Editing Napoleon III (section)

==Early political career==
===1848 Revolution and birth of the Second Republic===
[[File:Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte représentant du peuple 1848.JPG|thumb|Louis Napoleon as a member of the National Assembly in 1848. He spoke rarely in the Assembly, but, because of his name, had enormous popularity in the country.]]
In February 1848, Louis Napoleon learned that the [[French Revolution of 1848]] had broken out; as [[Louis Philippe I]], faced with opposition within his government and army, abdicated. Believing that his time had finally come, he set out for Paris on 27 February, departing England on the same day that Louis-Philippe left France for his own exile in [[England]]. When he arrived in Paris, he found that the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] had been declared, led by a Provisional Government headed by a Commission led by [[Alphonse de Lamartine]], and that different factions of republicans, from conservatives to those on the far left, were competing for power. He wrote to Lamartine announcing his arrival, saying that he "was without any other ambition than that of serving my country". Lamartine wrote back politely but firmly, asking Louis-Napoleon to leave Paris "until the city is more calm, and not before the elections for the [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]]". His close advisors urged him to stay and try to take power, but he wanted to show his prudence and loyalty to the Republic; while his advisors remained in Paris, he returned to London on 2 March 1848 and watched events from there.{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=102}}

Louis Napoleon did not run in the [[1848 French Constituent Assembly election|first elections for the National Assembly]], held in April 1848, but three members of the Bonaparte family, [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte]], [[Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte]], and [[Lucien, 3rd Prince Murat|Lucien Murat]] were elected; the name Bonaparte still had political power. In the next elections, on 4 June, where candidates could run in multiple departments, he was elected in four different departments; in Paris, he was among the top five candidates, just after the conservative leader [[Adolphe Thiers]] and [[Victor Hugo]]. His followers were mostly on the left, from the peasantry and working class. His pamphlet on "The Extinction of Pauperism" was widely circulated in Paris, and his name was cheered with those of the socialist candidates [[Armand Barbès|Barbès]] and [[Louis Blanc]].{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=105}}

The [[Moderate Republicans (France, 1848–1870)|Moderate Republican]] leaders of the provisional government, Lamartine and [[Louis-Eugène Cavaignac|Cavaignac]], considered arresting Louis Napoleon as a dangerous revolutionary, but once again he outmaneuvered them. He wrote to the president of the provisional government: "I believe I should wait to return to the heart of my country, so that my presence in France will not serve as a pretext to the enemies of the Republic."{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=106}}

In June 1848, the [[June Days Uprising]] broke out in Paris, led by the far left, against the conservative majority in the National Assembly. Hundreds of barricades appeared in the working-class neighborhoods. General [[Louis-Eugène Cavaignac]], the leader of the army, first withdrew his soldiers from Paris to allow the insurgents to deploy their barricades, and then returned with overwhelming force to crush the uprising; from 24 to 26 June, there were battles in the streets of the working class districts of Paris. An estimated five thousand insurgents were killed at the barricades, fifteen thousand were arrested, and four thousand deported.{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|pp=108–109}}

Louis Napoleon's absence from Paris meant that he was not connected either with the uprising, or with the brutal repression that had followed. He was still in London on 17–18 September, when the elections for the National Assembly were held, but he was a candidate in thirteen departments. He was elected in five departments; in Paris, he received 110,000 votes of the 247,000 cast, the highest number of votes of any candidate. He returned to Paris on 24 September, and this time he took his place in the National Assembly. In seven months, he had gone from a political exile in London to a highly visible place in the National Assembly, as the government finished the [[French Constitution of 1848|new constitution]] and prepared for the first election ever of a president of the French Republic.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=182}}

===Presidential election of 1848===
{{Further|1848 French presidential election}}
[[File:Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte président.JPG|thumb|Louis Napoleon captured 74.2 percent of votes cast in the first French direct presidential elections in 1848.]]

[[File:5fr Napoleon III - 1852.png|thumb|[[Silver coin]]: 5 franc, 1852, Under Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte as president]]
[[File:5 francs Napoleon III 1870 BB.png|thumb|[[Silver coin]]: 5 franc, 1870, Under Emperor Napoleon III]]

The new constitution of the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]], drafted by a commission including [[Alexis de Tocqueville]], called for a strong executive and a president elected by popular vote through universal male suffrage, rather than chosen by the National Assembly.{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=111}} The [[1848 French presidential election|elections]] were scheduled for 10–11 December 1848. Louis Napoleon promptly announced his candidacy. There were four other candidates for the post: General Cavaignac, who had led the suppression of the June uprisings in Paris; Lamartine, the poet-philosopher and leader of the provisional government; [[Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin]], the leader of the socialists; and [[Raspail]], the leader of the far left wing of the socialists.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|pp=182–190}}

Louis Napoleon established his campaign headquarters and residence at the Hôtel du Rhin on [[Place Vendôme]]. He was accompanied by his companion, Harriet Howard, who gave him a large loan to help finance his campaign. He rarely went to the sessions of the National Assembly and rarely voted. He was not a gifted orator; he spoke slowly, in a monotone, with a slight German accent from his Swiss education. His opponents sometimes ridiculed him, one comparing him to "a turkey who believes he's an eagle".{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=115}}

Louis Napoleon's campaign appealed to both the left and right. His election manifesto proclaimed his support for "religion, family, property, the eternal basis of all social order". But it also announced his intent "to give work to those unoccupied; to look out for the old age of the workers; to introduce in industrial laws those improvements which do not ruin the rich, but which bring about the well-being of each and the prosperity of all".{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=125}}

Louis Napoleon's campaign agents, many of them veterans from Napoleon Bonaparte's army, raised support for him around the country. Louis Napoleon won the grudging endorsement of the conservative leader [[Adolphe Thiers]], who believed he could be the most easily controlled; Thiers called him "of all the candidates, the least bad".{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=123}} He won the backing of ''L'Evenement'', the newspaper of Victor Hugo, which declared, "We have confidence in him; he carries a great name."{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|p=124}} His chief opponent, General Cavaignac, expected that Louis Napoleon would come in first, but that he would receive less than fifty percent of the vote, which would mean the election would go to the National Assembly, where Cavaignac was certain to win.

The elections were held on 10–11 December. Results were announced on 20 December. Louis Napoleon was widely expected to win, but the size of his victory surprised almost everyone. He won 5,572,834 votes, or 74.2 percent of votes cast, compared with 1,469,156 for Cavaignac. The socialist Ledru-Rollin received 376,834; the extreme left candidate Raspail 37,106, and the poet Lamartine only 17,000 votes. Louis Napoleon won the support of all segments of the population: the peasants unhappy with rising prices and high taxes; unemployed workers; small businessmen who wanted prosperity and order; and intellectuals such as Victor Hugo. He won the votes of 55.6 percent of all registered voters, and won in all but four of France's departments.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|pp=189–190}}
<gallery>
File:Campagne présidentielle de 1848.jpg|The 1848 presidential campaign pitted Louis Napoleon against General Cavaignac, the Minister of Defense of the Provisional Government, and the leaders of the socialists.
File:Extinction du Paupérisme par Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte 1.jpeg|Louis Napoleon's essay, "The Extinction of Pauperism", advocating reforms to help the working class, was widely circulated during the 1848 election campaign.
</gallery>

===Prince-President (1848–1851)===
Louis Napoleon moved his residence to the [[Élysée Palace]] at the end of December 1848 and immediately hung a portrait of his mother in the boudoir and a portrait of Napoleon I, in his coronation robes, in the grand salon. Adolphe Thiers recommended that he wear clothing of "democratic simplicity", but following the model of his uncle, he chose instead the uniform of the General-in-Chief of the [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]], and chose the title of "Prince-President".{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=194}}

Louis Napoleon also made his first venture into foreign policy, in Italy, where as a youth he had joined in the patriotic uprising against the Austrians. The previous government had sent an expeditionary force, which had been tasked and funded by the National Assembly to support the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states|republican forces]] in Italy against the Austrians and against the Pope. Instead the force was secretly ordered to do the opposite, namely to enter Rome to help restore the [[Temporal power of the Holy See|temporal authority]] of [[Pope Pius IX]], who had been overthrown by Italian republicans including [[Mazzini]] and [[Garibaldi]]. The French troops came under fire from Garibaldi's soldiers. The Prince-President, without consulting his ministers, ordered his soldiers to fight if needed in support of the Pope. This was very popular with French Catholics, but infuriated the republicans, who supported the [[Roman Republic (1849)|Roman Republic]].{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=194}} To please the radical republicans, he asked the Pope to introduce liberal reforms and the ''[[Code Napoleon]]'' to the [[Papal States]]. To gain support from the Catholics, he approved the ''[[Loi Falloux]]'' in 1851, which restored a greater role for the [[Catholic Church in France|Catholic Church]] in the French educational system.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roger Price |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vqd6MdOYZkwC&pg=PA16 |title=Napoléon III and the Second Empire |date=1997 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-2031-3424-5 |page=16}}</ref>

Elections were held for the [[1849 French legislative election|National Assembly on 13–14 May 1849]], only a few months after Louis Napoleon had become president, and were largely won by a coalition of conservative republicans—which Catholics and monarchists called "The [[Party of Order]]"—led by Thiers. The socialists and "red" republicans, led by Ledru-Rollin and Raspail, also did well, winning two hundred seats. The moderate republicans, in the middle, did very badly, taking just 70–80 seats. The Party of Order had a clear majority, enough to block any initiatives of Louis Napoleon.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|pp=208–209}}

On 11 June 1849, the socialists and radical republicans made an attempt to seize power. [[Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin|Ledru-Rollin]], from his headquarters in the [[Conservatoire national des arts et métiers|Conservatory of Arts and Professions]], declared that Louis Napoleon was no longer President and called for a general uprising. A few barricades appeared in the working-class neighborhoods of Paris. Louis Napoleon acted swiftly, and the uprising was short-lived. Paris was declared in a state of siege, the headquarters of the uprising was surrounded, and the leaders arrested. Ledru-Rollin fled to England, Raspail was arrested and sent to prison, the republican clubs were closed, and their newspapers closed down.

The National Assembly, now without the left republicans and determined to keep them out forever, proposed a new election law that placed restrictions on universal male suffrage, imposing a three-year residency requirement. This new law excluded 3.5 of 9&nbsp;million French voters, the voters that the leader of the Party of Order, Adolphe Thiers, scornfully called "the vile multitude".{{Sfn|Cobban|1965|p=155}} This new election law was passed in May 1850 by a majority of 433 to 241, putting the National Assembly on a direct collision course with the Prince-President.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ronald Aminzade |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTbybLDLPiAC&pg=PA299 |title=Ballots and Barricades: Class Formation and Republican Politics in France, 1830–1871 |date=1993 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-6910-2871-2 |page=299}}</ref> Louis Napoleon broke with the Assembly and the conservative ministers opposing his projects in favour of the dispossessed. He secured the support of the army, toured the country making populist speeches that condemned the Assembly, and presented himself as the protector of universal male suffrage. He demanded that the law be changed, but his proposal was defeated in the Assembly by a vote of 355 to 348.{{Sfn|Cobban|1965|p=156}}

According to the Constitution of 1848, Louis Napoleon had to step down at the end of his term. He sought a constitutional amendment to allow him to succeed himself, arguing that four years were not enough to fully implement his political and economic program. He toured the country and gained support from many of the regional governments and many within the Assembly. The vote in July 1851 was 446 to 278 in favor of changing the law and allowing him to run again, but this was short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.<ref>{{Cite book |last=John Stevens Cabot Abbott |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofnapoleo00abbo |title=The history of Napoleon III., emperor of the French |date=1873 |publisher=B.B. Russell |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofnapoleo00abbo/page/418 418]}}</ref>

===Coup d'état (December 1851)===
{{Further|1851 French coup d'état}}
[[File:Franz Xaver Winterhalter Napoleon III.jpg|thumb|[[Portrait of Napoleon III (Winterhalter)|Portrait of Napoleon III]] in 1853 (by [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter]])]]
[[File:Napoleon III daguerreotype-crop.png|thumb|right|[[Daguerreotype]] of Napoleon III {{Circa|1850–1855}}]]
Louis Napoleon believed that he was supported by the people and he chose to retain power by other means. His half-brother [[Charles, duc de Morny]], and a few close advisors quietly began to organize a [[French coup d'état of 1851|coup d'état]]. They included [[Minister of War (France)|minister of war]] [[Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud]] and officers from the French Army in North Africa to provide military backing for the coup. On the night of 1–2 December, Saint Arnaud's soldiers quietly occupied the national printing office, the [[Palais Bourbon]], newspaper offices, and the strategic points in the city. In the morning, Parisians found posters around the city announcing the dissolution of the National Assembly, the restoration of universal suffrage, new elections, and a state of siege in Paris and the surrounding departments. Sixteen members of the National Assembly were arrested in their homes. When about 220 deputies of the moderate right gathered at the city hall of the [[10th arrondissement of Paris|10th arrondissement]], they were also arrested.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=255}} On 3 December, writer [[Victor Hugo]] and a few other republicans tried to organize an opposition to the coup. A few barricades appeared, and about 1,000 insurgents came out in the streets, but the army moved in force with 30,000 troops and the uprisings were swiftly crushed, with the killing of an estimated 300 to 400 opponents of the coup.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=261}} There were also small uprisings in the more militant red republican towns in the south and center of France, but these were all put down by 10 December.{{Sfn|Cobban|1965|pp=157–158}}

Louis Napoleon followed the [[self-coup]] by a period of repression of his opponents, aimed mostly at the red republicans. About 26,000 people were arrested, including 4,000 in Paris alone. The 239 inmates who were judged most severely were sent to the penal colony in [[Cayenne]].{{Sfn|Cobban|1965|p=158}} 9,530 followers were sent to [[French Algeria]], 1,500 were expelled from France, and another 3,000 were given forced residence away from their homes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cobban|1965}}; {{Harvnb|Milza|2006}}.</ref>{{Page needed|date=March 2021}} Soon afterwards, a commission of revision freed 3,500 of those sentenced. In 1859, the remaining 1,800 prisoners and exiles were amnestied, with the exception of the republican leader Ledru-Rollin, who was released from prison but required to leave the country.{{Sfn|Cobban|1965|p=158}}

Strict press censorship was enacted by a decree from 17 February 1852. No newspaper dealing with political or social questions could be published without the permission of the government, fines were increased, and the list of press offenses was expanded. After three warnings, a newspaper or journal could be suspended or even permanently closed.{{Sfn|Cobban|1965|p=159}}

Louis Napoleon wished to demonstrate that his new government had a broad popular mandate, so [[1851 French constitutional referendum|on 20–21 December a national plebiscite]] was held asking if voters agreed to the coup. Mayors in many regions threatened to publish the names of any electors who refused to vote. When asked if they agreed to the coup, 7,439,216 voters said yes, 641,737 voted no, and 1.7&nbsp;million voters abstained.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=271}} The fairness and legality of the [[referendum]] was immediately questioned by Louis Napoleon's critics,<ref name="Cornell University Press">{{Cite book |last1=Edward Berenson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n_eDj7dNMfwC&pg=PA34 |title=The French Republic: History, Values, Debates |last2=Vincent Duclert |last3=Christophe Prochasson |date=2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-6112-5 |page=34}}</ref> but Louis Napoleon was convinced that he had been given a public mandate to rule.

Following the returns, many challenged the validity of such an implausibly lopsided result.<ref name="Cornell University Press" /> One such critic was Victor Hugo, who had originally supported Louis Napoleon but had been infuriated by the coup d'état, departed for [[Brussels]] on 11 December 1851. He became the most bitter critic of Louis Napoleon, rejected the amnesty offered to him, and did not return to France for twenty years.<ref>{{Cite book |last=John Andrew Frey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olFboDm4bcgC&pg=PR20 |title=A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia |date=1999 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=978-0-3132-9896-7 |page=20}}</ref>