The next way that Napoleon maintained his control was through Repression, to limit any opposition to his regime. Napoleon created “Code Napoleon” to bring uniformity of the law to all of France. This Code was illiberal, restrictive, authoritarian and brought order. Napoleon then banned trade unions and introduced “The Livret”. He also introduced harsher Criminal and Penal codes with new courts, tribunals for political offenders, arbitrary imprisonment without trial and house arrest. All these changes gave Napoleon perfect power to remove any opposition, as he had influence of appointment of judges and the Supreme Court. Napoleon also used the police, which monitored public opinion, used a network of spies and informants. Napoleon also had his own secret police so that he had supreme power to remove anyone at all that stood against him. Napoleon also appointed Prefects for each department which was important as it made a connection between local and central government and Napoleon made the prefects responsible for propaganda, education and conscription within each region, so Napoleon could make sure that he kept his support through out France. This repression was important as Napoleon could prevent any opposition from developing which may threaten his regime, as many normal people wont do anything if there is no organised opposition to turn to.
Napoleon also used Censorship and Propaganda a lot to gain support. He used Censorship to control the opinions of the public and to prevent or reduce any opposition or criticising of the regime. Examples of censorship include reduction of the number of political journals published in Paris from 73 before 1800 to 9 by the end of that year. Napoleon made them rely on military or government articles and bulletins which were easily biased. Napoleon introduced Censors on newspapers, books, plays, lectures and posters. Napoleon could completely prevent any negative material from being produced which gave him the important power of controlling the public’s opinion. He increased this by his use of propaganda by using Artists, sculptors and architects for monuments, statues and paintings depicting Napoleon as a romantic hero-figure and increasing the feeling of an Empire. This was how Napoleon wanted the people to see him as; strong, rightful leader with legitimate position and hardworking and a great military leader. By getting the public to love and support him by restricting and controlling there opinions this consolidated his position greatly as ruler of France.
Napoleon believed that religion acted as “social cement” and that it would help bring political and social peace to France. Catholicism had been identified with the royalist cause therefore napoleon wanted to identify it with the people, to re-unite it with the state under Napoleon’s control. This would bring peace and stability and draw Catholics away from Bourbon support. In 1801 Napoleon and the Pope Pius VII made a Concordat. Napoleon wanted to give the people a religion but under the hands of the government in return the Church recognised the revolution and wouldn’t try to recover church lands, a fear which had been plaguing certain landowners after the revolution in case Napoleon lost power so this further increased his popularity with the people who had become wealthy out of the revolution. Napoleon later produced the “Organic Articles” which limited Papal control over French bishops and gave state control over activities of the clergy. Napoleon successfully attached the Church to the State which gave him more influence over the people of France, who other wise might of given support to the Church if it opposed napoleon, as about 90% of France was Catholic at the time. Continuing propaganda to create a great image of Napoleon as a leader he made 16th August St. Napoleon’s Day, removing the former saint. Napoleon had control over the church and used it to improve public support and to unify the people. Napoleon abused his influence over the Church to divorce Josephine, who was beyond childbearing age. If Napoleon had not done this his future could have been uncertain without a heir and may have lost support.
Napoleon, again like Hitler recognised the important of preparing the next generation of supporters. This is why he took an interest in Education. He was interested in creating loyal and disciplined army officers; he neglected education for common people which contradicted his belief in equality yet as part of patronage secondary education was restricted to sons of “notables” and army officers. To do so he introduced the Lycees in 1802, highly selective militarised schools. Again to control even future peoples opinions he controlled the schools through the Imperial University which he created in 1808. It was his means of ensuring that Napoleon got his wishes concerning education. It controlled Curricula, biased to support the regime and it appointed all the teachers. What the teachers taught was dictated by the needs and demand of Napoleon and the government. Napoleon had made a very effective way
Finance was important for Napoleon to maintain his power. Napoleon needed money because with out money he would be disadvantaged, he might lose support if there was a weak economy and Napoleon wanted to expand France through war, which he would need money to do so and by making France a greater power it would increase his popularity with the French people. However France was in debt, Napoleon introduced uniformity and centralisation, he founded the Bank of France in January 1800, he also reorganised the Treasury. He also makes the Tax collectors more official and efficient with the Tax Register. In order to gain money there were many direct and in-direct taxes, he also introduced a new metal coinage in 1803. Napoleon was quite successful in sorting out the economy which helped it grow and pay off debts and there were no big shifts of inflation or deflation.
Napoleon also maintained the support of the military, as this could be a possible threat to his power if another Coup would occur. He would also need the loyalty of the army to deal with any opposition and to expand French territories. Napoleon gained the support of the army through a variety of means including Patronage of officers, by offering there sons a free and militarised education. He also used propaganda and censorship to increase morale of the army, especially the image that Napoleon was the rightful leader of France.
Out of all of the different ways that Napoleon maintained his control over France, the one which was the most important was his excellent use of censorship and propaganda to win over the support of the public, which is key for all leaders. By presenting himself as a legendary and rightful leader, as a romantic hero-figure, the child of the revolution and the key to future French greatness and blocking the bad parts of his regime from the public opinion. This made the people not only support him but love him and this devotion was key to Napoleon staying in power in France.
