Napoleon certainly did not abide by the principles or sentiments related to the Revolution. In 1810, he married the grandniece of the universally hated Marie Antoinette with great pomp. These actions do not show any hesitation with flouting the ideas, ideals and emotions born with the Revolution.
On the administrative front, the Napoleonic Code of 1802, is evidence enough of his departure from his prior ideals. Although, France, even during the Revolution had never actually let women vote, there was a certain tilt towards the empowerment and equality of women during this period. Indeed, universal adult franchise had been already been proposed once, in the Jacobin constitution of 1793, but unfortunately that had never been implemented.
Under the Napoleonic rule, however, minimal authority was given to women. Divorce laws were made more stringent, and rules of guardianship were made more favorable to men.
Slavery, another system which was an integral part of the empires then, had been abolished by French Revolution and subsequent governments but it was reestablished by Napoleon in 1802.
The expansionist policies of Napoleon too, were not exactly conciliatory to Revolutionary ideals. While wars had also been fought till 1799 against Prussia, Austria and Britain by the revolutionary governments themselves, the reasons were completely different from those that had inspired Napoleon. While the revolutionaries had passionately declared that they would free any land they conquered from its feudal workings and establish upon it a government based on the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity and their wars had subsequently been explained by many historians including Thomson as a conflict between the ideologies of the European Empires versus the Enlightenment, the Napoleonic wars were fought with the objectives not of reform but of controlling and profiting from the entire economic system of Europe. Ambition to hold every empire in a peace treaty favorable to France’s development had spurred Napoleon onto wars with Britain, Germany and Russia.
Thus, from these facts it is highly believable that Napoleon was a despot and hence a betrayer of the Revolution.
But, the question is, why was he not checked by his own subjects? After all, the France of 1799 to 1815 was hardly afraid of conspiracies, revolts or even assassinations. So, if he was an absolute shame to what the Revolutionary France had stood for, why was he not opposed? Instead, why was he actually welcomed back by the common men after his return from Elbe?
The answer, I believe, lies in the cause of the Revolution itself. The Revolution did not start with the collision of ideals of the monarchy and its subjects. It started with economic crisis…and that itself, was the prime reason of the Revolution. And this was a problem that Napoleon solved very well.
He overtaxed the French colonies, only so that the French public would not have to bear the expenses of his endless wars. Taxes were raised only at 1813, and not before that.
When he abdicated, the national debt was around only 60 million francs and as Thomson says, “Never had a country been run more economically”.
The revolution had started with economic and social instability. Napoleon was successful in restoring the socio-economic stability of France. His reign had been, internally, at least, the most peaceful in the decade.
So, as far as the necessities that had led “the mildest men to be agitated” (Wordsworth) and the reign of terror to be unleashed were concerned, they had finally been resolved by a firm leader. In so far, Napoleon, instead of betraying the revolution, was actually fulfilling the words of the British politician Edmund Burke who had stated years before that the “uncontrolled passion” and violence of the Revolution would end in the dictatorship of a soldier someday.
To conclude, while it is tempting to believe that Napoleon led France from its Revolutionary ideals into an absolutist government and a colonial mentality, we must remember that Napoleon was more of the inevitable conclusion of the bloodbath and internal strife of the past decade than the precursor of a twentieth century dictatorship.
And though his was a despotic rule, it was a benevolent despotism and like the Revolutionaries themselves, his first and greatest priority was always France.
