Napoleon by the Late Eighteenth

Napoleon

By the late eighteenth century, France was in turmoil. The political vacuum left by the toppling of the monarchy led to great social unrest. Into this cauldron, a minor war officer "with limited prospects" rose to power (PBS). Napoleon Bonaparte therefore came to lead at an opportune moment in the midst of revolution and political instability. His legacy is deeply paradoxical and in many ways contradictory. Napoleon broke from his revolutionary predecessors while simultaneously perpetuating their aims. He was the ultimate Enlightenment despot.

Napoleon Bonaparte likely feigned interest in the Enlightenment values when "trying to establish good links with people who have the power," (Jourquin, cited by PBS). His initial embracing of Enlightenment values was at least partly bogus, for Napoleon went on to side with Robespierre and the Jacobites during the Reign of Terror. Napoleon was clearly "not a revolutionary before the beginning of the Revolution," (Debaecque, cited by PBS). It has been said that Napoleon had been "quite affected by Rousseau and the philosophies of the Enlightenment," but only insofar as principles such as liberty and equality would help him succeed (Jourquin, cited by PBS).

Napoleon's actions and motives thus appear ambiguous. After he seized power Napoleon stated, "The Revolution is made fast on the principles on which it began; the Revolution is finished," (cited by Holmberg). Here, Napoleon may have suggested that his leadership would fulfill the will of the French people for freedom and liberty. After the Reign of Terror, Napoleon likely seemed to be a voice of reason, stability, and national pride. At the very same time, the politician's statement foreshadows Napoleon putting an end to the burgeoning democratic power of the people.

Napoleon did share several ideals in common with revolutionary philosophers, and put those ideals into practice such as a distaste for the monarchy, for the feudal economic and social model, and also for "civil inequality and religious intolerance," (Lefebvre, cited by Holmberg). The Enlightenment ideals that Napoleon clung to also underwrote many of the despot's policies including the liberation of the Jews from the ghettos. Napoleon established the Civil Code that obliterated feudal law while welcoming social equity. The Civil Code was part proof that Napoleon did subscribe to some of the core ideals upon which the Revolution was built.

Although Napoleon's government was strong, centralized, and bureaucratic, it was nevertheless a civil government at first. Napoleon helped stimulate the French infrastructure with programs of modernization that the monarchy before him had never feigned interest in at all. A national banking system, roads, canals, and bridges all become symbols of Napoleon's earnest desire to help the French people.