State of France (Victorian Era - Bonaparte path)

The situation post-Franco-Prussian war
The situation after the french victory in the conflict between it and the prussian is kinda strange. The french is extatic with its victory on the german menace, but they still hate Napoleon III, as the republican still think that he is an autocrat. Napoleon III is faced with a dilemma, either he chooses to establish a constitutional monarchy, or he take full power over France, even if the french will hate him even more.

The constitutional monarchy path
If he chooses to establish a constitutional monarchy, then the republic will resume as it did in our timeline, with Adolphe Thiers in power of the Third French Republic. The climate for Napoleon III will be calmer, but he has to put up with the fact that one day, the french people might chooses to see him out. The constitutional republic can be transformed into a full democracy after the death of Napoleon III in 1873.

The autocrat path
If he chooses the absolutist path, then he will have to face a civil-war. The Lutte Républicaine (led by Léon Gambetta) will rise up in the northern parts of France. It is a alliance of communards and republicans who seeks to overthrow the emperor, who they see as dangerous to the future of the nation. The victory of this coalition will lead to the "End of the Empire" focus, and the country will still need to restabilize as the ties between the communards and the republican disappear now that they have no common ennemy, and the fight between the republicans and the communard will be way bloodier, as they both have the time to prepare the fight. If Napoleon III wins however, it will not totally resolve the problem of the military, tired of the war and frustrated by the refusal of the emperor to humiliate Prussia by pupetting them. Lead by Boulanger, a rebellion will happend after a few years, leading to a fight between the loyalist army and the boulangist army that attempts a coup. If the coup is successful, then will follow the Totalitarian Nationaist path, which is not the focus of this lore exploration. If it isn't, then it is the end of the major civil strifes of the post-Franco-Prussian War, and Napoleon III can reign peacefully.

But not for long.

Napoleon IV
Napoleon III dies in 1873 and his son, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, comes to power as Napoleon IV. He is reckless and kind of a daredevil. He is young though, and he has strong relations with the russian army and he is a devout christian. He will try to push his agenda on France, that will be hard but with the power secured, he can try without fearing any big civil war. His plan for France is quite simple, push the progression of the catholic faith and modernizing the high command, as he see the current system as obsolete and, as seen in the military coup attempt, gives the Old Guard too much power. Unfortunatly, he will not have a lot of time to do that, as he dies between in the late 1870s. In our timeline, he died by participating in the British-Zulu War, and my idea is that he will try to participate in any colonial war, because of his recklessness. Either it will be against the Zulu, Afghanistan, Persia or any other country, he will propose to participate actively in the war, and that will be his demise.

Napoleon V
He is followed by a much calmer and careful leader, Victor Napoléon the son of the brother of Napoleon III, as Napoleon IV was too young to have a child.

His arrival in power is not without resistance though. the death of a childless Napoleon IV mess up the whole sucession line of the Bonaparte, and Victor's father, Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte, claims the throne as he is the next in the line of the Bonaparte house. This problem will have to be dealt with before doing any major politicl move, and it will be one of the first thing Victor Napoléon, now Napoleon V, should do. He will be the most important piece of the Bonaparte branch, as important as Napoleon III before him.

Diplomacy
He will try to be closer to the United-Kingdom, and also the rest of Europe. He want to be in-line with the original Bonarpartist ideas, keep the peace in Europe, either diplomatically or by force. This will lead Napoleon V to either create an alliance with the UK, the "Entente Cordiale" or to "Spread the Bonaparte", which basically mean doing a Habsburg and trying to put Bonaparts on every european throne, which can anger a lot of countries, but at this time, Prussia cannot protect the german states from France, so at least Napoleon V can spread the Bonaparte here. And with that, in the end, Napoleon V will have a French Sphere of influence, one comparable to Napoleon I.

Government
Napoleon V is probably one of the most liberal of its whole lineage. In our timeline he fully supported direct democracy and universal sufferage and hated representative democracy, which he think was unfaithful to the french people. In this branch, he can put his ideas forward, reforming the empire into something more like the UK, where a monarch still have power over the government but let democracy happend. But even if he wants direct democracy, we will still wants some control over his empire, so he will have two choices :

- He creates an Imperial Council, where people chosen by him will serve as advisor to the throne, this council will change every 5 years to keep their ideas fresh and in-line with the will of the people. Their leader will be the "Grand Advisor", which is equivalent to a Prime Minister in a republican government.

- Or he creates an National Assembly, a comitee of representatives elected in their Département using universal sufferage that will decide the future of France. In this assembly, a leader, named the "Chef d'Assemblée" will be elected by the entire country. He will serve as the Head of Government and will guide his Assembly in the right direction. This election will happen every 3 years, and the National Assembly changes every 6 years. Napoleon V still has power, he can veto any decision taken by the Assembly, but if a majority of the french people vote against the emperor, he is forced to back down. With this new constitution, the French Third Empire is born, a democratic empire.

Internal Policies
Napoleon V is very liberal, and he will reform the country to reflect his ideas. The School system will be changed, the rights of the people will be expanded, social structures will be created. He will create an "Empire of the People" something that, he thinks, lacks from the other empire like Austria, Prussia or Russia to survive the everchanging times of the late 19th century to the early 20th century. He will for sure please the republicans, and he can even lift the ban on socialism, ban put in place by Napoleon III after the different revolts. A mendatory military service system will also be put in place, to keep an army capable of resisting any threat of war with a neighboring country.

Overlook of Napoleon V's empire
His empire seem to be a liberal paradise on Earth, but this is not without consequences, hardline conservatives and nationalists will hate him, as they see him as a "soft emperor", and they will think that even more after he creates his Concil/Assembly. Nationalists mouvements could rise up, maybe not immediatly, but slowly they will gain more and more influence in the exterme parts of the right. He will also have to face countries like Austria or Prussia, that does not approve of his external policies. Napoleon V needs to be prepared to fight any insurgency or attack from the outside, if he wants to reform the empire.