Napoleon Bonaparte - Villain or Hero?

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.

There is no question in the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte was a significant character in France. However, there have been debates among historians for years around the central question: “Was Napoleon Bonaparte a hero or a villain?” The answer here relies on how one looks upon the situation. Was Napoleon Bonaparte a savior to the French, or was he a tyrant to the French? Although many historians’ answers do rely deeply onto perspective, their answers also lie within which stage of life Napoleon Bonaparte was in, as well as the shift in opinions that come as time changes. Paul Stock and Phillip Dwyer analyze Napoleon Bonaparte’s influence and through the analysis, debate on whether Napoleon Bonaparte should be considered a hero or a villain,

John O’Brien Mr. Castonguay World History October 16, 2016 Napoleon Hero or Tyrant? Napoleon Bonaparte goes down in history as one the greatest military commanders of all time. Many consider him a hero of the French people and the people of the conquered lands spreading his reforms everywhere. Others believe that he is a tyrant, oppressing citizens and engaging in aggressive unnecessary wars. This is a controversial topic and both sides can bring up compelling arguments.

During the Napoleonic Era, from 1799 to 1815, France became a military power gaining and controlling land throughout Europe. While some historians believe Napoleon Bonaparte was a ruthless dictator, his military accomplishments far outweigh any atrocities he committed. He helped France gain stability after the French Revolution and he also abolished the Feudal contract. Napoleon was a brilliant strategist using military tactics to cause fear and to defeat whatever enemies stood in his way. Throughout his rule, Napoleon continually gained ground, and by the end of his reign, his empire encompassed all of Spain, Italy, and a small portion of land by Russia and Austria. (see map) He is one of

Your honor and jurey I am here to tell you why Napoleon Bonaparte is guilty of being a traitor to the revolution. I think Napoleon was a traitor because of the way he led France during his time in power. Have you ever got into an accident and had to pay a bill to cover it, this is what Napoleon did with his country over and over. He brought France into many battles they had no part being in. He was selfish and wanted to take things from the other countries like land. That goes against the ways of Life,Liberty and property. Going against the ideas of enlightenment was going against the French Revolution. Because of his actions I think that Napoleon is a traitor.

Napoleon Bonaparte, an influential leader of France, was a man of many facets. On one the one hand, Napoleon was a strong leader who created durable institutions and strengthened France, but on the other, there is a more pitiful view of Napoleon. The view of Napoleon was initially very positive: he viewed himself as a protector of the people, and the people saw this too; however, over time, this image was greatly worsened, due to military hardship.

Napoleon’s self-defeating actions were more important for his defeat. Napoleon lost because: (1) he relentlessly pursued a flawed campaign of economic warfare against Great Britain; (2) he refused to acknowledge strategic overreach during the Peninsular War; and (3) he failed to accept culmination during the invasion of Russia in 1812. These actions served to thwart Napoleon’s interests and did not achieve their intended results. More importantly, it will be seen that they combined to create a momentum against France that Napoleon could not overcome.

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.

If you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog , they will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion they will fight like a lion.”- Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon Bonaparte was was an arrogant man that made himself an emperor in France. Before this France was very unorganized. Some people question if he was a hero or tyrant, in my opinion he was a hero. He may have done some questionable things but I believe they were for his country's best interest.

For this paper I was assigned to determine whether or not Napoleon Bonaparte was a hero or villain. I believe that he was a villain. Although not all he did was bad, he claimed many lives for nothing other than to gain power for himself. Not only did he declare many needless wars but he took away to of the most valued concepts of the revolution, which he calmed to be a part of.

Napoleon Bonaparte was not really from an important or influential family. However, in 1789 when the French Revolution broke out this began to change. In the beginning of the Revolution, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. The Revolution presented an opportunity for Napoleon and soon he was riding in the ranks. At the age of 24 he became a general in the army. After suppressing a revolt against the government, Napoleon was given command of the Army of Italy. Soon after, Napoleon began military campaigns against Austria and Austria’s ally, Italy. Napoleon won all of the battles of this campaign and took the Italian peninsula. This made him a hero in France. Soon after this, he bagan military explorations into Egypt. These explorations helped gain him political power. About a year after his Egyptian exploration,

Napoleon is an illustrious figure in history. His name and legacy is well known, but on who he really was and on what he wanted there are differing accounts. This is partly because he himself weren’t very consistent about his goals. In Italy he proclaimed that he was fighting to liberate it, in Egypt he claimed to be a friend of Islam and that he was fighting for Egypt and Muhammed and in France that it was to restore the glory of France.

As I would see it, I think that Napoleon was the inventor of his times not the creation. In that time period, I don't think he would have done every one of the things he did in the event that he hadn't experienced all that work to turn into the dictator. I likewise trust that when the royalist fled the scene in October 1795, in frenzy, that Napoleon trusted he was the legend, that all through Paris he was the rescuer of the French Republic. I imagine that developed his certainty and made him more intense. In 1796 Napoleon was named to lead the French, he made it into Italy with a great deal of triumphs. In the 1800's he at last got to be about the first insight. Napoleon needed to control Europe and restart French power in the Americas. He

It’s no secret to anybody: everyone admires and respects a military hero, no matter what their background is or who they are. Throughout the world’s history, military veterans have continuously captured people’s hearts and respect in multiple different ways. Napoleon Bonaparte was no different. Faced with the responsibility of leading post-revolution France at the age of just 30 years old, the widely respected military general was both honored, and sometimes disliked, by the French people. Bonaparte made strong promises to his citizens, and was a brilliant war strategist, while occasionally being vain and narcissistic as the hero of France. Because of his contradicting words and actions, Napoleon Bonaparte is widely seen as an antihero, or a hero whose endeavours may have been wrongfully motivated.

Napoleon is a hero because he gave the common people rights that only the nobles and clergy had prior to Napoleon becoming emperor, freed the people of Italy from tyrannical rule, and saved France from civil war. There was a scientific Revolution spreading through Europe many of the scientists involved, during the last years of the Scientific Revolution the Enlightenment began spreading throughout Europe like wildfire. During the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment people also began to question the Catholic Church. The French government was undergoing reconstruction before Napoleon was crowned emperor after using a Coup d’état to forcefully overthrow the government’ before this France was a monarchy, a limited monarchy, and a dictatorship. Prior to Napoleon France was ruled by Maximilien Robespierre who by using terror. After Napoleon seized power he allowed the people to vote on a new constitution, allowed people to practice religion, and gave France a uniform set of laws.