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In late 1851, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte launched a bloody coup d'etat that would pave the way for his establishment of the Second Empire (1852-70). Playing on the nation's reverence for his uncle, he crowned himself Napoleon III and set up an authoritarian regime. Republican politicians, including Victor Hugo, fled. Hugo remained abroad for eighteen years, returning to Paris triumphantly in 1870 after Louis' defeat by the Prussians.