1852 et la révision de la constitution (French Edition)

It was designed to create a politically strong President. It enables the ratification of international treaties [3] and those associated with the European Union. It is unclear whether the wording especially the reserves of reciprocity is compatible with European Union law. The Constitution also sets out methods for its own amendment either by referendum or through a Parliamentary process with Presidential consent. The normal procedure of constitutional amendment is as follows: However, president Charles de Gaulle bypassed the legislative procedure in and directly sent a constitutional amendment to a referendum article 11 , which was adopted.

This was highly controversial at the time; however, the Constitutional Council ruled that since a referendum expressed the will of the sovereign people, the amendment was adopted. On 21 July , Parliament passed constitutional reforms championed by President Nicolas Sarkozy by a margin of two votes. These changes, if finalized, introduce a consecutive two-term limit for the presidency, give parliament a veto over some presidential appointments, end government control over parliament's committee system, allow parliament to set its own agenda, allow the president to address parliament in-session, and end the president's right of collective pardon.

See French constitutional law of 23 July [4]. Prior to , though executive, administrative and judicial decisions had to comply with the general principles of law jurisprudence derived from law and the practice of law in general , there were no such restrictions on legislation. It was assumed that unelected judges and other appointees should not be able to overrule laws voted for by the directly elected French parliament. In , a landmark decision by the Constitutional Council DC [5] cited the preamble of the Constitution and its references to the principles laid in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen as a reason for rejecting a law that, according to the Council, violated one of these principles.

Since then, it is assumed that the "constitutional block" includes not only the Constitution, but also the other texts referred to in its preamble:. Since then, the possibility of sending laws before the Council has been extended. In practice, the political opposition sends all controversial laws before it. The Constitution defines in Article 89 the rules for amending itself. First, a constitutional bill must be approved by both houses of Parliament. Then, the bill must be approved by the Congress , a special joint session of both houses; alternatively, the bill can be submitted to a referendum.

In , president Charles de Gaulle controversially submitted a bill to a referendum through another procedure defined at article 11 of the Constitution, a procedure which allows the President to hold a referendum without the consent of Parliament — see French presidential election referendum, This permitted the establishment of a popularly elected presidency, that would otherwise have been vetoed by the Parliament. Article 11 was used for constitutional changes for the second and last time in , but the "No" prevailed, causing Charles de Gaulle to resign from the presidency.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Constitution of France Constitution of France Richard Ferrand Senate President: Presidential Legislative Municipal Political parties. Human rights Political scandals. Further information on amendments: This was very popular with French Catholics, but infuriated the republicans, who supported Garibaldi. To gain support from the Catholics, he approved the Loi Falloux in , which restored a greater role for the Catholic Church in the French educational system.

Elections were held for the National Assembly on 13—14 May , 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 Adolphe 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 seats. The Party of Order had a clear majority, enough to block any initiatives of Louis-Napoleon.

On 11 June the socialists and radical republicans made an attempt to seize power. Ledru-Rollin, from his headquarters in the 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. 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 to According to the Constitution of , he had to step down at the end of his term, so Louis-Napoleon 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 the support of many within the Assembly. The vote in July was to in favor of changing the law and allowing him to run again, but this was just short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. Louis-Napoleon believed that he was supported by the people, and he decided to retain power by other means.

The date set for the coup was 2 December, the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz , and the anniversary of the coronation of Louis-Napoleon's uncle Napoleon I. 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 deputies of the moderate right gathered at the city hall of the 10th arrondissement , they were also arrested. A few barricades appeared, and about 1, insurgents came out in the streets, but the army moved in force with 30, troops and the uprisings were swiftly crushed, with the killing of an estimated to opponents of the coup. Louis-Napoleon followed the self-coup by a period of repression of his opponents, aimed mostly at the red republicans. About 26, people were arrested, including 4, in Paris alone. The inmates who were judged most severely were sent to the penal colony in Cayenne.

In the remaining 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. Strict press censorship was enacted by a decree from 17 February 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 greatly expanded.

Constitution française de 1852

After three warnings, a newspaper or journal could be suspended or even permanently closed. Louis-Napoleon wished to demonstrate that his new government had a broad popular mandate, so 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,, voters said yes, , voted no, and 1. He became the most bitter critic of Louis-Napoleon, rejected the amnesty offered him, and did not return to France for twenty years. The referendum also gave Louis-Napoleon a mandate to amend the constitution. Work began on the new document in 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 year terms. He alone was given the authority to declare war, sign treaties, form alliances and initiate laws. The Constitution re-established universal male suffrage , and also retained a National Assembly, but with greatly reduced authority. 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 A decree on 23 January 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 Minister of Education was given the power to dismiss professors at the universities, and to review the content of their courses. Students at the universities were forbidden to wear beards, seen as a symbol of republicanism. An election was held for a new National Assembly on 29 February , and all the resources of the government were used on behalf of the candidates backing the Prince-President.

Of eight million eligible voters, 5,, votes went to the official candidates, and , 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. 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 the new, severely authoritarian constitution when he set about making himself emperor. Following the election, the Prince-President went on a triumphal national tour. In Marseille, he laid the cornerstone of a new cathedral, a new stock exchange, and a chamber of commerce. In Bordeaux, on 9 October , he gave his principal speech:.

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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. When he returned to Paris at the end of his tour, the city was decorated with large arches, with banners proclaiming "To Napoleon III, emperor".

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In response to officially inspired requests for the return of the empire, the Senate scheduled another referendum for 21—22 November on whether to make Napoleon emperor. After an implausible 97 percent voted in favour 7,, votes for and , against, with two million abstentions , on 2 December —exactly one year after the coup—the Second Republic was officially ended, replaced by the Second French Empire.

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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 The constitution was retained; it concentrated so much power in Napoleon's hands that the only substantive change was to replace the word "president" with the word "emperor. One of the first priorities of Napoleon III was the modernization 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, and 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 , he had written: 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. The period was favorable for industrial expansion. The gold rushes in California and 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 Restoration period.

These banks provided the funding for Napoleon III's major projects, from railway and canals to the rebuilding of Paris. In France had only 3, kilometers of railway, compared with 10, kilometers in England and kilometers in Belgium, a country one-twentieth the size of France. The government provided guarantees for loans to build new lines, and urged railway companies to consolidate. There were 18 railway companies in , and six at the end of the Empire. By , France had 20, kilometers of railway, linked to the French ports and to the railway systems of the neighbouring countries, which carried over million passengers a year and transported the products of France's new steel mills, mines and factories.

During the Empire the number of steamships tripled, and by France possessed, after England, the second-largest maritime fleet in the world. The canal was funded by shares on the Paris stock market , and led by a former French diplomat, Ferdinand de Lesseps. The rebuilding of central Paris also encouraged commercial expansion and innovation. Its founder, Aristide Boucicaut , commissioned a new glass and iron building, designed by Louis-Charles Boileau and Gustave Eiffel and opened in , which became the model for the modern department store.

Other department stores quickly appeared: Au Printemps in and La Samaritaine in They were soon imitated around the world. Napoleon III's program also included reclaiming farmland and reforestation. One such project in the Gironde department drained and reforested 10, square kilometers 3, square miles of moorland, creating the Landes forest , the largest maritime pine forest in Europe. 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.

He installed a large map of Paris in a central position in his office, and he and Haussmann planned the new Paris. The population of Paris had doubled since , 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 new boulevards and squares Napoleon III planned to build, he issued in a decree annexing eleven surrounding communes municipalities , and increasing the number of arrondissements city boroughs from twelve to twenty, enlarging Paris to its modern boundaries with the exception of the two major city parks Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes which only became part of the French capital in For the nearly two decades of Napoleon III's reign, and for a decade afterwards, most of Paris was an enormous construction site.

These two works increased the water supply of Paris from 87, to , cubic meters of water a day. He completely rebuilt the Paris sewers , and installed miles of pipes to distribute gas for thousands of new streetlights along the Paris streets. Beginning in , In the center of the city, Haussmann's workers tore down hundreds of old buildings and cut new avenues, connecting the central points of the city. Buildings along these avenues were required to be the same height and in a similar style, and to be faced with cream-coloured stone, creating the signature look of Paris boulevards.

Napoleon III built two new railway stations: The signature architectural landmark was the Paris Opera , the largest theater in the world, designed by Charles Garnier , crowning the center of Napoleon III's new Paris. Napoleon III 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. Napoleon III's new parks were inspired by his memories of the parks in London, especially 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 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. 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 parks were an immediate success with all classes of Parisians. The annexation increased the size of the city from twelve to the present twenty arrondissements. The architect, Charles Garnier , described the style simply as "Napoleon the Third. The Bois de Boulogne , transformed by Napoleon III between and , was designed to give a place for relaxation and recreation to all the classes of Paris. 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. Finally Louis-Napoleon announced that he found the right woman: Her maternal grandfather, William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, was a Scottish wine merchant [ citation needed ]. She received much of her education in Paris.

The civil ceremony took place at Tuileries Palace on 22 January , and a much grander ceremony was held a few days later at Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Safe with an heir, Napoleon III resumed his "petites distractions" with other women. She traveled to Egypt to open the Suez Canal and officially represented him whenever he traveled outside France. Though a fervent Catholic and conservative on many other issues, she strongly advocated equality for women. French troops assisted Italian unification by fighting on the side of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In return, in France received Savoy and the county of Nice.

Later, however, to appease fervent French Catholics, he sent soldiers to defend the residual Papal States against annexation by Italy. In a speech at Bordeaux shortly after becoming Emperor, Napoleon III proclaimed that "The Empire means peace" " L'Empire, c'est la paix " , reassuring foreign governments that he would not attack other European powers in order to extend the French Empire. He was, however, determined to follow a strong foreign policy to extend France's influence, and warned that he would not stand by and allow another European power to threaten its neighbour.

In all of his foreign policy ventures, he put the interests of France first. Lord Palmerston as Britain's foreign minister and prime minister had close personal ties with leading French statesmen, notably Napoleon III himself. Palmerston's goal was to arrange peaceful relations with France in order to free Britain's diplomatic hand elsewhere in the world.

After a brief threat of an invasion of Britain in , France and Britain cooperated in the s, with an alliance in the Crimean War, and a major trade treaty in Nevertheless war scares were consistently worked up by the press. The first purpose-built steam-powered battleship worryingly christened after Napoleon was launched in and the fortification of Cherbourg was strengthened. This led to the extension of the breakwater of Alderney and the construction of Fort Clonque.

He had lived there while in exile and saw Britain as a natural partner in the projects he wished to accomplish.

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An opportunity soon presented itself: In early , Tsar Nicholas I of Russia put pressure on the weak Ottoman government, demanding that the Ottoman Empire give Russia a protectorate over the Christian countries of the Balkans as well as control over Constantinople and the Dardanelles. When Russia refused to leave the Romanian territories it had occupied, Britain and France declared war on March 27, It took France and Britain six months to organize a full-scale military expedition to the Black Sea. The Anglo-French fleet landed thirty thousand French and twenty thousand British soldiers in the Crimea on 14 September, and began to lay siege to the major Russian port of Sevastopol.

As the siege dragged on, the French and British armies were reinforced and troops from the Kingdom of Sardinia joined them, reaching a total of , soldiers, but they suffered terribly from epidemics of typhus , dysentery , and cholera. During the days of the siege, the French lost 95, soldiers, including 75, due to disease. The suffering of the army in the Crimea was carefully concealed from the French public by press censorship.

In September, after a massive bombardment, the Anglo-French army of fifty thousand men stormed the Russian positions, and the Russians were forced to evacuate Sevastopol. Alexander II sought a political solution, and negotiations were held in Paris in the new building of the French Foreign Ministry on the Quai d'Orsay , from February 25 to April 8, The Crimean War added three new place names to Paris: Alma, named for the first French victory on the river of that name; Sevastopol; and Malakoff, named for a tower in the center of the Russian line captured by the French.

The war had two important diplomatic consequences: The defeat of Russia and the alliance with Britain gave France increased authority and prestige in Europe. This was the first war between European powers since the close of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna , marking a breakdown of the alliance system that had maintained peace for nearly half a century.

The war also effectively ended the Concert of Europe and the Quadruple Alliance , or "Waterloo Coalition," that the other four powers had established. The Paris Peace Conference of represented a high-water mark for the regime in foreign affairs. On the evening of 14 January , he and the Empress escaped an assassination attempt unharmed.

A group of conspirators threw three bombs at the royal carriage as it made its way to the opera. Eight members of the escort and bystanders were killed and over one hundred people injured. The culprits were quickly arrested. They believed that, if Napoleon III were killed, a republican revolt would immediately follow in France, and the new republican government would help all Italian states win independence from Austria and achieve national unification.

Bernard was in London, where, since he was a political exile, the British government refused to extradite him, but Orsini was tried, convicted and executed on 13 March Part of Italy, particularly the kingdom of Piedmont - Sardinia officially "Kingdom of Sardinia" , was independent, but Central Italy was still ruled by the Pope and Lombardy, Venice and much of the north was ruled by Austria. Other states were de jure independent e. Napoleon III had fought with the Italian patriots against the Austrians when he was young, and his sympathy was with them, but the Empress, most of his government and the Catholic Church in France supported the Pope and the existing governments.

The British Government was also hostile to the idea of promoting nationalism in Italy. Despite the opposition in his government and in his own palace, Napoleon III did all that he could to support the cause of Piedmont-Sardinia. He brought his beautiful young cousin, Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione —99 , to Paris to meet the Emperor. As Cavour had hoped, she caught his eye and became his mistress. Between and , she used the opportunity to pass messages and to plead the Italian cause.

In July , Napoleon arranged a secret visit by Count Cavour. They agreed to join forces and drive the Austrians from Italy. Cavour protested that Nice was Italian, but Napoleon responded that "these are secondary questions. There will be time later to discuss them. Napoleon III looked for diplomatic support. Still facing strong opposition within his own government, In the spring of Napoleon III offered to negotiate a diplomatic solution with the twenty-eight-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria , but the Austrians demanded the disarmament of Piedmont-Sardinia first, and sent a fleet with thirty thousand soldiers to reinforce their garrisons in Italy.

Napoleon promised to send two hundred thousand soldiers to help one hundred thousand soldiers from Piedmont-Sardinia to force the Austrians out of northern Italy; in return France would receive the county of Nice and Savoy provided that their populations would agree in a referendum. It was the Emperor Franz Joseph, growing impatient, who finally unleashed the war. On 23 April he sent an ultimatum to the government of Piedmont-Sardinia demanding that they stop their military preparations and disband their army. Napoleon III, though he had very little military experience, decided to lead the French army in Italy himself.

Part of the French army crossed over the Alps, while the other part, with the Emperor, landed in Genoa on 18 May Fortunately for Napoleon and the Piedmontese, the commander of the Austrians, General Giulay, was not very aggressive. His forces greatly outnumbered the Piedmontese army at Turin, but he hesitated, allowing the French and Piedmontese to unite their forces. Napoleon III wisely left the fighting to his professional generals. The first great battle of the war, on 4 June , was fought at the town of Magenta.

It was long and bloody, and the French center was exhausted and nearly broken, but the battle was finally won by a timely attack on the Austrian flank by the soldiers of General MacMahon. The Austrians had seven thousand men killed and five thousand captured, while the French forces had four thousand men killed. The battle was largely remembered because, soon after it was fought, patriotic chemists in France gave the name of the battle to their newly discovered bright purple chemical dye; the dye and the colour took the name magenta. They were greeted by huge, jubilant crowds waving Italian and French flags.

The Austrians had been driven from Lombardy, but the army of General Giulay remained in the region of Venice. His army had been reinforced and numbered , men, roughly the same as the French and Piedmontese, though the Austrians were superior in artillery. On 24 June, the second and decisive battle was fought at Solferino. This battle was even longer and bloodier than Magenta. In confused and often ill-directed fighting, there were approximately forty thousand casualties, including 11, French. Napoleon III was horrified by the thousands of dead and wounded on the battlefield.

He proposed an armistice to the Austrians, which was accepted on 8 July. A formal treaty ending the war was signed on 11 July Count Cavour and the Piedmontese were bitterly disappointed by the abrupt end of the war. Lombardy had been freed, but Venetia the Venice region was still controlled by the Austrians, and the Pope was still the ruler of Rome and Central Italy. Cavour angrily resigned his post. Napoleon III celebrated the day by granting a general amnesty to the political prisoners and exiles he had chased from France.

There were uprisings in central Italy and the Papal states, and Italian patriots, led by Garibaldi, invaded and took over Sicily, which would lead to the collapse of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Napoleon III wrote to the Pope and suggested that he "make the sacrifice of your provinces in revolt and confide them to Victor-Emmanuel. As Cavour had promised, Savoy and the county of Nice were annexed by France in after referendums; although it is disputed how fair they were.

In Nice, 25, voted for union with France, just against, but Italians still called for its return into the 20th century. Count Cavour died a few weeks later, declaring that "Italy is made. To win over the French Catholics and his wife, he agreed to guarantee that Rome would remain under the Pope and independent from the rest of Italy, and agreed to keep French troops there. The capital of Italy became Turin in then Florence in , not Rome.

However, in , Garibaldi gathered an army to march on Rome, under the slogan, "Rome or death". Napoleon III sought but was unable to find a diplomatic solution that would allow him to withdraw French troops from Rome, while guaranteeing that the city would remain under Papal control. Garibaldi made another attempt to capture Rome in November but was defeated by the French and Papal troops near the town of Mentana on 3 November The garrison of eight thousand French troops remained in Rome until August , when they were recalled at the start of the Franco-Prussian War.

In September , Garibaldi's soldiers finally entered Rome and made it the capital of Italy. After the successful conclusion of the Italian campaign, and the annexation of Savoy and Nice to the territory of France, the Continental foreign policy of Napoleon III entered a calmer period. Expeditions to distant corners of the world and the expansion of the Empire replaced major changes in the map of Europe.

He was less engaged in governing and less attentive to detail, but still sought opportunities to increase French commerce and prestige globally. It sent 50, troops under General Philip H. Sheridan to the U. Napoleon was stretched very thin; he had committed 40, troops to Mexico, 20, to Rome to guard the Pope against the Italians, and another 80, in restive Algeria.

Furthermore, Prussia, having just defeated Austria, was an imminent threat. Napoleon realized his predicament and withdrew his troops from Mexico in Maximilian was overthrown and executed. He took over Cochinchina the southernmost part of modern Vietnam, including Saigon in , as well as a protectorate over Cambodia in Additionally, France had a sphere of influence during the 19th century and early 20th century in southern China, including a naval base at Kuangchow Bay Guangzhouwan.

Following the model of the Kings of France and of his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III moved his official residence to the Tuileries Palace , where he had a suite of rooms on the ground floor of the south wing between the Seine and the "Pavillon de l'Horloge" Clock pavilion , facing the garden.

The word Tuilerie , plural Tuileries, means Brickworks or Tile-making works. The Palace was given that name because the neighbourhood in which it had been built in was previously known for its numerous mason and tiler businesses. Napoleon III's bedroom was decorated with a talisman from Charlemagne , a symbol of good luck for the Bonaparte family, while his office featured a portrait of Julius Caesar by Ingres , and a large map of Paris, which he used to show his ideas for the reconstruction of Paris to his prefect of the Seine department, Baron Haussmann.

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The Emperor's rooms were overheated and were filled with smoke, as he smoked cigarette after cigarette. The Empress occupied a suite of rooms just above his, highly decorated in the style of Louis XVI with a pink salon, a green salon and a blue salon. The court moved with the Emperor and Empress from palace to palace each year following a regular calendar.

In June and July, they moved with selected guests to the Palace of Fontainebleau , for walks in the forest, and boating on the lake. Beginning in , the Emperor and Empress spent each September in Biarritz in the Villa Eugenie, a large villa overlooking the sea. At the end of the year the Emperor and Court returned to the Tuileries Palace, and gave a series of formal receptions, and three or four grand balls, with six hundred guests, early in the new year.

Visiting dignitaries and monarchs were frequent guests. During carnival there were a series of very elaborate costume balls, on the themes of different countries and different historical periods, for which guests sometimes spent small fortunes on their costumes. Napoleon III had conservative and traditional taste in art: At the same time, he followed public opinion, and he made an important contribution to the French avant-garde. The artists and their friends complained, and the complaints reached Napoleon III. His office issued a statement: His Majesty, wishing to let the public judge the legitimacy of these complaints, has decided that the works of art which were refused should be displayed in another part of the Palace of Industry.

While the paintings were ridiculed by many critics and visitors, the work of the avant-garde became known for the first time to the French public, and it took its place alongside the more traditional style of painting. In he completed the restoration, begun in , of the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle , and in he declared it a national historical monument.

In , he approved and provided funding for Viollet-le-Duc's restoration of the medieval town of Carcassonne. From the beginning of his reign Napoleon III launched a series of social reforms aimed at improving the life of the working class. He began with small projects, such as opening up two clinics in Paris for sick and injured workers, a program of legal assistance to those unable to afford it, and subsidies to companies which built low-cost housing for their workers.

He outlawed the practice of employers taking possession of or making comments in the work document that every employee was required to carry; negative comments meant that workers were unable to get other jobs. In , he encouraged the creation of a state insurance fund to help workers or peasants who became disabled, and to help their widows and families. His most important social reform was the law which gave French workers the right to strike, which had been forbidden since In he added to this an "Edict of Tolerance," which gave factory workers the right to organize.

He issued a decree regulating the treatment of apprentices, limited working hours on Sundays and holidays, and removed from the Napoleonic Code the infamous article , which said that the declaration of the employer, even without proof, would be given more weight by the court than the word of the employee.

In , he made Victor Duruy , the son of a factory worker and a respected historian, his new Minister of Public Education. Duruy greatly accelerated the pace of the reforms, often coming into conflict with the Catholic church, which wanted the leading role in education. Despite the opposition of the church, Duruy opened schools for girls in each commune with more than five hundred residents, a total of eight hundred new schools. Between and , Duruy created scholastic libraries for fifteen thousand schools, and required that primary schools offer courses in history and geography.

Secondary schools began to teach philosophy, which had been banned by the previous regime at the request of the Catholic church. For the first time public schools in France began to teach contemporary history, modern languages, art, gymnastics and music. The results of the school reforms were dramatic: By , the number had dropped to 25 percent. The rate of illiteracy among both girls and boys dropped to 32 percent.

At the university level, Napoleon III founded new faculties in Marseille , Douai , Nancy , Clermont-Ferrand and Poitiers , and founded a network of research institutes of higher studies in the sciences, history, and economics. These also were criticized by the Catholic Church. One of the centerpieces of the economic policy of Napoleon III was the lowering of tariffs and the opening of French markets to imported goods. He had been in Britain in when Prime Minister Robert Peel had lowered tariffs on imported grains, and he had seen the benefits to British consumers and the British economy.

However, he faced bitter opposition from many French industrialists and farmers, who feared British competition. Convinced he was right, he sent his chief economic advisor, Michel Chevalier , to London to begin discussions, and secretly negotiated a new commercial agreement with Britain, calling for the gradual lowering of tariffs in both countries. He signed the treaty, without consulting with the Assembly, on 23 January Four hundred of the top industrialists in France came to Paris to protest, but he refused to yield. Industrial tariffs on such products as steel rails for railways were lowered first; tariffs on grains were not lowered until June Similar agreements were negotiated with the Netherlands, Italy, and France's other neighbors.

France's industries were forced to modernize and become more efficient to compete with the British, as Napoleon III had intended. Commerce between the countries surged. By the s, the huge state investment in railways, infrastructure and fiscal policies of Napoleon III had brought dramatic changes to the French economy and French society.

French people travelled in greater numbers, more often and farther than they had ever travelled before. The opening of the first public school libraries by Napoleon III and the opening by Louis Hachette of the first bookstores in Napoleon's new train stations led to the wider circulation of books around France. During the Empire industrial production increased by 73 percent, growing twice as rapidly as that of the United Kingdom, though its total output remained lower.

From to , the French economy grew at a pace of five percent a year, and exports grew by sixty percent between and French agricultural production increased by sixty percent, spurred by new farming techniques taught at the agricultural schools started in each Department by Napoleon III, and new markets opened by the railways. The threat of famine, which for centuries had haunted the French countryside, receded. The last recorded famine in France was in During the Empire, the migration of the rural population to the cities increased.

The portion of the population active in agriculture dropped from 61 percent in to 54 percent in The average salary of French workers grew by 45 percent during the Second Empire, but only kept up with price inflation. On the other hand, more French people than ever were able to save money; the number of bank accounts grew from , in to 2,, in The republicans on the left had always opposed him, believing he had usurped power and suppressed the Republic.

The conservative Catholics were increasingly unhappy, because he had taken away most of the Papal States from the Pope, and because he had built up the public education system, which was a rival to the Catholic system. Many businessmen, particularly in the metallurgical and textile industries, were unhappy, because he had reduced the tariffs on British products, putting the British products in direct competition with their own. The members of Parliament were particularly unhappy with him for dealing with them only when he needed money.

When he had liberalized trade with England, he had not even consulted them. Napoleon's large-scale program of public works, and his expensive foreign policy, had created rapidly mounting government debts; the annual deficit was about million gold-francs, and the cumulative debt had reached nearly 1, million gold-francs 1 billion in US readings. The Emperor needed to restore the confidence of the business world, and to involve the legislature and have them share responsibility.

On 24 December , Napoleon III, against the opposition of his own ministers, issued a decree announcing that the legislature would have greater powers. The Senate and the assembly could, for the first time, give a response to the Emperor's program, ministers were obliged to defend their programs before the assembly, and the right of Deputies to amend the programs was enlarged.

On 1 February , further reforms were announced: Deputies could speak from the tribune, not just from their seats, and a stenographic record would be made and published of each session. Another even more important reform was announced on 31 December He did retain the right to change the budget estimates section by section. In the legislative elections of 31 May , the pro-government candidates received 5,, votes, while the opposition received 1,, votes, three times more than in the previous elections.

The rural departments still voted for Napoleon III's candidates, but in Paris 63 percent of the votes went to anti-government republican candidates, with similar numbers in all the large cities. The new assembly contained a large opposition block ranging from Catholics outraged by the Papal policies to Legitimists, Orleanists, protectionists and republicans, armed with new powers given to them by the Emperor himself.

Despite the opposition in the legislature, Napoleon III's reforms remained popular in the rest of the country. A new plebiscite was held in , on the text: The final vote was 7,, votes yes, 1,, votes no, and 1,, abstentions. The Emperor is more popular than ever. Through the s, the health of the Emperor steadily worsened. It had been damaged by his six years in prison at Ham; he had chronic pains in his legs and feet, particularly when it was cold, and as a result, he always lived and worked in overheated rooms and offices. He distrusted doctors and disregarded medical advice, and attributed any problems simply to "rheumatism", for which he regularly visited the hot springs at Vichy and other spas.

It became difficult for him to ride a horse, and he was obliged to walk slowly, often with a cane. From onwards, the crises of his urinary tract were treated with opium , which made him seem lethargic, sleepy and apathetic. His writing became hard to read, and his voice weak. In the spring of he was visited by an old friend from England, Lord Malmesbury. Malmesbury found him to be "terribly changed and very ill. The health problems of the Emperor were kept secret by the government, which feared that, if his condition became public, the opposition would demand his abdication.

One newspaper, the Courrier de la Vienne , was warned by the censors to stop publishing articles which had "a clear and malicious intent to spread, contrary to the truth, alarms about the health of the Emperor. They were reluctant to operate, however, because of the high risk gallstone operations did not become relatively safe until the s and because of the Emperor's weakness.

Before anything further could be done, however, France was in the middle of a diplomatic crisis. In the s, a new rival to French power in Europe appeared on the horizon; Prussia , and its chancellor, Otto von Bismarck , who had ambitions for Prussia to lead a unified Germany. They had cordial relations. On 30 September , however, in Munich, Bismarck declared, in a famous speech: In the winter and spring of , when the German Confederation invaded and occupied the German-speaking provinces of Denmark Schleswig and Holstein , Napoleon III recognized the threat that a unified Germany would pose to France, and he looked for allies to challenge Germany, without success.

The British government was suspicious that Napoleon wanted to take over Belgium and Luxembourg, felt secure with its powerful navy, and did not want any military engagements on the European continent at the side of the French. The Russian government was also suspicious of Napoleon, whom it believed had encouraged Polish nationalists to rebel against Russian rule in Bismarck and Prussia, on the other hand, had offered assistance to Russia to help crush the Polish patriots. In October , Napoleon had a cordial meeting with Bismarck at Biarritz. They discussed Venetia, Austria's remaining province in Italy.

Bismarck told Napoleon that Germany had no secret arrangement to give Venetia to Italy, and Napoleon assured him in turn that France had no secret understanding with Austria. Bismarck hinted vaguely that, in the event of a war between Austria and Prussia, French neutrality would be rewarded with some sort of territory as a compensation. Napoleon III had Luxembourg in mind. In , relations between Austria and Prussia worsened and Bismarck demanded the expulsion of Austria from the German Confederation. Napoleon and his foreign minister, Drouyn de Lhuys , expected a long war and an eventual Austrian victory.

French Constitution of 1848

On 12 June , France signed a secret treaty with Austria, guaranteeing French neutrality in a Prussian-Austrian war. In exchange, in the event of an Austrian victory, Austria would give Venetia to France, and also would create a new independent German state on the Rhine, which would become an ally of France.

At the same time, Napoleon proposed a secret treaty with Bismarck, promising that France would remain neutral in a war between Austria and Prussia. In the event of a Prussian victory, France would recognize Prussia's annexation of smaller German states, and France, in exchange, would receive a portion of German territory, the Palatinate region north of Alsace. Bismarck, rightly confident of success due to the modernization of the Prussian Army , summarily rejected Napoleon's offer. On 2 July, Austria asked Napoleon to arrange an armistice between Italy, which had allied itself with Prussia, and Austria, in exchange for which France would receive Venetia.

The way to Vienna was open for the Prussians, and Austria asked for an armistice. Metternich, the Austrian ambassador to France, saw the Emperor on 7 July and reported: He could barely sit up in his armchair, and his drawn face expressed at the same time moral anguish and physical pain. Napoleon III still hoped to receive some compensation from Prussia for French neutrality during the war. His foreign minister, Drouyn, asked Bismarck for the Palatinate region on the Rhine which belonged to Bavaria, and for the demilitarization of Luxembourg, which was the site of a formidable fortress having then a strong Prussian garrison in accordance with international treaties.

Napoleon's senior advisor, Rouher, increased the demands, asking that Prussia accept the annexation by France of Belgium and of Luxembourg. Luxembourg had regained its de jure independence in as a Grand Duchy. However, it was in personal union with the Netherlands. Bismarck swiftly intervened and showed the British ambassador a copy of Napoleon's demands, and he put pressure on William III to refuse to sell Luxembourg to France. France was forced to renounce any claim to Luxembourg in the Treaty of London Napoleon III gained nothing for his efforts but the demilitarization of the Luxembourg fortress.

Despite his failing health, Napoleon III could see that the Prussian Army, combined with the armies of Bavaria and the other German states, would be a formidable enemy. In , Prussia, with a population of 22 million, had been able to mobilize an army of , men, while France, with a population of 26 million, had an army of only , men, of whom , were in Algeria, Mexico, and Rome. His proposal was opposed by many French officers, such as Marshal Randon , who preferred a smaller, more professional army; he said: What is the necessity? Where is the danger?

Who is threatening us? If France were to disarm, the Germans would know how to convince their governments to do the same. It was replaced in January by a much more modest project to create a garde mobile , or reserve force, to support the army. Napoleon III was overconfident in his military strength and went into war even after he failed to find any allies who would support a war to stop German unification.

Following the defeat of Austria, Napoleon resumed his search for allies against Prussia. In April , he proposed an alliance, defensive and offensive, with Austria. If Austria joined France in a victorious war against Prussia, Napoleon promised that Austria could form a new confederation with the southern states of Germany and could annex Silesia , while France took for its part the left bank of the Rhine River.

But the timing of Napoleon's offer was poorly chosen; Austria was in the process of a major internal reform , creating a new twin monarchy structure with two components, one being the Empire of Austria and the other being the Kingdom of Hungary. Napoleon's attempt to install the archduke Maximilian, the brother of the Austrian Emperor, in Mexico was just coming to its disastrous conclusion; the French troops had just been withdrawn from Mexico in February , and the unfortunate Maximilian would be captured, judged and shot by a firing squad on 19 June.

Napoleon III made these offers again in August , on a visit to offer condolences for the death of Maximilian, but the proposal was not received with enthusiasm. Italian King Victor-Emmanuel was personally favorable to a better relationship with France, remembering the role that Napoleon III had played in achieving Italian unification, but Italian public opinion was largely hostile to France; on 3 November , French and Papal soldiers had fired upon the Italian patriots of Garibaldi, when he tried to capture Rome.

Napoleon presented a proposed treaty of alliance on 4 June , the anniversary of the joint French-Italian victory at Magenta. The Italians responded by demanding that France withdraw its troops who were protecting the Pope, in Rome. While Napoleon III was having no success finding allies, Bismarck signed secret military treaties with the southern German states, who promised to provide troops in the event of a war between Prussia and France.

In , Bismarck signed an accord with Russia, giving Russia liberty of action in the Balkans in exchange for neutrality in the event of a war between France and Prussia. This treaty put additional pressure on Austria, which also had interests in the Balkans, not to ally itself with France. Bismarck also reached out to the liberal government of William Gladstone in London, offering to protect the neutrality of Belgium against a French threat.

In any war between France and Prussia, France would be entirely alone. Bismarck thought that French vanity would lead to war; he exploited that vanity in the Ems Dispatch in July France took the bait and declared war on Prussia. In his memoirs written long after the war, Bismarck wrote: I was convinced that the gulf which was created over time between the north and the south of Germany could not be better overcome than by a national war against the neighbouring people who were aggressive against us. I did not doubt that it was necessary to make a French-German war before the general reorganization of Germany could be realized.

In Bavaria , the largest of the southern German states, unification with mostly Protestant Prussia was being opposed by the Patriotic Party, which favoured a confederacy of Catholic Bavaria with Catholic Austria. German Protestant public opinion was on the side of unification with Prussia, but might not remain so forever. In France, patriotic sentiment was also growing.