Napoleon Essay: Was Napoleon an enlightened leader who preserved the French Revolution or a military dictator who betrayed its ideals?
Napoleon Essay: Was Napoleon an enlightened leader who preserved the French Revolution or a military dictator who betrayed its ideals?
Napoleon’s rule eleven-year career from 1804 to 1815 as the Emperor of the French allowed him to accomplish many things, some beneficial to France, others betraying the basic ideals formed by the revolution. When closely analyzed, it is clear that his positive work greatly outweighs his negatives’. Napoleon ruled using the enlightened ideas of equality, freedom, a centralized government, secularism, development through use of reason, a popular government and the evolution away from ‘uncivilized’ manner. Through his implication of these ideas, he was clearly an enlightened leader who improved the socio-economic, political, and religious state of early 19th century France.
Napoleon made massive advancements in publishing the country of France as a developed country by improving the economy and quality of life. In order to stimulate and sustain the French economy he rebuilt and improved much of France’s infrastructure. This included roads, harbors and canals that allowed easier and speedier trade. Napoleon also established new universities and schools therefore allowing for an increased inquiry for knowledge and trade. Napoleon also took a government owned bank and converted it into the official Banque de France. This allowed the reformation of the currency, and an easier ability to providing subsidies or loans to French businesses whilst issuing tariffs against foreign goods. The branching of the bank was only one step of his plan to uniform the French; Napoleon also standardized measurements and financed the development of the metric system. By creating a uniform measure of money and weight, both internal and cross border trade was fairer and easier. In addition to improving the quality of life through the economy, Napoleon also brought upon his enlightenment views of equality to the people through the ‘Napoleonic Code’, which
Napoleon’s rule eleven-year career from 1804 to 1815 as the Emperor of the French allowed him to accomplish many things, some beneficial to France, others betraying the basic ideals formed by the revolution. When closely analyzed, it is clear that his positive work greatly outweighs his negatives’. Napoleon ruled using the enlightened ideas of equality, freedom, a centralized government, secularism, development through use of reason, a popular government and the evolution away from ‘uncivilized’ manner. Through his implication of these ideas, he was clearly an enlightened leader who improved the socio-economic, political, and religious state of early 19th century France.
Napoleon made massive advancements in publishing the country of France as a developed country by improving the economy and quality of life. In order to stimulate and sustain the French economy he rebuilt and improved much of France’s infrastructure. This included roads, harbors and canals that allowed easier and speedier trade. Napoleon also established new universities and schools therefore allowing for an increased inquiry for knowledge and trade. Napoleon also took a government owned bank and converted it into the official Banque de France. This allowed the reformation of the currency, and an easier ability to providing subsidies or loans to French businesses whilst issuing tariffs against foreign goods. The branching of the bank was only one step of his plan to uniform the French; Napoleon also standardized measurements and financed the development of the metric system. By creating a uniform measure of money and weight, both internal and cross border trade was fairer and easier. In addition to improving the quality of life through the economy, Napoleon also brought upon his enlightenment views of equality to the people through the ‘Napoleonic Code’, which