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Bonapartism (French: Bonapartisme) is the political ideology supervening from Napoleon Bonaparte and his followers and successors. The term was used 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 conservative, nationalist, monarchist, and imperial political factions in 19th-century France.
Bonapartism emerged in 1814 with the first fall of Napoleon. However, it only developed doctrinal clarity and cohesion by the 1840s.[1]
After Napoleon, the term was applied to French politicians who seized power in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, ruling in the French Consulate and subsequently in the First and Second French Empires. The Bonapartistes desired an empire under the House of Bonaparte, the Corsican family of Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I of France) and his nephew Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III of France).[2]
In recent years, the term has been used more generally for political movements that advocate for an authoritarian centralised state, with a strongman charismatic leader, support for the military, and conservatism.
- ^ 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
- ^ Hanotaux, Gabriel (1907). Contemporary France. Books for Libraries Press. p. 460.