Origins of The French Empire
The French empire, commonly known as the French Empire or the Napoleonic Empire, consisted of two periods of French history, when the form of government was an empire and the head of state a monarch, i.c. an emperor.
The First French Empire, was the regime established by Napoleon I in France. This empire lasted from 1804 to 1814, from the Consulate of the First French Republic to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, and was briefly restored during the hundred days period in 1815.
The Second French Empire was the regime established in France by Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second French Republic and the Third French Republic. Napoleon III was the third son of Louis Bonaparte, a younger brother of Napoleon I, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Napoleon I's wife Josephine de Beauharnais by her first marriage. He was his nephew.
Bonapartism had its followers from 1815 forward among those who never accepted the defeat at Waterloo or the Congress of Vienna. Napoleon I's death in exile on Saint Helena in 1821 only transferred the allegiance of many of these persons to other members of the House of Bonaparte.
The question of who is the legitimate heir of the French imperial throne is a matter of great discussion. After the death of Napoleon I's son, known to Bonapartists as Napoleon II, there were several different members of the family in which the Bonapartist hopes rested.
The disturbances of 1848 gave this group hope. Bonapartists were essential in the election of Napoleon I's nephew Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as president of the Second French Republic, and gave him the political support necessary for his 1852 discarding of the constitution and proclaiming the Second French Empire, and himself, as Napoleon III, emperor.
In 1870, Napoleon III led France to a disastrous defeat at the hands of kingdom of Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War, and he subsequently abdicated.
Following the definite overthrow of the second Napoleonic empire, the third French republic was established. Bonapartism was slowly relegated to being the civic faith of a few romantics as more of a hobby than a practical political philosophy. The death knell for Bonapartism was probably sounded when Eugène Bonaparte, the only son of Napoleon III, was killed in action while serving as a British Army officer in Zululand in 1879. Thereafter Bonapartism ceased to be a political force.
Until today, the descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte, and their political supporters, still claim the title of emperor and want to reestablish the monarchy, i.e., the empire, instead of the republic as a form of government, and the emperor instead of the president as the head of state.
Read more about this topic: Line Of Succession To The French Throne (Bonapartist)
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