What would happen if Napoleon where to die in late 1802? His cause of death not by an enemy soldier, but a random cause, this could be a heart attack, or a stroke. I find this to be a very wierd point in French history. France was at peace with most of Europe at this point (including the United Kingdom). The question would be who would sucseed him? Certainly not his son as he wasn't even an emporer at the time, he was a consul. Now this brings me to the what I would see.
I would guess a republic would be reestablished. However it would be a quite conservative government. The French people are tired of radicals and saw what it did to the country but saw the greatness of a nationalist France under Napoleon. I would guess only white land owning men would be able to vote. However I would not be surprised if the religious tolerence of Napoleon carried over into this new republic. I would guess in name this France would be Catholic, but in actually pretty religiously tolerant. Now let's assume that this new republic would have a strong leader who realize he most consolidate the new country and consolidate the country, staying out of foreign affairs for the most part for a couple decades, and focus on industrialization. However eventually I'm sure this France would become active in foreign affairs after Frenchificiation (cool word eh?) of the newly acquired areas and the start of industrialization. So once again I will ask the question, how would history from 1803 to 2000 be?
Map of France 1800 (surprisingly the exact same territories as in 1802)
I would guess a republic would be reestablished. However it would be a quite conservative government. The French people are tired of radicals and saw what it did to the country but saw the greatness of a nationalist France under Napoleon. I would guess only white land owning men would be able to vote. However I would not be surprised if the religious tolerence of Napoleon carried over into this new republic. I would guess in name this France would be Catholic, but in actually pretty religiously tolerant. Now let's assume that this new republic would have a strong leader who realize he most consolidate the new country and consolidate the country, staying out of foreign affairs for the most part for a couple decades, and focus on industrialization. However eventually I'm sure this France would become active in foreign affairs after Frenchificiation (cool word eh?) of the newly acquired areas and the start of industrialization. So once again I will ask the question, how would history from 1803 to 2000 be?
Map of France 1800 (surprisingly the exact same territories as in 1802)