Napoléon III, born Charles Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, also known as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte,
(20 April 1808 – 9 January
1873) was the first President of the French
Republic from 10 December 1848 to 2 December 1851, then again from 2 December
1851 to 2 December 1852. He
became the third Emperor of the French under the name Napoléon III from
2 December 1852 to 4
September 1870. He holds the unusual distinction of being both the first titular president
and the last monarch of France.
Early life
Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, as he was known before becoming emperor, was born in Paris. He was the third son of
Louis Bonaparte, a younger brother of Napoléon
I, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Napoleon I's wife
Josephine de Beauharnais by her first marriage. During Napoléon I's reign,
Louis-Napoléon's parents had been made king and queen of a French puppet state, the Kingdom of Holland. After Napoléon I's final
defeat and deposition in 1815 and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France,
all members of the Bonaparte dynasty were forced into exile, so the child Louis-Napoléon was brought up in Switzerland (living
with his mother in the canton of Thurgau) and Germany (receiving his education at the
gymnasium school at Augsburg in Bavaria). As a
young man he settled in Italy, where he and his elder brother Napoléon Louis
espoused liberal politics and became involved in the Carbonari, a resistance organization
fighting Austrian domination of Northern Italy. This would later
have an effect on his foreign policy.
The Four Napoleons (Collage, about 1858)
There remained in France, under both the Bourbon and then the Orleanist monarchy, a Bonapartist movement which wanted to restore a Bonaparte to the throne. According to the law of succession
Napoléon I had made when he was Emperor, the claim passed first to his son, the Duke of
Reichstadt, known by Bonapartists as Napoleon II, a sickly youth living
under virtual imprisonment at the court of Vienna, then to his eldest brother Joseph
Bonaparte, then to Louis Bonaparte and his sons. (Louis' elder brother Lucien
Bonaparte and his descendants were passed over by the law of succession because Lucien had attracted Napoléon I's
displeasure and had opposed Napoléon I making himself Emperor.) Since Joseph had no male children, and because Louis-Napoléon's
own elder brother had died in 1831, the death of the Duke of Reichstadt in 1832 made Louis-Napoléon the Bonaparte heir in the
next generation. His uncle and father, relatively old men by now, left to him the active leadership of the Bonapartist cause.
Thus he secretly returned to France in October 1836, for the first time since his childhood, to try to lead a Bonapartist
coup at Strasbourg. Louis-Philippe had established the July Monarchy in
1830, and was confronted to opposition both from the Legitimists, the Republicans and the Bonapartists. The coup failed; he was illegally deported to Lorient and silently exiled to the United States of America,
and spent four years in New York. Then he secretly returned and he tried again in August 1840,
sailing with some hired soldiers into Boulogne. This time, he was caught and imprisoned
for life, though in relative comfort, in the fortress of the town of Ham in the Department of
Somme. While in the Ham fortress, his eyesight became poor (according to 'Napoleon III and his Carnival Empire'). During his
years of imprisonment, he wrote essays and pamphlets that combined his monarchical claim with progressive, even mildly socialist
economic proposals, as he defined Bonapartism. In 1844, his uncle Joseph died, making him
the direct heir apparent to the Bonaparte claim. He finally managed to escape to
Southport, England in May 1846 by changing clothes with a
mason working at the fortress. (His enemies would later derisively nickname him "Badinguet", the name of the mason whose identity
he assumed.) A month later, his father Louis was dead, making Louis-Napoléon the clear Bonapartist candidate to rule France.
President of the French Republic
Louis-Napoléon lived in the United Kingdom until the revolution of February
1848 in France deposed Louis-Philippe and established a Republic. He was
now free to return to France, which he immediately did. He ran for, and won, a seat in the assembly elected to draft a new
constitution, but did not make a great contribution and, as a mediocre public orator, failed to impress his fellow members. Some
even thought that, having lived outside of France almost all his life, he spoke French with a slight German accent (Encylopaedia
Britannica, 1911).
However, when the constitution of the French Second Republic was finally
promulgated and direct elections for the presidency were held on 10 December
1848, Louis-Napoléon won in a landslide, with 5,454,000 votes (around 75% of the total); his
closest rival, Louis Eugène Cavaignac, received 1,448,000 votes. Louis-Napoleon
had no long political career behind him and was able to depict himself as "all things to all men". The monarchist right
(supporters of either the Bourbon or Orleanist royal families) and much of the middle class supported him as the "least worst"
candidate, as a man who would restore order, end the instability in France which had continued since the overthrow of the
monarchy in February, and prevent a socialist revolution. A good proportion of the industrial working class, on the other hand,
were won over by Louis-Napoleon's vague indications of progressive economic views. His overwhelming victory was above all due to
the support of the non-politicized rural masses, to whom the name of Bonaparte meant something, as opposed to the other,
little-known contenders. Louis-Napoléon's platform was the restoration of order after months of political turmoil, strong
government, social consolidation, and national greatness, to which he appealed with all the credit of his name, that of France's
national hero, Napoléon I, who in popular memory was credited with raising the nation to its pinnacle of military greatness and
establishing social stability after the turmoil of the French Revolution. During his term as President, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
was commonly called the Prince-President (Le Prince-Président).
Despite his landslide victory, Louis-Napoléon was faced with a Parliament dominated by monarchists, who saw his government
only as a temporary bridge to a restoration of either the House of Bourbon or of Orléans. Louis-Napoleon governed cautiously
during his first years in office, choosing his ministers from among the more "centre-right" Orleanist monarchists, and generally avoiding conflict with the conservative assembly. He courted Catholic
support by assisting in the restoration of the Pope's temporal rule in Rome, although he tried to please secularist liberal
opinion at the same time by combining this with peremptory demands that the Pope introduce liberal changes to the government of
the Papal States, including appointing a liberal government and establishing the
Code Napoleon there, which angered the Catholic majority in the assembly. He soon made
another attempt to gain Catholic support, however, by approving the Loi Falloux in 1850, which restored a greater role for the Church in the
French educational system.
In the third year of his four-year mandate, President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte asked the National Assembly for a revision of
the constitution to enable the president to run for re-election, arguing that four years were not enough to implement his
political and economic program fully. The Constitution of the Second Republic stated that the Presidency of the Republic was to
be held for a single term of four years, with no possibility of re-election, a restriction written in the Constitution for fear
that a President would abuse his power to transform the Republic into a dictatorship or a sort of life-Presidency. The National
Assembly, dominated by monarchists who wished to restore the Bourbon dynasty, refused to amend the Constitution. The National
Assembly had also changed the electoral law to place restrictions on universal male suffrage, imposing a three-year residency
requirement which would have prevented the large proportion of the lower class, which was itinerant, from voting. Although he had
originally acquiesced to this law, Louis-Napoleon used it as a pretext to break with the Assembly and his conservative ministers.
He surrounded himself with lieutenants completely loyal to him, such as Morny and Persigny, secured the support of the army, and toured the country making
populist speeches condemning the assembly and presenting himself as the protector of universal male suffrage.
After months of stalemate, and using the money of his mistress, Harriet Howard, he
staged a coup d'état and seized dictatorial powers on 2
December 1851, the 47th anniversary of Napoléon I's crowning as Emperor, and also
the 46th anniversary of the famous Battle of Austerlitz (hence another
of Louis-Napoleon's nicknames: "The Man of December", "l'homme de Décembre"). The coup was later declared to have been
approved by the French people in a national referendum whose fairness and legality have been questioned ever since. The coup of
1851 definitely alienated the republicans. Victor Hugo, who had hitherto shown support
toward Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, decided to go into exile after the coup, and became one of the harshest critics of Napoléon
III.
Emperor of the French
French Monarchy -
Bonaparte Dynasty
|
|
Authoritarian empire
New constitutional statutes were passed which officially maintained an
elected Parliament and reestablished universal male suffrage. However, the Parliament now became irrelevant as real power was
completely concentrated in the hands of Louis-Napoléon and his bureaucracy. Exactly one year later, on 2 December 1852, after approval by another referendum, the Second Republic was officially ended and the Empire restored, ushering in the Second French Empire. President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte became Emperor Napoléon III. In a
situation that resembles the case of Louis XVIII of France, the numbering of
Napoléon's reign treats Napoléon II, who never actually ruled, as a true Emperor
(he had been briefly recognized as emperor from 22 June to 7
July 1815). That same year, he began shipping political prisoners and criminals to penal
colonies such as Devil's Island or (in milder cases) New
Caledonia.
The emperor, hitherto a bachelor, began quickly to look for a wife to produce a legitimate heir. Most of the royal families of
Europe were unwilling to marry into the parvenu Bonaparte family, and after rebuffs from Princess Carola of Sweden and from Queen Victoria's German niece
Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Napoléon decided to
lower his sights somewhat and 'marry for love', choosing the young, beautiful Countess of Teba, Eugénie de Montijo, a Spanish noblewoman of partial Scottish ancestry who had been brought up in Paris. On 28 April
1855 Napoléon survived an attempted assassination. In 1856, Eugenie gave birth to a legitimate son
and heir, Napoléon Eugène Louis, the Prince Impérial. On
14 January 1858 Napoléon and his wife escaped another
assassination attempt, plotted by Felice Orsini.
Liberal empire
Until about 1860, Napoléon's regime was definitely authoritarian, using press censorship to prevent the spread of opposition,
manipulating elections, and depriving the Parliament of the right to free debate or any real power. In the 1860s, however,
Napoléon III made more and more concessions to placate his liberal opponents, beginning with allowing free debates in Parliament
and free reports of parliamentary debates, continuing with the relaxation of press censorship, and culminating in the appointment
of the Liberal Émile Ollivier, previously a leader of the opposition to Napoléon's
regime, as (effectively) Prime Minister in 1870. This later period is known as the Liberal
Empire.
Economic and social policy
The French economy was rapidly modernized under Napoléon III. Napoleon III wanted to be known mainly as a great social
engineer. The industrialization of France during this period helped satisfy both the business interests and the working classes.
Downtown Paris was renovated with the clearing of slums, the widening of streets, and the construction of parks according to
Baron Haussmann's plan. Working class neighborhoods were moved to the
outskirts of Paris, where factories utilized their labor. Some of his main backers were Saint-Simonians that referred to him as their "socialist emperor." Saint-Simonians at this time had
founded a new type of banking institution, the Credit Mobilier. The
Credit Mobilier sold stocks to the public and then used the money raised from stocks to invest in industrial enterprises in
France. This sparked a period of rapid economic development.
As it turned out, this time period was very favorable for expansion. The gold rush in California, and later Australia,
increased the European money supply. The steady rise of prices caused by the increase of the money supply encouraged company
promotion and investment of capital. The mileage of railways in France increased from
3,000 to 16,000 kilometers during the 1850s. The growth of railways allowed mines and factories to stay busy. The 55 smaller rail
lines of France were merged into 6 major lines. Wooden ships began to be replaced by iron steamships. Between 1859 and 1869, a
French company built the Suez Canal.
Algeria
Algeria had been under French rule since 1830. Compared to previous administrations, Napoleon
was far more sympathetic to the native Algerians who appealed to his romantic sentiments. Because of this he halted European
migration inland, restricting them to the coastal zone. Moreover, he freed the Algerian rebel leader Abd al Qadir (who had been promised freedom on surrender but was imprisoned by the previous administration)
and gave him a stipend of 150,000 Francs. He also allowed Muslims to serve in the military and civil service on theoretically
equal terms and allowed them to migrate to France. In addition, he gave the option of citizenship, however for Muslims to take
this option they had to accept all of the French civil code, including parts governing inheritance and marriage which might
conflict with Muslim tradition, and they had to reject the competence of religious courts. This was interpreted by some Muslims
as requiring them to give up parts of their religion to obtain citizenship and was resented. One of the most influential
decisions Louis Napoleon made was to change the system of land tenure in Algeria. While well intentioned it in effect destroyed
the traditional system of land management and deprived many Algerians of land. While Napoleon did renounce state claims to tribal
lands, he also set in to effect a process of dismantling tribal land ownership in favor of individual land ownership over the
course of three generations, though this process was accelerated by later administrations. This process was corrupted by French
officials sympathetic to French in Algeria who took much of the land they surveyed into public domain; in addition many tribal
leaders, chosen for loyalty to the French rather than influence in their tribe, immediately sold communal land for cash.
Foreign policy
In a speech in 1852, Napoleon III famously proclaimed that "The Empire means peace" ("L'Empire, c'est la paix",
directly translated reads 'The Empire, it is peace'), reassuring foreign governments that the new Emperor Napoleon would not be
an aggressor as the previous one had been. However, the promise proved illusory; Napoleon III involved France in a series of
conflicts throughout his reign. He was thoroughly determined to follow a strong foreign policy to extend France's power and
glory. He was also driven by vague dreams of re-casting the map of Europe, sweeping away small principalities to create unified
nation-states, even when this seemed to have little relevance to France's interests. In this he remained influenced by his
youthful liberal-nationalist politics as a member of the Carbonari in Italy. These two factors led Napoleon to a certain
adventurism in foreign policy, although this was sometimes tempered by pragmatism.
The Crimean War
Napoleon's challenge to Russia's claims to influence in the Ottoman Empire led to France's successful participation in the Crimean
War (March 1854–March 1856). During this war Napoleon successfully established a French alliance with Britain, which continued after the war's close. The defeat of Russia and the
alliance with Britain gave France increased authority in Europe. This was the first war between European powers since the close
of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, marking a breaking down of the peace system which had held for nearly half a
century.
East Asia
Napoleon took the first steps to establishing a French colonial influence in Indochina. He approved the launching of a naval
expedition in 1858 to punish the Vietnamese for their mistreatment of French Catholic
missionaries and force the court to accept a French presence in the country. An important factor in his decision was the belief
that France risked becoming a second-rate power by not expanding its influence in East Asia. Also, the idea that France had a
civilizing mission was spreading. This eventually led to a full-out invasion in 1861. By 1862 the war was over and Vietnam
conceded three provinces in the south, called by the French Cochin-China, opened three ports
to French trade, allowed free passage of French warships to Cambodia (which led to a French protectorate over Cambodia in 1867),
allowed freedom of action for French missionaries and gave France a large indemnity for the cost of the war. France did not
however intervene in the Christian-supported Vietnamese rebellion in Bac Bo, despite the
urging of missionaries, or in the subsequent slaughter of thousands of Christians after the rebellion, suggesting that although
persecution of Christians was the prompt for the intervention, military and political reasons ultimately drove colonialism in
Vietnam.
The French military mission before its departure to Japan, in 1866.
Charles Chanoine is
standing in the center,
Jules Brunet is second from right in the front row.
In China, France took part in the Second Opium War along with the United Kingdom, and in 1860 French troops entered Beijing. China was
forced to concede more trading rights, allow freedom of navigation of the Yangzi river, give full civil rights and freedom of
religion to Christians, and give France and Britain a huge indemnity. This combined with the intervention in Vietnam set the
stage for further French influence in China leading up to a sphere of influence over parts of Southern China.
In 1866, French Navy troops made an attempt to colonize Korea, during the French Campaign against Korea. In 1867, a French Military Mission to Japan was sent, which played a key role in
modernizing the troops of the Shogun Tokugawa
Yoshinobu, and even participated on his side against Imperial troops during the Boshin
war.
Italy
As President of the Republic, Louis-Napoleon sent French troops to help restore Pope Pius
IX as ruler of the Papal States in 1849 after there had been a revolt there in 1848 (although as a Carbonaro he had been
involved in plotting a similar revolt in the Papal States during his youth in Italy). This won him support in France from
Catholics (although many remained supporters of the Bourbon monarchy at heart). Yet at the same time he had sent an emissary to
negotiate with the revolutionary Italian nationalist Mazzini. The Catholic Encyclopedia observes: "In this way the difficulties of the future emperor reveal
themselves from the beginning; he wished to spare the religious susceptibilities of French Catholics" and yet to support "the
national susceptibilities of the Italian revolutionists -- a double aim which explains many an inconsistency" in his policy.
Napoleon remained attached to the ideal of Italian nationalism which he had embraced in his youth, and wished particularly to
end Austrian rule in Lombardy and Venice (he always nursed a dislike for Austria as the incarnation of conservative, legitimate
monarchy and the great barrier to the reconstruction of Europe on nationalist lines, again traceable back to his Carbonari days).
As Emperor, Napoleon dreamed of doing this, and thus satisfying his own inclinations and winning over liberal and left-wing
opinion in France (which was passionately in favour of Italian unification) while at the same time supporting the Pope in Rome
and thus maintaining conservative and Catholic support in France. These contradictory desires were evident in his policy in
Italy.
In May–July 1859 Napoléon made a secret deal with Cavour, Prime
Minister of Piedmont, for France to assist in expelling Austria from the Italian peninsula and bringing about a united Italy, or
at least a united northern Italy, in exchange for Piedmont ceding to France Savoy and the
Nice region (which was destined to become the so-called French
Riviera). He went to war with Austria in 1859 and won a
victory at Solferino, which resulted in the ceding of Lombardy to Piedmont by
Austria (and in return received Savoy and Nice from Piedmont as promised in 1860). After this had been done, however, Napoleon
decided to end French involvement in the war. This early withdrawal, however, failed to prevent central Italy, including most of
the Papal states, being incorporated into the new Italian state. This led Catholics in France to turn against Napoleon. Napoleon
tried to redress the damage by maintaining French troops in the city of Rome itself, which prevented the Italian government
seizing it from the Pope, a policy which Napoleon's devoutly Catholic wife Eugenie fervently supported. However, Napoleon on the
whole failed to win back Catholic support at home (and made moves to appeal instead to the anti-Catholic left in his domestic
policy in the 1860s, most notably by appointing the anti-clerical Victor Duruy Minister for Education, who further secularised the schooling system). Nonetheless, French
troops remained in Rome to protect the Pope until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.
United States of America
In the beginning of the 1860s, the objectives of the Emperor in foreign policy had been met: France had scored several
military victories in Europe and abroad, the defeat at Waterloo had been exorcised,
and France was regarded again as the largest military power in Europe.
During the American Civil War, Napoleon III brought France to the fore of the
pro-Confederate European powers. For a time, Napoleon III inched steadily
towards officially recognizing the Confederacy, especially after the crash of the cotton industry and his expedition in Mexico.
It is also said that he was driven by a desire to keep the Union split. Through 1862, Napoleon III entertained Confederate
diplomats, raising hopes that he would unilaterally recognize the Confederacy. The Emperor, however, could do little without the
support of the United Kingdom, and never officially recognized the Confederacy.
Mexico
Napoleon's adventurism in foreign policy is aptly demonstrated by the French
intervention in Mexico (January 1862–March 1867). Napoleon, using as a pretext the Mexican Republic's refusal to pay its
foreign debts, planned to establish a French sphere of influence in North America by creating a French-backed monarchy in Mexico,
a project which was supported by Mexican conservatives tired of the anti-clerical Mexican republic. The United States was unable
to prevent this contravention of the Monroe Doctrine because of the American Civil War, and if, as Napoleon hoped, the Confederates were victorious in that conflict, he
believed they would accept the new situation in Mexico.
The monarchy was established under the Habsburg prince Maximilian, with the
support of Mexican conservatives and French troops, in 1863. However, former President Benito
Juarez and his Republican forces retreated to the countryside and fought against the French troops and the Mexican
monarchists. The Mexican monarchist/French forces won victories up until 1865, but then the tide began to turn, partly because
the American Civil War had ended and the U.S. government was now able to give practical support to the Republicans, supplying
them with arms and establishing a naval blockade to prevent French reinforcements arriving from Europe. Napoleon withdrew French
troops from Mexico in 1866. This left Maximilian and the Mexican monarchists doomed to defeat in 1867. Despite Napoleon's pleas
that he abdicate and leave Mexico, Maximilian refused to abandon the Mexican conservatives who had supported him, and remained
alongside them until the bitter end, when he was captured by the Republicans and then shot on 19 June, 1867. The complete failure
of the Mexican intervention was a humiliation for Napoleon, and he was widely blamed across Europe for Maximilian's death, having
induced Maximilian to accept the Mexican throne on the understanding he would always have French support and then abandoning him
when the situation became difficult.
Prussia
A far more dangerous threat to Napoleon, however, was looming. France saw its dominance on the continent of Europe eroded by
Prussia's crushing victory over Austria in the
Austro-Prussian War in June–August 1866. Due in part to his Carbonari past, Napoléon was unable to bring himself to ally with Austria, despite the obvious threat that a
victorious Prussia would pose to France.
Demise
Napoleon III having a conversation with
Bismarck after his defeat and capture at
Sedan.
Napoléon III paid the price for his failure to help defend Austria from Prussia in 1870 when, goaded by the diplomacy of the
Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck, he began the Franco-Prussian War. This war proved disastrous for France, and was instrumental in giving birth to
the German Empire, which would take France's place as the major land power on the
continent of Europe until the end of World War I. In battle against Prussia in July 1870 the
Emperor was captured at the Battle of Sedan (2
September) and was deposed by the forces of the Third Republic in Paris two
days later.
Napoleon spent the last few years of his life in exile in England, with Eugenie and his only son. They lived at Camden Place
Chislehurst (Kent), and he
died on 9 January 1873. He was haunted to the end by bitter
regrets and by painful memories of the battle at which he lost everything; it is said that his last words, addressed to Dr. Henri
Conneau standing by his deathbed, were: "Were you at Sedan?" ("Etiez-vous à Sedan?") [1] The emperor died during a multistage
process to break up a bladder stone. The actual cause of death apparently was
kidney failure and septicemia.[1]
He was originally buried at St. Mary's, the Catholic church in Chislehurst. However, after his son also died in 1879 (fighting
in the British Army against the Zulus in South Africa), the bereaved Eugenie decided to build a monastery, to house monks driven
out of France by the anti-clerical laws of the Third Republic, which would provide a suitable resting place for her husband and
son. Thus in 1888 Napoleon III's body (and that of his son) was moved to the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael's Abbey, Farnborough,
Hampshire, England. Eugenie, who died many years later in 1920, is now buried there with
them.
Napoleon III after his death; engraving in the
Illustrated London News of
January 25, 1873, after a photo by Mssrs. Downey.
Napoléon stayed at No. 6 Clarendon Square, Royal Leamington Spa between 1838-1839. The
building is now called Napoleon House and has a 'Blue plaque' put up by the local
council.
Romances
Louis Napoleon was a lover of women, yet he saw it this way: "It is usually the man who attacks. As for me, I defend myself,
and I often capitulate."[2] He had many
mistresses. During his reign, it was the task of Count Felix Bacciochi, his social secretary, to arrange for trysts and to
procure women for the emperor's favors. His affairs were not trivial sideshows as they distracted him from governing, affected
his relationship with the empress, and diminished him in the views of the other European courts.[3] Among his numerous love affairs and mistresses were:[4]
- Mathilde Bonaparte, his cousin and fiancee;
- Alexandrine Éléonore Vergeot, laundress at the prison at Ham, mother of his sons Louis and
Louis.
- Elisa Rachel Felix, the "most famous actress in Europe";
- Harriet Howard, (1823-1865) wealthy and a major financial backer;
- Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglioni, (1837-1899)
sent by Camillo Cavour to influence his politics;
- Marie-Anne Waleska, a possible mistress, wife of Count Alexandre Joseph Count Colonna-Walewski, his relative and foreign minister;
- Justine Marie Le Boeuf, also known as Marguerite Bellanger, actress and acrobatic
dancer;
- Countess Louise de
Mercy-Argenteau, (1837-1890), likely a platonic relationship, author of The Last Love of an Emperor, her
reminiscences of her association with the emperor.
His wife, Eugenie, was able to resist his advances prior to marriage. She was coached by her mother and her friend,
Prosper Mérimée. "What is the road to your heart?" Napoleon demanded to know. "Through
the chapel, Sire." was supposedly her answer[2]
Yet, after marriage, it took not long for him to stray as Eugenie found sex "disgusting".[2] It is doubted that she allowed further approaches by her husband once she had
given him an heir.[3]
By his late forties, Napoleon started to suffer from numerous medical ailments, including kidney disease, bladder stones,
chronic bladder and prostate infections, arthritis, gout, obesity, and the effects of chronic smoking. In 1856 Dr. Robert
Ferguson, a consultant called from London, diagnosed a "nervous exhaustion" that had a "debilitating impact upon sexual ...
performance".[4] and reported this also to
the British government.[3]
Legacy
An important legacy of Napoléon III's reign was the rebuilding of Paris. Part of
the design decisions were taken in order to reduce the ability of future revolutionaries to challenge the government by
capitalizing on the small, medieval streets of Paris to form barricades. However, this should not overlook the fact that the main
reason for the complete transformation of Paris was Napoléon III's desire to modernize Paris based on what he had seen of the
modernizations of London during his exile there in the 1840s. With his characteristic social approach to politics, Napoléon III
desired to improve health standards and living conditions in Paris with the following goals: build a modern sewage system to
improve health, develop new housing with larger apartments for the masses, create green parks all across the city to try to keep
working classes away from the pubs on Sunday, etc. Large sections of the city were thus flattened down and the old winding
streets were replaced with large thoroughfares and broad avenues. The rebuilding of Paris was directed by Baron Haussmann (1809–1891; Prefect of the Seine
département 1853–1870). It was this rebuilding that turned Paris
into the city of broad tree-lined boulevards and parks so beloved of tourists today.
With Prosper Mérimée, Napoleon III continued to seek the preservation for numerous
medieval buildings in France, which had been left disregarded since the French revolution (a project Mérimée had begun during the
July Monarchy). With Viollet-le-Duc acting as chief architect, many buildings were
saved, including some of the most famous in France : - Notre Dame Cathedral, Mont Saint
Michel, Carcassonne, Pierrefonds,
