Napoleon Essay -- essays research papers

In the early 19th century a man by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte led a Coup D’etat that created a new government in France. This new government started out with a tribunal leadership, which Napoleon was first consul, and later changed to an empire with Napoleon as emperor. Some people believe that he made the revolution better and expanded the revolution but this is not true. The facts, when closely looked at, prove that Napoleon effectively destroyed the revolution by telling the people of his country one thing while he was actually planning on doing something totally different. He deceived people so well that he is still convincing people today that he was a defender of the revolution. With this pack of deception Napoleon set the people of France back into the 18th century by killing off a great number of the young population in his wars. He led the people of France to believe that he was spreading the revolution throughout Europe but the truth is that he believed that in order to be a great leader he would have to invade and conquer many foreign lands. He controlled what the people wrote and read through the media. It all started with a coup against the government that he was fighting for. The Coup D’etat, led by Napoleon, took place at the perfect time because the Jacobins were losing power and there were many people being executed for allegedly being monarchists. In the courts a person was not able to speak in their defense so if the prosecutor made a good enough argument the charged would be executed by the guillotine. There were many innocent people who were executed, and many more who were afraid. After the coup a referendum was held in 1802 that made Napoleon First Consul for life. This was his first step in turning France back into a monarchy. The next step was in 1804 when a second referendum was held that made him Emperor. The people really had no choice. They could have an Emperor and essentially turn back into a monarchy or return to the governmental insatiability that they had been living in for about 10 years before Napoleon came into the spotlight. The electorate, whom were the people that owned land and were the only citizens who were allowed to vote, overwhelmingly voted in favor of making Napoleon Emperor. Napoleon after all was the lesser of the two evils. After the vote Napoleon granted general... ...rong. With the whole of Europe joining coalitions to fight against this emperor, they must have known what Napoleon was really fighting for. He wanted to take over Europe and when he won a number of victories he thought that he could take over the world. He thought too big too fast and underestimated things like harsh winters and the ability of his opponents to get stronger. The setting up a fake legislature to make the people think that he was working in their interests was a good way of getting people on his side. In some countries peasant and working classes relished the thought of Napoleon leading their country. After he took power the people started to feel oppressed and became unhappy when relatives of Napoleon’s became their Kings. The thing that topped it off was the fact that the Code Napoleon did not allow changes for the different countries. These facts prove without a doubt that Napoleon lied to his people so they would support him. While he was doing this lying he managed to kill off most of a generation of French, which left France behind in the Industrial Revolution, and turn the Republic that the revolution had fought for back into a Monarchy. V