Editing Napoleon III (section)

==The Second French Empire==

===Middle years===
[[File:Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte président, par A. Belin.JPG|thumb|The Prince-President in 1852, after the coup d'état]]
The 1851 referendum gave Louis Napoleon a mandate to amend the constitution. Work began on [[French Constitution of 1852|the new document]] in 1852. It was officially prepared by a committee of eighty experts but was actually drafted by a small group of the Prince-President's inner circle. Under the new constitution, Louis Napoleon was automatically reelected as president. Under Article Two, the president could now serve an unlimited number of 10-year terms. He was given the absolute authority to declare war, sign treaties, form alliances and initiate laws. The Constitution re-established universal male [[suffrage]], and also retained a National Assembly, albeit one with reduced authority.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=277}}

Louis Napoleon's government imposed new authoritarian measures to control dissent and reduce the power of the opposition. One of his first acts was to settle scores with his old enemy, King Louis Philippe, who had sent him to prison for life and who had died in 1850. A decree on 23 January 1852 forbade the late king's family to own property in France and annulled the inheritance he had given to his children before he became king.

The National Guard, whose members had sometimes joined anti-government demonstrations, was re-organized and largely used only in parades. Government officials were required to wear uniforms at official formal occasions. The [[Ministry of National Education (France)|Minister of Education]] was given the power to dismiss professors at the universities and review the content of their courses. Students at the universities were forbidden to wear beards, seen as a symbol of republicanism.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=279}}

[[File:Gustave Le Gray, Louis-Napoléon, Prince-President of the Republic, 1852.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Louis Napoleon (1852) by [[Gustave Le Gray]]]]
An election was held for a new National Assembly on 29 February 1852. All resources of the government were used on behalf of the candidates backing the Prince-President. Of eight million eligible voters, 5,200,000 votes went to the official candidates and 800,000 to opposition candidates. About one third of the eligible voters abstained. The new Assembly included a small number of opponents of Louis Napoleon, including 17 monarchists, 18 conservatives, two liberal democrats, three republicans and 72 independents.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=279}}

Despite now holding all governing power in the nation, Louis Napoleon was not content with being an authoritarian president. The ink had barely dried on his new, severely authoritarian constitution when he set about restoring the empire. Following the election, the Prince-President went on a triumphal national tour. In [[Marseille]], he laid the cornerstone of a [[Marseille Cathedral|new cathedral]], a new stock exchange, and a chamber of commerce. In [[Bordeaux]], on 9 October 1852, he gave his principal speech:
{{Blockquote|Some people say the Empire is war. I say the Empire is peace. Like the Emperor I have many conquests to make… Like him I wish … to draw into the stream of the great popular river those hostile side-currents which lose themselves without profit to anyone. We have immense unplowed territories to cultivate; roads to open; ports to dig; rivers to be made navigable; canals to finish, a railway network to complete. We have, in front of Marseille, a vast kingdom to assimilate into France. We have all the great ports of the west to connect with the American continent by modern communications, which we still lack. We have ruins to repair, false gods to tear down, truths which we need to make triumph. This is how I see the Empire, if the Empire is re-established. These are the conquests I am considering, and you around me, who, like me, want the good of our country, you are my soldiers.<ref>Speech of 9 October in Bordeaux, published in ''Le Moniteur''. Cited in {{Harvnb|Milza|2006|p=283}}.</ref>}}

[[Drouyn de Lhuys]], twice foreign minister, later commented that, "the Emperor has immense desires and limited abilities. He wants to do extraordinary things but is only capable of extravagances."{{Sfn|Price|2001|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=l0LMNRvWaLIC&pg=PA407 p. 407]}}

When Louis Napoleon returned to Paris the city was decorated with large arches, with banners proclaiming, "To Napoleon III, emperor". In response to officially inspired requests for the return of the empire, the [[Senate (France)|Senate]] scheduled [[1852 French Second Empire referendum|another referendum for 21–22 November 1852]] on whether to make Napoleon emperor. After an implausible 97 percent voted in favour (7,824,129 votes for and 253,159 against, with two million abstentions), on 2 December 1852—exactly one year after the coup—the Second Republic was officially ended, replaced by the [[Second French Empire]].<ref name="DN">[[Dieter Nohlen]] & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', pp. 673–683 {{ISBN|978-3-8329-5609-7}}</ref> Prince-President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became Napoleon III, [[Emperor of the French]]. His regnal name treats [[Napoleon II]], who never actually ruled, as a true Emperor (he had been briefly recognized as emperor from 22 June to 7 July 1815). The 1852 constitution was retained; it concentrated so much power in Napoleon's hands that the only substantive changes were to replace the word "president" with the word "emperor", and make the post hereditary.

===Modernising the infrastructure and the economy (1853–1869)===
====Early construction====
{{Further|History of rail transport in France}}

One of the first priorities of Napoleon III was the modernisation of the French economy, which had fallen far behind that of the United Kingdom and some of the German states. Political economics had long been a passion of the Emperor. While in Britain, he had visited factories and railway yards; in prison, he had studied and written about the sugar industry and policies to reduce poverty. He wanted the government to play an active, not a passive, role in the economy. In 1839, he had written: "Government is not a necessary evil, as some people claim; it is instead the benevolent motor for the whole social organism."{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=468}} He did not advocate the government getting directly involved in industry. Instead, the government took a very active role in building the infrastructure for economic growth; stimulating the stock market and investment banks to provide credit; building railways, ports, canals and roads; and providing training and education. He also opened up French markets to foreign goods, such as railway tracks from England, forcing French industry to become more efficient and more competitive.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|pp=467–469}}

The period was favorable for industrial expansion. The gold rushes in [[California Gold Rush|California]] and [[Victorian gold rush|Australia]] increased the European money supply. In the early years of the Empire, the economy also benefited from the coming of age of those born during the baby boom of the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Restoration]] period.{{Sfn|Plessis|1988|pp=60–61}} The steady rise of prices caused by the increase of the money supply encouraged company promotion and investment of capital.

Beginning in 1852, Napoleon encouraged the creation of new banks, such as [[Crédit Mobilier]], which sold shares to the public and provided loans to both private industry and to the government. [[Crédit Lyonnais]] was founded in 1863 and [[Société Générale]] in 1864. These banks provided the funding for Napoleon III's major projects, from railway and canals to the rebuilding of Paris.

In 1851, France had only 3,500 kilometers of railway, compared with 10,000 kilometers in England and 800 kilometers in [[Belgium]], a country one-twentieth the size of France. Within days of the coup d'état of 1851, Napoleon's [[Minister of Public Works (France)|Minister of Public Works]] launched a project to build a [[Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture|railway line around Paris]], connecting the different independent lines coming into Paris from around the country. The government provided guarantees for loans to build new lines and urged railway companies to consolidate. There were 18 railway companies in 1848 and six at the end of the Empire. By 1870, France had 20,000 kilometers of railway linked to the French ports and to the railway systems of the neighbouring countries that carried over 100&nbsp;million passengers a year and transported the products of France's new steel mills, mines and factories.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|pp=471–474}}

====Development of steamships and early reconstruction on Paris====

New shipping lines were created, and ports rebuilt in [[Marseille]] and [[Le Havre]], which connected France by sea to the US, Latin America, North Africa and the Far East. During the Empire, the number of steamships tripled, and by 1870, France possessed the second-largest maritime fleet in the world after England.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=475}} Napoleon III backed the greatest maritime project of the age, the construction of the [[Suez Canal]] between 1859 and 1869. The canal project was funded by shares on the [[Paris Bourse|Paris stock market]] and led by a former French diplomat, [[Ferdinand de Lesseps]]. It was opened by [[Empress Eugénie]] with a performance of [[Verdi]]'s opera ''[[Aida]].''{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=474}}

The rebuilding of central Paris also encouraged commercial expansion and innovation. The first department store, [[Bon Marché]], opened in Paris in 1852 in a modest building and expanded rapidly, its income increasing from 450,000 francs a year to 20&nbsp;million. Its founder, [[Aristide Boucicaut]], commissioned a new glass and iron building designed by [[Louis-Charles Boileau]] and [[Gustave Eiffel]] that opened in 1869 and became the model for the modern [[department store]]. Other department stores quickly appeared: [[Printemps|Au Printemps]] in 1865 and [[La Samaritaine]] in 1870. They were soon imitated around the world.{{Sfn|Milza|2006|p=486}}

Napoleon's program also included reclaiming farmland and reforestation. One such project in the [[Gironde|Gironde department]] drained and reforested 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) of moorland, creating the [[Landes forest]], the largest maritime pine forest in Europe.

===Reconstruction of Paris (1854–1870)===
{{Main|Haussmann's renovation of Paris}}
[[File:Adolphe Yvon - Haussmann présente à l'Empereur le plan d'annexion des Communes.jpg|thumb|[[Georges-Eugène Haussmann]] and Napoleon III make official the annexation of eleven communes around Paris to the city. The annexation increased the size of the city from twelve to the present twenty arrondissements.]]

Napoleon III began his regime by launching a series of enormous public works projects in Paris, hiring tens of thousands of workers to improve the sanitation, water supply and traffic circulation of the city. To direct this task, he named a new prefect of the [[Seine department]], [[Georges-Eugène Haussmann]], and gave him extraordinary powers to rebuild the center of the city. He installed a large map of Paris in a central position in his office, and he and Haussmann planned the new Paris.{{Sfn|De Moncan|2009|p=15}}

The population of Paris had doubled since 1815, with neither an increase in its area nor a development of its structure of very narrow medieval streets and alleys.

To accommodate the growing population and those who would be forced from the center by the construction of new boulevards and squares, Napoleon issued a decree in 1860 to [[Municipal annexation|annex]] eleven [[Communes of France|communes]] (municipalities) on the outskirts of Paris and increase the number of [[Arrondissements of Paris|arrondissements]] (city boroughs) from twelve to twenty. Paris was thus enlarged to its modern boundaries with the exception of the two major city parks ([[Bois de Boulogne]] and [[Bois de Vincennes]]) that became part of the French capital in 1920.

For the duration of Napoleon III's reign and a decade afterwards, most of Paris was an enormous construction site. His hydraulic chief engineer, [[Eugène Belgrand]], built a new aqueduct to bring clean water from the [[Vanne (river)|Vanne River]] in the [[Champagne (province)|Champagne region]], and a new huge reservoir near the future [[Parc Montsouris]]. These two works increased the water supply of Paris from 87,000 to 400,000 cubic meters of water a day.{{Sfn|De Moncan|2009|p=21}} Hundreds of kilometers of pipes distributed the water throughout the city, and a second network, using the less-clean water from the [[Ourcq]] and the [[Seine]], washed the streets and watered the new park and gardens. He completely rebuilt the [[Paris sewers]] and installed miles of pipes to distribute gas for thousands of new [[streetlight]]s along the Paris streets.{{Sfn|Milza|2006}}{{Page needed|date=March 2021}}

Beginning in 1854, in the center of the city, Haussmann's workers tore down hundreds of old buildings and constructed new avenues to connect the central points of the city. Buildings along these avenues were required to be the same height, constructed in an architecturally similar style, and be faced with cream-coloured stone to create the signature look of Paris boulevards.

The emperor built two new railway stations: the [[Gare de Lyon]] (1855) and the [[Gare du Nord]] (1865). He completed [[Les Halles]], the great cast iron and glass pavilioned produce market in the center of the city, and built a new municipal hospital, the [[Hôtel-Dieu, Paris|Hôtel-Dieu]], in the place of crumbling medieval buildings on the [[Ile de la Cité]]. The signature architectural landmark was the [[Paris Opera]], the largest theater in the world, designed by [[Charles Garnier (architect)|Charles Garnier]] to crown the center of Napoleon's new Paris.<ref>Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. {{ISBN|978-3-9306-9896-7}}</ref>

Napoleon also wanted to build new parks and gardens for the recreation and relaxation of the Parisians, particularly those in the new neighbourhoods of the expanding city.{{Sfn|Jarrassé|2007}}{{Page needed|date=March 2021}} Napoleon's new parks were inspired by his memories of the parks in London, especially [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], where he had strolled and promenaded in a carriage while in exile; but he wanted to build on a much larger scale. Working with Haussmann and [[Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand]], the engineer who headed the new Service of Promenades and Plantations, he laid out a plan for four major parks at the cardinal points of the compass around the city. Thousands of workers and gardeners began to dig lakes, build cascades, plant lawns, flowerbeds and trees, and construct chalets and grottoes. Napoleon III transformed the [[Bois de Boulogne]] into a park to the west of Paris. To the east, he created the [[Bois de Vincennes]], and to the north, the [[Parc des Buttes-Chaumont]]. The [[Parc Montsouris]] was created to the south.{{Sfn|Jarrassé|2007}}{{Page needed|date=March 2021}}

In addition to building the four large parks, Napoleon had the city's older parks, including the [[Parc Monceau]], formerly owned by the [[House of Orléans|Orléans family]], and the [[Jardin du Luxembourg]], refurbished and replanted. He also created some twenty small parks and gardens in the neighbourhoods as miniature versions of his large parks. Alphand termed these small parks "green and flowering salons". The intention of Napoleon's plan was to have one park in each of the eighty "quartiers" (neighbourhoods) of Paris, so that no one was more than a ten-minute walk from such a park. The parks were an immediate success with all classes of Parisians.{{Sfn|Jarrassé|2007|p=134}}

===Search for a wife===
[[File:Emperor Napoléon III and his family.jpg|thumb|Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie with their young son [[Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial]]]]
Soon after becoming emperor, Napoleon III began searching for a wife to give him an heir.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} He was still attached to his companion [[Harriet Howard]], who attended receptions at the [[Élysée Palace]] and traveled around France with him.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} 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|date=December 2023}}

The Emperor fell in love with a 23-year-old Spaniard noblewoman, [[Eugénie de Montijo|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]].{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|pp=199–204}}

With an heir to the throne secured, Napoleon resumed his "''petites distractions''" with other women.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} Eugénie faithfully performed the duties of an empress, entertaining guests and accompanying the Emperor to balls, opera, and theatre. She traveled to [[Khedivate of Egypt|Egypt]] to open the [[Suez Canal]] and officially represented him whenever he traveled outside France.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Though a fervent Catholic and conservative on many other issues, Eugénie strongly advocated equality for women. She pressured the [[Ministry of National Education (France)|Ministry of National Education]] to give the first [[Baccalauréat|baccalaureate]] diploma to a woman and tried unsuccessfully to induce the {{Lang|fr|[[Académie française]]|italic=no}} to elect the writer [[George Sand]] as its first female member.{{Sfn|Séguin|1990|pp=204–210}}