Aims and Ideals and the End of the Roman Republic

France – Foreign and Imperial Policy, 1848-70

In this course, Dr Michael Rapport (University of Glasgow) explores the reign of Napoleon III, focusing in particular on his foreign and imperial policies. We begin by thinking about Louis-Napoleon's aims and ideals, as well as his experience of conducting foreign policy during the Second Republic. In the second and third modules, we turn to the French intervention first in the Crimean War (1853-56) and then the Second Italian War of Independence (1859). In the fourth module, we think about Napoleon III's response to revolutions in Poland and Mexico in the early 1860s, before moving on in the fifth module to consider the expansion of the French Empire in this period. Finally, in the sixth module, we think about Napoleon III's continued intervention in Italy, the rise of Prussia, and the Franco-Prussian Wars of 1870-71, a crushing defeat for the French that marked the end of Napoleon's regime and the Second Empire.

Aims and Ideals and the End of the Roman Republic

In this module, we think about Louis-Napoleon's ideas and aims and his experience of conducting foreign policy during the Second Republic, focusing in particular on his intervention in Italy after the Proclamation of the Roman Republic in 1849.