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Napoleon’s Reign
“The
Revolution is
over . . .
I am the
Revolution.”
What does the quote mean? What
does it reveal about Napoleon?
Think About This Quote---After We Are Done I
Will Ask You If You Agree---Why or Why Not?
"I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought
order out of chaos. I rewarded merit
regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I
found it. I abolished feudalism and
restored equality to all regardless of
religion and before the law. I fought the
decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime
because the alternative was the
destruction of all this. I purified the
Revolution.“
– Napoleon Bonaparte
Early Life
• Born (1769) in Corsica
to poor family
• Character traits from the
Enlightenment
– Creative, scientific, nontraditional, liberal
– The ideas of the
philosophes influenced his
government, religion, law,
education, and economy
reforms.
Discrimination Napoleon Faced In
Military School Because He Was
Corsican
• Corsicans were thought of as lower people and Napoleon's Corsican decent
could have hindered his advancements because of stereotypes such as they
were dirty and poor islanders with no education or class.
• Also Corsican society had very different ideals and values from those of Paris
which people sometimes associated Napoleon with even though he moved to
Paris when he was nine years old.
• It was also easy for people to realize that Napoleon was an islander because of
his accent.
• He was so worried about being accepted by the people of Paris that he even
changed the spelling of his from Buonaparte to Bonaparte to give it a French
rather than Italian pronunciation. (Erickson 140)
• This is why his marriage to Josephine later on would make it easier for him to
rise politically.
Early Life
• Napoleon was commissioned as a
lieutenant in the French army.
• He was not popular with his fellow
officers.
• He was able to inspire and motivate
the troops under his command.
Early Life
• Studied French philosophy
• Analyzed famous military campaigns and
strategy
• Studied the use of artillery in the army.
• The revolution provided Napoleon with
the perfect opportunity to take
advantage of his knowledge and
talents.
Military Successes
• Napoleon rose quickly
through the ranks of the
French army.
• By age 26 he was the
Commander of the French
armies in Italy.
Military
Successes
Italian Campaigns
In a series of lighting quick
victories Napoleon crushed the
The Treaty
of Campo
Formio:
Austrian
armies
in Took
Italy.Austria out of
the war and placed all of Italy and Switzerland
On hiscontrol.
own initiative
he concluded
under French
It made Napoleon
a national
the Treaty
heroof
in Campo
France. Formio with
Austria, against the wishes of
the government in Paris.
Impact of Josephine
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Josephine Bonaparte had an immense impact on her husband Napoleon, assisting him to
his rise to one of the greatest political powers and military leaders that Europe has ever
seen.
Josephine's social powers and great personality assisted and affected Napoleon.
The emotional ties that bonded them greatly impacted Napoleon from day to day.
It was also her opinions that influenced him, for he often listened to them and took them
to heart.
Napoleon remained grateful til the day he died for her "devotion and self-sacrifice" (Laing
193) and regretted divorcing her for the rest of his life.
Josephine's good friend Claire Rémusat once said that "She (Josephine) acted as the
original link between the French nobility and the Consular Government."(Laing 123).
She would listen to their needs and tell Napoleon what she thought should be done to
satisfy them fairly (Laing 124).
When Josephine was Empress, Napoleon made it part of her job to enforce the new
social code and it is said that he did this because many of the reforms she
herself had introduced (Erickson 240).
Napoleon had many great ideas and actions which Josephine often gave her input into and
had an effect on the final result.
Character Traits of Napoleon Also
Found In Dictators of 20th Century
• Impressive intellectual ability
• Could work 18 to 20 hours at a stretch without a break in concentration
• He was “a typical man of the 18th century, a rationalist, a philosophe who placed
trust in reason, in knowledge and in methodical effort”
• He also had a love for action and boundless ambition.
• He had charisma and could move men to obedience, to loyalty, and to heroic acts.
• He was quite arrogant and manipulated people at will.
• He said, “A man like me troubles little about the lives of a million men.”
• From the Revolution, he learned that he must become a statesman and a tyrant
to consolidate the Revolution and bind together the different social classes.
• Machiavelli, the author of The Prince, would have thought Napoleon was the
perfect prince---the whole concept of the end justifies the means.
• Napoleon made it impossible for the Old Regime to be restored as it was.
• The Consulate had
democratic principles
Napoleon was the first modern
figure to
and political
voting rights,
however,
Napoleon
use the philosophies of the
Enlightenment
seized power for
combined with the ideasoon
of nationalism,
himselfpower
and was
and to back both with military
and
named the First
force in the service of his own power and ambition.
Consul.
“The truest conquests, the only ones that
give rise to no regrets, are those gained
over ignorance. The most honorable as
well as the most useful activity of nations
is to contribute to the advancement of
human knowledge. The real strength of
the French Republic should henceforth lie
in its determination to possess every new
idea, without a single exception.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
(upon his election to the National Institute of France)
"A man will fight harder
for his interests than for
his rights."
– Napoleon, quoted in Thorpe, Scott, How to Think
Like Einstein, Barnes & Noble Books, Inc., 2000,
p.167.
Social Class Reforms
• Created a new Napoleonic nobility called the Legion of Honor.
Positions were given out depending on job and ability.
• There were:
a)Napoleon’s Imperial Family
b)Six Grand Officers of the Empire
c)26 Marshal Generals of the Empire
d)10 Princes, 31 Dukes, 388 Counts,1090 Barons, and 1500
Knights
*All served in the government
*He also welcomed back all the old aristocracy that had fled the
country.
Social Class Reforms-The Bourgeoisie
• Napoleon did much to help them to gain their
political support
• His legal code and economic reforms reaped
major benefits for them
• Bourgeoisie not treated differently from new
aristocracy.
• Benefitted from new …
• Education system
Social Class Reforms-Peasants
• Improved the legal status of the peasants
• But in some areas, the nobles still had feudal
privileges
• Did improve their quality of life
• Provided free elementary education
• Offered scholarships for higher…
• Education
• Were not over-taxed anymore
Social Reforms---Women
• The Napoleonic Code actually took away rights
women had won during the French Revolution.
• For example women were not allowed to
independently trade in chattels or property, but had
to ask their husbands before they did so.
• He tightened divorce laws and fathers were
empowered as rulers of their homes. They could
ban children from inheritance and also imprison
children for a month.
Social Reforms---Women
• Interestingly, Olympe de Gouges' idea of the social contract
between husband and wife was adopted in part.
• The Code introduces the idea of Community. This was the joint pool
of assets and liabilities in a marriage.
• The Code explains what was to be included in the pool and what
was excluded by law.
• The wife's dowry was included but her "paraphernalia" was not.
• Wife’s Paraphernalia: the use of logic and deduction from other
sections, one can assume that it meant little more than her trinkets,
married women could not make a donation during their lifetime
without the assistance or special consent of the husband or being
authorized by law.
Social Reforms---Women
• The husband's adultery was still no ground for divorce unless he brought his
mistress home.
• However, the wife's adultery could land her in jail for up to 3 months and was
certainly a ground for divorce.
• In this regard the husband had the same power as over a minor.
• Other grounds for divorce were introduced :
 such as severe and grave injury,
 either party being condemned to an infamous punishment
 or mutual consent where the parties had been married at least two years but not
more than twenty, where the wife was no more than 45 years of age but more than
21 and where the husband was at least 25.
 For the last ground of divorce one also required the consent of parents and other
descendants of the spouses.
• However, this was a major amendment to the previous law and this together with
the aspects of freedom of contract in relation to property brought to the marriage
went some way down the road of the concept of a social contract between men
and women.
Social Reforms: Overall Effects on
Women
• The Code led to an increase in women's rights but fell well short of
the grand social ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity.
• A woman's liberty could be removed by her husband for adultery
where he could escape all legal censure; equality could never be
achieved while she did not share full rights of citizenship and
property.
• As for fraternity - what a boys' club!
• But let us not be unjust for these were different times and Napoléon
put in place the beginnings of great social change.
• The idea of the social contract which was introduced in the Code was
to endure and expand with time.
Napoleon on Women
• “In France women are considered too highly. They should
not be regarded as equal to men. In reality, they are
nothing more than machines for producing children.”
• “Public education does not suit women, as they are not
called upon to live in public…marriage is their whole
estimation.”
• “The husband must possess the absolute power and right
to say to his wife: “Madam you shall not go to the theatre,
you shall not receive such and such a person, for the
children you bear shall be mine. Women should stick to
knitting.”
Social Reforms: Jews
• The Napoleonic influence
accounted for the improved
status and better treatment of
Jews.
• Although they were not
treated the same everywhere,
they had the right of worship
(at least in private) and in
some cases
• became full-fledged citizens.
• In some regions they
preferred not to be
assimilated, and to
pay tribute rather
than serve in the
army.
Cultural Changes: Religious Reforms
• July 1801-signed to Concordat
with Pope Pius VII
• This regulated relations
between the Church and French
government until 1905
• Did not restore confiscated
church land
• Bishops were nominated by the
First Consul
• The clergy was paid by the
government
• But Catholicism was declared
the religion of the majority of
the people
• Stopped civil war in the Vendee
religion by restoring relations
with Rome
Concordat
(Between Napoleon & Pope Pius VII in 1801)
1. France reverted back to “old”
calendar.
2. Catholicism was the “preferred
religion” of France.
3. Catholic Church could control
primary education.
4. Church leaders had to take
loyalty oaths to the government.
• This was VERY popular in France.
Concordat of 1801
Napoleon wanted to heal
the divisions within the
Catholic Church that had
developed after the
confiscation of Church
property and the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy.
But, Napoleon’s clear intent
was to use the clergy to
prop up his regime.
Concordat of 1801
•
Catholicism was declared the
religion of the majority of
Frenchmen.
•
Papal acceptance of church
lands lost
during the Revolution.
•
Bishops subservient to the
regime.
•
Eventually, Pope Pius VII
renounced the Concordat, and
Napoleon had him
brought to France and placed
under house arrest.
Cultural ---Education Reforms
• Education was high on Napoleon's list of priorities, which were in
large part those of the middle class.
• Napoleon believed in a system of merit, and for such a system to be
effective there must be some form of widespread education,
especially at the secondary level.
• Problems with education system when Napoleon began to rule:
 This fact was made abundantly clear by the results of a survey of all
prefects in the nation conducted in March of 1801, under the
direction of Minister for Home Affairs Chaptal.
 Numerous complaints were heard regarding the lack of schools in
many areas, lack of professionalism among teachers, lack of
discipline and attendance by the students and, in a few areas, the
lack of religious education. [14]
Education Reforms Dealing with Religion and Girls
• Allowed some of the religious elementary schools to be reestablished.
• These schools had provided most of the education available to girls, a fact that
conveniently reflected Napoleon's attitudes toward female education.
• Napoleon felt that education was important for girls, but did not generally
expect them to have the same sort of education given to boys.
• In his Note Sur L'Établissement D'Écouen, [15] Napoleon suggests that religion
and assorted domestic skills necessary for the attraction of husbands should be
stressed at this girls' school.
• He at least does call for their learning numbers, writing, and the principles of
their language, as well as history, geography, physics and botany.
• Napoleon has been criticized for his attitude toward women and their education,
but he was simply a reflection of the historical trend in France.
• Indeed, women received the right to vote in France almost a quarter century after
they did in America.
Cultural Changes: Education Reforms
• Elementary schools were set up in each commune
• A secondary school was set up in each department
for boys at age 12
• Created a unified system of teaching under the
control of the government to teach Napoleon’s
principles
• 1808-established the Imperial University
• Teachers had to be certified by the University
• Supported Sciences
Elementary Schools versus Secondary Schools
• Under the new system, elementary schools (écoles
populaires) were to be the responsibility of the local
municipalities.
• Napoleon had relatively little interest in this level of
education, and was not firmly committed to the mass
education that would result from a state-wide elementary
education system.
• As a result, the religious schools were to share a
significant amount of the responsibility for elementary
education.
• Secondary education, however, was the base education
for the future leaders of the nation, as well as members of
the bureaucracy and the military; hence, Napoleon's
greater interest.
Secondary Schools
• The state had a strong interest in the curriculum
being presented, and control would be easier if they
established a system of secondary schools under the
direction of a central authority.
• Many of these secondary schools would be
established by private initiative, including clerical,
but all such schools were controlled by the state.
• Covering students roughly from age 10-16, they
would provide a level of education designed to
provide students for higher levels of education.
• Indeed, some bonus plans were established for
teachers who had large number of students
qualifying for advancement. [18]
Lycees
• The heart of the new system was the establishment of thirty lycées,
which provided educational opportunities beyond the secondary
schools and replaced the écoles centrales.
• Every appeal court district was to have a lycée, and they were to be
completely supported, and controlled, by the state.
• Scholarships were provided, with about one-third going to sons of
the military and government, and the rest for the best pupils from
the secondary schools. [19]
• The lycées had a six year term of study, building on the work of the
secondary schools.
• The curriculum included languages, modern literature, science, and
all other studies necessary for a "liberal" education.
Lycee System of Education
•
Established by Napoleon in 1801 as an educational reform.
•
Lycées initially enrolled the nation’s most talented students [they
had to pay tuition, although there was some financial help
available for poorer student].
•
Lycées trained the nation’s future bureaucrats
Lycee Bonaparte
Structure of Lycee and Teachers
• Each lycée was to have at least eight teachers, as well as three
masters (a headmaster, an academic dean, and a bursar).
• In a reflection of modern debate on the subject, the government
provided a fixed salary for teachers, but also provided bonuses
for successful teachers.
• They were also provided a pension
• Teachers were, incidentally, chosen by Napoleon from a list of
recommendations provided by inspectors and the Institute.
• The inspectors were given over-all responsibility for inspecting
the schools on a regular basis.
Reforms Concerning
Teachers
• Napoleon had long been concerned about the teaching profession.
• He recognized the central importance of teachers to the educational
system.
• He had at times suggested that the teaching profession should take
on some of the characteristics of an order, or corporation, with very
specific expectations, privileges, and rewards.
• He had, for example, in a Note Sur Les Lycées [23] of February 14,
1805, suggested that beginning teachers might be forbidden from
marriage.
• On the other hand, by the end of his career a teacher should see
himself in the highest ranks of state officials, having been placed
under the protection of the Emperor himself.
Purposes of Education Reforms
•
It was intended, of course, to provide an educated elite
that could help run the country and the military.
• It was also designed to provide for an increased middle
class; a middle class that would be successful and hence
non-revolutionary.
• There was a great emphasis on patriotism in the schools;
an emphasis that was to increase during the years of the
empire.
• This is not surprising, of course, as even in modern
America we are expected to teach a certain amount of
patriotism in our classes.
Purposes of Education Reforms
• As is the case with schools today, patriotism and loyalty to the state
were a major part of the purpose of educational institutions.
• We might be somewhat reluctant, however, to be as bold about it
as was the law establishing the Imperial University:
• All schools of the Imperial University will take as the basis of their
instruction (i) the teaching of the Catholic religion, (ii) fidelity to the
Emperor, to the imperial monarchy which is entrusted with the
happiness of the people, and to the Napoleonic dynasty which
ensures the unity of France and all the liberal ideas proclaimed in
the constitution, (iii) obedience to the regulations of the teaching
body, the object of which is to secure uniformity of instruction and
to train for the State citizens who are attached to their religion,
their prince, their country and their family. [24]
University Education
• He established the Imperial University in 1808. The law
creating this "university" stated, in part:
• ...the Imperial University, a body charged exclusively with
instruction and public education throughout the Empire. .
. No school, no educational institution of any kind
whatsoever, shall be permitted to be established outside
the Imperial University, without the authorization of its
chief. No one may open a school or teach publicly without
being a member of the Imperial University and a graduate
of one of its faculties. [21]
University Education
• Perhaps the most important element in the
development of the Imperial University was that for
the first time the state took responsibility, and
control, of the elementary education of its citizens.
[22]
• Teachers were placed under stricter controls,
including dress, discipline, and salary
• Next few images are of the buildings of the Imperial
University, now the University of Paris, started by
Napoleon.
Education Reform Effects
• There has certainly been some turmoil in French education over the years,
especially as regards the role of the Catholic Church.
• During the Third Republic, the separation of church and state was made
complete, and the teaching of religion was no longer part of the public school
curriculum.
• Thus, the curriculum of Napoleon was replaced by that of the Revolution.
• The Imperial University has, of course, disappeared, but centralized control lives
on in the Minister of Public Instruction.
• The lycée continues and, indeed, plays an even more important role.
• It is a virtually self-contained unit, and graduation from a lycée is adequate for
many careers (unlike, say, the American high school.)
• As in Napoleonic times, French education is much more stratified and elitist in
nature than in the American system; success and progression are based on
examination results rather than on the belief in universal education.
Cultural Reforms--Healthcare
• He laid down the requirements for a person to be a
pharmacist or a physician.
• The government favored vaccination against smallpox,
and it made a feeble attempt to increase the number of
midwives so as to raise the percentage of live births.
• Chaptal, as Minster of the Interior, started on a system of
hospitals, each of which was to have schools for nurses,
midwives, and obstetricians.
• It was the first organized public enterprise of its kind in
the world
Cultural Reforms
• Alongside his aesthetic works Napoleon instituted certain features necessary for
the modernization of Paris:
 sidewalks,
 house numbers,
 two miles of new quais,
 a water supply,
 sewers,
 a fire department,
 new markets
 and slaughter houses
 replaced the eccentric street names of the Revolution.
• In 1811 he wrote to his Minister of the Interior, Montalivet, that the four most
important contributions he had made to Paris were to bring it water by building a
canal from the Ourcq River, the new markets at Les Halles, the wine market, and
the slaughter houses.
Cultural Reforms: The Theatre
• Napoleon issued theater regulations which basically remained in
effect a century after his downfall.
• The decree drawn up in Moscow laid down the organization of the
Theatre-Francaise and stipulated that the superintendent of
Spectacles should appoint the committee which would decide
whether the Theatre would perform a particular play.
• Napoleon personally oversaw the productions of plays in the
theaters of France.
• If Napoleon disapproved of a playwright's work, his career was
over.
•
Cultural: Censorship of the Press
• Napoleon also controlled the press, dropping
the number of newspapers in Paris from over
sixty in 1799 to four by 1814.
• “If the press is not controlled, I shall not
remain three days in power.”
Cultural Changes: Art and Culture
Programs
• A major patron of the arts
• Made the Louvre into a national museum
• Used French armies to steal priceless artwork from all the
conquered countries to hang in the Louvre
• Commissioned several buildings:
a)Madeleine Parish Church
b)Arc de Triumphe
c)Bourse
d)Numerous fountains
e)Four bridges
f)Vendome Column
g)Courtyards
Cultural: Stolen Artwork
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
As imperial victor, Napoleon considered himself entitled to strip all his conquered Italian
territories of their cultural and artistic treasures. "Rome is no longer in Rome," he is said to
have announced exultantly. "The whole of Rome is in Paris."
The following year, Napoleon brought his trophies triumphantly back to France. A
spectacular cavalcade wound its way through the streets of Paris, while crowds lined the
route.
Antique statuary including the great marble figure of the priest Laocoon (struggling with
sea-snakes) and the majestic Roman Apollo Belvedere, with famous paintings by Raphaël,
Titian and Tintoretto, all crammed into huge packing cases, were carried into the city on
horse-drawn carts.
To add to the sense of occasion, there were also animals from Napoleon's African
campaign - a caged lion and a pair of dromedaries.
But the parade's centre-piece was a cart bearing - unwrapped and on display - the four
huge, antique, gilded bronze horses, which for 600 years had stood high above the great
central door of St Mark's Basilica in Venice.
In 1808 those Venetian horses provided the crowning glory for the Triumphal Arch erected
by Napoleon in the Place du Carrousel, just in front of the Louvre.
Today that arch still presides magnificently over one end of a nine-kilometre-long grand
vista, running through the Place de La Concorde, and the length of the Champs-Elysée,
down to the Arc de Triomphe.
Cultural: Stolen Artwork
• It was certainly the documentation, if indeed not the manifestation, of a claim to
be leading in culture that Napoleon Bonaparte had in mind one-and-a-half
centuries before with the Louvre.
• Whether in Italy or Egypt, once a country had been conquered, the art experts
were on the spot in the front line to secure the best for Paris in accordance with
the canon of Classicism.
• Translated into French, the writings of the German art scholar Johann Joachim
Winckelmann, who was seen as the founder of archaeology, served as an
important aid to orientation.
• The Laocoön Group and the Apollo Belvedere with their "noble simplicity and
quiet greatness" as examples of antiquity, or works of the Renaissance such as
Raphael's Transfiguration were to help Paris take over from Rome as the centre
of European art.
• The Horses of Saint Mark were
installed on the basilica in about
1254.
• They date to Classical Antiquity; by
some accounts they once adorned the
Arch of Trajan.
• The horses were long displayed at the
Hippodrome of Constantinople, and in
1204 Doge Enrico Dandolo sent them
back to Venice as part of the loot
sacked from Constantinople (Istanbul)
in the Fourth Crusade.
• They were taken by Napoleon in
1797, restored in 1815 and remained
in place until the 1990s.
• They now reside in the basilica's
museum in an upper gallery; replicas
take their place on the facade.
• Apollo Belvedere
that was stolen.
• It was eventually
returned and is in
the Vatican Museum.
• Raphael's
Transfiguration was
stolen.
• It was later returned
and is now in the
Vatican Museum.
• The Laocoon was
also stolen.
• It was later returned
and is in the Vatican
Museum.
• Madeleine Parish
Church
• Vendome Column
Cultural Programs
• Not only was Paris beautified with the
construction of boulevards, bridges and
monuments, but the National Archives
received a permanent home.
• Napoleon also saved the Louvre.
• Monument buildings were constructed
throughout the Empire and structures,
such as the Imperial Cathedral of
Speyer, made famous by Luther, were
preserved while work on the spires of
the great cathedral of Cologne were
continued on Napoleon's orders.
• In fact, Napoleon's architectural
handiwork can be found scattered
across Europe, from Rome to Vienna.
Cultural Reforms
Place du Carrousel
Cultural Reforms: Paris Cultural Center of Europe
• Napoleon thought of Paris as the cultural center of at least Europe, and perhaps
the world, just as it was the political center of the French Empire.
• He therefore looted all possible areas to make the Louvre a world art center.
• Among the arts, Napoleon was especially interested in architecture. Buildings he
commissioned had a Classical inspiration, and his principle seemed to be that
"what is large is beautiful.“:
 parish church of the Madeleine, which could now be mistaken for a Greek temple, and the
Roman-style Arc de Triomphe de l'Etaile,
 the Bourse
 the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel,
 the facade of the Chamber of Deputies, numerous fountains,
 four bridges, the Vendome Column,
 and the courtyard and the Rivoli wing of the Louvre.
 The rue de Rivoli, the rue de la Paix, and the rue de Castigli all date from the imperial
epoch.
 the squares of the Bastille and Saint-Sulpice.
 In addition, Napoleon acquired the terrain which made possible the later Trocadere
 One hundred and three million francs spent total
•
PARIS---All Napoleon Built to Beautify Paris
•
- The Ourcq canal, Rochechouart, Ménilmontant, Villejuif, and Grenelle abattoirs.
•
•
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•
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- The flower and bird markets
- The Halle aux vins
- Egg and fish market in the Halles Sainte-Eustache
- The Carmes, des Blancs-Manteaux, Saint-Joseph, Popincourt, Saint-Germain markets
- Pont des Arts
- Pont d Austerlitz
- Pont d Iéna
- Restoration of the Panthéon
- Reconstruction of the Odéon
- Works on the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Sainte-Geneviève
and Saint-Denis churches
- Quais du Louvre, Debilly, Morland, de la Cité
- Palais des Archives
- Fifteen fountains
- Streets: de Rivoli, de Castiglione, des Pyramides, de la Paix, Soufflot, d�Ulm, Clovis,
Champs-Élysées, etc.
- Excavation of ten kilometers of sewers
- Père-Lachaise cemetery
•
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•
•
Napoleon on the Importance of the
Louvre
He initiated work on the gallery at the Louvre, he
asked the architect to carry out the work in
sections:
"If am unable to finish it, at least I shall not leave
behind me a long line of stunted columns, sadly
waiting to be crowned with their vaults and the
rest of the edifice; a glance at the Carrousel will
beautify as many complete arcades as I could have
erected and the Tuileries service will profit from
this wing more quickly than the Louvre."
1801-Napoleon’s Exhibition at the
Louvre
Rivoli Wing of the Louvre
• Rivoli Wing of Louvre
• Café there now
Rue de Rivoli
Examples of policies and actions of Napoleon
which were consistent with the ideals of the
Revolution
•
•
•
•
Equality under the law
No legal distinctions between social classes
Merit based government offices
Napoleonic Code
– Unified legal system
– Freedom of religion and occupation
• All citizens taxed equally
• Set up Lyceés (government-run schools)
Examples of policies and actions of Napoleon
which were inconsistent with the ideals of
the Revolution
• Napoleon was a dictator
• Was censorship and repression
• Labor unions forbidden and the rights of
employers far greater than the rights of
workers
• Did not give full equality to all
• Men had extensive control over their families
Results of Napoleon and the
French Revolution
• In France, it ended the Old Regime permanently
– Ended feudalism and established a written constitution
• France was no longer the most powerful nation in Europe
– Britain was
• The political boundaries of Europe were redefined
• Was the beginning of strong nationalism which spread
throughout Europe and was sparked by Napoleon
• After defeat of Napoleon, was a general peace that lasted
100 years
• Ideas of the Revolution and radicalism had been spread
throughout Europe
Think About This Quote---Do You Agree---Why
or Why Not?
"I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought
order out of chaos. I rewarded merit
regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I
found it. I abolished feudalism and
restored equality to all regardless of
religion and before the law. I fought the
decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime
because the alternative was the
destruction of all this. I purified the
Revolution.“
– Napoleon Bonaparte