LouisNapoléon

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873), commonly known as Louis Napoleon or Napoleon III, was a French statesman who served as the first president of the French Second Republic (1848–1852) and later as Emperor of the French (1852–1870). He was a nephew of Napoleon I and spent much of his life in exile after the fall of the Napoleonic regime.

During the 1848 revolution, he was elected president of the Second Republic. Growing dissatisfaction with the republic’s politics led him to stage a coup d'état on 2 December 1851, dissolve the legislature, and, after a referendum, declare himself Emperor Napoleon III in 1852, inaugurating the Second French Empire.

As emperor, his reign combined modernization with authoritarian rule. The regime promoted economic growth, railway expansion, and urban renovation, especially in Paris under plans associated with Baron Haussmann. He pursued large public works, financial stabilization, and international projects such as the Suez Canal. In foreign policy he supported French influence in Italy during the wars of unification and attempted an expansive intervention in Mexico (1862–1867).

Internal opposition was contained for a time, but after a disastrous war with Prussia in 1870, France was defeated and Napoleon III was captured at Sedan. He abdicated the throne and went into exile in Britain, where he died in 1873. The Second Empire left a lasting architectural and infrastructural legacy in Paris, but it collapsed and contributed to the rise of the Third Republic.