War and Peace - v1.0

In 2009, I thought to make a TL about a surviving Second French Empire. I thought first to take a french victory in Franco-Prussian War as POD. After realizing it would be hard and a little implausible, I decided to prevent the Mexican Expedition with a POD in late 1857.
For the previous two years, I've been collecting informations, ideas to make the TL. The version I present you today is destined to prepare a v2.O more realistic. In fact, I am just beginning to make serious searches with the reading of books instead of searches on the web. I'm aware that I will make several mistakes; please correct me.
The title 'War and Peace' is provisory; I will take an other title for v2.0.


Chapter One
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Reform War

Plan de Tacubaya
Since 1855 and the fall of Santa Anna's regime, the federalist and anti-clerical Liberals and the centralist and clerical Conservatives struggled again for control of the country.
In 1857, the former issued a new constitution establishing a federal state, what angered the Conservatives and caused a coup.
On 17th december 1857, General Felix Maria Zuloaga proclaimed the Plan de Tacubaya, declaring abolished the new constitution. Soon , President Comonfort announced his support for the coup. Only some in the Congress attempted to oppose the coup but were quickly arrested. All seemed to go well, but on December 21th, the state of Jaliso declared his opposition to the Plan de Tacubaya. The abolition of a constitution which granted them great autonomy prompted the other states to follow Jalisco, and by early January 1858, only the capital and Veracruz were firmly under Conservative control [1].
What's more, the conservative junta soon turned against President Comonfort, proclaiming General Zuloaga as President. On January 21th, Comonfort finally went into exile after a week of clashes between soldiers of the junta and his partisans. Benito Juarez, that he had freed before leaving, had set up at Guanajato a new government as soon recognized by the Constitutionalist states.
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President General Felix Zuloaga

'The valiants don't murder' _ 1858
Civil war began badly for Juarez. On March 8th and 9th, the 5.000 men of Conservative general Osollo defeated 7.000 Constitutionalists under General Parrodi at Celaya then at Salamanca. Guanajato surrendered on March 12th.
'The valiants don't murder' said Guillermo Prieto the day after, saving lives of Juarez and his ministers. Indeed, a colonel Landa had taken control of Guadalajara where the government had fled, but convinced by the poet, the soldiers entrusted with the execution renounced, and in a day, the mutiny was over [2].
However, Guadalajara was taken 11 days later. Juarez, who had just lost his two first capitals, settled at Monterrey a month later [3].
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President Benito Juarez

On April 10th, the Constitutionalists suffered three defeats: General Echeagaray's army, aimed at taking Monterrey, took Tampico, while Morelia fell to General Gomez, and that General Miramon entered without resistance in Zacatecas.
But by late April, they began to score victories: General Zuazua retook Zacatecas on April 27th then San Luis Potosi on June 30th. On May 29th, Echeagaray's advance on Monterrey was halted at Montemorelos.
General Santos Degollado, commander of northern and western armies since April 7th, even threatened Guadalajara, although he was repulsed at the battle of Atenquique on July 2nd [4].
The Constitutionalist resurgence was halted by the victories of General Miramon at the battle of Ahualulco de Pinos on September 27th, which allowed to take once again San Luis Potosi, and Zacatecas a month later, and in the Santiago river campaign which culminated with the battle of the San Miguel ranch, on December 15th, what forced General Santos Degollado to abandon the siege of Guadalajara.



Plan de Navidad
On December 23th, a group of officers led by General Echeagaray, discontented with the civil war, wishing to restore unity of Mexico, overthrew President Zuloaga and offered the presidency to General Miramon. The latter reached the capital on January 24th only to put down the coup and restore Zuloaga. Now discredited, the President became a puppet of his 'restorer'.
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General Miguel Miramon

El Tigre de Tacubaya _ 1859
While 1859 began, Miramon seemed to be about to obtain a complete victory. On February 16th, he left Tampico to besiege Monterrey. But, a month later, while he was about to begin the siege, he was forced to return to Mexico City which was under attack.
Indeed, instead of attacking Guadalajara, General Degollado bypassed it, took Guanajato on March 3rd and marched upon the mexican capital with his 6.000 men. In the city proper, the 4.000 soldiers of the garrison under General Corona entrenched themselves, waiting announced reinforcements. Degollado arrived on March 22nd and occupied Tacubaya and Chapultepec but delayed the main attack. On April 2nd, when assaults were ordered at Tlaxpana and San Cosme, they were repulsed.
On April 10th, the relief army under General Marquez finally arrived near Tacubaya, and the following day, routed the Constitutionalists. Marquez won then the dark nickname of 'Tigre de Tacubaya' after ordering the execution of all its prisonners, soldier as civils [5].
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General Leonardo Marquez

Until autumn, no great fights occured.
Miramon defeated the reconstitued army of General Degollado at the battle of Estancia de Vacas on November 13th then defeated generals Ortega and Rocha in Jalisco and Colima during December.


Leyes de Reforma
On April 6th, Juarez won a diplomatic victory with the recognition by Buchanan's administration of the legitimacy of the Constitutionalists. In turn, the Conservatives got closer of european powers, signing a treaty with Spain. Juarez also signed a treaty with the USA, exchanging trade concessions for arms supply, but despite of Buchanan's will, it was never ratified by the Senate.
To fund the war, Juarez also issued the 'Reform Laws', decreeing nationalization of Church's properties.
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Southern Campaigns _ 1858-1860
Southern Mexico didn't see major actions until the end of war, excepted when the Conservatives, under General Negrete, repulsed an attack of Villahermosa in October 1858 and, under General Cobos, took Oaxaca a year later.
In May and June 1860, Conservatives, under General Marin, invaded and took control of Yucatan.
Chiapas was only invaded in early autumn but was never really pacified until 1865.


To Tijuana ! _ 1860-1861
The final act of the civil war began on February 17th, when General Miramon and 9.000 men left Tampico, again, towards Monterrey. This time, there was no attack on Mexico City by Degollado to prevent him to besiege. Despite guerrilla, the siege was begun on March 19th, just four days after Juarez and his ministers left it for Chihuahua.
At the battle of Saltillo on March 27th, the Constitutionalists under General Ortega failed to relieve the siege. Monterrey surrendered a week later.
Juarez arrived in Tijuana on July 10th, still fleeing the seemingly unstoppable advance of Miramon.
The crossing of the Colorado only took place on November 20th because of difficulties to secure supply lines in a region plagued by constitutionalist guerilleros.
The Lower California Campaign then begun.
Juarez attempted to get american help but in America were coming the clouds of a war.
Tijuana fell on March 1st.


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OTL Map
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It's hard to find information about this civil war. This chapter is essentially based on the informations of antorcha.net. However, I've recently acquired a reedition of a book written for Diaz in early 20th century; but, my mastery of Spanish being not very perfect, it will take some time to deliver a corrected version of this update.
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[1]: Our POD. IOTL, Vera Cruz declared first its support for the Plan de Tacubaya, but its governor was convinced by General Ignacio de La Llave to come back on his decision.
[2]: As IOTL.
[3]: Instead of Vera Cruz IOTL.
[4]: ITTL, the Constitutionalists intercepted battle plans of the Conservatives and won.
[5]: As IOTL
 
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Chapter Two
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The French Regency




L' Empereur est mort...
On the evening of 14 January 1858, around 8.30 p.m. , as the Emperor and Empress were on their way to the theatre in the Rue Le Peletier to see Rossini's William Tell, three bombs were thrown at the imperial carriage. The first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of the carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass. The third bomb landed under the carriage and obliterated it. 142 peoples were wounded and 10 killed, including the imperial couple.
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Within the hour, fearing that the news of the assassinations trigger an insurrection, the government ordered to the imperial army to occupy Paris. At the same time, Prince Napoleon [1], one of the first to learn the death of the Emperor, hurried into his father's appartements and drove him to the Tuileries Palace to swear the Regency Oath [2] in front of an orphan who became Napoleon IV, Emperor of the French.
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Napoleon IV, Emperor of the French

By the morning of January 15th, all the Parisians had also learnt the news. Believing the Empire condemned to fall, the Republicans organized a march upon Palais Bourbon, where met the deputies of the Corps Législatif [3], to force them to proclaim the Republic. However, they were opposed just ahead of the building by detachments of the Gendarmerie and the Imperial Guard : the Empire was not dead. The troop fired upon the mob, killing several dozens of people and wounding a thousand, before managing to scatter it. Around midday, Republicans led by Jules Favre formally proclaimed a Republic at the Hotel de Ville. But euphoria began to decline in the afternoon as the uprising found little support among the Parisians, still satisfied with the current regime.
What's more, the Imperial Army entered in the suburbs of the capital by 5 p.m..
Barricades were hastily built but didn't resisted to a night of fierce fights.
The final toll was 1.800 killed and 4.000 wounded.
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While the martial law was applied from January 16th to February 1st, thousands of arrestations were ordered by the government, but due to the intervention of Prince Napoleon, only a few hundreds were deported, and only after having been trialed; he permitted that Jules Favre was simply sent into exile [4,5].

... Vive l' Empereur !
As soon as civil peace was restored came the political consequences.
First, Prince Jérôme became Regent of the Empire. This was what many among the officials of the Empire feared. The House of Jérôme was disliked as a family of liberals. Prince Napoleon, son of Jérôme, particularly angered Conservatives and Authoritarian Bonapartists. The precedent of 1830, when the Bourbons were replaced by the cadet branch of the Orleans was very present in memories. Some even pretended that he was behind the assasinations [6].
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Prince Regent Jérôme

A Regency Council was constitued after hard negociations. As French Prince, Prince Napoleon and his father had been automatically members. The Senate elected the Duke of Persigny, Marshal Pélissier, Mr Baroche, president of the State Council, Mr. Troplong, president of the Senate, and despite the virulent opposition of Prince Napoleon, the Duke of Morny, president of the Corps Législatif [7,8,9].
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From left to right: Prince Napoleon, Duke of Persigny, Marshal Pélissier, Mr Baroche, Mr Troplong, Duke of Morny

More conciliatory than his son, the Regent appointed the Duke of Persigny as Prime Minister as a compromise with the Authoritarians led by Eugène Rouher.
Of course, Prince Napoleon was given a ministry and became Minister of Interior, ministry he used to enact a policy intended to liberalize the Empire.

Soon, the new government faced its first crisis.
Some days after the insurrection, police had found one of the authors of the assasination, an italian revolutionnary named Orsini. Although the man had succumbed to wounds he received in the attack, documents discovered in its house allowed to link him to the other members of the plot. But it was soon discovered that they had taken advantage of the republican uprising to leave Paris and to flee to England.
Immediatly, Count Walewski, French foreign minister sent to british government a note demanding the extradition of these men.
The diplomatic crisis worsened with the hesitations of Lord Palmerston and the prospect of a war triggered a wind of panic across Europe.
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Anglophobic demonstrations before the Palais Bourbon

Finally, Lord Palmerston resigned on February 5th and was succeeded by Earl of Derby.
The men responsible for the assassinations of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie were soon extradited. Ten weeks later, they were executed.
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[1]: His full name is Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, often nicknamed 'Plon-Plon'. He used to use 'Napoleon' as principal name, what caused many problems with Napoleon III who wanted him to add an other name, what gave IOTL Napoleon Jérôme.
[2]: Name of the legislative lower house under the Second Empire.
[3]: As ruled by the Senatus-consult of July 1856.
[4]: After the uprising of June 1848, he didn't contested the deportations but the absence of judgements.
[5]: After the coup of 1851, Prince Napoleon asked his cousin to give graces, amnesties for the Republicans who had risen up.
[6]: The same rumours had spread IOTL; even Empress Eugenie thought so.
[7]: According to the Senatus-consult of July 1856, if the Emperor hasn't appointed members of the Regency Council before his death, the Senate has to elect 5 members, the two first French Prince in the order of succession being automatically members (Prince Napoleon and his father were the only French Princes in 1858).
[8]: IOTL, Napoleon III appointed these men, and some other (who are not selected ITTL because of the limit imposed to the Senate), after the assassination attempt.
[9]: Prince Napoleon was opposed to the nomination of Morny IOTL as ITTL; the Prince hadn't pardoned Morny for his role in the coup of 1851.​
 
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Love it so far. There aren't enough timelines about the Second French Empire, so this is a delight to read. It's a strange thing when the assassination of the Emperor will actually help prolong the Empire he created, and with Plon-Plon in charge, the authoritarian aspects of the regime should be lessened significantly. Can't wait to read more, keep up the good job!
 
Very interesting. May I ask you why you could not find any way to have France win the 1870 war ?
To summarize:
Lack of preparation, disorganization, incompetent generals, numerical and tactical inferiority (900.000 men against 1.200.000; muzzle-loading cannons in bronze against breech-loading cannons in steel...)...
 
Chapter Three
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A bloody spring


Vive le roi ?
The execution of Napoleon III's murderers in the night between April 30th and May 1st was surely one of the most critical moments in French history.
The death of Napoleon III and the accession to the imperial throne of an infant boy severly weakened the Bonaparte Dynasty.
Among the former Royalists who became Bonapartists by opportunism, discontent towards the turn taken by events grew. The sudden rise of the House of Jérôme, and the perspective of 16 years of Regency didn't make them happy [1]. Some spoke about restoring the monarchy, presenting the Empire no longer viable as regime to govern France [2]. But the idea of a coup only materialized after the Speech of March 16th.
At the occasion of the second anniversary of the Emperor, Prince Napoleon spoke in front of the Senators to expose his views on the future of the Empire. During two hours, he astounded them by what many called later an 'oratorical coup': he asked for a return to the values of 1789, denounced the humiliating treaties of 1815, supported the importance of an alliance with the UK and of the Italian unity, attacked the Papacy... [3]
A group of royalist officers, led by General Trochu [4], began to plan a coup shortly after.
It was easy for them to recruit high ranking officer in the Army where Prince Napoleon was unpopular, but harder in the Navy where this one had good friends[5].
The plan was that the garrisons of fortresses defending the capital rise up at the instigation of their commanders, Royalists of course, and, with the complicity of the Gendarmerie, to put under arrest the members of the government, the Regency Council, and of course the Emperor and its Regent. The rest of France, put before the fait accompli, would accept the new power [6].
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General Louis-Jules Trochu, planner of the monarchist coup

However, as all plans, this one wasn't perfect. Facing growing rumors of monarchist coup and a leak, the government, at the instigation of Prince Napoleon had ordered two divisions of naval fusiliers to move at Paris on April 29th, officially to assure order in the context of the execution. Informed, the putchists precipitated their plans and launched the coup just at 09.00 p.m., just an hour after the execution of Orsini, unaware that the Emperor and the majority of the Regency Council and the government had already fled Paris for the safety of Le Havre, under the protection of the Imperial Navy.
The battle for Paris began.
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Prince Napoleon as leader of the Loyalist army

Contrary to what Trochu planned, all garrisons didn't mutinied for the royalist cause, but for the Bonapartes as commanders were destituted by their soldiers, some being even executed. Also, just when the coup was launched, Prefect Haussmann had ordered a wave of arrestation of high-ranking officers of the Gendarmerie, what delayed the putchists. What's more, the divisions of naval fusiliers disembarked from trains just at time to fight the Royalists. For most of the night, the fight were confused, but by the morning of May 1st, the Bonapartists commanded by Prince Napoleon were clearly taking the advantage. General Trochu fled the capital in the afternoon, while Prince Napoleon retook complete control of the capital.
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In province, prefects and military district commanders, mostly in West and in Midi [7], had declared their support for the coup when they heard premature news claiming its success but came back on their positions after having learnt the true end of the coup. All during the day of May 1st, the imperial government received the support of Marshal Canrobert in North, Marshal Castellane in East who both quickly suppressed royalist and even republican attempts of uprising, and even from Marshal Randon in Algeria who declared to be ready to cross the Mediterranee with 50.000 soldiers [8].

Longue vie à l' Empire!
Paradoxally, the main effect of the coup attempt was to strenghten the imperial regime. Liberal and authoritarian Bonapartists, despite of their political differences, formed a united front around the person of Napoleon IV. Prince Napoleon even regained favour among his opponents for his loyalty, as some had first thought that the move of two divisions to Paris was intended to take the throne for himself, and his key role in repulsing the Royalists.
An other effect was the purge of the Legislative Corps and of the Senate. The Regent replaced the missing senators, arrested or having fled France as Trochu, by supporters of his son, increasing the number of Liberal Senators to 59 [9]. Purges in the administration and the army also followed.
Legislative elections were also called for autumn. Prince Napoleon, still Minister of the Interior, attempted to make the electoral proccess more democratic by reforming the electoral law but because of the opposition of Authoritarians, he had to make concessions.
The elections took place on October 9th and on October 23th. The Bonapartists won 278 sieges over 281, including 112 Liberals. 3 Republicans, who had stayed out of the tumultuous events of January and May, were elected: Emile Ollivier, Louis Darimon and Adolphe Thiers [10].
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From left to right: Emile Ollivier, Adolphe Thiers

A new Paris
The fights between Royalists and Bonapartists severly damaged Paris. The fires triggered during the coup were not fully extinguished until May 4th.
The reconstruction was handled by Prefect Haussmann who didn't find them unusefull in the efforts he undertook for several years to reamenage the capital, to make the capital a town worthy of its reputation.
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Georges Eugène Haussmann, the Architect of Paris







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[1]: The Emperor becomes adult at his eighteenth year according to the imperial constitution.
[2]: Napoleon III admitted after the assassination attempt that prince Napoleon was right in assuming that the monarchy could have been restored had he died.
[3]: This is essentially the same speech he did in 1860 IOTL; just after constitutional reforms which made the records of Senate debates public, he decided to use the Senate as a tribune; ITTL, being Minister of the Interior, he is able to decree the publication of these records.
[4]: Trochu was an aide-de-camp of General Lamoricière, a man who was charged by Pope of the command of papal armies; Trochu, known for royalist sympathies IOTL, allowed the overthrow of the Empire in 1870.
[5]: During his tenure as general in Crimean War, he triggered the anger of the generals by the numerous, and not reasonless in my opinion, critics of the conduct of the war. We have to not do mistakes: he was not unpopular in all army but only among generals and high-ranking officers; he was rather popular among the common soldiers because of his will to share their harsh life conditions. At the contrary, he enjoyed the relations of his father, former talentuous commander in the Navy under Napoleon I.
[6]: France had, since the seventeenth a centralist tradition. To take the power, you have to take Paris, and the country would follow.
[7]: Traditional royalist strongholds.
[8]: IOTL, after the assassination attempt, prince Napoleon proposed to his cousin to be appointed as governor of Algeria in order to have between 60.000 and 80.000 soldiers ready to defend the Empire. ITTL, I assume that Marshal Randon would be loyal and make a similar, but less ambitious, declaration; what's more, prince Napoleon was very popular in Algeria: the settlers requested to have him as their governor since 1849.
[9]: According to the Constitution, the Emperor can't appoint more than 150 Senators. They are Senator for life.
[10]: Ollivier and Darimon were elected IOTL in 1857 and formed with the three other Republicans elected during partial elections in 1858 the 'Group of the Five'.
ITTL, Adolphe Thiers entered earlier in the Legislative Corps and forms with Ollivier and Darimon 'the Three'.
 
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Are there comments about the last chapter?

The next update will deal about prince Napoleon becoming Regent.
For the following update, I have the choice between a chapter about Asia (conclusion of the Second Opium War, french conquests in Indochina...), Mexico (restoration of the Empire) or ACW (a CS victory).
What do you want first?
 
Excellent again. All the tumultuous times France is going through will really help the Empire in the end, and seeing the Empire become more liberal as a result is also good. Keep up the good work man!
 
Well...It's seems to be a really LONG reign, almost one hundered years. I don't remember the Napoleons having a so vigourous constitution.
 
When I was chosing the date, I have the example of Louis XIV in my mind: king very soon for one of the longest reign of european history. I have wanted to make something similar.
I have been tempted by 100 years of reign, but it was too great.
I have chosen two more years than Pétain (1856-1951), born at the same time, to round to 95.

95 years, wouldn't it be the longest reign of european history, if not of world history?
 
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I have been tempted by 100 years of reign, but it was too great.
I have chosen two more years than Pétain (1856-1951), born at the same time.

Don't forget that the power litteraly wears people. Pétain didn't made really important things before 1930's and he was already old.
 
The Regency (1858-1874) should incline the orphan towards a way of life rather cloistered and the will to leave power to his Prime Ministers ("Inaugurating the chrysanthemums" [I don't know if it's the good expression in english]), especially with the education that Prince-Regent Napoleon will give him (next update).
 
The Regency (1858-1874) should incline the orphan towards a way of life rather cloistered and the will to leave power to his Prime Ministers ("Inaugurating the chrysanthemums" [I don't know if it's the good expression in english]), especially with the education that Prince-Regent Napoleon will give him (next update).

I think a good equivalent for "l'empereur ne pouvait plus qu' inaugurer les chrysenthèmes" would be "the imperial power was nothing but a rhetorical figure".
 
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Chapter Four
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Exit the King




Trade, borders and politics
Feeling himself useless in the Ministry he was occupying, because of the opposition of the Regency Council to the major part of his projects of institutional reforms, Prince Napoleon resigned on December 1st. But he didn't retire completly from politics and he pursued efforts in an other project, a free trade agreement with Great Britain [1].
In this purpose, he didn't find as much opposition from the Conservatives as previously.
Persigny and Rouher [2] as Minister of Commerce and leader of the authoritarian Bonapartists, were for. The main obstacle was Pierre Magne, a protectionnist Minister of Finances who was responsible for the customs and soon became the leader of a protectionist group of industrialists and politicians[3].
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From left to right: Eugène Rouher, Pierre Magne

The situation remained blockaded until in England, the Liberal Party, free-trader, came to power with the second government of Lord Palmerston and William Ewart Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer[4].
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William Ewart Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exequer

It didn't took a long time before negociations were begun. When Magne learnt it, he resigned to protest. His resignation was quickly followed by a cabinet shuffle: Rouher took the Ministry of Finance to continue the negociations and Prince Napoleon became Minister of Commerce and Industries.
The negociations lasted for three months and a treaty was finally signed on October 10th.


Travel around North America in 80 days
For many years, Prince Napoleon had projected to make a trip to the USA but hadn't found an occasion. As Minister of Commerce and Industries, he decided to make it, officially presenting it as an occasion to strengthen economical ties. The planned tour lasted three months, from January to March 1860[5].

After having landed at New York, he travelled to Washington D.C.. He first met President Buchanan but the meeting turned soon to be a failure as the Prince felt mistreated after a disastrous reception[6]. His following meetings with members of the Cabinet only resulted in vague projects of trade agreements.
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James Buchanan, 15th President of the USA

His come to the Capitol was almost an attraction. He saw at this occasion the tensions which reigned because of the slavery issue.
Thereafter, he left the Capital to visit South where he didn't past a long time as he felt uncomfortable with travel in places where slavery existed [7,8], visiting mostly towns and their factories as in Richmond, Atlanta and New Orleans. He then went to Midwest where he was very curious of every agricultural exploitations and factories, looking for innovations to bring into France to improve life of French people, and that was the more concrete result of his travel, according to his memoirs [9].

In Illinois, he met Abraham Lincoln whom he knew the reputation, having heard of his famous debates with Douglas in 1858. The respect that the two men manifested between themselves had to become friendship during the Civil War when as Regent, Prince Napoleon led France to be the strongest supporter of the Union in Europe. Many historians consider today this meeting as the first step towards the system of alliances that would some decades later lead to the Great War [10].
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Abraham Lincoln

Before coming back to New York, the Prince made a detour in Canada, especially in Quebec where was greeted a triumphal welcome [11].


The Regent is dead ...Long live to the Regent
On June Ist, Prince Jerome suffered a stroke. During days, Regent's health didn't cease to lower, and many in the capital worried about the afternath, especially about his son. Finally, on June 25th , Jerome Bonaparte, former King of Westphalia, French Prince and Regent of France died [12].
While the governments and head of states from all Europe were beginning to sent condolences, Prince Napoleon, was sworn a day later as Regent of the Empire.
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Prince Regent Napoleon

His accession to the Regency didn't prove to as tumultuous as some thought [13]. The government remained unchanged, excepted the entry of Chevalier to the Ministry of Commerce and Trade.
The Prince-Regent, although wanting great reforms for a parliamentarian Empire, was lucid on his possibilities of success against a conservative administration. He so focused his efforts on the future elections which were to take place in October 1864. At the same time, as his father had begun upon his advice, he continued to appoint his supporters in replacement of deceased Senators to build a majority which would allow him to eliminate the major obstacle to his reforms [14].


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[1]: Prince Napoleon was a strong supporter of the OTL treaty.
[2]: Rouher was a lawyer before entering in politics. He first was Minister of Justice then of Public Works. So, having to learn the secrets of economics, he hadn't, at this time, a clear stance about free trade, but he converted to the idea as the Emperor entrusted him with the negociation of the free trade agreement of 1860. ITTL, he still becomes a free-trader, not seeing the treaty contrary to French economical interests.
[3]: Magne occupy ITTL and IOTL the Ministry of Finances at this time. He was as opposed to free trade.
[4]: IOTL
[5]: IOTL, this travel took place during summer 1861.
[6]: IOTL, he met Lincoln in the same conditions and remained silent during the meeting. A contradiction inherent to the Prince: although viscerally democrat and almost republican, he didn't want to be treated as a commoner but as a Prince.
[7]: A feel he had, while he spoke with Johnston and Beauregard after his visit of the battlefield of Bull Run.
[8]: IOTL, ACW having broken out, he didn't travel so far at south.
[9]: When he travelled in foreign countries, he collected informations about every thing he judged valuable to improve the common life of French people.
[10]: It will be explained in a future update.
[11]: IOTL.
[12]: Roughly as IOTL.
[13]: Even if Prince Napoleon had always taken a great freedom in his stances, he proved to be able to be pragmatic when he was entrusted by Napoleon III to negociate the benevolent neutrality of Russia with Alexander II at Warsaw and later the armistice of Villafranca with Franz-Joseph, restraining his pro-polish and anti-austrian convictions.
[14]: The French Senate is and had always been a traditional bastion of conservatism. Since the restoration of the Empire in 1852, Senate had done all he can to put the too liberal House of Jerome away from the throne. As I wrote in an update, many made the parallel with the opposition House of Bourbon/House of Orleans.
As Regent, he can assume the imperial prerogative of appointing Senators. I must confess that the purge of the Senate after the failed coup of Trochu had been for this me an occasion to make more easy his task of eliminating opposition to his regency.
 
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