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How Did Napoleonic Code Reflect The French Revolution

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Following Napoleon’s coup d’etat, he both embraced and reversed ideals of the French
Revolution. Napoleon’s institution of an equal code of law called the Napoleonic Code satisfied the Enlightenment ideal of equality, but his decision to rule as a powerful military monarch contradicted the institutions set by The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. These contradictory and controversial methods of strong monarchy, empire building, and de jure equality called negative attention to Napoleon’s image. In the late eighteenth century, the National Assembly overthrew Louis XVI’s regime and replaced it with a more violent republic guided by Robespierre. The revolution was based on ideals of equality and republicanism or representative …show more content…

The Code instated public trials by jury, an essential element of republicanism. Napoleon’s purpose was to increase his influence across the continent through his brothers, as he managed to achieve in Spain under Giuseppe Bonaparte. Others in Europe saw Napoleon as a threat to their autonomy, as seen in a political cartoon placing France on the same level as the British Empire in terms of expansion, dividing up the globe to consume (3). Along with empire building, Napoleon made reforms to prisons, infrastructure, and created more unity among the people of France (5). According to him, the people of France loved Napoleon, and Alfred de Vigny attested to this. A French soldier, Vigny proclaimed that young men aspired to be involved in Napoleon’s wars as soon as they escaped from school (6). Under Napoleon, France seemed to be consistently involved with wars involving Prussia, Austria, Russia, and Britain, which created heightened nationalism in France. Metternich accurately described Napoleon, with both respect and scrutiny, as a man whose purest interest was military victory (7). Reflecting on Napoleon’s life, the conservative foreign minister Metternich understood the problem with judging historical figures as “good or bad” and simply learned from Napoleon’s influential power over

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