Some believe that Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte was the second greatest commanding general of all-time. Second only to Alexander the Great the Greek conqueror of the fourth century B.C. To his fellow Frenchman, though, he is probably an extraordinary man that should be held on a pedestal. On the other hand, to his victims of conquer he most likely think of Napoleon as a vile, murderous man. During this period between 1799-1815 Napoleon had various contributions, both domestic and foreign.
Napoleon had several domestic accomplishments. His largest, and first, by far was when he and his colleges together overthrow the throne in a coup d’etat on November 10, 1799. The name of the new government was the Consulate. Under this new constitution Napoleon’s rule was made virtually absolute. The constitution was revised two years later naming Napoleon First Consul until his death. In another two years it was revised again to make his official title emperor. There were several events and factors that lead to Napoleon’s rise to power. The first of which was defeating the Austrians at Marengo. Then he expanded French borders so that the Rhine River was a divider form the rest of Europe. Bonaparte the made amends with the Catholic Church and named it the official church of France, with the document called the Concordat of 1801. This decision had nothing to do with is religious affiliation but he recognized the stability an official religion created for his country. Then rules and regulations were established in, the Code Napoleon, one of France’s seven codes of law.
Napoleon had even more foreign accomplishments than domestic. Right after establishing is laws, in 1802, Napoleon sold his American territory to the United States of America, known as the Louisiana Purchase. Later that year Bonaparte attempted to mend his relations with England as he signed the Treaty of Amiens to temporarily ending the war with France’s bitter rivals. With his new land Napoleon could proudly stand as the ruler of more tan 70 million people throughout Europe. This cease-fire with England only lasted for a year and Napoleon’s anger with Britain grew. Prussia and Russian grew weary of Napoleon and joined England in the battle. When this news reached Napoleon he stopped the fight England and created an economic “embargo” and went to invade Prussia and Russia. The plan was to economically destroy England while militarily defeating Russia and Prussia. These battles were costly but France came out victorious on all three occasions, defeating Prussia in 1806 and Russia one year later. Tsar Alexander I, ruler of Russia, then realized his competition and allied with Napoleon with the Treaty of Tilist. Napoleon then divorced his wife in order to marry the Austrian archduchess and further strengthen his empire.
Napoleon’s fall occurred with the disintegration of his alliance with Russia. The alliance expired and Napoleon invaded Moscow, only this time there were an unexpected number of defenders and Napoleon was force to retreat and suffer a rare defeat. After this it was down hill. Europe saw its chance to strike at a weak France and did. Napoleon was exiled to Elba, an island in the Mediterranean. E escaped and tried to establish a government and army for his son but fail and in his failure ended the greatest reign in France’s history.
Napoleon fought and conquered practically all of his foes. He was able to crown each of his three brothers, Joseph, Louis and Jerome, kings of Naples and Spain, Holland and Westphalia, respectively. With all this power in Europe, he still had a large number of enemies and managed to ward them off for a long period of time. Although his actions were costly to the French people, they proved as a good investment in France’s government at the time. Making him neither a villain nor a hero but definitely something closer to a hero.
