preview

Napoleon Bonaparte Hero Or Tyrant Essay

Decent Essays

Napoleon: Hero or Tyrant?

In the wise words of Napoleon Bonaparte, “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” Though he didn’t know it when he spoke these sagacious words, it would soon come to the attention of all, that he was predicting his own demise. He predicted his own future and his principle change that ultimately leads him to become a tyrant.

Napoleon had made many great changes to the laws of France, to the French military and to the lives of the French. Napoleon created the Napoleonic Code, which substantially changed the laws of France. The Napoleonic Code was the French civil code established in 1804 which …show more content…

He oppressed women, was deceitful, and let his thirst for power overrun his actions which can be seen in the rise and fall of the Continental System. According to Napoleon, “women [were] nothing but machines for producing children” which influenced his decision to abolish women’s rights. This was very detrimental to France because it was pushing the nation back into history rather than having it evolve as the other countries were. Napoleon was also very deceitful in many ways. One example of this was with the Italians. When he promised them freedom from the Austrians in return for their loyalty, he turned his back on them and forced his ideals upon them with no warning. This is a very deceitful act which later harms his authority over many of his colonies. As well as his deceitful act, he also let his hatred for Britain cloud his judgement which can be seen in the creation of the Continental System. The System lead to shortages in goods which ultimately lead them to be very expensive in Europe. His feeble attempt to strangle Britain's economy by closing off all European ports was unsuccessful which led to the Peninsular War and the war between Great Britain and

Get Access