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Domestic Affairs Under Napoleon III
In December 1848, Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, was elected president of the Second Republic. Most political leaders in Paris at the time considered him to be easily manipulated and incompetent. Louis surprised the entire nation when, on December 2, 1851, he seized power in a coup d’etat and became dictator of France. Exactly one year later, he declared himself Napoleon III and set out to bring France back to its former glory as the Second Empire.
On the surface, France under Napoleon III glittered. During his reign, the French economy flourished due to high demand for French goods, a new banking system, and a massive program of public works that turned Paris into the envy of the entire world. Under the direction of Baron Georges Haussmann, poor neighborhoods were replaced with museums, apartments for the bourgeoisie, architectural wonders, and wide and straight boulevards. Paris also had a political makeover, as the previously most radical and most volatile of European capitals took a decidedly more conservative bend—policing was easier, the bourgeoisie pushed the workers into the surrounding suburbs, and the rich came in droves to the center.
Foreign Affairs Under Napoleon III
In foreign policy, Napoleon III had both success and failures. As a victor in the Crimean War and a key supporter of Italian unification, French foreign policy became dominant for a time across the continent. With Savoy and Nice back under the French fold, Napoleon III could boast an end to the encirclement imposed upon France after the defeat of his uncle.
However, his involvement in Mexico was a fiasco. In 1861, Napoleon III sent a military force to pacify the Mexican countryside, setting up Austrian Archduke Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. France, as Mexico’s largest creditor, had the support of Mexico’s conservative elite, but only the conservative elite; as a result, Maximilian suffered from a serious lack of popular support in Mexico. Once Napoleon III withdrew his troops to fight in Europe, Maximilian fell to popular uprising and was executed in the summer of 1867. This incident damaged French prestige, threatening to bring down Napoleon III’s regime.
The final blow for the Second Empire was France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After Prussia occupied Paris, Napoleon III fled, and Prussia set up an unstable republican government based on universal male suffrage and multiparty parliamentarianism.
Napoleon III’s Successes
Napoleon III was one of the first modern politicians, keenly aware of the role of public opinion and skillful in the management of information and outward appearances. He began his public works project not only to make Paris a more livable place, but also to show both his public and the world how successful and wealthy France had become. He wanted Paris to be the center of world culture and politics partly because of his fierce patriotism and partly because such international prestige was necessary to the maintenance of his regime.
The rest of France’s success, based primarily on the economic boom in Europe at the time, was not Napoleon III's doing, but we can attribute some credit to him for maintaining it in France. Years of stable, dictatorial rule in Paris brought international investment back into France, resulting in a period of sustained economic growth with wages increasing faster than prices. The rich did get richer, but abject poverty in the cities diminished as well.
