The president of the French Republic, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, Napoleon I's nephew, is proclaimed emperor of the second Empire, as Napoleon III, in 1852.

He begins by removing the gag that has kept the country in silence.

On November 24, 1860, he grants to the Chambers the right to vote an address annually in answer to the speech from the throne, and to the press the right of reporting parliamentary debates.

He counts on the latter concession to hold in check the growing Catholic opposition, which is becoming more and more alarmed by the policy of laissez-faire practiced by the emperor in Italy.

The government majority already shows some signs of independence.

The right of voting on the budget by sections, granted by the emperor in 1861, is a new weapon given to his adversaries.

Everything conspires in their favor: the anxiety of those candid friends who are calling attention to the defective budget, the commercial crisis and foreign troubles.

Napoleon III multiplies French interventions abroad, especially in Crimea, in Mexico and Italy, which result in the annexation of the duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice, formerly part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.