How Did Napoleon Bonaparte Support The French Revolution

Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d'état in 1799 led to the unification of an entire continent under the Revolutionary motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. After seeing the shortcomings of the unpopular Directory, established after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre, the young general stepped up with the support of the French people and crowned himself dictator after a mere two years. He then went on to conquer much of Europe and established the Napoleonic Empire. Yet, he was lenient with the conquered nations and confirmed himself as not only an adept military leader but a shrewd and powerful leader. Many of Napoleon’s ideas originated from the enlightened philosophes of the seventeenth century, including John Locke, Voltaire, and Cesare Beccaria.

These beliefs were also reflected in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the major document detailing the hopes of the Revolution. Despite looking the part of an absolute monarch, Napoleon Bonaparte was the epitome of an enlightened egalitarian, upholding the liberties of the European people, equalizing the rights of every man under his rule, and uniting all of Europe in one fraternal community.

Napoleon distributed the freedoms of the French Revolution among the united European nations, and protected the people’s rights with his military and authoritative power. Although Napoleon is sometimes depicted as a power-hungry conqueror, he had respect for the conquered people and liberated them under the privileges established during the Revolution, giving them freedom of religion. This showed a lot of tolerance on Napoleon’s part, which was a major component of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In this document, one of

Napoleon regarded his Code as his greatest achievement, and he was right in considering it so because it unified his whole empire under a common set of laws. It was essentially a “codification of the laws of the French Revolution” (Rudé). This indicates Napoleon’s approval of the decrees of the Revolution, since his personal magnum opus was so heavily reliant on those ideas. Throughout his widespread empire, the Napoleonic Code helped eliminate injustices and streamline the justice process. During the Old Regime, torture during criminal trials was widespread and the power of justice was often abused. The Italian philosophe Cesare Beccaria spoke against these inhumane penalties, and Napoleon, inspired by Beccaria’s ideas, created the Code of Napoleon. Napoleon’s derivation of the concept for his Code indicates his respect for the philosophes. Napoleon also felt strongly about the elimination of unequal aristocratic privilege in government (Rudé). Having been a Jacobin during the Revolution, Napoleon believed in the lack of an aristocracy. The Jacobins, aware of the birth-determined power at the hands of the noble Second Estate, supported the dissolution of the Old Regime. Napoleon applied this conviction to the rule of his empire by eliminating the barriers surrounding social