If this is your course, you are studying how France was governed after Napoleon’s first defeat, why restored monarchy failed twice, why the Republic created in 1848 gave way to another empire, and how Napoleon III’s rule ended in war and revolution in 1870.

France changed regime repeatedly, but this was not simply the same revolution happening again. The political settlement, electorate, economy and opposition changed across the period. Memories of 1789 and Napoleon remained powerful, while industrial growth, urban change, new political ideas and international ambition created new possibilities and conflicts.

This guide gives you the connected foundation across all four OCR topics. More detailed pages can later take the main problems into deeper evidence and debate, when you are ready.

First, check that this is your course

You are on the right page if your course is:

• OCR A Level History A, H505;
• Unit group 2, option Y214;
• France, 1814–1870.

This is not OCR Y213, which begins in 1774 and studies the French Revolution and Napoleon I. Y214 begins with the Bourbon Restoration and follows France to the fall of Napoleon III. It also has a different date range from the AQA, Edexcel and WJEC France options.

Your course in one view

OCR organises the option around four connected topics:

1. Louis XVIII and Charles X, 1814–1830: restoration, the Charter, political conflict and the July Revolution.
2. Louis Philippe and the revolution of 1848: the July Monarchy, Guizot, economic and social change, opposition and the Second Republic.
3. Louis Napoleon and Napoleon III at home: election, coup, Empire, economic modernisation, control and later liberalisation.
4. Foreign and imperial policy, 1848–1870: Rome, Crimea, Italy, Mexico, colonial expansion, Prussia and the fall of the Empire.

The central question is how governments tried to combine order, authority and the legacies of Revolution. Each regime gathered support, excluded opponents and faced problems that its own choices helped intensify.

The starting world: France in 1814

France in 1814 had been transformed by twenty-five years of revolution and war. Legal privilege and feudalism had been dismantled. Church lands and other properties had changed hands. The Civil Code, central administration and careers in public service could not simply be erased.

Napoleon’s defeat allowed the Bourbon dynasty to return. Louis XVIII was the brother of Louis XVI, but restoration did not mean restoring France exactly as it had existed before 1789. Many property owners feared losing revolutionary gains, while royalists wanted stronger monarchy and greater influence for the Catholic Church.

France was still mainly rural, although towns, commerce and manufacturing were developing. Political participation was restricted to a small, wealthy male electorate. Liberals wanted constitutional safeguards and a larger political nation. Republicans rejected monarchy. Bonapartists preserved the memory of Napoleonic glory. These labels included internal differences rather than fixed, united parties.

The victorious powers also expected France to accept a European settlement designed to prevent renewed domination. Foreign policy therefore affected the legitimacy of governments at home.

Starting-world check

1. Which revolutionary changes could not easily be reversed in 1814?
2. Why did different royalists disagree about restoration?
3. Who was excluded from formal political participation?
4. Why could foreign policy affect domestic legitimacy?

Essential vocabulary

• Restoration: the return of the Bourbon monarchy after Napoleon’s defeat.
• Charter of 1814: the constitutional framework granted by Louis XVIII.
• Ultra-royalist: a supporter of stronger royal, aristocratic and Church influence.
• Liberal: in this period, a supporter of constitutional rights and limits on arbitrary government; liberals disagreed about how wide the electorate should be.
• Legitimist: a supporter of the senior Bourbon line after 1830.
• July Monarchy: the regime of Louis Philippe from 1830 to 1848.
• Republican: a supporter of government without a monarch.
• Socialist: a broad label for thinkers and activists seeking social and economic change beyond political reform alone.
• Bonapartism: support for strong, nationally sanctioned executive rule associated with the Napoleonic tradition.
• Universal male suffrage: the vote for adult men, without a property qualification.
• Coup d’état: an unconstitutional seizure of state power.
• Plebiscite: a popular vote used to approve a political settlement.
• Authoritarian Empire: the more tightly controlled phase of Napoleon III’s rule.
• Liberal Empire: the later phase in which political freedoms and parliamentary influence increased.

1. Louis XVIII and the first Restoration, 1814–1824

The Charter of 1814 preserved important post-revolutionary principles, including equality before law and the property settlement, while placing government under a hereditary king. It created two legislative chambers, but the crown retained substantial executive power and the electorate was very narrow.

Napoleon’s return during the Hundred Days interrupted the Restoration in 1815. After Waterloo, the Bourbons returned again under harsher conditions. France faced occupation and indemnity payments. The election of an intensely royalist Chamber encouraged a White Terror against Bonapartists and former revolutionaries.

Louis XVIII tried to balance royal authority with constitutional government. Ministers such as Richelieu and Decazes pursued moderation at different moments. France paid the indemnity and ended foreign occupation earlier than expected, strengthening the regime.

The assassination of the Duke of Berry in 1820 shifted politics to the right. Electoral changes increased the influence of wealthy landowners, censorship tightened and Villèle became the leading minister. Yet the regime also benefited from economic recovery and restored France’s international standing, including intervention in Spain in 1823.

Louis XVIII’s survival depended partly on compromise. He accepted that the social and legal world of 1814 could not simply become the world of 1788.

Knowledge check: Louis XVIII

1. How did the Charter combine restoration with revolutionary inheritance?
2. Why was 1815 more difficult than the first restoration of 1814?
3. What helped Louis XVIII’s regime become more secure?
4. Why did politics move right after 1820?

2. Charles X and the July Revolution, 1824–1830

Charles X was more sympathetic than his brother to Ultra-royalism and the Church. His coronation used traditional sacred symbolism. Legislation compensated émigrés whose property had been confiscated during the Revolution and punished sacrilege. Critics feared a wider attack on the post-1789 settlement, although compensation did not return the land itself.

Villèle’s government faced liberal opposition and criticism of clerical influence. Elections weakened the ministry. Martignac attempted a more moderate course, but Charles replaced him with the strongly royalist Polignac in 1829.

Economic and social difficulties increased discontent. Poor harvests, high food prices and unemployment hurt ordinary people, while journalists and liberal deputies attacked the government politically. A successful expedition against Algiers in 1830 could not resolve the domestic crisis.

After opposition candidates succeeded in elections, Charles issued the Four Ordinances: they restricted the press, dissolved the newly elected Chamber, altered the electoral system and called new elections. Parisian journalists, workers, students and members of the National Guard resisted. Fighting during the Three Glorious Days forced Charles to abdicate.

The outcome was not predetermined. Republican action helped defeat the government, but liberal elites placed Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, on the throne. The revolution removed one Bourbon king without establishing a republic.

Knowledge check: 1830

1. Why did Charles X alarm liberals and defenders of the property settlement?
2. How did Polignac’s appointment sharpen conflict?
3. Why were the Four Ordinances decisive?
4. How did popular action and elite decision produce the July Monarchy?

You can pause here. You now understand why restored monarchy survived under Louis XVIII but collapsed when Charles X tried to override constitutional opposition.

3. Louis Philippe and the July Monarchy, 1830–1848

Louis Philippe ruled as “King of the French” rather than King of France, suggesting authority derived from the nation. The revised Charter reduced Church privilege, strengthened the legislature and widened the electorate. Yet voting remained restricted to a small, wealthy male minority.

The regime faced threats from Legitimists, republicans and Bonapartists. Republican risings were suppressed, while Louis Napoleon Bonaparte made unsuccessful attempts to seize power. The government survived assassination attempts and used the 1835 September Laws to restrict the press.

After 1840 François Guizot became the dominant minister. He defended the restricted electorate and encouraged those excluded to enrich themselves rather than demand reform. Supporters associated the regime with stability, property and economic development. Critics associated it with corruption, complacency and rule by a narrow elite.

France experienced population growth, expanding banking, railways and industry. Development was uneven: most people still lived in rural communities, and workers could face low wages, insecurity and dangerous conditions. Urbanisation created new concentrations of poverty and political organisation. Socialist thinkers proposed varied alternatives to competitive capitalism.

Foreign policy brought mixed results. French involvement in Belgium and Algeria could support prestige, while caution towards Britain and the 1840 eastern crisis angered nationalists. The Spanish Marriages damaged relations with Britain.

In 1847 reformers organised banquets to campaign for a wider electorate. Economic depression, harvest failures and unemployment gave political protest a wider social setting. When the government banned a Paris banquet in February 1848, demonstrations and fighting followed. Louis Philippe abdicated after troops and the National Guard proved unreliable.

Knowledge check: the July Monarchy

1. How was Louis Philippe’s monarchy more liberal than Charles X’s regime?
2. Why did political exclusion remain a weakness?
3. How did economic growth create both support and opposition?
4. Why did the banquet crisis become a revolution in 1848?

4. The Second Republic and Louis Napoleon, 1848–1852

A provisional government proclaimed the Second Republic and introduced universal male suffrage. It also abolished slavery in French colonies and created National Workshops in response to unemployment. These measures joined political revolution to contested social questions.

Republicans disagreed over how far social reform should go. Conservatives feared socialism and disorder. When the National Workshops were closed, workers rose in the June Days. General Cavaignac’s forces suppressed the rising with great violence. The conflict deepened division between the social Republic imagined by some workers and the order sought by property owners and rural voters.

The new constitution created an elected president and assembly, each claiming a popular mandate. Louis Napoleon won the presidential election of December 1848 by a large majority. His name promised order and national glory, while his appeal reached peasants, conservatives and voters hostile to established republican politicians.

The conservative Party of Order dominated the assembly. Restrictions were imposed on clubs, the press and education, and a residence requirement reduced the electorate in 1850. Louis Napoleon distanced himself from unpopular measures while building support through tours and patronage.

The constitution prevented immediate presidential re-election. When the assembly refused a revision, Louis Napoleon carried out a coup on 2 December 1851. Resistance in Paris and the provinces was suppressed. A plebiscite approved a new constitution, and another approved the creation of the Second Empire in 1852. Louis Napoleon became Napoleon III.

Knowledge check: Republic to Empire

1. Why did the National Workshops become politically divisive?
2. Why did the June Days damage republican unity?
3. What explains Louis Napoleon’s broad electoral appeal?
4. How did he use both force and popular voting to establish the Empire?

5. Napoleon III’s government and society

The early Empire was authoritarian. Ministers answered to the Emperor, official candidates received government support, and prefects influenced local politics. Censorship, police surveillance and restrictions on assembly limited opposition. Plebiscites and elections nevertheless allowed Napoleon III to claim democratic legitimacy.

Economic growth strengthened the regime. Banks such as Crédit Mobilier channelled investment, railways expanded and free-trade agreements encouraged commerce. Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris improved roads, sanitation and monumental spaces, while demolitions and rising rents displaced many poorer residents. Growth varied by region and did not remove rural poverty or urban insecurity.

Napoleon III promoted public works and claimed concern for workers. Mutual aid societies gained some freedom, and workers received a limited right to strike in 1864. His government also maintained social hierarchy and repressed independent organisation. Women remained excluded from formal national politics, while family law retained male authority.

During the 1860s the regime became more liberal. The legislature gained greater rights to debate and question ministers, censorship eased, and opposition candidates made electoral gains. Émile Ollivier led a more parliamentary ministry in 1870. A plebiscite endorsed constitutional reforms.

Liberalisation can be read as adaptation or weakness. It broadened participation but gave critics more space, while Catholic, business, republican and working-class supporters disagreed over policy. The regime entered 1870 with real popular backing but less direct control than before.

Knowledge check: the Second Empire at home

1. How did Napoleon III combine authoritarian control with popular legitimacy?
2. Who benefited from economic modernisation, and who bore costs?
3. In what ways did policy towards workers change?
4. Why can the Liberal Empire be interpreted in two ways?

6. Foreign and imperial policy, 1848–1870

Foreign policy was central to Napoleon III’s claim to restore French greatness. As president, he sent troops to restore papal authority in Rome in 1849. This pleased many Catholics but disappointed republicans and Italian nationalists.

France joined Britain and the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the Crimean War. Victory and the Congress of Paris in 1856 raised French prestige. Napoleon then supported Piedmont-Sardinia against Austria in 1859. French victories helped Italian unification and brought Nice and Savoy to France, but the settlement disappointed nationalists and alarmed Catholics concerned about the Pope.

Colonial expansion continued, especially in Algeria, where French settlement and military rule dispossessed and constrained local people. Campaigns in Senegal and Indochina extended French influence. Imperial policy therefore involved commerce and prestige, but also conquest, coercion and resistance.

The Mexican expedition became a major failure. France attempted to establish Emperor Maximilian, but Mexican republican resistance and pressure from the United States forced withdrawal. Maximilian was executed in 1867.

Napoleon III failed to gain compensation while Prussia defeated Austria in 1866 and transformed the German balance of power. In 1870 a dispute over the Spanish throne and Bismarck’s editing of the Ems telegram helped produce war. The French government declared war amid nationalist pressure and serious miscalculation.

Prussian-led forces mobilised more effectively. Napoleon III surrendered at Sedan in September 1870, and a republic was proclaimed in Paris. Military defeat exposed weaknesses in planning and diplomacy, but the Empire’s fall also depended on political opponents ready to replace it once the Emperor was captured.

Knowledge check: foreign policy

1. Why did the Crimean War strengthen Napoleon III?
2. Why did intervention in Italy create contradictory results?
3. What made the Mexican expedition a failure?
4. How did diplomacy, military preparation and domestic politics combine in 1870?

The whole story in six anchor dates

• 1814: Louis XVIII is restored and grants the Charter.
• 1830: the July Revolution removes Charles X and brings Louis Philippe to power.
• 1848: the July Monarchy falls and the Second Republic is proclaimed.
• 1851: Louis Napoleon carries out his coup d’état.
• 1852: the Second Empire is established under Napoleon III.
• 1870: defeat at Sedan brings down the Empire.

Use these dates to retell the sequence of four regimes. Then add 1815, 1820, 1840, 1849, 1859 and 1867.

What your OCR examination asks you to do

Y214 is a unit group 2 non-British period study. The examination lasts 1 hour, is worth 30 marks and carries 15% of the A level.

You choose one question set from two and answer both parts:

• Part (a), 10 marks: compare the importance of two given factors and reach a supported judgement.
• Part (b), 20 marks: answer a broader evaluative essay using accurate, relevant knowledge and a sustained judgement.

This paper does not contain a source evaluation or historical interpretations question. Those skills may appear elsewhere in OCR A Level History, but Y214 itself is assessed through knowledge-based explanation, comparison and judgement.

For part (a), compare the named factors directly rather than writing two separate descriptions. For part (b), test the exact wording of the claim across the relevant period, organise evidence into an argument and make the final judgement follow from what you have shown.

A small practice task

Which was more important in causing the February Revolution of 1848: Guizot’s refusal of electoral reform or economic and social distress?

Explain how each factor weakened the July Monarchy. Compare their reach, timing and interaction, then decide whether one turned difficulty into revolution more decisively.

Your next layer of learning

You now have the connected foundation. When you are ready to go further, you can add precise evidence and deeper enquiries, including:

• the Charter and the political balance under Louis XVIII;
• Ultras, liberals and religion during the Restoration;
• the social composition and political outcome of the July Revolution;
• Guizot, corruption and the limits of the July Monarchy;
• industrialisation, urban change and working-class organisation;
• the National Workshops and competing meanings of the 1848 Republic;
• rural voting and Louis Napoleon’s electoral appeal;
• repression, plebiscites and official candidacy under Napoleon III;
• banking, railways, free trade and Haussmann’s Paris;
• colonial conquest and resistance;
• the Crimean, Italian and Mexican ventures;
• the Liberal Empire and the causes of defeat in 1870;
• OCR-style 10-mark comparisons and 20-mark judgement essays.

You are allowed to stop here. If you can explain the four-regime story, place the anchor dates and distinguish OCR Y214’s two-part knowledge paper from source or interpretations questions, this guide has built the foundation it is designed to provide.