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Since
the first Bonaparte had had a son who died young, but had
been known to Bonapartistes as Napoleon II, this new Emperor
took the title Napoleon III. He moved into the Tuileries Palace
and the first half of his reign was highly successful. He
reformed many aspects of French life, rebuilding the centre
of Paris, promoting the growth of railways, banking, health
care, commerce, shipbuilding and the telegraph.
Music, the arts and popular entertainment flourished and with
its flickering gaslights, stirring Offenbach melodies and
outrageous can-can revues, Paris became Europe's capital of
light and pleasure. Taking their example from an Emperor with
a wandering eye, the middle and upper classes partied like
never before.
 Napoleon
and his Empress Eugenie forged a close friendship with Britain's
Queen Victoria and many old enmities were buried when the
two nations fought as allies in the Crimean War.
 But
foreign policy was where Napoleon III ultimately went wrong.
He sought to exert influence across four continents, rather
than to conquer countries like his uncle had done. But a succession
of bad decisions culminated in a humiliating war with Prussia.
Paris was besieged and the Emperor was exiled again. This
time it was to Chislehurst in Southern England, along with
Eugenie and their only child, the Prince Imperial. From there
he could only look on in horror as his former capital experienced
the bloodiest revolution of them all.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon
III of France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuileries
Palace |
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France's Second Empire was almost entirely the invention of
one man Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew
of the first great Emperor. After spending most of his life
in exile, he seized his chance to return in 1848 when the
people overthrew France's last king, Louis-Philippe. He got
himself elected to the National Assembly and immediately stood
in the election for France's first president. He won in a
landslide, thanks largely to voters who were seduced by the
glamour of his name. In 1851 he staged a coup to extend his
four year term to ten years and the following year he was
elected as Emperor, again by a huge majority. 
