Why Did Napoleon Want To Fix The French Legal System?

Progression of Napoleon's Life

The bare facts of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte stagger the imagination and rival the plots of the most fantastic novels. Born in 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica, but as that island was passing from the hands of the Republic of Genoa to those of France, Bonaparte attended a French military school for impoverished sons of the nobility. Dissimilar many French nobles, he supported the Revolution, and cheers to a combination of skill, luck, and patronage, he was given command of the Italian campaign in 1796 (at the ripe old age of 27!). He invaded Egypt in 1798, took charge of a new regime in 1799, had himself named Showtime Consul for Life in 1802, and crowned himself Emperor in 1804.

Map: Europe 1812

Europe 1815

Departments of 1798

Revolutionary France 1799

The Moscow Entrada 1812

Napoleon in Italy 1796–97

Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign—1798–99

The Great Man

The Smashing Heroism of the Nineteenth Century

Jubilant Napoleon's Birthday on the Island of St. Helena

His fall from the pinnacle of power was nearly equally startling every bit his rise. In 1812 he invaded Russia, where he won most of the battles but lost an army in the procedure. Within 2 years the powers allied against him had captured Paris. Forced into exile on the island of Elba, Napoleon escaped to fight 1 terminal time. When he lost his final boxing at Waterloo in Belgium in 1815, the victors sent him to the faraway isle of Saint Helena, where he died in 1821. The eagle (his preferred symbol) had taken its last flying.

Napoleon created a new course of government in France, reshaped the boundaries of Europe, and influenced revolutionaries and nationalists the world over. Since his offset days in power he aroused controversies that keep today. Was he a true son of the Enlightenment who modernized French regime and brought the message of equality under the law wherever he went? Or was he an authoritarian armed forces dictator who fought incessant wars and conquered territory in order to maintain his egomaniacal grip on ability? There is abundant evidence for both views. The evidence is presented here under three main headings: domestic policies; foreign policies and wars; and his legacy.

Domestic Policies

How did a young Corsican from a modest noble family, whose native language was not even French, go supreme ruler of one of the most of import countries in Europe? The answer has to be sought in the bear upon of an expanding war on revolutionary politics. From 1792 to 1794, the French armies struggled to save the Commonwealth from its foreign and internal enemies. In 1794 the tide turned, enabling French republic to keep the offensive and to acquit the war to its neighbors rather than desperately fight to save itself. But state of war was expensive, and the Directory government (1795–99) encouraged its generals to verbal tribute from the local populations they "liberated" in order to pay for the maintenance of the armies. While fighting far from France, the generals acted more and more on their own, paying their armies out of local treasure and overseeing the administration of conquered territories.

Twenty-four hour period of Saint–Cloud, 18 Brumaire

The Saving of France

Like the other generals, Napoleon Bonaparte benefited from this system, but he stood out from them because of his remarkable talent for seizing every military opportunity. In 1796 he took a canaille ground forces of forty,000 soldiers and swept the Austrian armies out of their possessions in Italy. When he returned to Paris in November 1797 bearing the treaty that he himself had negotiated with the Austrians, giving France control over much of Italy, Kingdom of belgium, and the Rhineland, the French welcomed him as a hero. His gustation of power and glory in Italian republic inspired him with great ambitions for the future. "I saw the world spin beneath me," he exulted, "as if I were flying through the air."

He invaded Egypt side by side and though trapped when the English language destroyed his armada, he escaped to France in Oct 1799 at a critical moment in the political affairs of the Commonwealth. Leading members of the government secretly sought a constitutional overhaul and they needed a full general to make their plot work. Napoleon appeared at just the correct moment, but his arrogance and bluster nearly lost the day. He forced his manner into a coming together of the deputies, who threatened to outlaw him as a would-exist dictator. He and his brother Lucien, rallying some troops waiting outside, broke up the session by armed force. Napoleon was and then named Starting time Consul. The plotters in the legislature expected to control the immature general (he was non former enough to hold office under the Constitution of 1795), but they soon found themselves outmaneuvered.

Napoleon steadily gained support for the new regime by promising a regime of law and order and by making peace with the Catholic Church and its head, the pope.

Bonaparte, Kickoff Consul of the France

The Mode of Training Claret Hounds in St. Domingo

The Style of Exterminating the Black Ground forces as Skillful past the French

Although probably not motivated by personal religious conviction, he did believe that skillful relations with the Cosmic Church were essential to maintaining order and guaranteeing his ain legitimacy. Some conflicts over religion continued, merely the pope had granted Napoleon more or less everything he wanted in exchange for bringing France dorsum into the Catholic fold. Napoleon reaffirmed the principle of religious toleration for Protestants, who were organized in a number of consistories under state command. Later on 1804 the state paid the salaries of Protestant pastors, merely as it paid those of Cosmic priests. In 1806 Napoleon organized French Jews into a system of government-supervised consistories like those that regulated Protestant worship. He did everything possible to encourage Jewish assimilation to French ways. As was typical of Napoleon, he hoped to guarantee law and order by organizing all the groups in society under land control.

Bonaparte, First Consul, Putting Away His Sword later the Full general Peace

Napoleon every bit a Roman on a Chariot of Victory

A Grateful France Proclaims Napoleon the First Emperor of the French

Abstention Charge per unit in Napoleonic Plebiscites

At the same fourth dimension that these important restructurings of the state and its relations with France's main religions were taking place, Napoleon won corking prestige by coming to terms starting time with Austria in 1801, which had resumed the struggle in 1799, and so making peace with Britain, Spain, and the Dutch Republic in 1802, ending a decade of nearly nonstop war. Peace gave him the animate room to send an regular army to Saint Domingue to reestablish slavery in the colonies and capture Toussaint L'Ouverture; even though the army captured Toussaint and sent him to die in a French prison, Napoleon's army succumbed to yellow fever and to the tenacity of the one-time slaves, who established the Commonwealth of Republic of haiti and severed all connections with France. Although the peace in Europe proved short-lived too, it gave Napoleon time to accept himself declared Consul for Life in a referendum in 1802.

By the end of 1802, the Republic had substantially ceased to exist and a new authoritarian state was taking shape. Elections no longer had much meaning. Napoleon ready up a Legion of Honour to advantage armed services and bureaucratic service to his country. It was the embryo of a new nobility. Newspapers were suppressed, unruly theaters closed, and critical authors sent into exile. Finally, the new direction became clear: on two December 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor with the pope watching. A new civil code consolidated revolutionary legislation by confirming all the sales of belongings undertaken since 1789 and guaranteeing equality under the law. Only the Napoleonic Code also installed a more paternalistic legal system than that envisioned past the revolutionaries: husbands and fathers gained nigh complete control over their wives and children, and employers wielded corking dominance over their workers. Fifty-fifty while confirming some of the legal gains of the revolutionary decade, Napoleon labored assiduously to cultivate the loyalties of those who had suffered during the Revolution such as the sometime regime nobility. In some large measure, he succeeded.

Emperor Napoleon I had created a new kind of hybrid state in which sure revolutionary ideas (equality under the constabulary, careers open up to merit rather than nascency, the abolition of the remains of bullwork) were combined with an authoritarian state structure and a new nobility open to those who served the state well. As time passed, Napoleon increasingly emulated the court of the old regime monarchy. He hoped to have his identify among the legitimate monarchs of Europe and even married a Habsburg to plant his credentials. Although this hybrid state enjoyed broad support among the French people, neither the state nor the popular support survived defeat in war.

Strange Policies and War

Napoleon's dramatic ascent and fall depended from beginning to end on his fortunes at state of war. His unexpected successes in Italian republic in 1796–97 made him an instant legend, both among the French people at home and amid his soldiers in the Army of Italy. Yet from the very showtime of his rising, overreaching ambition proved to be a potentially fatal flaw. When Napoleon returned from Italia in 1797, the Directory authorities wanted to transport him off to invade England, mainly to go him out of town. Napoleon convinced them that an invasion of Egypt would suit their purposes ameliorate, for it would open the route to India where Bully Britain had earlier expelled the French and established an of import empire. Napoleon focused his appetite on Egypt because of its historical importance, non considering it was a viable strategic objective: "We must go to the Orient," he insisted. "Information technology is at that place that great glory has e'er been gained." His search for glory nearly ended his career.

Napoleon invaded Egypt in early July 1798 on the pretense that he was reasserting the Ottoman sultan's potency there against the local Mameluke rulers. In the Battle of the Pyramids outside Cairo, Napoleon's soldiers smashed the Mameluke cavalry. It was i of the few glorious moments of the Egyptian campaign. He was and so confident of his ultimate success that he brought with him scores of scientists, engineers, and archaeologists to study the treasures and riches of the Orient.

Bonaparte in Jaffa

Battle For and Taking of Ratisbon, April 23, 1809

Sire, They Are My Sons and My Wife

Merely on one August 1798, British Admiral Horatio Nelson trapped the French fleet in Aboukir Bay off the Egyptian declension and captured or destroyed all just four of the French ships. The destruction of the French fleet left the regular army in Arab republic of egypt cut off from French republic and ensured the say-so of the British in the Mediterranean. From there the situation deteriorated. Despite Napoleon's attempts to respect the Islamic religion, his occupation angry resentment and revolt. Napoleon marched his troops into the province of Syrian arab republic in early on 1799 just was forced to retreat to Egypt by an outbreak of the plague and the difficulty of supplying his army. A clever stream of propaganda kept the French at abode ignorant of his troubles.

Napoleon's meridian to the successive positions of First Delegate, Kickoff Consul for Life, and so Emperor only enhanced his involvement in the pursuit of glory through armed services means. Indeed, from 1800 to 1812 it seemed as if nada could prevent him from attaining dominion over all of Europe. In seeking this goal, he received vital assist from the divisions among his enemies, who frequently fabricated a split up peace with Napoleon either to cut their losses or to pursue their ain advantage in brotherhood with him. Yet Napoleon was not content with a merely European theater in his quest of greatness; he hoped to establish some kind of worldwide empire. To this cease he tried to extend France's colonies in the New World past retrieving Louisiana from the Spanish and by invading Saint Domingue; somewhen, he sold the one and gave upwards on the other. He besides sent agents to Persia and India, tried to claim a office of the coast of Australia, and dispatched army officers to investigate defenses in North Africa. Most of these plans for globe empire were frustrated by his inability to defeat the British at sea. In October 1805 Nelson again decimated the French fleet, this time in the Battle of Trafalgar nigh the Straits of Gibraltar. Nelson died but lost no ships; the French saw two-thirds of theirs sunk or destroyed.

Coming together of the Emperors at Tilsit

The Majestic and Imperial Family of Napoleon, the Greatest and First with That Name

On the continent, Napoleon's well-trained armies ensured an altogether different outcome. In 1805 a new coalition to oppose Napoleon took shape uniting Great Britain, Russian federation, and Republic of austria, with Prussia threatening to join at whatsoever moment. On 2 December 1805, Napoleon routed the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz. The Prussians then foolishly tried to take him on by themselves and suffered a disastrous string of defeats. Napoleon seized the occasion to remake the map of the German language states, joining all of them except Austria and Prussia in a Confederation of the Rhine. With this new confederation under his influence, Napoleon declared himself the true successor to Charlemagne. Seeing which manner the wind was blowing, Francis II had abdicated his title as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire a few years before, becoming just the Emperor of Austria. Napoleon then turned his ire on the Russians. After a series of hard-fought contests, Alexander I made peace. By the terms of the Tilsit Treaty, Prussia gave upwardly one-3rd of its territory, and France and Russia secretly agreed to ally together against England, a promise that neither intended to keep.

Between 1806 and 1810, Napoleon reached the height of his power in Europe. He made himself king of a newly amalgamated Italy in 1805, which brought together extensive territories in northern and central Italian republic. He installed his brother Joseph as King of Naples in 1806 earlier moving him to the kingdom of Spain in 1808. He made his brother Louis King of kingdom of the netherlands in 1806. In 1807 he named his brother Jerome King of Westphalia. He could put his relatives on the thrones of Europe because he could defeat all his rivals via a straightforward land invasion except 1, Cracking Uk. Recognizing that he could not invade the island nation, he tried to isolate Groovy U.k. commercially through an embargo of goods chosen the "continental arrangement" of 1806. The organization failed because the French could non provide the same manufactured appurtenances every bit Great britain for fifty-fifty somewhat similar prices. Thus, despite official prohibitions, massive state intervention, and the expansion of the country to include prosperous areas in Belgium, Germany, and Italy, France could non compete with the rapidly industrializing British.

In the long run, the failure of this continental blockade spelled the first of the end. To make the embargo on trade more than encompassing, Napoleon invaded Portugal so occupied Spain in 1808. The Castilian rebelled and with financial and military support from Great britain, they tied Napoleon'south armies down in a long guerrilla war. Even Napoleon'southward personal intervention with 150,000 additional troops could not stabilize the French takeover. The French connected to win many battles only were gradually losing the war in Spain and Portugal. By 1813 British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops had driven out the French. In Latin America, local patriots seized the moment of turmoil in Espana to press their own demands for independence, marker an of import turning signal in the region's political development. Events in Latin America did nothing to help Napoleon in Europe.

Retreat from Russia

Napoleon fell from ability because he could not dispose of either Great Uk or Russian federation. While the British stubbornly resisted the French in the Iberian peninsula, Tsar Alexander I abandoned his brotherhood with France and began to prepare for state of war once over again. The British promised subsidies, and the Russians carried on a hole-and-corner trade in British goods. In June 1812, Napoleon entered Russian territory with 500,000 troops. Every bit he advanced, the Russians retreated, destroying food and provender in a calculated "scorched-earth" policy. After a difficult-won victory at Borodino outside Moscow, his now much-macerated army entered Moscow on fourteen September, simply to accept the Russians torch the urban center. Afterwards five weeks of futilely waiting for Alexander to come to terms, Napoleon ordered a general withdrawal. Shortly, wintertime set in, dashing French hopes for an orderly retreat. Tens of thousands of soldiers froze to death; thousands of others lost their lives to marauding Russian soldiers or enraged peasants. The Russians had not exactly won the entrada, but the French had lost and even admitted tactical defeat. Napoleon returned with approximately 40,000 men.

The stop was now budgeted fast. Emboldened past the French army's unexpected losses and the success of their own internal reforms, all the bang-up powers had by September 1813 joined again in a coalition designed to bring down the French Emperor. Afterwards the two sides fought a mostly inconclusive boxing at Leipzig in Oct (chosen the Boxing of the Nations) that resulted in the defection of a large office of his forces, Napoleon now had only 100,000 soldiers left to defend French republic. The allied victories were fueled by a wave of patriotic enthusiasm that swept the German states, as young men joined up to liberate Germany from French control. By March 1814, the allied armies had captured Paris. In April his own officials pressured Napoleon to forsake in favor of the brother of Louis Xvi, known as Louis XVIII because Louis Sixteen'due south son, who would accept been Louis XVII, had died in captivity. Napoleon tried to kill himself with toxicant but failed and went into exile on the isle of Elba.

While the European powers were meeting to decide the terms of peace, Napoleon learned that many in France resented the changes introduced past the new Bourbon Rex, Louis 18. On 26 Feb 1815, he escaped with ane,100 men and returned to France to brainstorm what became known every bit "the Hundred Days." Louis fled when unit afterward unit went over to Napoleon. The allies gathered their armies for another showdown; they outnumbered Napoleon 2 to one. On xviii June 1815, the final battle was engaged at Waterloo in Belgium. The Prussians joined upwardly with the regular army nether the command of the Knuckles of Wellington, victor over the French in Spain and Portugal, and together they defeated Napoleon, who abdicated once again. This time he was sent off to distant Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, far from Europe. He died there six years later.

Triumph of the Yr 1813

Napoleon Is Unable to Digest Leipzig

I Am Called Cerberus just Am Also a Chameleon

This Is My Honey Son

The Exorcism: Ridding France of the Devil Napoleon

The Little Cartesian Devil

The Vocal of the End

Napoleon Is Now Reduced to a Manageable Size

Napoleon's By and Future Are Filled with Dead Bodies

Debris of the French Ground forces Returning to the Fatherland in June 1813

The Emperor and the Imperial Guard on the Island of Elba

Congress of Vienna

Render from the Island of Elba

The Day later Waterloo

Contemporary Views of Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte was a legend even before he died, and his death did nothing to diminish his stature in history. Those around him in his terminal days almost immediately published their version of his story, including his British doc Edward O'Meara, who complained of the footling persecutions directed by his own government against his patient. Although Napoleon did not himself write memoirs, he provided aplenty textile for those close to him to do so.

In part, the retentivity of Napoleon was too shaped by his adoption of many liberal principles during the brief Hundred Days interlude. The prime example was the Constitution of 1815, written by Benjamin Constant. Although most dubiety the sincerity of Napoleon'southward commitment to liberalism, his ideas did inspire some to have the take chances of giving him their support, and information technology left the prototype of a "Napoleon of the people" in some minds. The peasantry of northern France, in particular, who liked the pageantry of the regime and the high wages for rural labor caused by the wars, would call back the Napoleonic epoch fondly as a time of celebrity and prosperity.

Amidst the most perceptive commentators on Napoleon were those in the liberal opposition. Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant both sought to empathise Napoleon's appeal and his effects on revolutionary and republican French republic. They disliked many aspects of his personality and dominion simply besides recognized that his charismatic manner of government had fundamentally inverse the rules of politics. Even his near determined enemies, such as the English, could not suppress a sneaking admiration for his accomplishments. And for some in the lower classes, he seemed a welcome change from boring run-of-the-mill monarchs.

Although many, both inside and exterior French republic, opposed Napoleon's repressive government and imperialist ambitions, they would all the same find information technology difficult to deny that he cutting an extraordinary effigy. Anyone born before 1830 or even 1840, especially in France, would take grown up with the legend of Napoleon all nearly them, in stories, in songs, and in widely reprinted popular engravings. Leading politicians and artists of the nineteenth century worked in his shadow. Even the most convinced republicans could not assistance feeling nostalgic about some aspect of the Napoleonic experience.

Why Did Napoleon Want To Fix The French Legal System?,

Source: https://revolution.chnm.org/exhibits/show/liberty--equality--fraternity/napoleonic-experience

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