DOMESTIC POLITICS AND FOREIGN POLICYIN THE FRENCH SECOND EMPIRE

Dec 1851

Louis Napoleon’s coup d’etat

1854/55

Crimean War

1859 War with Austria; France captures Saigon

1860 France joins Britain in the conquest of Beijing

1861-67

The Mexican adventure

1866But France does NOTHING as Prussia defeats Austria & transforms the balance of power

1868Napoleon III restores a free press, freedom of association, and free elections

1869 France experiences massive strike wave

Daumier, “The Fugitives” (ca. 1868):At least 100,000 French republicans rose up against Louis

Napoleon’s coup in December 1851, of whom 500 were killed, and 10,000 deported to Algeria

Napoleon III sought tirelessly to make himself popular:“The Emperor Distributes Aid to the Flood Victims of Lyons,” 1856

NAPOLEON III MADE A SHOW OF CATHOLIC PIETY

Notre Dame de la Garde, overlooking Marseilles,

built in 1853

Bronze Madonna & Child in the Massif Central, made from

Russian cannon

“Empress Eugénie Surrounded by her Ladies of Honor” (1855):The aristocratic Spanish beauty married Napoleon III in 1853

Napoleon III liberalized trade policy and the laws on banking and joint stock corporations:

RAILROAD NET (in kilometers)

1840 1850 1860 1870 1910

Germany 469 5,856 11,089 18,876 61,209

France 497 2,915 9,167 15,544 40,484

POPULATION OF PARIS

1800: 550,000

1850: 1,000,000

1880: 2,000,000

OUTPUT OF PIG IRON AND HARD COAL (metric tons)

YEAR FRANCE GERMANY

Iron Coal Iron Coal

1830 266 1,863 110 1,700

1840 348 3,003 190 3,200

1850 406 4,434 210 5,100

1860 898 8,304 529 12,348

1870 1,178 13,330 1,261 26,398*

* Note that the Kingdom of Prussia privatized its coal mines around 1860.

The “Hausmannization” of Paris (1861)

Pissarro, “Avenue de l’Opera: Morning Sunshine” (1898)

THE FRENCH CONQUEST OF ALGERIA, 1830-1870

The lands in

pink were

gained under

Napoleon III

“Grateful Italy”(sent in 1862 by the women of Milan to Empress Eugénie)

Napoleon III ordered the occupation of Saigon in 1859;in 1860 French troops joined the British in the 2nd Opium War

One of the Dagu Forts outside Beijing, destroyed by the British & French in 1860

The War Between the States, 1861-65

The Merrimac vs. the Monitor(i.e., Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8/9, 1862)

Benito Juarez,descended of the Zapotec people,

Governor of Oaxaca, Liberal President of Mexico, 1858-72,

victor by Dec. 1860 in the War of

Reform

Why did Napoleon III conclude that he

was an unpopular tyrant?

“Napoleon III, crossing the American Continent on his Mexican Mule”

(Harper’s Weekly, March 7, 1863)7,000 French troops had suffered an

embarrassing defeat at Puebla on May 5, 1862

“General Bazaine Attacks Fort San-Xavier during theSiege of Puebla, March 29, 1863” (the final assault)

“Execution of the Emperor Maximilian, Queretaro, June 19, 1867

“A Scene from Goethe’s Faust is performed in

Paris,Kladderadatsch,June 29, 1862

Mephisto chants to the sleeping Ambassador Bismarck:“You are not the man to bind the Devil!“Entrance him with sweet dreams.“Sink him in a sea of illusion!”

“A Student of Statecraft Takes Leave of His Master to Set Up Shop on His Own,” Kladderadatsch, 19 October

1862.Napoleon III to Ambassador Bismarck: “Show them that

one can learn a lot from me!”