Western Civilization - History Of European Society

Europe in an Age of Nationalism, 1848–70 489

cal clubs, gave the Catholic Church control of French
education, and arrested radicals. One of the founders of
French feminism, Jeanne Deroin, had dared to run for
office in 1849, after the assembly had laughed at her pe-
titions; Louis-Napoleon restored order by throwing her
in prison. He also demonstrated how far the republic
had changed from its radical origins by sending the
French army to Rome to fight on the side of counterrev-
olution and restore Pope Pius IX to temporal authority.
In June 1849 another rising of Parisian workers pro-
voked more severe reponses.
By December 1851 the Second Republic cast only a
pale shadow of the liberal-democratic program of 1848,
and President Bonaparte ended the pretense by over-
throwing the republic in a military coup d’état. He cre-
ated a Second Empire with himself as Emperor
Napoleon III (honoring Napoleon and his son as prede-
cessors). The French Second Empire (1852–70) began
as a counterrevolutionary regime well suited to the Eu-
rope of Nicholas I, Schwarzenberg, and Pius IX. Yet
Napoleon III differed from them in significant ways. He
shaped France into a unique blend of Caesarism and
modern democracy. The French Second Empire was an
authoritarian regime—at its best a modern form of en-
lightened despotism, at its worst a hint of the modern
police state. On one hand, Napoleon III gave a signifi-
cant boost to the modernization of the French econ-
omy and a great assist to the industrialization of France,
while remaining sensitive to the condition of workers,
whose rights he expanded. On the other hand, a Law
of Suspects (1858) allowed the government to banish

or imprison anyone previously convicted of a political

offense, including virtually all of the leaders of 1848;

under this act, more than five hundred republicans were

transported to Algeria. Although Napoleon III tried to

reshape his regime into a “liberal empire” in the 1860s

and allowed an opposition party, republicans never for-

got that he was the “despicable assassin of the republic.”

No one branded him more effectively than Victor

Hugo (who sat in the legislature of 1848). From exile,

Hugo published a political diatribe entitled Napoleon the

Little,taunting him as “this mummer, this dwarf, this

stunted Tiberius.” A fairer judgment would remember

both sides of this complex man; but few understood

him, and many agreed with Bismarck’s remark that

Napoleon III was “the sphinx without a riddle.”

The Labor Movement and

the Rise of Socialism

Even while victorious counterrevolutionaries dreamt of

restoring the old order, the social and economic trans-

formation of industrialization created great pressures

for the social changes that they resisted. One of the

foremost consequences of industrialization was the rise

of a labor movement expressing the needs of the indus-

trial working class (often known as the proletariat). The

dreadful working and living conditions associated with

industrialization were well known by midcentury, but

neither conservative governments (typically dominated

Illustration 25.4

The Triumph of Reaction.Few

events better symbolized the defeat of

the liberal-national revolutions of 1848

than one in Paris, where the revolution

had begun. The barricades of 1848 had

sometimes been built using nearby trees,

and the French republic had converted

this fact into a great symbolic act—the

planting of new “Liberty Trees” along the

boulevards. In 1850–51, the conserva-

tive government of Louis-Napoleon

Bonaparte made its own symbolic state-

ment by removing the Liberty Trees,

shown here. This act made a philosophi-

cal statement and also denied his oppo-

nents the materials for building

barricades.