Napoleon Bonaparte Thesis

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

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.

After Robespierre and the Directory, Napoleon came to power. Though he is criticized for being a militaristic dictator, Napoleon was able to spread Enlightenment ideals, in the form of the Napoleonic Code, throughout Europe. This shows the progression of ideas throughout Europe, and also that France succeeded in using the ideals that the revolution was based on. In this way, the French Revolution was extremely successful.

Napoleon was one of the most influential people in the history of the world. He has affected people throughout the globe in many ways. He rose through the confusion of the French revolution to become Emperor of the French. His goal was to conquer all of Europe. Through out his lifetime he nearly succeeded in his goal. Napoleon was probably one of the greatest military leaders that ever lived. Napoleon Bonaparte, who is also known as the "little Corsican", was born on August 15,1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was known as the "little Corsican" because of his height of 5 feet 2 inches. He had 7 brothers and sisters. His original name was Napoleon Bonaparte in Corsica but it

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.

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 longest lasting effect of Napoleon Bonaparte's rule over France was his overseeing the implementation of a series of national laws collectively known as the Civil Code, or Code Napoleon. Code Napoleon was the successor to the idea’s stated in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, While at first, Napoleon generally adhered to the philosophies of the French Revolutionist as created in The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, as time progressed, his absolute power allowed for corruption at the expense of the French people. Napoleon violated almost every principle in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen in order to benefit his own

Napoleon revitalized France and helped bring back its glory in many ways after The Directory. The Directory consisted of 500 members who acted as board of directors to manage France after Robespierre was executed. Napoleon had been a supporter of Robespierre and was imprisoned after his execution but, later was released. Napoleon rose through to the top to become Emperor of most of Europe. There are many good reasons for his success too.

Another example of his actions conflicting with his “beliefs” occurred at the very beginning of Napoleons reign over France. Napoleon claimed that his main aim while ruling France was to get rid of the monarchy, however he felt the need to be crowned so his power over France was official. When Napoleon was being crowned, he advanced towards the altar and took a crown known as the Charlemagne crown, from the altar, and placed it on his own head. He did this to show that he did not accept the Pope, who was supposed to crown him, as his overlord; and to let the people know there was no one equal to him because he wanted to be an absolute ruler. Another example of how Napoleon betrayed Equality can be seen in the way women were treated during his reign over France. During Napoleons time the women were isolated from the society by not receiving too many responsibilities in all aspects of life. These are just two examples from the many that make critics of Napoleon believe that throughout his reign over France he continued to

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.

The enlightenment was a time of great learning throughout Europe during the eighteenth century. Although the period is significant for scientific and other scholastic advancements, it is most important because it allowed for the opening of great minds—such as that of Napoleon Bonaparte. Shortly after this enlightenment made its way through Europe, revolution and civil war ripped through France between 1879 and 1899. The unrest of the time called for a strong ruler. A man/woman with an open mind and an enlightened soul. France needed a child of the enlightenment to sew its tattered flag. Napoleon Bonaparte was a child of the enlightenment. This was displayed in both his attitudes and

Napoleon also claimed there was ‘freedom of speech’: this was not true. Napoleon made sure that all newspapers wrote news he approved of: he censored all press and made sure that everything delivered was official propaganda. He reduced the amount of political journals published from 73 to 9 and made it clear there were to be no new ones. All articles were written by Napoleon himself or one of his ministers. On top of that, more than half of the printing-presses were shut down and remaining publishers were forced to take an oath declaring loyalty to the government. This again points to the fact that Napoleon centralised his reign and made sure that the legislature had little to no power.

Napoleon Bonaparte made a huge impact on history. It started when he became the hero of the hour in 1795. He defended the delegates which caused the attackers to flee. Ever since then he continued to make more and more impacts on the world. Napoleon thought that his greatest accomplishment was his complete system of laws. He called these laws the Napoleonic code. What the Napoleonic code did was it gave the country a new set of laws and got rid of many injustices. The bad thing was that the laws didn't promote our individual rights and some of our rights were actually restricted under these laws. The code ended up restoring slavery in the French colonies. The Napoleonic code was approved in March 1804. The reason Napoleon made the code was to make the French Law more modern. This change was so great that most of the laws are still being enforced today.

There were many things Napoleon considered a great triumph but there is one that is the greatest and this is called the Napoleonic Code. The Napoleonic Code did a lot of good for the French, the first good thing this code did for the French was it gave the country a set in stone, set of laws and it also eliminated any injustices. But this actually promoted order and authority over individual rights. An example of this is the freedom of speech, and press which was established during the revolution. This made it restricted under the code. Another good but bad thing was that the Napoleonic Code brought back slavery into the French colonies that were part of the Caribbean. There are many reasons Napoleon decided to change the current feudal system of laws and royal laws. Before the Napoleonic Code, there was no “Law” for the French to follow, and the royal and rich were very much treated better and had more privileges so during the revolution Napoleon decided that it would be the best to do away with the feudal laws. This was the set of laws he would use, and some of these laws are still in place, in france today.