The arrival of the first attempts at modernization
For the arrival of the Modern Age, Paris wanted to be beautified by the kings, who sought resources to increase the water supply and unite the islands that made up the city by building bridges. The Baroque was the style to which this attempt at urban improvements responded and the political intention to expand and regulate the city through the prohibition of building with wooden boards without plaster, the height limitation for buildings and the regulation of the length of urban axes, among other things. In turn, several buildings were demolished and "rental buildings" emerged, where citizens of all social classes lived together.
However, it is worth clarifying that for what the century was and to be able to understand in depth what the development of the events that led to Haussmannization was due to, we must think about the great global and historical changes that would affect the vision of the city. The Industrial Revolution (1762-1842), among other things, led to the conviction that the important thing was to increase the wealth of individuals and nations by all possible means. With this criterion, production was prioritized over human and social values, leaving consequences in the form and development of cities.
Another national historical factor, but from which we cannot separate ourselves, is that of the French Revolution (1789-1799). In a context of absolute monarchy where there was no place for social movements, commerce was highly regulated, prices and taxes were constantly increasing and the bourgeoisie did not have access to any type of decision, chaos was imminent. Faced with increasing social pressure, King Louis XVI was forced to convene the Estates General (nobility, clergy and people) in order to redefine the representative system. As expected, the representatives of the people were disadvantaged in the vote and a social revolution took place of such a nature that it culminated in the storming of the Bastille. Louis XVI is forced to leave the Palace of Versailles, accepting National Sovereignty.
For the years 1789 and 1791, they managed to convene a National Assembly and create a new Constitution where, among many other popular benefits, the Rights of Man and the Citizen were declared and the privileges of the nobility and the clergy were suppressed.
Beyond the social satisfaction with what had been achieved, the economic and political crisis was such that it was impossible to establish order. Reason why, in 1795, a Directory in charge of the executive power was convened in order to reconcile a collective government and social order. Its development time did not last long since, in 1799, a coup d'état was carried out by Napoleon Bonaparte known as the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, where he first classified himself as a consul and then as Emperor of the French.
Napoleon I intended to modernize the city with the idea of a "renewed Paris", but he did not have the support to undertake such a change. He limited his work to the construction of four new cemeteries, a canal that supplied the city's new fountains, the decentralization of slaughterhouses and four new bridges. In fact, after its fall in 1814 and to erase all traces of the Napoleonic Empire, several sculptures were erected to honor the memory of Louis XVI. Clearly, the urban interventions of this stage served the aristocracy, so the transformations were exclusively of an ornamental nature, accompanied by the construction of churches, theaters and fountains and the improvement in neighborhoods of the most privileged classes.
However, after a new social revolt that was increasingly gaining voice due to the dehumanizing living conditions of the popular classes united with the middle classes, the crown was forced to recognize National Sovereignty again in the Revolution of 1830. This is how the commercial bourgeoisie took place, being the only one with the right to vote, and Luis Felipe I took office.
It is in his mandate that the control of public administration is reinforced, especially strengthening the power of the Prefects of the Seine, who constituted the highest authority entrusted with the urban development of Paris. Several officials preceded Haussmann in this position, but without a doubt the outstanding one was the prefect Rambuteau who proposed a restructuring plan that did not abruptly affect private property, and configured an urban action plan approved by municipal officials where he proposed a slow transformation of Paris. In any case, a new revolt prevented it from being carried out.
The Revolution of 1848 arose from a wave of mobilizations that, uniting the petite bourgeoisie with the working class and students, led Louis Philippe I to abdicate and the consolidation of a provisional government that, through universal male suffrage, gave way to the Second French Republic in the hands of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. This is how the bourgeoisie generally welcomed him and then easily surrendered to the coup d'état that he caused in 1851 and the proclamation of the Empire in December 1852.
At the beginning of the Second Empire, new regulatory provisions were introduced which, together with the law of 1841 on expropriation for reasons of public utility and a systematic recourse to debt, would form the bases of the building policy of the new prefect of the Seine appointed by the emperor. In 1845, the French social reformer Victor Considérant wrote:
The street plan on the Ile de la Cité and in the quartier des Arcis"), between the Louvre and the Hôtel de Ville, had changed little since the Middle Ages. The population density in these neighborhoods was extremely high compared to the rest of Paris. In the Champs-Elysées neighborhood, the population density was estimated at 5,380 inhabitants/km²; in the Arcis and Saint-Avoye neighborhoods, at In the current Third District, there was one resident for every three square meters.[5] In 1840, a doctor described a building on the Ile de la Cité, where a single room of five square meters on the fourth floor was occupied by twenty-three people, adults and children.[6] Under these conditions, the disease spread rapidly. Two cholera epidemics devastated the city in 1832 and 1848. Five percent of the inhabitants of these two. neighborhoods perished in 1848.[6].
• - The rue des Marmousets, a dark and medieval alley on the Ile de la Cité, in the 1850s, near the Hôtel-Dieu.
• - The rue du Marché aux fleurs on the Ile de la Cité, before Haussmann, today Place Louis-Lépine.
• - Rue du Jardinet on the Left Bank, demolished by Haussmann to open the Boulevard Saint-Germain.
• - Rue Tirechamp in the old “quartier des Arcis”, demolished during the extension of rue de Rivoli.