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Napoléon III of France

Napoleon III
Alexandre Cabanel 002.jpg
Emperor of the French
Reign 2 December 1852 –
4 September 1870
Predecessor Monarchy re-created
Louis Philippe I
as King of the French
Successor Monarchy abolished
Louis Jules Trochu
as President of the Government of National Defense
Cabinet Chiefs
1st President of France
In office 20 December 1848 –
2 December 1852
Predecessor Republic re-created
Louis-Eugène Cavaignac
as Chief of the Executive Power
Successor Republic abolished
Prime Ministers
Born Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
(1808-04-20)20 April 1808
Paris, French Empire
Died 9 January 1873(1873-01-09) (aged 64)
Chislehurst, Kent, England
Burial St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, England
Spouse Eugénie de Montijo
Issue Louis Napoléon, Prince Imperial
Full name
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
House Bonaparte
Father Louis I of Holland
Mother Hortense de Beauharnais
Religion Catholicism
Full name
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
Royal styles of
Napoleon III of France
Coat of Arms Second French Empire (1852–1870)-2.svg
Reference style His Imperial Majesty
Spoken style Your Imperial Majesty
Alternative style Sire

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the only President (1848–52) of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor (1852–70) of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. He was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He was blocked by the Constitution and Parliament from running for a second term, so he organized a coup d'état in 1851 and then took the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution.

During the first years of the Empire, Napoleon's government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859. Thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his regime came to be known as the "Liberal Empire." Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly.

Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, and other French cities. Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made France an agricultural exporter. Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with France's other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize. Women's education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools.


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