Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica, his family were the minor nobles but they had little money.When he was young, Napoleon wasn't to France to be trained for a military career, and when the revolution began he was an ambitious 20-year old lieutenant, ready to make a name for himself. Napoleon found the conflicting ideas of the French Revolution confusing, but found it easier to just pick the winning side. During the revolution, Napoleon rose quickly in the army, success fueled his ambition and by 1799 he moved from victorious general to political leader. During his time as a political leader, Napoleon made many changes and reforms that affected many people throughout Europe. Some people described Napoleon as a hero, while others saw him as an evil force, either way Napoleon had a large impact on life in Europe. Napoleon consolidated his power by strengthening the central government with reforms and changes, many of which improved the way of life for the citizens of France. Napoleon …show more content…
For example, even though Napoleon enforced taxes to help pay the national debt, he still spent to much money on the military. Another example is his public school system, it was really there to create perfect soldiers for his army. The schools weren’t open for women or the poor, so it didn't really benefit all of his citizens, just a small portion. Napoleon took liberties away from the people, he banned labor unions and issued passbooks that limited movement. In conclusion, I think Napoleon did both good and bad things for France, but the bad things overweigh what he actually did to help France. Napoleon was a conqueror who's focus was mostly on his military conquests. He turned most of Europe against France, took many basic liberties away from his people, and used many of France’s resources to improve the
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 helped France come out from the ashes & fog into the light of sun. Napoleon tried to as much as he could for majority of the French population, but some still were not pleased. Napoleon wrote a new constitution for all men; like freedom of rights, freedom of religion, and equality before the law. Napoleon believed natural rights should apply to the country. Napoleon also allowed the rights to average/poor citizens of France[doc.3]
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
Impressed by his feats the five main military leaders asked Napoleon to invade England, instead he offered a plan to invade Egypt. After he got the okay to do so Napoleon took over the Egyptian army and its main leaders (www.history.com, www.thefreesource.com). In 1799 Napoleon overthrew the French Directory in an attempt to gain more power. After the defeat he was the leading political figure to most historians (www.history.com). As leader Napoleon improved not only the military of France but also the economy and other parts of the French empire. He helped reform the banks and education system as well as improving the arts and sciences. But his biggest contribution was the Napoleonic code, which was a big part of the legal system in France.(www.history.com, www.thefreesource.com, www.bbc.co.uk). In 1804 Napoleon declared himself emperor of France, which was meant he was the sole leader of this great empire (www.history.com). Napoleon won many battles and his reign stretched from the edge of the border of Spain to Italy and also some parts in Austria and Egypt. It was a strong and powerful empire at the time. The start of Napoleon’s downfall began when Russia broke agreements with France. So Napoleon brought about 600,000 troops into Russia to attack but the Russians were prepared and had the perfect strategy to defeat the French army. The Russians would retreat and keep the French marching
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.
The Napoleonic Age was the most controversial time period. Some people thought Napoleon was a reformer, while others thought he was an absolute dictator. One thing is for sure though, that he shaped France/Europe into the continent/country is is today. Napoleon was very narcissistic and cruel, and did not value human life. At the same time, he believed in education and instruction. Also, he positively influenced the schools and created the Napoleonic Code, which solved a lot of France's problems. Napoleon Bonaparte had a negative impact on France, because he mistreated the rights that every human should obtain, created a bad image for other countries, and only really cared about absolute power.
- After his triumph driving the British out of Toulon Napoleon was made a brigadier general. With two successful campaigns 1796 he drove the Austrians north of Italy. He was able to make the government of France very dependent on him. His dealings with Italians produced a "Cisalpine" republic modeled after the French with Milan as its capital. After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. ending when Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d'état and declared himself the ruler of France. Essentially, Napoleon ended the French Revolution. Napoleon was successfully leading military campaigns, succeeding both abroad and squelching counter-revolutionary activities at home. While the people
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
Certain individuals approved of Napoleon 's reign as the saviour of France. He finished and completed the Revolution by fulfilling the ideals the people of France demanded. A person such as one belonging to the bourgeoisie, or even a peasant would be very satisfied with the way Napoleon ruled over the country. He gave them equality, freedom, justice, and many rights. Such things never existed
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader and eventual political leader in France who was able to seize power during the end of the French Revolution of the late 1790's and early 1800's. Napoleon was the leader of France from 1804 to 1815 and mostly remembered as a leader in a cycle of European battles. He institutionalized the changes brought about by the French Revolution and sought to spread them throughout Europe. It has been long debated the factors that allowed Napoleon to seize power and eventually crown himself emperor. Such factors that have been considered have been Napoleon's personality, his military exploits, the failings of the Directory, support of the people and army and even sheer luck.
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
After the government takeover, Napoleon started trying to restore order in the government to the days of Louis XVI, wanted to create a lasting empire, and reform the government and law systems through the Napoleonic Code. Throughout the 1800s until his death, Napoleon made lasting decisions that would change the way we look at government and order.
Napoleon could be argued as a great leader because he help France have many freedoms that other countries did not have at the time. For example Napoleon created states that granted constitutions, introduced laws and codes, and abolished feudalism. Furthermore he supported education, science, literature, and arts. One of the laws and codes napoleon created was the toleration for religion.
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.