Napoleon in the French revolution

Prior to Napoleon becoming the First Consul in 1799 and obtaining power, France was engaged in a revolution that would lead them into a modern war. On June 20, 1789, the third estate declared itself the National Assembly, asserting the right of the people to self-govern and establish against the king's will. This event was known as the Tennis Court Oath and took place during the French revolution to bring liberty and equality. The National Assembly responded to peasant revolts by completely abolishing all noble and clerical privileges, feudal dues, and forced labor. The Abolition of Feudalism instantly transformed the French peasants into free, tax paying landowners, fulfilling a great goal of the third estate that they lunged to complete. Although Napoleon's rule represented the fulfillment of the French Revolution through public education, he abandoned those principles through excluding women from their previous natural rights and crowned himself as emperor when trying to go back to the time of prior monarchical absolutist ideals.

Although Napoleon's regime suppressed political rights, his creation of a centralized state sponsored public education system, especially the lycees, represented a fulfillment of the revolution's commitment to meritocracy by making access to military and civil service advancement dependent on talent rather than inherited birth. Stated by deputy Michel Carrel, men had been called to new positions of work from their source of knowledge of their rights and practice for their duties due to education, which was very important for public morals, (doc 2). During this time period, it was very important to Napoleon in establishing a system of Public Education, specifically for men, offering them security for what they wanted to pursue later in their future lives. In addition to the documentary evidence, men's legal equality was always ensured, through the intellectual mind to participate in commercial and political life, while women on the other hand were deliberately excluded from the rational training necessary to use political or economic autonomy in their lives. Some of their previous natural rights were also taken away due to Napoleon's strict regulations. During the internal situation of France, new schools had been opened, such as “lycees”, where Napoleon's Civil Code had fulfilled the expectations of the public, (doc 4). Napoleon implemented his Napoleonic code into the education of youth, who were eager to gain more knowledge, as new branches of education were coming into effect at this time.

While Napoleon claimed to preserve revolutionary gains, his ultimate abandonment of its central political goal was shown by his decision to end the republic and crown himself Emperor in 1804, a move that fundamentally betrayed the ideals of popular sovereignty and the establishment of a democratic state. The Concordat of 1801 expressed how, before bishops could enter “upon their functions”, they had to take an “oath of fidelity”, agreed to by the Emperor and Pope, (doc 1). Napoleon agreed to this oath of fidelity to spread his rank of power, comparing himself to the Pope Pius VII, ensuring obedience to the government from bishops and others. Painted by Jaques-Louis David, the consecration of the Emperor, Napoleon, is shown through the crowning of himself in front of many important personnel of high rank, (doc 5). The purpose of this painting is for Napoleon to be highlighted as a newly established monarch with immense power in which no one could restrict.

Napoleon explicitly abandoned the revolution's hard-won principle of shared government and liberty by stripping power from all representative bodies into a personal unchecked military dictatorship of himself. The newly enforced law, Law of 30 Foreal, expressed that slavery shall be maintained with the regulations that were existing prior to a set date, where there were importations of slaves that came into colonies, (doc 3). The slave trade regulations and laws had not been put into effect in years, until Emperor Napoleon wanted to go back to the times of inequality, taking away the rights and privileges of these said slaves to make him be perceived as more powerful than her already was. A memoir from Madame de Remustat stated that the Emperor seized moments of “hesitation”, turning it into his own advantage for personal gain, taking away from the “men afraid to complete their work”, (doc 6). The objective of this memoir was to bring attention to how Napoleon would seize power from others at any chance he came across in which he viewed weak to amplify his reputation of power.

In the end, Napoleon's rule delivered a complex mix of revolutionary gains and betrayals. He did fulfill one major goal by using public education and meritocracy to ensure French men were judged based on talent, not by noble birth, but did not do the same for women. However, this single ideal was overlooked by his political choices, as he quickly abandoned the revolution's core principles by replacing the republic and popular rule with his own emperor title. It was also his choice to take power from others and place it only in his hands. This failure to contain the revolutionary ideals of self rule and national identity was later inherited by the Congress of Vienna. The congress was made up of conservative rulers, who were ultimately unable to deal with the forces of liberalism and nationalism that Napoleon had both used and put out into the world. This led directly to the later revolutions that would challenge the European order of the rest of the 19th century.