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The Second Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history during which the House of Bourbon returned to power after the fall of the First French Empire in 1815. The Second Bourbon Restoration lasted until the July Revolution of 26 July 1830. Louis XVIII and Charles X, brothers of the executed King Louis XVI, successively mounted the throne and instituted a conservative government intended to restore the proprieties, if not all the institutions, of the Ancien Régime. Exiled supporters of the monarchy returned to France but were unable to reverse most of the changes made by the French Revolution. Exhausted by decades of war, the nation experienced a period of internal and external peace, stable economic prosperity and the preliminaries of industrialization. Background Following the French Revolution (1789–1799), Napoleon Bonaparte became ruler of France. After years of expansion of his French Empire by successive military victories, a coalition of European powers defeated him in the War of the Sixth Coalition, ended the First Empire in 1814, and restored the monarchy to the brothers of Louis XVI. The First Bourbon Restoration lasted from about 6 April 1814. In July 1815 the First French Empire was succeeded by the Kingdom of France. This Kingdom existed until the popular uprisings of the July Revolution of 1830. At the peace Congress of Vienna, the Bourbons were treated politely by the victorious monarchies, but had to give up nearly all the territorial gains made by revolutionary and Napoleonic France since 1789. Constitutional monarchy Unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime, the Restoration Bourbon regime was a constitutional monarchy, with some limits on its power. The new king, Louis XVIII, accepted the vast majority of reforms instituted from 1792 to 1814. Continuity was his basic policy. He did not try to recover land and property taken from the royalist exiles. He continued in peaceful fashion the main objectives of Napoleon's foreign policy, such as the limitation of Austrian influence. He reversed Napoleon regarding Spain and the Ottoman Empire, restoring the friendships that had prevailed until 1792. Politically, the period was characterized by a sharp conservative reaction, and consequent minor but persistent civil unrest and disturbances. Otherwise, the political establishment was relatively stable until the subsequent reign of Charles X. It also saw the reestablishment of the Catholic Church as a major power in French politics. Throughout the Bourbon Restoration, France experienced a period of stable economic prosperity and the preliminaries of industrialisation. Permanent changes in French society The eras of the French Revolution and Napoleon brought a series of major changes to France which the Bourbon Restoration did not reverse. Administration: First, France was now highly centralised, with all important decisions made in Paris. The political geography was completely reorganised and made uniform, dividing the nation into more than 80 départements which have endured into the 21st century. Each department had an identical administrative structure, and was tightly controlled by a prefect appointed by Paris. The thicket of overlapping legal jurisdictions of the old regime had all been abolished, and there was now one standardised legal code, administered by judges appointed by Paris, and supported by police under national control. The church: The Revolutionary governments had confiscated all the lands and buildings of the Catholic Church, selling them to innumerable middle-class buyers, and it was politically impossible to restore them. The bishop still ruled his diocese (which was aligned with the new department boundaries) and communicated with the pope through the government in Paris. Bishops, priests, nuns and other religious were paid state salaries. All the old religious rites and ceremonies were retained, and the government maintained the religious buildings. The Church was allowed to operate its own seminaries and to some extent local schools as well, although this became a central political issue into the 20th century. Bishops were much less powerful than before, and had no political voice. However, the Catholic Church reinvented itself with a new emphasis on personal piety that gave it a hold on the psychology of the faithful. Education: Public education was centralised, with the Grand Master of the University of France controlling every element of the national educational system from Paris. New technical universities were opened in Paris which to this day have a critical role in training the elite. The aristocracy: Conservatism was bitterly split into the returning old aristocracy and the new elites arising under Napoleon after 1796. The old aristocracy was eager to regain its land, but felt no loyalty to the new regime. The newer elite, the "noblesse d'empire", ridiculed the older group as an outdated remnant of a discredited regime that had led the nation to disaster. Both groups shared a fear of social disorder, but the level of distrust as well as the cultural differences were too great, and the monarchy too inconsistent in its policies, for political cooperation to be possible. The returning old aristocracy recovered much of the land they had owned directly. However, they lost all their old seigneurial rights to the rest of the farmland, and the peasants were no longer under their control. The pre-Revolutionary aristocracy had dallied with the ideas of the Enlightenment and rationalism. Now the aristocracy was much more conservative and supportive of the Catholic Church. For the best jobs, meritocracy was the new policy, and aristocrats had to compete directly with the growing business and professional class. Citizens' rights: Public anti-clerical sentiment became stronger than ever before, but was now based in certain elements of the middle class and even the peasantry. The great masses of French people were peasants in the countryside or impoverished workers in the cities. They gained new rights and a new sense of possibilities. Although relieved of many of the old burdens, controls, and taxes, the peasantry was still highly traditional in its social and economic behaviour. Many eagerly took on mortgages to buy as much land as possible for their children, so debt was an important factor in their calculations. The working class in the cities was a small element, and had been freed of many restrictions imposed by medieval guilds. However, France was very slow to industrialise, and much of the work remained drudgery without machinery or technology to help. France was still split into localities, especially in terms of language, but now there was an emerging French nationalism that focused national pride in the Army and foreign affairs. Political overview In April 1814, the Armies of the Sixth Coalition restored Louis XVIII of France to the throne, the brother and heir of the executed Louis XVI. A constitution was drafted: t.... Discover the Bill Kroen popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Bill Kroen books.