Chanakya National Law University, Patna

January, 2018

TOPIC: NAPOLEAN III

Submitted by:

Naveen Kumar Pandey,

B.A. L.L.B (Hons.)(1942)

IInd Semester

Submitted to:

Dr. Priyadarshini,

Assistant Professor of History

INTRODUCTION
Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, was emperor of France from 1852 to 1870. Born in
1808 in Paris, France, he grew up in exile—the year 1815 marked the end of Napoleon I's reign.
Louis Bonaparte served as king of Holland from 1806 to 1810, and Hortense de Beauharnais
Bonaparte was the stepdaughter of Napoleon I. Louis-Napoleon's parents had been made king
and queen of French-controlled Holland by Napoleon I, but after Napoleon I's deposition in
1815, all members of the Bonaparte dynasty were forced into exile. Louis-Napoleon grew up in
Switzerland, living with his mother, who instilled in him a longing for France and an abiding
admiration of the genius of Napoleon I.

When he was a young man, Louis-Napoleon settled in Italy, where he became interested in
history and ideas of national liberty, with thoughts of regaining the Napoleonic Empire
beginning to burn in the back of his mind. He and his elder brother, Napoleon Louis, began
espousing liberal politics and joined the Carbonari, a revolutionist group fighting papal and
Austrian control over Northern Italy. The brothers fled in March 1831, when troops began
cracking down on revolutionary activity. Suffering from measles, Napoleon Louis died in his
brother's arms during their escape; Louis-Napoleon was saved from the troops only by his
mother's intervention.

However, Napoleon III was determined to regain the French throne. He began his quest in 1832,
writing various political and military tracts in an effort to make himself and his ideas known.
After a failed coup attempt in 1836, he was exiled again. After the Revolution of 1848, in 1850,
Napoleon III was elected president of the Second Republic. He served in that position until 1852,
when he was made emperor—a position he held until 1870, when the disastrous Franco-Prussian
War led to his capture. His downfall came during the Franco-Prussian War, when his efforts to
defeat Otto Von Bismarck ended in his capture. He was deposed and sent to England, where he
died in 1873.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
 The researcher tend to have insights over the political carrier of Charles-Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte.
 The researcher tend to analyze his reconstruction plan for Paris.
 The researcher tend to analyze the foreign policies of Napolean III and his adventures.
 Napolean III in Unification of Germany and Italy.
 The researcher tend to analyze the accomplishments of Napolean III and the Napoleonic
Legend.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researcher will be relying on doctrinal and non-doctrinal method of research to finalize the
project.

SOURCES OF DATA

 Primary Sources: Books

 Secondary Sources: websites, researches

TENTATIVE CHAPTERISATION
1. Early Life

2. Political Carrier

3. A New Empire
4. Reconstruction Of Paris (1854-70)

5. Foreign Policies

5.1. Crimean Adventure

5.2. Unification of Germany

5.3. Unification Of Italy

6. Social And Economic Policiea

7. Later Years

7.1. Rise of Prussia

7.2. Luxembourg Crisis

7.3. Franco-Prussian War

8. Death

9. Legacy

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:
 Letters of a Revolutionary War Patriot and Vermont Senator: Stephen R. Bradley
 The Political And Historical Works Of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte: Analysis Of The
Sugar Question... : Napoleon III
 Napoleon III and the Second Empire: Roger Price
 Napoleon III and his regime: David Baguley
 Napoleon III: A Life : Fenton S. Bresler
 Mexico and The Foreign policy of Napoleon III : Michele Cunningham
WEBSITES:
 http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/2001025954
 https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/23856/Thesis-1973-K94n.pdf?
sequence=1&isAllowed=y
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_III
 https://www.biography.com/people/napoleon-iii-9420342
 1 Early life
Napoléon III was the son of Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoléon I, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of
Napoléon I's wife Josephine de Beauharnaisby 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 Austria's domination of Northern Italy. This would later have an effect on his
foreign policy.

The Four Napoleons (Collage, about 1858)

In France, a Bonapartist movement continued to aspire to restore a member of Napoleon’s family 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 Napoleon II,
who was briefly acknowledged as Emperor at least by the Bonapartists but lived for most of his life under virtual
imprisonment in Vienna, then to his eldest brother Joseph Bonaparte, then to Louis Bonaparte and his sons. Joseph's elder
brother Lucien Bonaparte and his descendants were passed over by the law of succession because Lucien 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, Napoleon II’s death in 1832 made Louis-Napoléon the Bonaparte heir-presumptive in the next
generation. His uncle and father, relatively old men by then, left to him the active leadership of the Bonapartist cause.
In October 1836, for the first time since his childhood, he re-entered France to try to lead a Bonapartist coup at Strasbourg.
Louis-Philippe had established the July Monarchy in 1830, and was confronted with opposition both from the Legitimists,
the Independents and the Bonapartists. The coup failed; he was illegally deported to Lorient and silently exiled to
the United States of America, where he four years in New York. In August 1840, he launched a second bid for power, this
time sailing with some hired soldiers into Boulogne. He was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment, though in relative
comfort, in the fortress of the town of Ham in the Department of Somme. While in the Ham fortress, sight began to fail.
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, which made him the
direct heir apparent to the Bonaparte claim. In May 1846 he managed to escape to England 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.