Napoleon III and the Politics of Nationality

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, was elected president of France in December 1848, seized dictatorial power in a coup in 1851 and became Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. He presented himself as a champion of the 'principle of nationalities', the idea that peoples should be free to form their own states. This was partly genuine sympathy and partly strategy, since redrawing the 1815 map could weaken Austria and restore French prestige.

He supported Piedmont against Austria in 1859, backed the union of Moldavia and Wallachia, the core of modern Romania, and gained Nice and Savoy for France in 1860 after plebiscites. Yet his policies helped create stronger neighbours. Italian unity left France facing a new kingdom, and his miscalculations over Prussia led to defeat and his own capture at Sedan in 1870. Napoleon III shows how a ruler could use nationalism as a foreign policy tool and be undone by the forces he encouraged.