What were the main aims of Napoleon when he was creating his empire?
Napoleon Bonaparte is generally viewed as a conqueror, and this view is now almost recognized as a fact. While Napoleon himself told many things as his reasons for his eternal wars, the explanation that he was trying to create a new Roman empire isn’t too convincing, taking into consideration his foreign policy. While not making any guesses on the motives behind Napoleon crowning himself, it doesn’t seem like he wanted to make France into an autocracy. His actions don’t correspond to this theory and his reforms aren’t something that are usually expected from an emperor. Based on my research it’s more likely that Napoleon was fulfilling the ideals of liberalism, nationalism and enlightenment.
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It was also mandated that every main town should have a primary school. Napoleon also did a major legislative reform, the code napoleon was the first legislative act as radical as Hammurabi’s law thousands of years ago. The liberties of press and speech and abolition of slavery were also reforms not many monarchs believed in.
And while some might point out that even with these reforms Napoleon was still an Emperor which went against the ideals of the revolution, these reforms were still liberalistic and enlightened in nature. While the people didn’t get their parliament it can be argued that Napoleon was in fact much more effective in giving the people what they wanted. The time after the revolution isn’t exactly characterized by rapid improvement of life but is in fact remembered for the ineffective government which was overthrown resulting in the reign of