Bonapartism
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Bonapartism (French: Bonapartisme) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used in the narrow sense to refer to people who hoped to restore the House of Bonaparte and its style of government. In this sense, a Bonapartiste was a person who either actively participated in or advocated for imperial political factions in 19th-century France. Although Bonapartism emerged in 1814 with the first fall of Napoleon, it only developed doctrinal clarity and cohesion by the 1840s.[1]
The term developed a broad definition used to mean political movements that advocate for an authoritarian centralised state, with a military strongman and charismatic leader with relatively traditionalist ideology.[2]
Beliefs
[edit]Marxism and Leninism developed a vocabulary of political terms that included Bonapartism, derived from analysis of the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. Karl Marx, a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution, was a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and the Second Empire.[3]
Noted political scientists and historians greatly differ on the definition and interpretation of Bonapartism. Sudhir Hazareesingh's book The Legend of Napoleon explores numerous interpretations of the term.[4]
Bonapartist claimants
[edit]List of Bonapartist claimants to the French throne since 1814
[edit]Those who ruled are indicated with an asterisk.
| Claimant | Portrait | Birth | Marriages | Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Napoleon I* 1814–1815 1815-1821 |
 |
15 August 1769, Ajaccio Son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino |
Joséphine de Beauharnais 9 March 1796 No children Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma 11 March 1810 1 child |
5 May 1821 Longwood, Saint Helena Aged 51 |
| Napoleon II* 1821–1832 |
 |
20 March 1811, Paris Son of Napoleon I and Marie Louise of Austria |
Never married | 22 July 1832 Vienna Aged 21 |
| Joseph Bonaparte (Joseph I) 1832–1844 |
 |
7 January 1768, Corte Son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino |
Julie Clary 1 August 1794 2 children |
28 July 1844 Florence Aged 76 |
| Louis Bonaparte (Louis I) 1844–1846 |
 |
2 September 1778, Ajaccio Son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino |
Hortense de Beauharnais 4 January 1802 3 children |
25 July 1846 Livorno Aged 67 |
| Napoleon III* 1846–1873 President of France (1848–1852) Emperor of the French (1852–1870) |
 |
20 April 1808, Paris Son of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais |
Eugénie de Montijo 30 January 1853 1 child |
9 January 1873 Chislehurst Aged 64 |
| Napoléon, Prince Imperial (Napoleon IV) 1873–1879 |
 |
16 March 1856, Paris Son of Napoleon III and Eugénie de Montijo |
Never married | 1 June 1879 Zulu Kingdom Aged 23 |
| Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte (Napoleon V) 1879–1891 (disputed) |
 |
9 September 1822, Trieste Son of Jérôme, King of Westphalia and Catharina of Württemberg |
Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy 30 January 1859 3 children |
17 March 1891 Rome Aged 68 |
| Victor, Prince Napoléon (Napoleon V) 1879–1926 (disputed until 1891) |
 |
18 July 1862, Palais-Royal Son of Prince Napoléon Bonaparte and Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy |
Princess Clémentine of Belgium 10/14 November 1910 2 children |
3 May 1926 Brussels Aged 63 |
| Louis, Prince Napoléon (Napoleon VI) 1926–1997 |
 |
23 January 1914, Brussels Son of Victor, Prince Napoléon and Princess Clémentine of Belgium |
Alix de Foresta 16 August 1949 4 children |
3 May 1997 Prangins Aged 83 |
| Charles, Prince Napoléon (Napoleon VII) 1997–present (disputed) |
 |
19 October 1950, Boulogne-Billancourt Son of Louis, Prince Napoléon and Alix, Princess Napoléon |
Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies 19 December 1978 2 children Jeanne-Françoise Valliccioni 28 September 1996 2 children (1 adopted) |
|
| Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon (Napoleon VIII) 1997–present (disputed) |
 |
11 July 1986, Saint-Raphaël, Var Son of Charles, Prince Napoléon and Princess Béatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies |
Countess Olympia von und zu Arco-Zinneberg 17 October 2019 1 child |
Marxism
[edit]Based on the career of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Marxism and Leninism defined Bonapartism as a political expression.[5] Karl Marx was a student of Jacobinism and the French Revolution, as well as a contemporary critic of the Second Republic and Second Empire. He used the term Bonapartism to refer to a situation in which counter-revolutionary military officers seize power from revolutionaries, and use selective reformism to co-opt the radicalism of the masses. In the process, Marx argued, Bonapartists preserve and mask the power of a narrower ruling class. He believed that both Napoleon I and Napoleon III had corrupted revolutions in France in this way. Marx offered this definition of and analysis of Bonapartism in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, written in 1852. In this document, he drew attention to what he calls the phenomenon's repetitive history with one of his most quoted lines, typically condensed aphoristically as: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."[6][7]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Alexander, Robert (2022), Forrest, Alan; Hicks, Peter (eds.), "Bonapartism", The Cambridge History of the Napoleonic Wars: Volume 3: Experience, Culture and Memory, vol. 3, Cambridge University Press, pp. 512–531, doi:10.1017/9781108278119.026, ISBN 978-1-108-41767-9
- ^ "Definition of BONAPARTISM".
- ^ Dülffer, Jost (1976). "Bonapartism, Fascism and National Socialism". Journal of Contemporary History. 11 (4): 109–128. doi:10.1177/002200947601100407.
- ^ Hazareesingh, Sudhir (3 July 2014). The Legend of Napoleon. Granta Books. ISBN 978-1-78378-123-2.
- ^ [1], Marxists website
- ^ Marx, Karl (1973). David Fernbach (ed.). Surveys in Exile. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-14-021603-5.
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great events and characters of world history occur, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
- ^ Marx, Karl (1963). The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. New York: International Publishers. pp. 15. ISBN 0-7178-0056-3.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Bibliography
[edit]- Bluche, Frédéric (1980). Le bonapartisme: aux origines de la droite autoritaire (1800–1850). Nouvelles Editions Latines. ISBN 978-2723301046.
Further reading
[edit]- Alexander, Robert S. Bonapartism and revolutionary Tradition in France: the Fédérés of 1815 (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- Baehr, Peter R., and Melvin Richter, eds. Dictatorship in history and theory: Bonapartism, Caesarism, and totalitarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
- Dulffer, Jost. "Bonapartism, Fascism and National Socialism." Journal of Contemporary History (1976): 109–128. In JSTOR
- McLynn, Frank (1998). Napoleon. Pimlico.
- Mitchell, Allan. "Bonapartism as a model for Bismarckian politics." Journal of Modern History (1977): 181–199. In JSTOR
- Bluche, Frédéric, Le Bonapartisme, collection Que sais-je ?, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1981.
- Choisel, Francis, Bonapartisme et gaullisme, Paris, Albatros, 1987.
External links
[edit]| Capetian pretenders (1792–present)  |
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| Bonaparte pretenders (1814–present)  |
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1 Actually reigned twice: first from 1814-1815, second from 1815-1824 2 Actually reigned from 1824-1830 3 Orléanist pretender from 1848-1873 as Louis Philippe II 4 Reigned as King of Spain from 1886-1931 as Alfonso XIII 5 Briefly restored and then deposed in 1815 6 Actually reigned from 1852-1870 | |||||||
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