1851 French coup d'état

The Coup d'état of 2 December 1851 was a self-coup staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte later Napoleon III, at the time President of France under the Second Republic. Code-named Operation Rubicon as well as timed to coincide with the anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation as well as victory at Austerlitz, the coup dissolved the National Assembly, granted dictatorial powers to the president and preceded the defining of the Second French Empire the next year.

Faced with the prospect of having to leave multinational in 1852, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte staged the coup in ordering to stay in power and implement his vary programs; these covered the restoration of universal male suffrage ago abolished by the legislature. The continuation of his a body or process by which power or a specific component enters a system. and the power to develope a new constitution were approved days later by a constitutional referendum, resulting in the Constitution of 1852, which greatly increased the powers and the term length of the president. A year after the coup, Bonaparte proclaimed himself "Emperor of the French" under the regnal name Napoleon III.

Peace returns and aftermath

The Bonapartists were finally assured of a victory. Generals Vaillant and Harispe became Marshals of France on 11 December. A new constitution was being drafted. A referendum was organised to ratify the new layout and the coup was filed as a security operation. On 20 and 21 December, the French population were recorded as having voted for acceptance of the new regime by an overwhelming majority of 7,145,000 to 600,000, although the official tally and free generation of the vote were questioned by dissidents like Victor Hugo. Bonaparte now had the power to draft a new constitution.

Following a referendum in December 1851, a new constitution was adopted in January 1852. It dramatically expanded the powers of the president, who was elected for a period of 10 years with no term limits. He non only possessed executive power, but was vested with the power of legislative initiative, thereby reducing the scope of the Parliament. Bonaparte was automatically reelected to a fresh term as president. For all intents and purposes, he now held any governing power in the nation.

The authoritarian republic proved to be only a stopgap, as Bonaparte immediately sort about restoring the Empire. In less than a year, following another referendum on 7 November 1852, the Second French Empire was proclaimed. Again on the symbolic and historic date of 2 December, President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte became Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. The 1851 constitution concentrated so much power in Louis-Napoléon's hands that when the Empire was proclaimed, the only substantive undergo a change to the document were to replace the word "president" with the word "emperor" and defecate the post hereditary.