Impact Of Napoleon In The French Revolution

During the French Revolution Napoleon Bonaparte was the leader of the French Republic. Napoleon crowned himself as emperor, and worked to take over all of Europe. He served his area for sixteen years. Napoleon was a dictator that held power over the french people because he was in love with power, liked people seeing him in charge, and he wants to be considered the perfect image to everyone.

Napoleon Bonaparte was an undeniably strong leader of France, however he was not truthful to his inferiors who gave him his power. Napoleon believed he was the master of France and that he had complete power of the country. He looked down upon his peers and the other citizens of France. Bonaparte gained his popularity by standing with the common people during the revolutionary period of France but did not continue with the views he expressed during this period when he became Emperor. Napoleon Bonaparte had many views and beliefs that made him an absolute dictator of France including, making every decision himself, being above everyone in the class systems, and manipulating the citizens of France.

In France in 1789, A revolution began. The people of France were fighting for their inalienable rights such as freedom from serfdom , equality between the classes. Within this chaos in France, Napoleon, a new thinker, came about and changed France in many ways. Napoleon's policies can be seen as preserving the legacy of the French Revolution by giving equality to the lower classes and creating a governmental system that helped to put the people in charge of their sovereignty, however it can be seen as hurting the legacy by protecting the ideas of absolutism.

He made many good changes for France. One of the most important was he brought France out of the chaotic period of the Revolution. Without him the turmoil would have continued and France would be an entirely different country. Another significant thing he did was he created the Napoleonic Code. It was a very basic code of civil laws. This set of laws prevented people from being born into power. It made people work for a high prestige of power not just given to them by birth. The code also allowed freedom of religion. This code helped shaped many laws that are still used today like the constitution of laws that is currently being

The French revolution is notably the start of the creation of modern Europe. Within this revolution, the country experienced a drastic change in power and in government. Along with the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, played a huge role in the changes in Europe economy. Under napoleons rule and conquest, similar to the French revolution, citizens experienced great depression, debt, and confusion. Similar to the American Revolution, the French revolution was influenced by enlightenment ideas particularly the concepts of popular sovereignty and inalienable rights.

Consequently, as most people of such a high status, Napoleon was expected to do immense things for his country. Such things include bringing peace to France and stopping the political disorder within the country. Most importantly, people wanted him to completely encompass the things that they fought for during the French Revolution. Napoleon himself had said that he had kept the best policies and ideas from the Revolution. With all of these things that Napoleon needed to do, many people looked up to him, making him an even higher figure than before. This let him use his power to generate funds for a more nationalist and patriotic country. He had solved many of the problems people were talking about after rising to power, such as making peace between the government and the church.

Napoleon continued in the Revolutionary tradition of liberating and introducing revolutionary ideals to the territories he claimed for France. In the areas he conquered Napoleon granted constitutions, introduced law codes, abolished feudalism, created efficient governments and fostered education, science, literature and the arts. However these reforms always failed as Napoleon was always attempting the politically impossible. This did not stop Napoleon from continuing his conquests. Napoleons battles were fought in order to consolidate his dictatorship. His Military success initially consolidated the revolution, but once he turned France into a military dictatorship he betrayed the revolution.

Napoleon managed to maintain the lesser ideals of the French Revolution. However, he managed to do this by giving all of the former ideals a ‘twist’ of his own if he was displeased by them. This included the fact that he re-wrote the constitution that had previously been written; he partially reversed the relationship with the Church, turning France into a Catholic country. It can also be stated that the way he gained power was against the French Revolution’s ideals: and this was the very beginning! On the other hand, Napoleon managed to maintain equal taxation, which had previously been a big issue, especially for the poor. Distinction was removed and there were no privileges for any parties neither was there a way to ‘sneak out’ of

Napoleons’ rise to emperor in France was indisputable mostly because of his overthrow of the Directory. His success’s as commander of the French army in Italy, only led to his aspiring status change to “Emperor” of France after overthrowing the Directory in November of 1799. His undying ambition for expansion of the empire he was creating however would be his undoing. Napoleons rule as emperor of France was quit spectacular actually and many admired and adored him as ruler. His ways were very appealing, and as a speaker he was very persuasive and admired by most of his people until his later years in his fall and demise. However, Napoleon did not seriously adhere to the ideals of the French Revolution, he did that of the Enlightenment but his undying ambition and character as “Emperor” undermined the true need of the French Revolution.

Napoleon Bonaparte will remain in the heart of many French nationals as one of the greatest military leaders that the nation has had when it comes to warfare history. In 1799, Napoleon launched a series of wars, which historian call, “Napoleonic wars” in a bid to extend the territory of France in Europe. Many historians argue that the Napoleonic wars were a continuation of the earlier war under the tag, French revolution in 1789. The French revolution in itself had so many influences in Europe, especially with the armies who felt the greatest impact of the revolution. The revolution brought with it many changes, especially in the production of modern mass weapons with the conscription in place. The new improvements in weaponry made Napoleon seek hegemony in the entire Europe sparking his quest to expand and increase the revolutionary and territorial borders of France. Napoleon, Corsican aristocrat, who was a minor, rose to the position of emperor in France because of the revolution and his idea was to sweep the entire Europe with the reforms brought about by the revolution (Dwyer 32). The idea was to liberate the continent so that all citizens had a chance to take the helm of leadership and do away with the issue of kinship rule. Napoleon was a symbol of change, and although at some point, he comes out as a dictator, he was progressive and created rationalization of governance and all the social

He established the National Banking System to help out the French with their taxes. He made a more effective tax system. He tried to stop corruption and inefficiency in the government. He set up public schools that gave positions based on merit. He signed an agreement with the church giving it significance, but not power. Most of all, he established the Napoleonic Code, which limited freedom at the expense of order. Napoleon expanded his empire into Austria and Prussia by defeating all Austrian and Prussian armies. Not only did Napoleon strengthen his empire, but also weakened it in several ways. For example, he was defeated in the battle of Trafalgar where he lost to Horatio Nelson and his British troops. Moreover, in the Peninsular War, Napoleon battled Portugal and was determined to conquer it. However, when British troops aided Spanish troops and used guerilla warfare to ambush Napoleon’s troops, they were attacked and defeated. This war resulted in Napoleon losing many of his soldiers and best troops. So too, Napoleon set out with 600,000 troops in hopes of finding food and shelter for his soldiers in his attempt to conquer Russia, but once Czar Alexander the first was notified about Napoleons plan, he decided to use the scorched-earth policy. This meant that he destroyed all the supplies and food that Napoleon’s troops can possibly use to benefit them so they would

When he came into power, Napoleon attempted to win the favor of the people. The bourgeoisie were pleased that jobs in the government and army were made available to them and the restoration of order. The economy benefited from the taxation of imports and usage of national banks. The working class and peasants enjoyed that food became affordable and being able to keep their land. The nobles were relieved of their punishments for fleeing the Revolution.

A great leader shares his followers’ pain and can connect with everyone. On the battlefield Napoleon worked as hard as all the other soldiers, reloading cannons and doing other jobs that were beneath him, that he could have just assigned to someone else. This made the soldiers love and trust him even more and feel more loyalty towards him. Any leader can dictate orders and send armies out to war, but a great leader stands and fights with his army. Back in France, Napoleon did many things for the people. He rebuilt the city of Paris from its post-revolution shambolic state to a beautiful city with parks and boulevards and even a sewer system (History.com). He created a central banking system by giving complete control of the issuing of notes (money) to the new central bank, the Banque de France which he had created on January 18, 1800, and backing it firmly with gold and silver. This helped to stabilize France’s drowning economy. Napoleon also designed a system of higher education called Lycées, which were secondary schools meant to train the future leaders of France (Lycée). He supported science and the arts and he tried to improve France’s relationship with the Pope after they had begun de-Christianization during the revolution. Napoleon really tried to make the people happy, to prevent them from rising against him and they never did. This indicates that he was a successful

Napoleon Bonaparte, had a great impact in developing the French education. People can see that in the rise and falls of the Europe history can come from the education that they had back then. The education fell down badly with the closing of the Roman Empire. King of the Franks came in 768 A.D. because of the reign of charlemagne. Napoleon Bonaparte had won many of his battles that he was in. Plus Napoleon gained a lot of favor in the battles. Even though Napoleon was in a lot of battles he also was somewhat known as an administrator. One of Napoleon's goals was to make France a great nation. He even had a great importance on his mind which was the education for people. The Pope and Napoleon fixed the religious and education with a Concordat.

Napoleon was arguably one of the most important leaders France has ever had, but just because he was an important leader, does not mean he was a good leader. As a tyrant of France, Napoleon changed the was France governed the people and utilized the military.