Napoleon rose to power through the ranks of the army. As he was in France during the revolution, he took this chance to show his skills. His most memorable part of the revolution was when he fought in the siege of the Toulon in 1793. With force came control and some historians think that this is what Napoleon always had in the back of his mind when it came to become a key leader of the nation France. Another thing that made Napoleon so great was his luck. Napoleon’s army in some incidents were able to sneak past their opponents to gain the upper hand in battle. He was also very image conscious and this helped him in the eyes of France.
Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France in 1804. There are several pictures showing Napoleon physically crowning himself emperor. This shows that Napoleon is forcing his way to power in France and some didn’t like it but they were soon forgotten. Other photos show the pope being present while Napoleon was being crowned. This suggests that Napoleon was chosen by God but this wasn’t the case. In fact, you could say he was chosen by himself.
Although Napoleon crowned himself emperor, he did deserve it. He won the battle of the pyramids which brought France numerous riches and the battle of the Marengo which didn’t bring France riches but it won France’s pride.
One thing I do not agree with was the code of Napoleon. He only considers the happiness of the men in France. He allowed men to imprison their children and women weren’t allowed to do anything concerning the law or property without the husband or a man. Napoleon did not allow freedom of speech France which wasn’t right or fair to the French commoners as their feelings or opinions would never be heard. He would not let newspapers write anything bad about him or his rule as emperor. Although cruel, this was a very intelligent system. Napoleon did believe in keeping the food prices the same. Through his rule, there was never a change in the food industry. This is because he didn’t want his people to rebel and in fact was quoted saying he’d rather face an army of 200,000 than a hungry population.
Napoleon did care for education so he helped with school funds and increased learning of maths and science. The only problem was that he forced whoever had education to go to military school. This resulted in a lack of people getting education.
The battle that lost Napoleon his empire was the battle of Russia. When Napoleon took his army to battle, Russia he lost a lot of force and gave Britain and Germany an opportunity to strike back at Bonaparte and defeat his army. Napoleon was then captured and this was not at all good for France.
In my opinion, Napoleon Bonaparte was a good thing for France. This is because he did more good things for France than bad. He built land marks and tourist attractions for France. He improved their learn systems and made Frances military powerful. Although he did lose a lot of lives in the battle of Russia, which was a terrible thing for France as they were on the defensive, his rein benefited the French economy and gained respect for France all around the world.
Napoleon Marengo
