His early years
He was born on the 20th of April 1808, in Paris France to the brother of Napoleon I and his wife.
His mother was Hortense Bonaparte and his father was Louis Bonaparte. He was given the name Charles-Louis-Napoleon-Bonaparte. The family spent Charles early life living outside of France. Where his father, Louis Bonaparte, reigned as king in Holland, from 1806 to 1810. During that time, Holland was governed and ruled by France. That was until 1815, when the Napoleon Dynasty was overthrown in France. It was at that point that the Bonaparte's were forced into exile. The family went to Switzerland. It was while in Switzerland that Napoleon III learned about Napoleon I. Napoleon III love of history continued into adulthood, when he moved to Italy. It was while in Italy that he learned and became interested in history. He also started to take an interest in politics, particularly the ideas of national liberty. While in Italy, he joined a revolutionary group called Carbonari. They were a group fighting the papal monarchy, while also fighting against Austria's control over Northern Italy. Returning to France His revolutionary attempts failed in Italy when there was a crackdown by Italian authorities on revolutionary activities. While fleeing from Italy, his brother died in his arms. It was Napoleon's mother who saved his life from troops. Otherwise, he would have suffered the same fate as his brother. Napoleon III eventually returned to France on the 23rd of April 1831, when the old regime fell. His arrival in France was short term. After his first failed coup, he fled to London and remained in exile there from 1836 to 1840. While in London, Napoleon kept his dream alive of returning to France and ruling it. He attempted a coup again in the summer of 1840. On August 6th 1840, Napoleon and his men sailed across the channel, stopping at Boulogne. His second attempt at a coup was even more of a disaster than the first. Some even view Napoleon's attempt as a coup as a comedy. One French newspaper called, 'Le Journal des Debats' wrote, ''this surpasses comedy. One doesn't kill crazy people, one just locks them up.'' Napoleon was imprisoned in Northern France, in a fortress known as Ham in the Somme for his attempted coup. While in prison, he made use of his time by writing political essays and poems. In a way, he used his time in much the same way as Hitler spent his time in prison, by writing about his political theories and ideas. However, his political theories and ideas written down were nothing like Hitler's. This is one thing that Napoleon III wrote down while in prison: "The working class has nothing, it is necessary to give them ownership. They have no other wealth than their own labor, it is necessary to give them work that will benefit all....they are without organization and without connections, without rights and without a future; it is necessary to give them rights and a future and to raise them in their own eyes by association, education, and discipline." His political idea about the working class sounds like Marxism. The quote comes from Napoleon's most popular book, Le Extinction du pauperism (1844), which means 'The Extinction of pauperism. A book which looked at the working class causes of poverty. It was published four years before Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto (1848). Coincidentally, in the same year that the Communist Manifesto was published, the 1848 Revolution broke out. And the birth of the second republic happened in France. Napoleon III seized on this opportunity. After the establishment was deposed during the 1848 revolution, Napoleon III ran in the presidential election. He secured 74.2% of the vote. He reigned from the 20th of December 1848 to the second of December 1852. Sources: www.bbc.co.uk/culture/story/20160126-how-a-modern-city-was-born
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