4. Social Reforms Eventually Destroyed the Court
While the early police forces of Paris were tasked with keeping the Court of Miracles in check, it was actually the social reforms during the reign of Napoleon that ultimately led to the demise of the court. In the middle of the 19th century, the center of Paris was an incredibly overcrowded deathtrap. There were neighborhoods with a population density of one person in every three square meters. Disease was rampant, with five percent of each of the densest neighborhoods dying every year, with cholera being a particularly useful killer.
Soon after the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe in the February Revolution of 1848, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of France. One of his first goals was to begin the rebuilding of Paris to make it a safer and healthier city. Napoleon’s Minister of the Interior chose Georges Eugène Haussmann to oversee the reconstruction.
Under Haussmann’s direction, thousands of feet of new streets were laid throughout Paris including the cross of Paris, which allowed cross-traffic through the city as never before. Haussmann’s changes to Paris were so significant that the period of urban development is now referred to as the city’s Haussmannisation. The slums of the Court of Miracles were eradicated by the reformation, with the slums being cleaned up and the population density reduced through Paris over doubling in size.