Dom Dezort

Ms. Burke

Honors world History 2

December 6, 2018

Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in 1799 and from then on, he played a big role in

European history, specifically the French Revolution. His policies and the way he ruled

supported but also went against the ideals and goals of the French Revolution. His style of ruling

like a dictator and not respecting natural rights went against the French Revolution ideals of

equal representation of all people, but the policies and reforms he put in place supported the

goals of the French Revolution.

The previous leader to Napoleon was King Louis XVI, he ruled over France with a

monarchy. The National Assembly did not like this, they overthrew him and the monarchy and

turned France into a radical democracy. The National Assembly also created a constitution that

gave all men equal rights. Napoleon then went against this because he was hungry for power and

turned his style of ruling into a dictatorship and took away the equality the constitution gave all

men. When Napoleon came to power in France, he gave himself the position of emperor. He

wanted complete and total control of everything, which differed in the views of the National

Assembly who petitioned for a contract to be struck between the people and the government, that

stated that the government and the people will work together. Napoleon also took away a lot of

the changes that were put into place at the beginning of the French Revolution, such as the new

calendar, and reestablished the Catholic Church. He renamed the Catholicism as the official

religion in France and forced the priests to become servants of the state. Napoleon’s policies and
his ruling style sometimes went against the main ideals of the French Revolution, making him

traitor to the revolution in some people’s eyes.

Even though Napoleon did not follow some of the ideals of the French Revolution, he did

in some ways support those ideals and built upon them. One policy in particular that supported

the revolution was the Napoleonic Code, which was established all across Europe when took

over territories during the Napoleonic wars. The Napoleonic Code stated that military position

was based on merit, not birthright, which is something that revolutionaries were trying to

implement. It also had a common set of laws, laws for torture, fair trials, and many others. These

laws also supported the revolutionaries, the Enlightenment, and the ideals of rationality.

Napoleon also created public schooling, making it better and easy to go to, which is another

thing the French Revolution supported.

Napoleon can be compared to someone like Adolf Hitler, they both were good at leading

their empires, but they did bad things, that were injustices to society. Bonaparte and Hitler were

dictators that built great nations, but Hitler created the holocaust that killed millions and

Bonaparte created a genocide that wiped out most of Haiti. Napoleon Bonaparte was a good

leader, but also went against a lot of what French Revolution was striving for. His style of ruling

like a dictator and the reestablishment of Christianity were both ways in which he went against

the revolution. Although, Napoleon also used his rule to spread the revolutionary ideals to

expand France, such as the Napoleonic code and his system of merits for the school system and

the military showed that Napoleon Bonaparte could be considered a son of the French

Revolution.