Paris under Napoleon Each of the twelve arrondissements had its own mayor, but their power was limited to enforcing the decrees of Napoleon's ministers. After he crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Napoleon began a series of projects to make Paris into an imperial capital to rival ancient Rome. He built monuments to French military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the column in Place Vendôme, and the future church of the Madeleine, intended as a temple to military heroes; and began the Arc de Triomphe. To improve the circulation of traffic in central Paris, he built a wide new
Napoleon III and a public demonstration of mourning for the Emperor took place on Place Vendôme in front of their hotel. The same day, Hortense and Louis-Napoleon were ordered to leave Paris. They went to Britain briefly, and then back into exile in Switzerland. A Bonapartist movement existed in France ever since the fall of Napoleon in 1815, hoping to return a Bonaparte to the throne. According to the law of succession established by Napoleon I, the claim passed first to his son who had been given the title "King of Rome" at birth by his father. He was known by Bonapartists