalition", that the other four powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain) had established. The Paris Peace Conference of 1856 represented a high-water mark for Napoleon's regime in foreign affairs.[85] It encouraged Napoleon III to make an even bolder foreign policy venture in Italy.[86]
On the evening of 14 January 1858, Napoleon and the Empress escaped an assassination attempt unharmed. A group of conspirators threw three bombs at the imperial carriage as it made its way to the opera. Eight members of the escort and bystanders were killed and over one hundred people injured. The culprits were quickly arrested. The leader was an Italian nationalist, Felice Orsini, who was aided by a French surgeon Simon François Bernard. They believed that if Napoleon III were killed, a republican revolt would immediately follow in France and the new republican government would help all Italian states win independence from Austria and achieve national unification. Bernard was in London at the time. Since he was a political exile, the Government of the United Kingdom refused to extradite him, but Orsini was tried, convicted and executed on 13 March 1858. The bombing focused the attention of France and particularly of Napoleon III, on the issue of Italian nationalism.[87]
Part of Italy, particularly the Kingdom of Sardinia, was independent, but central Italy was still ruled by the Pope (in this era, Pope Pius IX), while Lombardy, Venice and much of the north was ruled by Austria. Other states were de jure independent (notably the Duchy of Parma and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany) but de facto fully under Austrian influence. Napoleon III had fought with the Italian patriots against the Austrians when he was young and his sympathy was with them, but the Empress, most of his government and the Catholic Church in France supported the Pope and the existing governments. The British Government was also hostile to the idea of promoting nationalism in Italy. Despite the opposition within his government and in his own palace, Napoleon III did all that he could to support the cause of Piedmont-Sardinia. The King of Piedmont-Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, was invited to Paris in November 1855 and given the same royal treatment as Queen Victoria.
Count Cavour, the Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, came to Paris with the King and employed an unusual emissary in his efforts to win the support of Napoleon III: his young cousin, Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (1837–1899). As Cavour had hoped, she caught the Emperor's eye and became his mistress. Between 1855 and 1857, she used the opportunity to pass messages and to plead the Italian cause.[88]
In July 1858, Napoleon arranged a secret visit by Count Cavour. In the Plombières Agreement they agreed to join forces and drive the Austrians from Italy. In exchange, Napoleon III asked for Savoy (the ancestral land of the King of Piedmont-Sardinia) and the then bilingual County of Nice, which had been taken from France after Napoleon's fall in 1815 and returned to Piedmont-Sardinia. Cavour protested that Nice was Italian, but Napoleon responded that "these are secondary questions. There will be time later to discuss them."[89]
Assured of the support of Napoleon III, Count Cavour began to prepare the Royal Sardinian Army for war against Austria. Napoleon III looked for diplomatic support. He approached Lord Derby (the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) and his government; Britain was against the war, but agreed to remain neutral. Still facing strong opposition within his own government, Napoleon III offered to negotiate a diplomatic solution with the twenty-eight-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the spring of 1858. The Austrians demanded the disarmament of Piedmont-Sardinia first and sent thirty thousand soldiers to reinforce their garrisons in Italy. Napoleon III responded on 26 January 1859 by signing a treaty of alliance with Piedmont-Sardinia. Napoleon promised to send two hundred thousand soldiers to help one hundred thousand soldiers from Piedmont-Sardinia to force the Austrians out of Northern Italy; in return, France would receive the County of Nice and Savoy provided that their populations would agree in a referendum.[90]
It was the Emperor Franz Joseph, growing impatient, who finally unleashed the war. On 23 April 1859, he sent an ultimatum to the government of Piedmont-Sardinia demanding that they stop their military preparations and disband their army. On 26 April, Count Cavour rejected the demands, and on 27 April, the Austrian army invaded Piedmont.
Napoleon III, though he had very little military experience, decided to lead the French army in Italy himself. Part of the French army crossed over the Alps, while the other part, with the Emperor, landed in Genoa on 18 May 1859. Fortunately for Napoleon and the Piedmontese, the commander of the Austrians, General Ferenc Gyulay, was not very aggressive. His forces greatly outnumbered the Piedmontese army at Turin, but he hesitated, allowing the French and Piedmontese to unite their forces.
Napoleon III wisely left the fighting to his professional generals. The first great battle of the war, on 4 June 1859, was fought at the town of Magenta. It was long and bloody, and the French center was exhausted and nearly broken, but the battle was finally won by a timely attack on the Austrian flank by the soldiers of General Patrice de MacMahon. The Austrians had seven thousand men killed and five thousand captured, while the French forces had four thousand men killed. The battle was largely remembered because, soon after it was fought, patriotic chemists in France gave the name of the battle to their newly discovered bright purple chemical dye; the dye and the colour took the name magenta.[91]
The rest of the Austrian army was able to escape while Napoleon III and King Victor Emmanuel made a triumphal entry on 10 June into the city of Milan, previously ruled by the Austrians. They were greeted by huge, jubilant crowds waving Italian and French flags.
The Austrians had been driven from Lombardy, but the army of General Gyulay remained in the Veneto. His army had been reinforced and numbered 130,000 men, roughly the same as the French and Piedmontese, though the Austrians were superior in artillery. On 24 June, the second and decisive battle was fought at Solferino. This battle was even longer and bloodier than Magenta. In confused and often ill-directed fighting, there were approximately forty thousand casualties, including 11,500 French. Napoleon III was horrified by the thousands of dead and wounded on the battlefield. He proposed an armistice to the Austrians, which was accepted on 8 July. A formal treaty ending the war was signed on 11 July 1859.[92][93]
Count Cavour and the Piedmontese were bitterly disappointed by the abrupt end of the war. Lombardy had been freed, but Venetia (the Venice region) was still controlled by the Austrians, and the Pope was still the ruler of Rome and Central Italy. Cavour angrily resigned his post. Napoleon III returned to Paris on 17 July, and a huge parade and celebration were held on 14 August, in front of the Vendôme column, the symbol of the glory of Napoleon I. Napoleon III celebrated the day by granting a general amnesty to the political prisoners and exiles he had chased from France.[94]
In Italy, even without the French army, the process of Italian unification launched by Cavour and Napoleon III took on a momentum of its own. There were uprisings in central Italy and the Papal States, and Italian patriots, led by Garibaldi, invaded and took over Sicily, which would lead to the collapse of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Napoleon III wrote to the Pope and suggested that he "make the sacrifice of your provinces in revolt and confide them to Victor Emmanuel". The Pope, furious, declared in a public address that Napoleon III was a "liar and a cheat".[95] Rome and the surrounding Latium region remained in Papal hands, and therefore did not immediately become the capital of the newly created Kingdom of Italy, and Venetia was still occupied by the Austrians, but the rest of Italy had come under the rule of Victor Emmanuel.
As Cavour had promised, Savoy and the County of Nice were annexed by France in 1860 after referendums, although it is disputed how fair they were. In Nice, 25,734 voted for union with France, just 260 against, but Italians still called for its return into the 20th century. On 18 February 1861, the first Italian parliament met in Turin, and on 23 March, Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed King of Italy. Count Cavour died a few weeks later, declaring that "Italy is made."[96]
Napoleon's support for the Italian patriots and his confrontation with Pope Pius IX over who would govern Rome made him unpopular with fervent French Catholics, and even with Empress Eugénie, who was a fervent Catholic. To win over the French Catholics and his wife, he agreed to guarantee that Rome would remain under the Pope and independent from the rest of Italy and agreed to keep French troops there. The capital of Italy became Turin (in 1861) then Florence (in 1865), not Rome. However, in 1862, Garibaldi gathered an army to march on Rome, under the slogan, "Rome or death".[97] To avoid a confrontation between Garibaldi and the French soldiers, the Italian government sent its own soldiers to face them, arrested Garibaldi and put him in prison. Napoleon III sought a diplomatic solution that would allow him to withdraw French troops from Rome while guaranteeing that the city would remain under Papal control. In the 1864 September Convention the Italian government guaranteed the independence of the rump Papal States and the French garrison in Rome was withdrawn.
However, Garibaldi made another attempt to capture Rome in November 1867, but was defeated by a hastily dispatched French force and Papal troops at the Battle of Mentana on 3 November 1867.
The garrison of eight thousand French troops remained in Rome until August 1870, when they were recalled at the start of the Franco-Prussian War. In September 1870, the Royal Italian Army finally captured Rome and made it the capital of Italy.[98]
After the successful conclusion of the Italian campaign and the annexation of Savoy and Nice to the territory of France, the Continental foreign policy of Napoleon III entered a calmer period. Expeditions to distant corners of the world and the expansion of the Empire replaced major changes in the map of Europe. The Emperor's health declined; he gained weight, he began to dye his hair to cover the gray, he walked slowly because of gout, and in 1864, at the military camp of Châlons-en-Champagne, he suffered the first medical crisis from his gallstones, the ailment that killed him nine years later. He was less engaged in governing and less attentive to detail, but still sought opportunities to increase French commerce and prestige globally.[99]
In 1862, Napoleon III sent troops to Mexico in an effort to establish an allied monarchy in the Americas, with Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria enthroned as Emperor Maximilian I. The Second Mexican Empire faced resistance from the republican government of President Benito Juárez, however. After victory in the American Civil War in 1865, the United States made clear that France would have to leave. It sent 50,000 troops under General Philip H. Sheridan to the Mexico–United States border and helped resupply Juárez. Napoleon's military was stretched very thin; he had committed 40,000 troops to Mexico, 20,000 to Rome to guard the Pope against the Italians, as well as another 80,000 in restive Algeria. Furthermore, Prussia, having just defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, was an imminent threat. Napoleon realised his predicament and withdrew his troops from Mexico in 1866. Maximilian was overthrown and executed.[100][101][page needed]
In Southeast Asia, Napoleon III was more successful in establishing control with one limited military operation at a time. In the Cochinchina Campaign, he took over Cochinchina (the southernmost part of modern Vietnam, including Saigon) in 1862. In 1863, he established a protectorate over Cambodia. Additionally, France had a sphere of influence during the 19th century and early 20th century in Southern China, including a naval base at Kuangchow Bay (Guangzhouwan).[102] A French expedition to Korea was also mounted in response to the murder of French missionaries, although this ended in failure.
According to information given to Abdón Cifuentes in 1870 the possibility of an intervention in favour of the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia against Chile was discussed in Napoleon's Conseil d'État.[103] In 1870 the French battleship D'Entrecasteaux anchored at Corral drawing suspicions from Cornelio Saavedra of some sort of French interference in the ongoing occupation of Mapuche lands.[104] A shipment arms was seized by Argentine authorities at Buenos Aires in 1871, reportedly this had been ordered by Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, the so-called King of Araucanía and Patagonia.[104]
Following the model of the Kings of France and of his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III moved his official residence to the Tuileries Palace, where he had a suite of rooms on the ground floor of the south wing between the Seine and the Pavillon de l'Horloge (Clock pavilion), facing the garden.
Napoleon III's bedroom was decorated with a talisman from Charlemagne (a symbol of good luck for the Bonaparte family), while his office featured a portrait of Julius Caesar by Ingres and a large map of Paris that he used to show his ideas for the reconstruction of Paris to his prefect of the Seine department, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. The Emperor's rooms were overheated and were filled with smoke, as he smoked cigarette after cigarette. The Empress occupied a suite of rooms just above his, highly decorated in Louis XVI style with a pink salon, a green salon and a blue salon.[105]
The court moved with the Emperor and Empress from palace to palace each year following a regular calendar. At the beginning of May, the Emperor and court moved to the Château de Saint-Cloud for outdoor activities in the park. In June and July, they moved with selected guests to the Palace of Fontainebleau for walks in the forest and boating on the lake. In July, the court moved to thermal baths for a health cure, first to Plombières, then to Vichy, and then, after 1856, to the military camp and residence built at Châlons-sur-Marne (nowadays: Châlons-en-Champagne), where Napoleon could take the waters and review military parades and exercises. Beginning in 1856, the Emperor and Empress spent each September in Biarritz in the Villa Eugénie, a large villa overlooking the sea.[106] They would walk on the beach or travel to the mountains, and in the evenings, they would dance and sing and play cards and take part in other games and amateur theatricals and charades with their guests. In November, the court moved to the Château de Compiègne for forest excursions, dancing and more games. Famous scientists and artists, such as Louis Pasteur, Gustave Flaubert, Eugène Delacroix and Giuseppe Verdi, were invited to participate in the festivities at Compiègne.[107]
At the end of the year the Emperor and Court returned to the Tuileries Palace and gave a series of formal receptions and three or four grand balls with six hundred guests early in the new year. Visiting dignitaries and monarchs were frequently invited. During Carnival, there was a series of very elaborate costume balls on the themes of different countries and different historical periods, for which guests sometimes spent small fortunes on their costumes.
Napoleon III had conservative and traditional taste in art: his favourite painters were Alexandre Cabanel and Franz Xaver Winterhalter, who received major commissions, and whose work was purchased for state museums. At the same time, he followed public opinion, and he made an important contribution to the French avant-garde. In 1863, the jury of the Paris Salon, the famous annual showcase of French painting, headed by the ultra-conservative director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Count Émilien de Nieuwerkerke, refused all submissions by avant-garde artists, including those by Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro and Johan Jongkind. The artists and their friends complained, and the complaints reached Napoleon III. His office issued a statement: "Numerous complaints have come to the Emperor on the subject of the works of art which were refused by the jury of the Exposition. His Majesty, wishing to let the public judge the legitimacy of these complaints, has decided that the works of art which were refused should be displayed in another part of the Palace of Industry."[108]
Following Napoleon's decree, an exhibit of the rejected paintings, called the Salon des Refusés, was held in another part of the Palace of Industry, where the Salon took place. More than a thousand visitors a day came to see now-famous paintings such as Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe and James McNeill Whistler's Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl. '[109][page needed] The journalist Émile Zola reported that visitors pushed to get into the crowded galleries where the refused paintings were hung, and the rooms were full of the laughter and mocking comments of many of the spectators. While the paintings were ridiculed by many critics and visitors, the work of the avant-garde became known for the first time to the French public, and it took its place alongside the more traditional style of painting.[110]
Napoleon III also began or completed the restoration of several important historic landmarks, carried out for him by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. He restored the flèche, or spire, of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, which had been partially destroyed and desecrated during the French Revolution. In 1855, he completed the restoration, begun in 1845, of the stained-glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle, and in 1862, he declared it a national historical monument. In 1853, he approved and provided funding for Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of the medieval town of Carcassonne. He also sponsored Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of the Château de Vincennes and the Château de Pierrefonds. In 1862, he closed the prison which had occupied the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel since the French Revolution, where many important political prisoners had been held, so it could be restored and opened to the public.
From the beginning of his reign, Napoleon III launched a series of social reforms aimed at improving the life of the working class. He began with small projects, such as opening up two clinics in Paris for sick and injured workers, a programme of legal assistance to those unable to afford it, as well as subsidies to companies that built low-cost housing for their workers. He outlawed the practice of employers taking possession of or making comments in the work document that every employee was required to carry; negative comments meant that workers were unable to get other jobs. In 1866, he encouraged the creation of a state insurance fund to help workers or peasants who became disabled and help their widows and families.[111]
To help the working class, Napoleon III offered a prize to anyone who could develop an inexpensive substitute for butter; the prize was won by the French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès, who in 1869 patented a product he named oleomargarine, later shortened simply to margarine.[112]
Napoleon III and his administration enacted significant censorship of the media, targeting political caricatures like those of Honoré Daumier.[113]
His most important social reform was the 1864 law that gave French workers the right to strike, which had been forbidden since 1810. In 1866, he added to this an "Edict of Tolerance" which gave factory workers the right to organise. He issued a decree regulating the treatment of apprentices and limited working hours on Sundays and holidays. He removed from the Napoleonic Code the infamous article 1781, which said that the declaration of the employer, even without proof, would be given more weight by the court than the word of the employee.[114]
Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie worked to give girls and women greater access to public education. In 1861, through the direct intervention of the Emperor and the Empress, Julie-Victoire Daubié became the first woman in France to receive the baccalauréat diploma.[115] In 1862, the first professional school for young women was opened, and Madeleine Brès became the first woman to enroll in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris.
In 1863, he made Victor Duruy, the son of a factory worker and a respected historian, his new Minister of Public Education. Duruy accelerated the pace of the reforms, often coming into conflict with the Catholic Church, which wanted to keep control over education. Despite the opposition of the Church, Duruy opened schools for girls in each commune with more than five hundred residents, a total of eight hundred new schools.[116]
Between 1863 and 1869, Duruy created scholastic libraries for fifteen thousand schools and required that primary schools offer courses in history and geography. Secondary schools began to teach philosophy, which had been banned by the previous regime at the request of the Catholic Church. For the first time, public schools in France began to teach contemporary history, modern languages, art, gymnastics and music. The results of the school reforms were dramatic: in 1852, over 40 percent of army conscripts in France were unable to read or write, yet by 1869, the number had dropped to 25 percent. The rate of illiteracy among both girls and boys dropped to 32 percent.[116]
At the university level, Napoleon III founded new faculties in Marseille, Douai, Nancy, Clermont-Ferrand and Poitiers and founded a network of research institutes of higher studies in the sciences, history, and economics. These also were criticized by Catholic ecclesiastics. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, Monseigneur Bonnechose, wrote, "True science is religious, while false science, on the other hand, is vain and prideful; being unable to explain God, it rebels against him."[117]
One of the centerpieces of the economic policy of Napoleon III was the lowering of tariffs and the opening of French markets to imported goods. He had been in Britain in 1846 when Prime Minister Robert Peel had lowered tariffs on imported grains, and he had seen the benefits to British consumers and the British economy. However, he faced bitter opposition from many French industrialists and farmers, who feared British competition. Convinced he was right, he sent his chief economic advisor, Michel Chevalier, to London to begin discussions, and secretly negotiated a new commercial agreement with Britain, calling for the gradual lowering of tariffs in both countries. He signed the treaty, without consulting with the Assembly, on 23 January 1860. Four hundred of the top industrialists in France came to Paris to protest, but he refused to yield. Industrial tariffs on such products as steel rails for railways were lowered first; tariffs on grains were not lowered until June 1861. Similar agreements were negotiated with the Netherlands, Italy, and France's other neighbors. France's industries were forced to modernize and become more efficient to compete with the British, as Napoleon III had intended. Commerce between the countries surged.[118]
By the 1860s, the huge state investment in railways, infrastructure and fiscal policies of Napoleon III had brought dramatic changes to the French economy and French society. French people travelled in greater numbers, more often and farther than they had ever travelled before. The opening of the first public school libraries by Napoleon III and the opening by Louis Hachette of the first bookstores in Napoleon's new train stations led to the wider circulation of books around France.[119]
During the Empire, industrial production increased by 73 percent, growing twice as rapidly as that of the United Kingdom, though its total output remained lower. From 1850 to 1857, the French economy grew at a pace of five percent a year and exports grew by sixty percent between 1855 and 1869.[120]
French agricultural production increased by sixty percent, spurred by new farming techniques taught at the agricultural schools started in each Department by Napoleon III, and new markets opened by the railways. The threat of famine, which for centuries had haunted the French countryside, receded. The last recorded famine in France was in 1855.[120]
During the Empire, the migration of the rural population to the cities increased. The portion of the population active in agriculture dropped from 61 percent in 1851 to 54 percent in 1870.[121]
The average salary of French workers grew by 45 percent during the Second Empire, but only kept up with price inflation. On the other hand, more French people than ever were able to save money; the number of bank accounts grew from 742,889 in 1852 to 2,079,141 in 1870.[121]
Despite the economic progress the country had made, domestic opposition to Napoleon III was slowly growing, particularly in the Corps législatif (Parliament). The liberal republicans on the left had always opposed him, believing he had usurped power and suppressed the Republic. The conservative Catholics were increasingly unhappy, because he had abandoned the Pope in his struggle to retain political control of the Papal States and had built up a public education system that was a rival to the Catholic system. Many businessmen, particularly in the metallurgical and textile industries, were unhappy, because he had reduced the tariffs on British products, putting the British products in direct competition with their own. The members of Parliament were particularly unhappy with him for dealing with them only when he needed money. When he had liberalized trade with England, he had not even consulted them.[122]
Napoleon's large-scale program of public works, and his expensive foreign policy, had created rapidly mounting government debts; the annual deficit was about 100 million gold-francs, and the cumulative debt had reached nearly 1,000 million gold-francs (1 billion in US readings). The Emperor needed to restore the confidence of the business world and to involve the legislature and have them share responsibility.
On 24 December 1861, Napoleon III, against the opposition of his own ministers, issued a decree announcing that the legislature would have greater powers. The Senate and the Assembly could, for the first time, give a response to the Emperor's program, ministers were obliged to defend their programs before the Assembly, and the right of Deputies to amend the programs was enlarged. On 1 February 1861, further reforms were announced: Deputies could speak from the tribune, not just from their seats, and a stenographic record would be made and published of each session. Another even more important reform was announced on 31 December 1861: the budget of each ministry would be voted section by section, not in a block, and the government could no longer spend money by special decree when the legislature was not in session. He did retain the right to change the budget estimates section by section.
The Deputies quickly took advantage of their new rights; the Emperor's Italian policy was bitterly condemned in Parliament, and anti-government amendments by the pro-Catholic deputies were defeated by votes of 158 to 91 in the Corps législatif and 79 to 61 in the Senate.[123]
In the legislative elections of 31 May 1863, the pro-government candidates received 5,308,000 votes, while the opposition received 1,954,000 votes, three times more than in the previous elections. The rural departments still voted for Napoleon III's candidates, but in Paris, 63 percent of the votes went to anti-government republican candidates, with similar numbers in all the large cities. The new Assembly contained a large opposition block ranging from Catholics outraged by the Papal policies to Legitimists, Orléanists, protectionists and republicans, armed with new powers given to them by the Emperor himself.[124][page needed][125]
Despite the opposition in the legislature, Napoleon III's reforms remained popular in the rest of the country. A new plebiscite was held in 1870, on this text: "The people approve the liberal reforms added to the Constitution since 1860 by the Emperor, with the agreement of the legislative bodies and ratified by the Senate on April 20, 1870." Napoleon III saw this as a referendum on his rule as Emperor: "By voting yes," he wrote, "you will chase away the threat of revolution; you will place the nation on a solid base of order and liberty, and you will make it easier to pass on the Crown to my son." When the votes were counted, Napoleon III had lost Paris and the other big cities but decisively won the rest of the country. The final vote was 7,336,434 votes yes, 1,560,709 votes no, and 1,900,000 abstentions. Léon Gambetta, the leader of the republican opposition, wrote in despair, "We were crushed. The Emperor is more popular than ever."[126]
Through the 1860s, the health of the Emperor steadily worsened. It had been damaged by his six years in prison at Ham; he had chronic pains in his legs and feet, particularly when it was cold, and as a result, he always lived and worked in overheated rooms and offices. He smoked heavily, distrusted doctors and their advice and attributed any problems simply to "rheumatism", for which he regularly visited the hot springs at Vichy and other spas.[127] It became difficult for him to ride a horse, and he was obliged to walk slowly, often with a cane. From 1869 onwards, the crises of his urinary tract were treated with opium, which made him seem lethargic and apathetic. His writing became hard to read and his voice weak. In the spring of 1870, he was visited by an old friend from England, Lord Malmesbury. Malmesbury found him to be "terribly changed and very ill".[128]
The health problems of the Emperor were kept secret by the government, which feared that, if his condition became public, the opposition would demand his abdication. One newspaper, the Courrier de la Vienne, was warned by the censors to stop publishing articles which had "a clear and malicious intent to spread, contrary to the truth, alarms about the health of the Emperor".[129]
At the end of June 1870, a specialist in the problems of urinary tracts, Germain Sée, was finally summoned to examine him. Sée reported that the Emperor was suffering from a gallstone. On 2 July, four eminent French doctors, Auguste Nélaton, Philippe Ricord, Fauvel and Corvisart, examined him and confirmed the diagnosis. They were reluctant to operate, however, because of the high risk (gallstone operations did not become relatively safe until the 1880s)[130] and because of the Emperor's weakness. Before anything further could be done, however, France was in the middle of a diplomatic crisis.[131]
In the 1860s, Prussia appeared on the horizon as a new rival to French power in Europe. Its Minister President, Otto von Bismarck, had ambitions for Prussia to lead a unified Germany. In May 1862, Bismarck came to Paris on a diplomatic mission and met Napoleon III for the first time. They had cordial relations. On 30 September 1862, however, in Munich, Bismarck declared, in a famous speech: "It is not by speeches and votes of the majority that the great questions of our period will be settled, as one believed in 1848, but by iron and blood." Bismarck saw Austria and France as the main obstacles to his ambitions, and he set out to divide and defeat them.
In the winter and spring of 1864, when the German Confederation invaded and occupied the German-speaking duchies ruled by Denmark (Schleswig and Holstein), Napoleon III recognized the threat that a unified Germany would pose to France, and he looked for allies to challenge Germany, without success.
The British government was suspicious that Napoleon wanted to take over Belgium and Luxembourg, felt secure with its powerful navy, and did not want any military engagements on the European continent at the side of the French.[132]
The Russian government was also suspicious of Napoleon, who it believed had encouraged Polish nationalists to rebel against Russian rule in 1863. Bismarck and Prussia, on the other hand, had offered assistance to Russia to help crush the Polish patriots.[133]
In October 1865, Napoleon had a cordial meeting with Bismarck at Biarritz. They discussed Venetia, Austria's remaining province in Italy. Bismarck told Napoleon that Prussia had no secret arrangement to give Venetia to Italy, and Napoleon assured him in turn that France had no secret understanding with Austria. Bismarck hinted vaguely that, in the event of a war between Austria and Prussia, French neutrality would be rewarded with some sort of territory as a compensation. Napoleon III had Luxembourg in mind.[134]
In 1866, relations between Austria and Prussia worsened and Bismarck demanded the expulsion of Austria from the German Confederation. Napoleon and his foreign minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, expected a long war and an eventual Austrian victory. Napoleon III felt he could extract a price from both Prussia and Austria for French neutrality. On 12 June 1866, France signed a secret treaty with Austria, guaranteeing French neutrality in a Prussian-Austrian war. In exchange, in the event of an Austrian victory, Austria would give Venetia to France and would also create a new independent German state on the Rhine, which would become an ally of France. At the same time, Napoleon proposed a secret treaty with Bismarck, promising that France would remain neutral in a war between Austria and Prussia. In the event of a Prussian victory, France would recognize Prussia's annexation of smaller German states, and France, in exchange, would receive a portion of German territory, the Palatinate region north of Alsace. Bismarck, rightly confident of success due to the modernization of the Prussian Army, summarily rejected Napoleon's offer.
On 15 June, the Prussian Army invaded Saxony, an ally of Austria. On 2 July, Austria asked Napoleon to arrange an armistice between Italy, which had allied itself with Prussia, and Austria, in exchange for which France would receive Venetia. But on 3 July, the Prussian army crushed the Austrian army at the Battle of Königgrätz in Bohemia. The way to Vienna was open for the Prussians, and Austria asked for an armistice. The armistice was signed on 22 July; Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, the Electorate of Hesse, the Duchy of Nassau and the Free City of Frankfurt, with a combined population of four million people.[135]
The Austrian defeat was followed by a new crisis in the health of Napoleon III. Marshal Canrobert, who saw him on 28 July, wrote that the Emperor "was pitiful to see. He could barely sit up in his armchair, and his drawn face expressed at the same time moral anguish and physical pain.[135]
Napoleon III still hoped to receive some compensation from Prussia for French neutrality during the war. His foreign minister, Drouyn, asked Bismarck for the Palatinate region on the Rhine, which belonged to Bavaria, and for the demilitarization of Luxembourg, which was the site of a formidable fortress staffed by a strong Prussian garrison in accordance with international treaties. Napoleon's senior advisor Eugène Rouher increased the demands, asking that Prussia accept the annexation by France of Belgium and of Luxembourg, sparking the Luxembourg Crisis.
Luxembourg had regained its de jure independence in 1839 as a grand duchy. However, it was in personal union with the Netherlands. King William III of the Netherlands, who was also Grand Duke of Luxembourg, desperately needed money and was prepared to sell the Grand Duchy to France. Bismarck swiftly intervened and showed the British ambassador a copy of Napoleon's demands; as a result, he put pressure on William III to refuse to sell Luxembourg to France. France was forced to renounce any claim to Luxembourg in the Treaty of London (1867). Napoleon III gained nothing for his efforts but the demilitarization of the Luxembourg fortress.[136]
Despite his failing health, Napoleon III could see that the Prussian Army, combined with the armies of Bavaria and the other German states, would be a formidable enemy. In 1866, Prussia, with a population of 22 million, had been able to mobilize an army of 700,000 men, while France, with a population of 38 million, had an army of only 385,000 men, of whom 140,000 were in Algeria, Mexico, and Rome.[137] In the autumn of 1867, Napoleon III proposed a form of universal military service similar to the Prussian system to increase the size of the French Army, if needed, to 1 million. His proposal was opposed by many French officers, such as Marshal Randon, who preferred a smaller, more professional army; he said: "This proposal will only give us recruits; it's soldiers we need."[138] It was also strongly opposed by the republican opposition in the French parliament, who denounced the proposal as a militarization of French society. The republican deputy, Émile Ollivier, who later became Napoleon's prime minister, declared: "The armies of France, which I always considered too large, are now going to be increased to an exorbitant size. Why? What is the necessity? Where is the danger? Who is threatening us? ...If France were to disarm, the Germans would know how to convince their governments to do the same."[139] Facing almost certain defeat in the parliament, Napoleon III withdrew the proposal. It was replaced in January 1868 by a much more modest project to create a garde mobile, or reserve force, to support the army.[140]
Napoleon III was overconfident in his military strength and went into war even after he failed to find any allies who would support a war to stop German unification.[141]
Following the defeat of Austria, Napoleon resumed his search for allies against Prussia. In April 1867, he proposed an alliance, defensive and offensive, with Austria. If Austria joined France in a victorious war against Prussia, Napoleon promised that Austria could form a new confederation with the southern states of Germany and could annex Silesia, while France took for its part the left bank of the Rhine River. But the timing of Napoleon's offer was poorly chosen; Austria was in the process of a major internal reform, creating the new Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
Napoleon's attempt to install the Archduke Maximilian, the brother of the Austrian Emperor, in Mexico was just coming to its disastrous conclusion; the French troops had just been withdrawn from Mexico in February 1867, and the unfortunate Maximilian would be captured, judged and shot by a firing squad on 19 June. Napoleon III made these offers again in August 1867, on a visit to offer condolences for the death of Maximilian, but the proposal was not received with enthusiasm.[142]
Napoleon III also made one last attempt to persuade Italy to be his ally against Prussia. Italian King Victor Emmanuel was personally favorable to a better relationship with France, remembering the role that Napoleon III had played in achieving Italian unification, but Italian public opinion was largely hostile to France; on 3 November 1867, French and Papal soldiers had fired upon the Italian patriots of Garibaldi, when he tried to capture Rome. Napoleon presented a proposed treaty of alliance on 4 June 1869, the anniversary of the joint French-Italian victory at Magenta. The Italians responded by demanding that France withdraw its troops who were protecting the Pope in Rome. Given the opinion of fervent French Catholics, this was a condition Napoleon III could not accept.[143]
While Napoleon III was having no success finding allies, Bismarck signed secret military treaties with the southern German states, who promised to provide troops in the event of a war between Prussia and France. In 1868, Bismarck signed an accord with Russia that gave Russia liberty of action in the Balkans in exchange for neutrality in the event of a war between France and Prussia. This treaty put additional pressure on Austria-Hungary, which also had interests in the Balkans, not to ally itself with France.
But most importantly, Prussia promised to support Russia in lifting the restrictions of the Congress of Paris. "Bismarck had bought Tsar Alexander II's complicity by promising to help restore his naval access to the Black Sea and Mediterranean (cut off by the treaties ending the Crimean War), other powers were less biddable".[144] Bismarck also reached out to the liberal government of William Gladstone in London, offering to protect the neutrality of Belgium against a French threat. The British Foreign Office under Lord Clarendon mobilized the British fleet, to dissuade France against any aggressive moves against Belgium. In any war between France and Prussia, France would be entirely alone.[145]
In 1867, French politician Adolphe Thiers (who became President of the French Republic in 1871) accused Napoleon III of erroneous foreign policy: "There is no mistake that can be made".[146] Bismarck thought that French vanity would lead to war; he exploited that vanity in the Ems Dispatch in July 1870. France took the bait and declared war on Prussia, which proved to be a major miscalculation.[147] This allowed Bismarck and Prussia to present the war to the world as defensive, although Prussia and Bismarck had aggressive plans, and they soon became known in relation to the annexation of the French provinces of Alsace-Lorraine.
In his memoirs, written long after the war, Bismarck wrote, "I always considered that a war with France would naturally follow a war against Austria... I was convinced that the gulf which was created over time between the north and the south of Germany could not be better overcome than by a national war against the neighbouring people who were aggressive against us. I did not doubt that it was necessary to make a French-German war before the general reorganization of Germany could be realized."[148] As the summer of 1870 approached, pressure mounted on Bismarck to have a war with France as quickly as possible. In Bavaria, the largest of the southern German states, unification with (mostly Protestant) Prussia was being opposed by the Patriotic Party, which favoured a confederacy of (Catholic) Bavaria with (Catholic) Austria. German Protestant public opinion was on the side of unification with Prussia.
In France, patriotic sentiment was also growing. On 8 May 1870, French voters had overwhelmingly supported Napoleon III's program in a national plebiscite, with 7,358,000 votes yes against 1,582,000 votes no, an increase of support of two million votes since the legislative elections in 1869. The Emperor was less popular in Paris and the big cities, but highly popular in the French countryside. Napoleon had named a new foreign minister, Antoine Agenor, the Duke de Gramont, who was hostile to Bismarck. The Emperor was weak and ill, but the more extreme Bonapartists were prepared to show their strength against the republicans and monarchists in the parliament.[149]
The news of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern's candidacy for the Spanish crown, published 2 July 1870, aroused fury in the French parliament and press. The government was attacked by both the republicans and monarchist opposition, and by the ultra-Bonapartists, for its weakness against Prussia. On 6 July, Napoleon III held a meeting of his ministers at the château of Saint-Cloud and told them that Prussia must withdraw the Hohenzollern candidacy or there would be a war. He asked Marshal Leboeuf, the chief of staff of the French army, if the army was prepared for a war against Prussia. Leboeuf responded that the French soldiers had a rifle superior to the Prussian rifle, that the French artillery was commanded by an elite corps of officers, and that the army "would not lack a button on its puttees". He assured the Emperor that the French army could have four hundred thousand men on the Rhine in less than fifteen days.[150]
The French Ambassador to Prussia, Count Vincent Benedetti, was sent to the German spa resort of Bad Ems, where the Prussian king was staying. Benedetti met with the king on 13 July in the park of the château. The king told him courteously that he agreed fully with the withdrawal of the Hohenzollern candidacy, but that he could not make promises on behalf of the government for the future. He considered that the matter was closed. As he was instructed by Gramont, Benedetti asked for another meeting with the king to repeat the request, but the king politely, yet firmly, refused. Benedetti returned to Paris and the affair seemed finished. However, Bismarck edited the official dispatch of the meeting to make it appear that both sides had been hostile: "His majesty the King," the dispatch read, "refused to meet again with the French ambassador, and let him know, through an aide-de-camp of service, that His Majesty had nothing more to say to the Ambassador." This version was communicated to governments, and the next day was in the French press.[151]
The Ems telegram had exactly the effect that Bismarck had intended. Once again, public opinion in France was inflamed. "This text produced the effect of a red flag to the Gallic bull," Bismarck later wrote. Gramont, the French foreign minister, declared that he felt "he had just received a slap." The leader of the conservatives in parliament, Thiers, spoke for moderation, arguing that France had won the diplomatic battle and there was no reason for war, but he was drowned out by cries that he was a traitor and a Prussian. Napoleon's new prime minister, Émile Ollivier, declared that France had done all that it could humanly and honourably do to prevent the war, and that he accepted the responsibility "with a light heart". A crowd of 15,000–20,000 persons, carrying flags and patriotic banners, marched through the streets of Paris, demanding war. On 19 July 1870, a declaration of war was sent to the Prussian government.[152]
When France entered the war, there were patriotic demonstrations in the streets of Paris, with crowds singing La Marseillaise and chanting "To Berlin! To Berlin!" But Napoleon was melancholic. He told General Lepic that he expected the war to be "long and difficult", and wondered, "Who knows if we'll come back?" He told Marshal Randon that he felt too old for a military campaign.[153] Despite his declining health, Napoleon decided to go with the army to the front as commander in chief, as he had done during the successful Italian campaign. On 28 July, he departed Saint-Cloud by train for the front. He was accompanied by the 14-year-old Prince Imperial in the uniform of the army, by his military staff, and by a large contingent of chefs and servants in livery. He was pale and visibly in pain. The Empress remained in Paris as the Regent, as she had done on other occasions when the Emperor was out of the country.
The mobilization of the French army was chaotic. Two hundred thousand soldiers converged on the German frontier, along a front of 250 kilometers, choking all the roads and railways for miles. Officers and their respective units were unable to find one another. General Moltke and the Prussian Army, having gained experience mobilizing in the war against Austria, were able to efficiently move three armies of 518,000 men to a more concentrated front of just 120 kilometers. In addition, the German soldiers were backed by a substantial reserve of the Landwehr (Territorial defence), with 340,000 men, and an additional reserve of 400,000 territorial guards. The French army arrived at the frontier equipped with maps of Germany, but without maps of France—where the actual fighting took place—and without a specific plan of what it was going to do.[154]
On 2 August, Napoleon and the Prince Imperial accompanied the army as it made a tentative crossing of the German border toward the city of Saarbrücken. The French won a minor skirmish and advanced no further. Napoleon III, very ill, was unable to ride his horse and had to support himself by leaning against a tree. In the meantime, the Prussians had assembled a much larger army opposite Alsace and Lorraine than the French had expected or were aware of. On 4 August 1870, the Prussians attacked with overwhelming force against a French division in Alsace at the Battle of Wissembourg (German: Weissenburg), forcing it to retreat. On 5 August, the Germans defeated another French army at the Battle of Spicheren in Lorraine.
On 6 August, 140,000 Germans attacked 35,000 French soldiers at the Battle of Wörth; the French lost 19,200 soldiers killed, wounded and captured, and were forced to retreat. The French soldiers fought bravely, and French cavalry and infantry attacked the German lines repeatedly, but the Germans had superior logistics, communications, and leadership. The decisive weapon was the new German Krupp six pound field gun, which was breech-loading, had a steel barrel, longer range, a higher rate of fire, and was more accurate than the bronze muzzle-loading French cannons. The Krupp guns caused terrible casualties in the French ranks.[155]
When news of the French defeats reached Paris on 7 August, it was greeted with disbelief and dismay. Prime Minister Ollivier and the army chief of staff, Marshal Edmond Le Boeuf, both resigned. The Empress Eugénie took it upon herself as the Regent to name a new government. She chose General Cousin-Montauban, better known as the Count of Palikao, seventy-four years old and former commander of the French expeditionary force to China, as her new prime minister. The Count of Palikao named Marshal François Achille Bazaine, the commander of the French forces in Lorraine, as the new military commander. Napoleon III proposed returning to Paris, realizing that he was not doing any good for the army. The Empress, in charge of the government, responded by telegraph, "Don't think of coming back, unless you want to unleash a terrible revolution. They will say you quit the army to flee the danger." The Emperor agreed to remain with the army.[156] With the Empress directing the country, and Bazaine commanding the army, the Emperor no longer had any real role to play. At the front, the Emperor told Marshal Leboeuf, "we've both been dismissed."[157]
On 18 August 1870, the Battle of Gravelotte, the biggest battle of the war, took place in Lorraine between the Germans and the army of Marshal Bazaine. The Germans suffered 20,000 casualties and the French 12,000, but the Germans emerged as the victors, as Marshal Bazaine's army, with 175,000 soldiers, six divisions of cavalry and five hundred cannons, was besieged inside the fortifications of Metz, unable to move.[158]
Napoleon was at Châlons-sur-Marne with the army of Marshal Patrice de MacMahon. MacMahon, Marshal Bazaine, and the count of Palikao, with the Empress in Paris, all had different ideas of what the army should do next, and the Emperor had to act as a referee. The Emperor and MacMahon proposed moving their army closer to Paris to protect the city, but on 17 August Bazaine telegraphed to the Emperor: "I urge you to renounce this idea, which seems to abandon the Army at Metz... Couldn't you make a powerful diversion toward the Prussian corps, which are already exhausted by so many battles? The Empress shares my opinion." Napoleon III wrote back, "I yield to your opinion."[159] The Emperor sent the Prince Imperial back to Paris for his safety and went with the weary army in the direction of Metz. The Emperor, riding in an open carriage, was jeered, sworn at and insulted by demoralized soldiers.[158]
The direction of movement of MacMahon's army was supposed to be secret, but it was published in the French press and thus was quickly known to the German General Staff. Moltke, the German commander, ordered two Prussian armies marching toward Paris to turn towards MacMahon's army. On 30 August, one corps of MacMahon's army was attacked by the Germans at Beaumont, losing five hundred men and forty cannons. MacMahon, believing he was ahead of the Germans, decided to stop and reorganize his forces at the fortified city of Sedan, in the Ardennes close to the Belgian border.[160]
The Battle of Sedan was a total disaster for the French—the army surrendered to the Prussians and Napoleon himself was made a prisoner of war.[161] MacMahon arrived at Sedan with one hundred thousand soldiers, not knowing that two German armies were closing in on the city (one from the west and one from the east), blocking any escape. The Germans arrived on 31 August, and by 1 September, occupied the heights around Sedan where they placed artillery batteries, and began shelling the French positions below. At five o'clock in the morning on 1 September, a German shell seriously wounded MacMahon in the hip. Sedan quickly came under bombardment from seven hundred German guns.[162] MacMahon's replacement, General Wimpffen, launched a series of cavalry attacks to try to break the German encirclement, with no success. During the battle and bombardment, the French lost seventeen thousand killed or wounded and twenty-one thousand captured.
As the German shells rained down on the French positions, Napoleon III wandered aimlessly in the open around the French positions. One officer of his military escort was killed and two more received wounds. A doctor accompanying him wrote in his notebook, "If this man has not come here to kill himself, I don't know what he has come to do. I have not seen him give an order all morning."[162]
Finally, at one o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon emerged from his reverie and ordered a white flag hoisted above the citadel. He then had a message sent to the Prussian king, who was at Sedan with his army: "Monsieur my brother, not being able to die at the head of my troops, nothing remains for me but to place my sword in the hands of Your Majesty."[163]
After the war, when accused of having made a "shameful surrender" at Sedan, he wrote:
Some people believe that, by burying ourselves under the ruins of Sedan, we would have better served my name and my dynasty. It's possible. Nay, to hold in my hand the lives of thousands of men and not to make a sign to save them was something that was beyond my capacity....my heart refused these sinister grandeurs.[164]
At six o'clock in the morning on 2 September, in the uniform of a general and accompanied by four generals from his staff, Napoleon was taken to the German headquarters at Donchery. He expected to see King William, but instead he was met by Bismarck and the German commander, General von Moltke. They dictated the terms of the surrender to Napoleon. Napoleon asked that his army be disarmed and allowed to pass into Belgium, but Bismarck refused. They also asked Napoleon to sign the preliminary documents of a peace treaty, but Napoleon refused, telling them that the French government headed by the Regent, Empress Eugénie, would need to negotiate any peace agreement. The Emperor was then taken to the Château at Bellevue near Frénois (Ardennes), where the Prussian king visited him. Napoleon told the king that he had not wanted the war, but that public opinion had forced him into it. That evening, from the Château, Napoleon wrote to the Empress Eugénie:
It is impossible for me to say what I have suffered and what I am suffering now...I would have preferred death to a capitulation so disastrous, and yet, under the present circumstances, it was the only way to avoid the butchering of sixty thousand people. If only all my torments were concentrated here! I think of you, our son, and our unhappy country.[165]
The news of the capitulation reached Paris on 3 September, confirming the rumors that were already circulating in the city. When the Empress heard the news that the Emperor and the army had been taken prisoner, she reacted by shouting at the Emperor's personal aide, "No! An Emperor does not capitulate! He is dead!...They are trying to hide it from me. Why didn't he kill himself! Doesn't he know he has dishonored himself?!"[166] Later, when hostile crowds formed near the palace and the staff began to flee, the Empress slipped out with one of her entourage and sought sanctuary with her American dentist, who took her to Deauville. From there, on 7 September, she took the yacht of a British official to England.
On 4 September, a group of republican deputies, led by Léon Gambetta, gathered at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris and proclaimed the return of the Republic and the creation of a Government of National Defence. The Second Empire had come to an end.[167]
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From 5 September 1870 until 19 March 1871, Napoleon III and his entourage of thirteen aides were held in comfortable captivity at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe near Kassel, Germany. Eugénie traveled there incognito to visit Napoleon.[168]
General Bazaine, staying in the fortification of Metz with a large part of the remaining French Army while being besieged, had secret talks with Bismarck's envoys on 23 September. The idea was for Bazaine to establish a conservative regime in France, for himself or for Napoleon's son.[169] Bazaine's envoy, who spoke to Bismarck at Versailles on 14 October, declared that the army in Metz was still loyal to Napoleon. Bazaine was willing to take over power in France after the Germans had defeated the republic in Paris. Because of the weakening of the French position overall, Bismarck lost interest in this option.[170]
On 27 November, Napoleon composed a memorandum to Bismarck that raised the possibility that the Prussian king might urge the French people to recall him as Emperor after a peace treaty was signed and Paris surrendered. But by this time, Metz had already fallen, leaving Napoleon without a power base. Bismarck did not see much chance for a restored empire, as the French people would consider Napoleon a mere marionette of the enemy.[171] One last initiative from Eugénie failed in January, because of the late arrival of her envoy from London. Bismarck refused to acknowledge the former empress, as this had caused irritations with Britain and Russia. Shortly afterwards, the Germans signed a truce with the Government of France.[172]
Napoleon continued to write political tracts and letters and dreamed of a return to power. Bonapartist candidates participated in the first elections for the National Assembly on 8 February but won only five seats. On 1 March, the newly elected assembly officially declared the removal of the emperor from power and placed all the blame for the French defeat squarely on him.[168] When peace was arranged between France and Germany, Bismarck released Napoleon; the emperor decided to go into exile in England. Having limited funds, Napoleon sold properties and jewels and arrived in England on 20 March 1871.
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Napoleon, Eugénie, their son and their entourage, including the American Colonel Zebulon Howell Benton, settled at Camden Place,[173] a large three-storey country house in the village of Chislehurst in Kent, a half-hour by train from London. He was received by Queen Victoria, who also visited him at Chislehurst.[174]
Louis-Napoleon had a longtime connection with Chislehurst and Camden Place: years earlier, while exiled in England, he had often visited Emily Rowles, whose father had owned Camden Place in the 1830s. She had assisted his escape from a French prison in 1846.
He had also paid attention to another English girl, Elizabeth Howard, who later gave birth to a son, whose father (not Louis-Napoleon) settled property on her to support the son, via a trust whose trustee was Nathaniel Strode. Strode bought Camden Place in 1860 and spent large sums of money transforming it into a French château. Strode had also received money from the Emperor, possibly to buy Camden Place and maintain it as a bolt hole.[speculation?]
Napoleon passed his time writing and designing a stove which would be more energy efficient. In the summer of 1872, his health began to worsen. Doctors recommended surgery to remove his gallstones. After two operations, he became very seriously ill. His final defeat in the war would haunt the dying former emperor throughout his last days. His last words were "Isn't it true that we weren't cowards at Sedan?”, directed at Henri Conneau, his attendant who fought in the battle alongside him. He was given last rites and died on 9 January 1873.[175]
Napoleon was originally buried at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Chislehurst. However, after his son, an officer in the British Army, died in 1879 fighting against the Zulus in South Africa, Eugénie decided to build a monastery and a chapel for the remains of Napoleon III and their son. In 1888, the bodies were moved to the Imperial Crypt at St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, England.[176]
Louis Napoleon has a historical reputation as a womanizer, yet he said: "It is usually the man who attacks. As for me, I defend myself, and I often capitulate."[177] He had many mistresses. During his reign, it was the task of Count Felix Bacciochi, his social secretary, to arrange for trysts and to procure women for the Emperor's favours. His affairs were not trivial sideshows: they distracted him from governing, affected his relationship with the empress, and diminished him in the views of the other European courts.[178][page needed]
Among his numerous lovers and mistresses were:[179][page needed]
His wife, Eugénie, resisted his advances prior to marriage. She was coached by her mother and her friend, Prosper Mérimée. "What is the road to your heart?" Napoleon demanded to know. "Through the chapel, Sire," she answered.[177] Yet, after marriage, it took not long for him to stray as Eugénie found sex with him "disgusting".[177][failed verification] It is doubtful that she allowed further approaches by her husband once she had given him an heir.[who?][178][page needed]
By his late forties, Napoleon started to suffer from numerous medical ailments, including kidney disease, bladder stones, chronic bladder and prostate infections, arthritis, gout, obesity, and the chronic effects of smoking. In 1856, Dr. Robert Ferguson, a consultant called from London, diagnosed a "nervous exhaustion" that had a "debilitating impact upon sexual ... performance"[179][page needed] which he also reported to the British government.[178][page needed]
With Prosper Mérimée, Napoleon III continued to seek the preservation of numerous medieval buildings in France that had been neglected since the French Revolution, a project Mérimée had begun during the July Monarchy. With Eugène Viollet-le-Duc acting as chief architect, many buildings were saved, including some of the most famous in France: Notre Dame Cathedral, Mont Saint-Michel, Carcassonne, Vézelay Abbey, Pierrefonds, and Roquetaillade castle.
Napoleon III also directed the building of the French railway network, which contributed to the development of the coal mining and steel industry in France. This advance radically changed the nature of the French economy, which entered the modern age of large-scale capitalism.[184] The French economy, the second largest in the world at the time (behind the British economy), experienced a very strong growth during the reign of Napoleon III.[185] Names such as steel tycoon Eugène Schneider and banking mogul James de Rothschild are symbols of the period. Two of France's largest banks, Société Générale and Crédit Lyonnais, still in existence today, were founded during that period. The French stock market also expanded prodigiously, with many coal mining and steel companies issuing stocks. Historians credit Napoleon chiefly for supporting the railways, but not otherwise building the economy.[186]
Napoleon's military pressure and Russian mistakes, culminating in the Crimean War, dealt a blow to the Concert of Europe, since it precipitated a war that disrupted the post-Napoleonic peace, although the ultimately diplomatic solution to the war demonstrated the continued vitality of the system. The concert was based on stability and balance of powers, whereas Napoleon attempted to rearrange the world map to France's advantage.
A 12-pound cannon designed by France is commonly referred to as a "Napoleon cannon" or "12-pounder Napoleon" in his honor.
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The historical reputation of Napoleon III is far below that of his uncle and had been heavily tarnished by the empire's military failures in Mexico and against Prussia. Victor Hugo portrayed him as "Napoleon the Small" (Napoléon le Petit), a mere mediocrity, in contrast with Napoleon I "The Great", presented as a military and administrative genius. In France, such arch-opposition from the age's central literary figure, whose attacks on Napoleon III were obsessive and powerful, made it impossible for a very long time to assess his reign objectively. Karl Marx, in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, famously mocked Napoleon III by saying "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historical facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." Napoleon III has often been seen as an authoritarian but ineffectual leader who brought France into dubious, and ultimately disastrous, foreign military adventures.[187]
Historians by the 1930s saw the Second Empire as a precursor of fascism, but by the 1950s were celebrating it as leading example of a modernizing regime.[188][75] However, historians have generally given Napoleon negative evaluations on his foreign policy, and somewhat more positive evaluations of his domestic policies, especially after he liberalized his rule after 1858. His greatest achievements came in material improvements, in the form of a grand railway network that facilitated commerce and tied the nation together and centered it on Paris. He is given high credits for the rebuilding of Paris with broad boulevards, striking public buildings, very attractive residential districts for upscale Parisians, and great public parks, including the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, used by all classes of Parisians.[189] He promoted French business and exports. In international policy, he tried to emulate his uncle, with numerous imperial ventures around the world, as well as wars in Europe. He badly mishandled the threat from Prussia and found himself without allies in the face of overwhelming force.[190]
Napoleon has been portrayed by:
Napoleon III also plays a small but crucial role in April and the Extraordinary World (2015).
Napoleon III is a principal character (with Horatio Hornblower) in C. S. Forester's final story The Last Encounter.[194]
His full title as emperor was: "Napoleon the Third, by the Grace of God and the will of the Nation, Emperor of the French".[195]
National[196]
Foreign[196]
.svg/1280px-Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_Sardinia_(1848-1851).svg.png){kind=small}
Sardinia:.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Vatican_City_(2001%E2%80%932023,_2-3).svg.png){kind=small}
Holy See: Grand Cross of the Order of Pope Pius IX, 1849
Tuscany: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Joseph, 1850.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Spain_(1785%E2%80%931873,_1875%E2%80%931931).svg.png){kind=small}
Spain: Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 17 September 1850
Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 18 July 1852.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Portugal_(1830%E2%80%931910).svg.png){kind=small}
Portugal:.svg/1280px-Flagge_K%C3%B6nigreich_Sachsen_(1815-1918).svg.png){kind=small}
Saxony: Knight of the Order of the Rue Crown, 29 December 1852.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Brazil_(1822%E2%80%931870).svg.png){kind=small}
Brazil: Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross, 23 March 1853.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Bavaria_(striped).svg.png){kind=small}
Bavaria: Knight of the Order of St. Hubert, 22 September 1853
Mexican Republic: Grand Cross of the Order of Guadalupe, 12 January 1854.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Mexico_(1864-1867).svg.png){kind=small}
Mexican Empire: Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Mexican Eagle, with Collar, 1 January 1865.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small}
Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold, 15 February 1854.svg/1280px-Flagge_Herzogtum_Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha_(1911-1920).svg.png){kind=small}
.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Saxe-Altenburg_(1893-1918).svg.png){kind=small}
.svg/1280px-Flagge_Herzogtum_Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha_(1826-1911).svg.png){kind=small}
Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order, 1 March 1854
Austria: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen, 1854.svg/1280px-Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_the_Two_Sicilies_(1816).svg.png){kind=small}
Two Sicilies: Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Ferdinand and of Merit, 1854
United Kingdom: Knight of the Order of the Garter, 18 April 1855
Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 2 August 1855
Netherlands: Grand Cross of the Military William Order, 13 September 1855.svg/1280px-Swedish_civil_ensign_(1844%E2%80%931905).svg.png){kind=small}
Sweden-Norway:.svg/1280px-Flag_of_the_Ottoman_Empire_(1844%E2%80%931922).svg.png){kind=small}
Ottoman Empire:.svg/1280px-Flagge_Gro%C3%9Fherzogtum_Baden_(1891%E2%80%931918).svg.png){kind=small}
Baden:.svg/1280px-Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_Prussia_(1803-1892).svg.png){kind=small}
Prussia:
Württemberg: Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown, 1856
Russia:
Persia: Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion and the Sun, 1856
Hesse-Kassel: Knight of the Order of the Golden Lion, 10 January 1858.svg/1280px-Flagge_Herzogtum_Nassau_(1806-1866).svg.png){kind=small}
Nassau: Knight of the Order of the Golden Lion of Nassau, 2 May 1858
Hanover:.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Tunisia_(1959%E2%80%931999).svg.png){kind=small}
Tunisia: Husainid Family Order, 17 September 1860.svg/1280px-Flagge_Gro%C3%9Fherzogtum_Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach_(1813-1897).svg.png){kind=small}
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of the Order of the White Falcon, 14 November 1860.svg/1280px-State_Flag_of_Greece_(1863-1924_and_1935-1973).svg.png){kind=small}
Greece: Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer, 1863.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Honduras_(1866-1898).svg.png){kind=small}
Honduras: Grand Cross of the Order of Santa Rosa and of Civilization, 1869
Monaco: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Charles, 16 November 1869[198]
