[1848] - Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte elected President of France

Following Cavaignac’s victory over the Paris citizenry in the June Days uprising, presidential elections were held on 10 December 1848. Four candidates, including Cavaignac, stood for election, but the populace voted overwhelmingly in favour of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte ruled as French president for the next three years before instigating a coup d’état in 1851. This resulted in the restoration of the monarchy as Bonaparte ascended to the throne as Napoleon III. He ruled as Emperor of the French until September 1870. He was the first president and the last monarch of France.

Useful Links and Further Reading

• University of Chicago, ‘Pamphlets and Periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848’, http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ARTFL/projects/CRL/
• www.history.hanover.edu, ‘Documents of the Revolution of 1848 in France’,
  http://history.hanover.edu/texts/fr1848.html
• www.ohio.edu, ‘June Days (June 22–26, 1848)’,
  http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/ip/junedays.htm
• Percy Bolingbroke St. John, The French Revolution in 1848: The Three Days of February, 1848 (London, 1848)
• G. G. Foster and Thomas Dunn English, The French Revolution of 1848: Its Causes, Actors, Events, and Influences (London, 1848)
• Roger Price, Documents of the French Revolution of 1848 (London, 1996)