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NAPOLEON III
1808 - 1873
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Nephew of
famous Napoleon I, Napoleon III was
French emperor 1852 until 1870.
However, he lost the
Franco-German War for his team and had to pack his knapsack
and go into exile (England) where he died.
FAMILY
Napoleon III was born
Charles-Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. His father was
Louis Bonaparte,
Napoleon I's brother.
Napoleon III's mother was
Hortense de
Beauharnais Bonaparte. Hortense was Napoleon I's stepdaughter and
Joséphine's
daughter from her first marriage with Alexandre.
Thus Louis Napoleon had a heck of
a gene pool.
In 1853, Louis Napoleon married
Eugénie de Montijo.
EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION
Louis Napoleon grew up in
Germany and Switzerland because at the time France didn't want to
have any Bonapartes around for a while. So the family traveled
a bit.
After getting the basics at grammar school in
Augsburg, Germany, his mother let him home school. In 1830, Louis
Napoleon got mixed up in an attempt to overthrow the papacy in Rome.
His brother was killed and he got caught by the Austrians. His
mother Hortense had to fetch him from the Austrian prison. The
things we did when we were young.
EMPEROR
When Napoleon Bonaparte's only son died, Louis Napoleon was ready to
pitch in as Napoleon III. He
told everyone (and wrote about it, too) that he was ready to
rule France as the next emperor.
That didn't sit well with
Citizen King
Louis-Philippe, who had been king since 1830, and Louis-Napoleon was exiled. He first went to
the US and then to England.
It finally all worked out for
Louis Napoleon and the French seemed to be happy for a while.
As Napoleon III, he was a great promoter of progress in terms of
finances, transportation, and technical development in
general.
One of Napoleon III's able
diplomats was Count Waleski, illegitimate son of
Napoleon I and Maria
Walewska.
NAPOLEON III AND MEXICO
Napoleon III was ready to extend his domain as much as he was
ready to collect a debt from Mexico. But recent developments
there in Mexico made it seem harder and harder to get the
dough. Mexico's president
Benito Juárez
promoted many reforms and democracy, of all evils.
Napoleon III intervened. He
rallied the anti-Juarez faction in Mexico and together they
offered Austrian Archduke
Ferdinand Maximilian a job as Emperor of Mexico.
Why not. The Austrian agreed and became Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
The citizens of Mexico begged to differ and executed Max in
1867.
Brief Biography
1808 Birth in Paris
1821 - 1823 Grammar school in Germany
1830 Plot in Rome
1832 Napoleon's only son, the Duke of Reichstadt, dies
1837 Returns from US to visit sick mother in Switzerland
1838 On to England
1840 Back to France to seize power but got arrested
1846 Escape to England
1848 Back to France to take advantage of the political
confusion there
1852 It worked! Now Emperor Napoleon III.
1870 The French decide they rather have a Third Republic
1873 Bladder stone operation went bad. Patient dead.
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