In The Shadow of Napoleon - The 2nd French Empire Before 1870 I GLORY & DEFEAT

In the mid-19th century, France was the pre-eminent military and cultural power in Europe. But Napoleon III's splendor and his empire's strength were not, as they seemed, on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War. Hi, I'm Jesse Alexander and welcome to Glory and Defeat, the story of the Franco-Prussian War. Today we'll take a look at France, the great power whose declaration of war in July 1870 began the military showdown with its up-and-coming rival Prussia. The French Second Empire of 1870 was powerful and prestigious, but the country was no longer the France that had conquered most of Europe in the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. France had already experienced three revolutions and even more regime changes since 1789. The most recent revolution in 1848 had thrown out King Louis-Philippe and established a democratic republic under President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon I. President Bonaparte had a bit of an unstable past and had spent time in exile in the US and in prison for his attempts to overthrow the monarchy. Although he spectacularly escaped from prison and then was elected President, Louis-Napoléon wanted to become an emperor like his uncle. So he organized a violent coup and then had himself proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III by popular vote in November 1852. French Republicans and the left were horrified, but industrialists, financiers, the church, and much of the peasantry supported him. Observer Karl Marx was not impressed. The philosopher Hegel remarked somewhere that all great events and personalities of world history occur, in one fashion or another, twice. He forgot to add, the first time as a great tragedy, the next as a lousy farce. The new emperor and his supporters, though, were serious about governing France as a glorious great power. In 1839, Napoleon III was already shaping his image as a successor to Napoleon I in his book On Napoleonic Ideas, Des Idées Napoléonnes. If the destiny foreseen for me by my birth hadn't been changed by events, as nephew of the emperor I would have been one of his defenders, a propagator of his ideas. The emperor is no more, but his spirit is not dead, son esprit n'est pas mort. Napoleon III's policies were largely populist, but he was also familiar with social issues. While in prison, he'd written sincerely about the problem of poverty, and he made social benefits a key part of his governing program. He also prioritized imperial expansion, authoritarian rule, and maintaining good relations with finance, the church, and the conservative rural population. Napoleon III, though, did not have the character of the uncle he was trying so hard to imitate. Some observers criticized him for his perceived weakness for his wife, the influential empress Eugénie. Eugénie was a strong-willed social superstar who set the fashion trends in Paris. Her beauty increased her social status even further, and her lavish balls solidified her as a cultural icon and a player in French politics. As her husband's health gradually declined towards 1870, the conservative and authoritarian ideas of Eugénie and her entourage would make themselves felt. As of 1852, Napoleon III sat on the throne of the Second French Empire, which he hoped would echo the glories of Napoleon I, but the reality was a different story. Napoleon III's reign was characterized by a contradictory ideology, a thirst for popularity, a luxurious lifestyle, and a staged imperial cult of personality. His economic policy, based on public debt, triggered a financial boom that mostly benefited speculators thanks to insider trading. This was the beginning of the rise of the financial industry. The nouveau riche who profited from the system now joined the aristocracy and top bureaucrats as the elite of political and social life. To join these exclusive ranks, one simply bought a false noble title. Writer Guy de Maupassant mocked these wannabe aristocrats in his novel Belle Amie. In the story, a woman pressures her embarrassed nouveau riche fiancé to ennoble himself with dirty money from his financial deals. I would have loved to have a noble name. Couldn't you on the occasion of our marriage arrange one for yourself? Everyone does it and no one laughs. Split your name in two, from du roi to du roi. That should do nicely. The motor and mirror of this corrupt system were the incredible luxury at the imperial court and its magnificent balls. Empress Eugénie's taste in fashion was so revered that her choices even stimulated the country's textile industry. The festive splendor of the court met the social needs of the French elite, but it also corresponded to the regime's need for displaying its own imperial grandeur. Key to maintaining imperial prestige were the church, which supported the emperor unconditionally, and the army. The army now enjoyed a more public role thanks to frequent parades and the strong presence of uniforms in everyday life. Lower income groups were also supposed to benefit, but the jobs generated by public contracts tended to be badly paid. One of the most famous such projects was the modernization of Paris, which had been a mostly medieval-style city. Prefect Georges-Eugène Haussmann oversaw the creation of Paris as it still appears today, with its wide boulevards and neoclassical apartment blocks. Transforming Paris was incredibly expensive, but it did stimulate the economy and added to France's prestige abroad. The Paris of the Second Empire grew into the world capital of the arts, architecture, music, and literature. Heavy industry benefited particularly from the Napoleonic regime. Through tariff and tax reductions, the imperial government provided targeted aid to private industry to encourage economic growth. Economic growth was supposed to solve the problem of poverty and inequality, and the country did experience an impressive boom. The railway network was expanded, the number of coal mines and metal factories increased, and steel production climbed. None of these policies, however, actually solved France's social problems. Napoleon III's liberal economic assumption that unlimited economic growth would benefit workers, peasants, and employees turned out to be unrealistic. French institutions were plagued by nepotism and corruption. Ministers openly used their positions for personal gain, and army officers bought their way up the ranks rather than earning their promotions. The new elite's desire to enrich themselves permeated the entire state administration from top to bottom – a weakness that would have dire consequences in the coming war with Prussia and its allies. France under Napoleon III had a growing economy, but its social and political systems were fragile. And for a regime of questionable legitimacy, success on the international scene became all the more important. Napoleon III was a staunch believer in the principle of nation-states, and had been a supporter of the Italian national unification movement since his youth. Now as emperor, he chose a foreign policy designed to increase the glory of France abroad just as his uncle had done. French troops fought victoriously alongside Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia Piedmont against Russia in the Crimean War of 1853-1856. And in 1859, just as Napoleon I had done, Napoleon III went to war in northern Italy. This time, French forces joined with Sardinia Piedmont against Austria, and the successful result of the Sardinian War was an important step towards the creation of a single Italian national state. But Napoleon III was not as successful as his uncle, and failed to meet some of his foreign policy objectives. When Prussia and its allies fought against Austria and the German Confederation in 1866, Napoleon hoped to be compensated with territory in the Rhineland in exchange for staying neutral. But he got none. This was an embarrassing diplomatic defeat, which was followed by an even worse disaster. In 1867, Napoleon tried to have an Austrian prince proclaimed Emperor of Mexico with the help of French troops. The resulting fiasco was a complete failure, which cost Emperor Maximilian I his life, and cost Napoleon III his reputation as a military leader. Also in 1867, Napoleon's failed plans to acquire Luxembourg led to a war scare with Prussia, and he was diplomatically outmaneuvered by Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck. Outside Europe, Napoleon's colonial policy elevated racist imperialism to a raison d'état. The army expanded French control in North and West Africa, conquered South Vietnam in 1858, and captured Peking alongside other European troops in the Second Opium War. These successful military ventures served, as Napoleon's regime saw it, to bring superior Western civilization to supposedly inferior peoples, and glorify the French Empire. The Second Empire under Napoleon III was a dazzling, authoritarian, and fragile state, and at the same time a center of culture and civilization. The French army had defeated Russia, Austria, and expanded the overseas empire. It was a battle-hardened force that seemed ready for war against any foreign power, even though Parliament was delaying the Emperor's attempts at military reform. Just before Prussia formed the North German Confederation in 1867, Napoleon III publicly proclaimed his confidence. "...a great people like ours has nothing to fear from the unification of Germany. Un grand peuple comme le nôtre n'a rien à craindre de l'unification de l'Allemagne." Just three years later in 1870, Napoleon's confidence – and his army – would be put to their most brutal test yet. An ambitious and in-depth documentary series like Glory and Defeat can only exist with your support. So if you want to contribute to the project, you can go to realtimehistory.net and you even get some cool rewards in return. So join us for Glory and Defeat as we tell the story of the Franco-Prussian War week by week, only on Real Time History.