Second French Empire
Contents |
Empire Français
French Empire
←
1852–1870
→
.svg)
Flag Imperial Coat of arms
Anthem
Partant pour la Syrie (unofficial)
"Departing for Syria"
.png)
Capital Paris
Language(s) French
Religion Roman Catholicism
Government Constitutional Monarchy
Emperor
- 1852–1870 Napoleon III
Cabinet Chief
- 1852–1869 Position vacant
- 1869–1870 Émile Ollivier
- 1870 Charles Cousin-Montauban
Legislature Parliament
- Upper house Senate
- Lower house Corps législatif
History
- French coup of 1851 2 December 1851
- Louis-Napoleon is proclaim emperor 2 December 1852
- Battle of Sedan 1 September 1870
- Napoleon III is deposed 4 September 1870
Currency French Franc
Today part of
Algeria
Cambodia
French Guiana France Guadeloupe
India Martinique
New Caledonia Réunion
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Vietnam
The Second French Empire (French: Second Empire Français) or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.
Rule of Napoleon III
Although the machinery of government was almost the same under the Second Empire as it had been under the First, its founding principles were different. The function of the Empire, as Emperor Napoleon III often repeated, was to guide the people internally towards justice and externally towards perpetual peace. Holding his power by universal suffrage, and having frequently, from his prison or in exile, reproached previous oligarchical governments with neglecting social questions, he set out to solve them by organising a system of government based on the principles of the "Napoleonic Idea", i.e. of the emperor, the elect of the people as the representative of the democracy, and as such supreme; and of himself, the representative of the great Napoleon I of France, "who had sprung armed from the French Revolution like Minerva from the head of Jove", as the guardian of the social gains of the revolutionary period.
The anti-parliamentary French Constitution of 1852 instituted by Napoleon III on January 14, 1852 was largely a repetition of that of the year 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. One innovation was made, namely, that the Legislative Body was elected by universal suffrage, but it had no right of initiative, all laws being proposed by the executive power. This new political change was rapidly followed by the same consequence as had attended that of Brumaire. On December 2, 1852, France, still under the effect of Napoleon's legacy, and the fear of anarchy, conferred almost unanimously by a plebiscite the supreme power, with the title of emperor, upon Napoleon III.
Napoleon III soon proved that social justice did not mean liberty.[citation needed] He acted in such a way that the principles of 1848 which he had preserved became a mere sham.[citation needed] He paralysed all those active national forces which create public spirit, such as parliament, universal suffrage, the press, education and associations.[citation needed] 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 manipulation of the electoral districts 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.
In order to counteract the opposition of individuals, a surveillance of suspects was instituted. Felice Orsini's attack on the emperor in 1858, though purely Italian in its motive, served as a pretext for increasing the severity of this régime by the law of general security (sûreté générale) which authorised the internment, exile or deportation of any suspect without trial. In the same way public instruction was strictly supervised, the teaching of philosophy was suppressed in the lycées, and the disciplinary powers of the administration were increased.
For seven years France had no democratic life. The Empire governed by a series of plebiscites. Up to 1857 the Opposition did not exist; from then till 1860 it was reduced to five members: Darimon, Emile Ollivier, Hénon, Jules Favre and Ernest Picard. The royalists waited inactive after the new and unsuccessful attempt made at Frohsdorf in 1853, by a combination of the legitimists and Orleanists, to re-create a living monarchy out of the ruin of two royal families.
History
History of France
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The December 2, 1851 coup d'état
On December 2, 1851, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who had been elected President of the Republic, staged a coup d'état by dissolving the National Assembly without having the constitutional right to do so. He thus became sole ruler of France, and re-established universal suffrage, previously abolished by the Assembly. His decisions and the extension of his mandate for 10 years were popularly endorsed by referendum, as was the re-establishment of the Empire from December 2, 1852. He thus became "Napoléon III, Emperor of the French", while the popular referendum became a distinct sign of bonapartism, which Charles de Gaulle would later use.