Second French Empire

French Empire Empire Français (French)
1852–1870
Flag Imperial coat of arms
Anthem: "Partant pour la Syrie"[1] (de facto)[2][3] "Departing for Syria"
The Second French Empire in 1861
Colonies and territories held by the Second French Empire in 1867, highlighted in blue
Capital	Paris 48°51′23″N 02°21′08″E / 48.85639°N 2.35222°E / 48.85639; 2.35222
Common languages	French
Religion	Roman Catholicism (state religion ) Calvinism Lutheranism Judaism Sunni Islam (in Algeria) Ibadi Islam (in Algeria)
Authoritarian self-proclaimed absolute monarchy (1852–1869) under a military dictatorship (1852–1858) semi-constitutional monarchy (1869–1870)
Emperor
• 1852–1870	Napoleon III
Cabinet Chief
• 1869–1870	Émile Ollivier
• 1870	Charles de Palikao
Legislature	Battle of Sedan	1 September 1870
• Republic proclaimed	4 September 1870
• Fall of Metz	27 October 1870
Currency	French franc
Preceded by Succeeded by French Second Republic Kingdom of Sardinia French Third Republic German Empire Alsace–Lorraine
Today part of	France Algeria

The Second French Empire

.

History

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This section based throughout on the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Second French Empire" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2023)

Coup of 1851

On 2 December 1851,

At that same referendum, a new constitution was approved. Formally enacted in January 1852, the new document made Louis-Napoléon president for 10 years, with no restrictions on re-election. It concentrated virtually all governing power in his hands. However, Louis-Napoléon was not content with merely being an authoritarian president. Almost as soon as he signed the new document into law, he set about restoring the empire. In response to officially inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled a second referendum in November, which passed with 97 percent support. As with the December 1851 referendum, most of the "yes" votes were manufactured out of thin air.^[9]

The empire was formally re-established on 2 December 1852, and the Prince-President became "Napoléon III, Emperor of the French". The constitution had already concentrated so much power in his hands that the only substantive changes were to replace the word "president" with the word "emperor" and to make the post hereditary. The popular referendum became a distinct sign of Bonapartism, which Charles de Gaulle would later use.^[9]

Early reign

With almost dictatorial powers, Napoleon III made building a good railway system a high priority. He consolidated three dozen small, incomplete lines into six major companies using Paris as a hub. Paris grew dramatically in terms of population, industry, finance, commercial activity and tourism. Working with Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Napoleon spent lavishly to rebuild the city into a world-class showpiece.^[10] The financial soundness for all six companies was solidified by government guarantees. Although France had started late, by 1870 it had an excellent railway system, supported as well by good roads, canals and ports.^[11]

Napoleon, in order to restore the prestige of the Empire before the newly awakened hostility of public opinion, tried to gain the support from the Left that he had lost from the Right. After the return from Italy, the general amnesty of 16 August 1859 had marked the evolution of the absolutist or authoritarian empire towards the liberal, and later parliamentary empire, which was to last for ten years.

Religion

The idea of

Ultramontane Catholicism, longing for close links to the Pope in Rome, played a pivotal role in the democratisation of culture. The pamphlet campaign led by Mgr Gaston de Ségur, at the height of the Italian question in February 1860, made the most of the freedom of expression enjoyed by the Catholic Church in France. The goal was to mobilise Catholic opinion and encourage the government to support the Pope. A major result of the Catholic ultramontane campaign was to trigger reforms in the cultural sphere, which also granted freedoms to their political enemies the Republicans and freethinkers.^[13]

Although the Second Empire strongly favoured Catholicism, the official state religion, it tolerated Protestants and Jews, with no persecutions or pogroms. The state dealt with the small Protestant community of Calvinist and Lutheran churches, whose members included many prominent businessmen who supported the regime. The emperor's Decree Law of 26 March 1852 led to greater government interference in Protestant church affairs, thus reducing self-regulation in favor of Catholic bureaucrats who misunderstood and mistrusted Protestant doctrine. Their administration affected not only church-state relations but also the internal lives of Protestant communities.^[14]

Police

Napoleon III manipulated a range of politicised police powers to censor the media and suppress opposition. Legally he had broad powers but in practice he was limited by legal, customary and moral deterrents. By 1851 political police had a centralised administrative hierarchy and were largely immune from public control. The Second Empire continued the system; proposed innovations were stalled by officials. Typically political roles were part of routine administrative duties. Although police forces were indeed strengthened, opponents exaggerated the increase of secret police activity and the imperial police lacked the omnipotence seen in later totalitarian states.^[15]

Freedom of the press

Napoleon began by removing the gag which was keeping the country in silence. On 24 November 1860, he granted to the Chambers the right to vote an address annually in answer to the speech from the throne, and to the press the right of reporting parliamentary debates. He counted on the latter concession to hold in check the growing Catholic opposition, which was becoming more and more alarmed by the policy of laissez-faire practiced by the emperor in Italy. The government majority already showed some signs of independence. The right of voting on the budget by sections, granted by the emperor in 1861, was a new weapon given to his adversaries. Everything conspired in their favour: the anxiety of those candid friends who were calling attention to the defective budget, the commercial crisis and foreign troubles.^[12]

The Union libérale

Napoleon again disappointed the hopes of Italy, allowed

But though the opposition represented by Thiers was rather constitutional than dynastic, there was another and irreconcilable opposition, that of the amnestied or voluntarily exiled republicans, of whom Victor Hugo was the eloquent mouthpiece. Thus those who had formerly constituted the governing classes were again showing signs of their ambition to govern. There appeared to be some risk that this movement among the bourgeoisie might spread to the people. Napoleon believed that he would consolidate his menaced power by again turning to the labouring masses, by whom that power had been established.^[12]

Assured of support, the emperor, through Rouher, a supporter of the absolutist régime, refused all fresh claims on the part of the Liberals. He was aided by international events such as the reopening of cotton supplies when the American Civil War ended in 1865, by the apparent closing of the Roman question by the convention of 15 September, which guaranteed to the Papal States the protection of Italy, and finally by the treaty of 30 October 1864, which temporarily put an end to the Second Schleswig War.^[12]

Social mobility

France was primarily a rural society, in which social class depended on family reputation and land ownership. A limited amount of upward mobility was feasible through the steadily improving educational system. Students from all levels of society were granted admission to public secondary schools, opening a ladder to sons of peasants and artisans. However, whether through jealousy of or distrust for the higher classes, few working-class families took advantage of education or wished to see their sons move up and out: very few sought admission to the 'grandes écoles.' The elite maintained their position while allowing social ascent through the professions for ambitious sons of wealthy farmers and small-town merchants.^[16]

Mobilisation of the working classes

The ultramontane party grumbled, while the industries formerly protected were dissatisfied with

The Empire, taken by surprise, sought to curb both the middle classes and the labourers, goading both into revolutionary actions. There were multiple strikes. The elections of May 1869, which took place during these disturbances, inflicted upon the Empire a serious moral defeat. In spite of the government's warning against the "red terror", the conciliatory candidate Ollivier was rejected by Paris, while 40 irreconcilables and 116 members of the Third Party were elected. Concessions had to be made, and by the senatus-consulte of 8 September 1869, a parliamentary monarchy was substituted for the Emperor's personal government. On 2 January 1870 Ollivier was placed at the head of the first homogeneous, united and responsible ministry.^[12]

Plebiscite of 1870

Although most the country hailed this reconciliation of liberty and order, the republican party insisted on further reforms and liberties and demanding the overthrow of the Empire. The killing of the journalist

The

In 1859, Napoleon led France to war with Austria over Italy. France was victorious and gained Savoy and Nice.

Napoleon dreamed of building a French economic sphere in Latin America, centered on Mexico. He helped to promote rapid economic modernisation, but his army battled diehard insurgents who had American support. By 1863, French military intervention in Mexico to set up a Second Mexican Empire headed by Emperor Maximilian, brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, was a complete fiasco. The Mexicans fought back and after defeating the Confederacy the U.S. demanded the French withdraw from Mexico—sending 50,000 veteran combat troops to the border to ram the point home. The French army went home; the puppet emperor did not leave and was executed.^[19][20]

From 1861 to 1863 France embarked on colonising experiments in Cochinchina (southern Vietnam) and Annam (central Vietnam). The conquest was bloody but successful, and supported by large numbers of French soldiers, missionaries and businessmen, as well as the local Chinese entrepreneurial element.^[21]

Mixed domestic gains and losses resulted from European policies. The support France gave to the Italian cause had aroused the eager hopes of other nations. The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861 after the rapid annexation of Central Italy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies had proved the danger of half-measures. But when a concession, however narrow, had been made to the liberty of one nation, it could hardly be refused to the no less legitimate aspirations of the rest.^[12]

In 1863, these "new rights" again clamoured loudly for recognition: in

Napoleon III doubled the area of the French overseas Empire; he established French rule in New Caledonia, and Cochinchina, established a protectorate in Cambodia (1863); and colonised parts of Africa. He joined Britain in sending an army to China during the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion (1860), but French ventures failed to establish influence in Japan (1867) and Korea (1866).

To carry out his new overseas projects, Napoleon III created a new

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The rise of the neighbouring state of Prussia during the 1860s threatened French supremacy in western Europe. Napoleon, growing steadily weaker in body and mind, badly mishandled the situation, and eventually found himself in a war without allies. Britain was afraid of French militarism and refused to help. Russia was highly annoyed about French interference in supporting Polish rebels in the 1863 uprising. Napoleon had given strong support to Italy, but refused the demand for Rome, and kept French troops in Rome to protect the pope from the new Italian government, thus leading to Italian refusal to help. The United States remained alienated because of the fiasco in Mexico. Napoleon did not know what he wanted or what to do, but the reverse was true for Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, who planned to create a great new German nation, based on Prussian power, as well as resurgent German nationalism based on the systematic humiliation of France. After seeing the defeat of Austria, the Emperor demanded a conscription law. The parliament disagreed, maintaining that professionals would be always the better option, and outvoted, he backed down.^{[citation needed]}

The immediate issue was a trivial controversy regarding control of the

The structure of the French government during the Second Empire was little changed from the

The anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on 14 January 1852 was largely a repetition of that of 1848. All executive power was entrusted to the emperor, who, as head of state, was solely responsible to the people. The people of the Empire, lacking democratic rights, were to rely on the benevolence of the emperor rather than on the benevolence of politicians. He was to nominate the members of the council of state, whose duty it was to prepare the laws, and of the senate, a body permanently established as a constituent part of the empire.^[12]

One innovation was made, namely that the

The Legislative Body was not allowed to elect its own president or to regulate its own procedure, or to propose a law or an amendment, or to vote on the budget in detail, or to make its deliberations public. Similarly, universal suffrage was supervised and controlled by means of official candidature, by forbidding free speech and action in electoral matters to the Opposition, and by a gerrymandering in such a way as to overwhelm the liberal vote in the mass of the rural population. The press was subjected to a system of cautionnements ("caution money", deposited as a guarantee of good behaviour) and avertissements (requests by the authorities to cease publication of certain articles), under sanction of suspension or suppression. Books were subject to censorship.^[12]

To counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted.

• French colonial empire
  • French Africa
  • List of French possessions and colonies
• History of France
• International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)
• Paris during the Second Empire
• Second Empire (architecture)
• Fires at the Paris Commune
• Freemasonry under the Second French Empire

Notes

References

Works cited

• Cunningham, Michele (2001). Mexico and the Foreign Policy of Napoleon III (PDF). Springer.
  ISBN 9780333992630
  .
• Price, Roger (1996). "Napoleon III and the French Second Empire: A Reassessment of a Controversial Period in French History". Historian (52): 4–10.
• Price, Roger, ed. (2015). Documents on the Second French Empire, 1852–1870. Palgrave. p. 272.
  ISBN 9781137507341
  .
• Spitzer, Alan B. (1962). "The Good Napoleon III".
  JSTOR 285884
  .
• Wolf, John B. (1963). France: 1815 to the Present.

Further reading

Surveys

• Aubry, Octave. The Second Empire (1940), popular survey online Archived 22 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine^{[ISBN missing]}
• Bury, J. Napoleon III and the Second Empire (1964), scholarly survey
• Echard, William E., ed. Historical Dictionary of the French Second Empire, 1852–1870 (1985) online Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine^{[ISBN missing]}
• Furet, François. Revolutionary France 1770–1880 (1995), pp 438–491. survey of political history by leading scholar
• Plessis, Alain, and Jonathan Mandelbaum. The Rise and Fall of the Second Empire, 1852–1871 (The Cambridge History of Modern France) (1988) excerpt and text search
• Smith, W.H.C. Second Empire and Commune: France 1848–71 (1985) short overview
• Tulard, Jean (ed.), Dictionnaire du Second Empire, Paris, Fayard, (1995)

Secondary sources

• Adriance, T. (1987). The Last Gaiter Button. A Study of the Mobilization and Concentration of the French Army in the War of 1870.
• Anderson, Robert David (1975). Education in France, 1848–1870. Clarendon Press.
  ISBN 9780198273110
  .
• Baguley, David (2000). Napoleon III and His Regime: An Extravaganza.
• Barker, Nancy Nichols (1979). The French Experience in Mexico, 1821–1861: A History of Constant Misunderstanding. University of North Carolina Press.
  ISBN 9780807813393
  ., relations leading up to the French invasion
• Berenson, E. (1984). Populist Religion and Left-Wing Politics in France, 1830–1852.
• Bertocci, Philip A.; Bertocci, Peter Anthony (2008) [1978]. Jules Simon: Republican anticlericalism and cultural politics in France, 1848–1886. University of Missouri Press.
  ISBN 9780826202390
  .
• Brown, David (2006). "Palmerston and Anglo-French Relations, 1846–1865".
  S2CID 154025726
  .
• Bury, J.; Tombs, R. (1986). Thiers, 1797–1877. A Political Life.
• Case, Lynn M. (1954). French Opinion on War and Diplomacy during the Second Empire.^[ISBN missing]
• Echard, W. (1983). Napoleon III and the Concert of Europe.
• Elwitt, S. (1975). The Making of the 3rd Republic: Class and Politics in France 1868–1884.
• Gibson, R. (1989). A Social History of French Catholicism 1789–1914.
• Gildea, R. (1983). Education in Provincial France, 1800–1914.
• Gooch, G. P. (1960). The Second Empire.
• Guedalla, Philip (1923). The Second Empire.
• Hallberg, Charles W. (1955). Franz Joseph and Napoleon III, 1852–1864: A Study of Austro-French Relations.^{[ISBN missing]}
• Hanna, Alfred J. (1971). Napoleon III and Mexico; American triumph over monarchy. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press.
  OL 5317779M
  .
• Holmes, R. (1984). The Road to Sedan: The French Army 1866–1870.
• Horvath-Peterson, Sandra (1984). Victor Duruy and French Education: Liberal Reform in the Second Empire.
• Howard, Michael (1967). The Franco-Prussian War., diplomatic and political origins and the conduct of the war
• McMillan, James (1991). Napoleon III.
• Payne, Howard C. (1966). The Police State of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, 1851–1860.
• Pinkney, David (1958). Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris. Princeton University Press.
• Pottinger, Evelyn A. (1966). Napoleon III and the German crisis. Harvard University Press.
  OL 26613287M
  .
• Price, Roger (1972). The French Second Republic. A Social History.
• Price, Roger (1997). Napoleon III and the Second Empire.
• Price, Roger (2001). The French Second Empire: An Anatomy of Political Power.^[ISBN missing]
• Richardson, Joanna (1971). La Vie Parisienne, 1852-1870. London: Hamish Hamilton
• Ridley, Jasper (1980). Napoleon III and Eugenie. Viking Press.
  OL 4096372M
  ., full-scale biography
• Schnerb, Robert (1936). "Napoleon III and the Second French Empire".
  S2CID 144162251
  .
• Strauss-Schom, Alan (2018). The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III., biography
• OL 6152211M
  .
• Todd, David (2021). A Velvet Empire: French Informal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (PDF). Princeton University Press. scholarly reviews
• Wetzel, David (2003). A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War.
• Zeldin, Theodore (1958). The Political System of Napoleon III.

Historiography

• Campbell, S. The Second Empire Revisited: A Study in French Historiography (1978)

Primary sources

• Anderson, F.M. (1904). The constitutions and other select documents illustrative of the history of France, 1789–1901.
  OL 23386272M
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Second French Empire.

• The Civil War in France Karl Marx's 3rd address to the Paris Commune, describes character of Second Empire.