Napoleon's Rise to Power

French Revolution brought a great number of great ideas, but ideas are not beneficial unless they are realized and stabilized. The man to stabilize the concepts of French Revolution was Napoleon Bonaparte. He started out as an Italian general and ended up being one of the greatest historical figures. First, Directors requested Napoleon's support while organizing a coup d'etat. Then, Bonaparte fought Britain in order to benefit France. Lastly, he was called to help creating a new constitution and ended up as the First Consul of France. At home, he ruled using flattery, but also he strongly resisted the opposition. Napoleon is a pro-revolutionist because he denied all the privileges of the aristocracy, created a new constitution, and also established the Napoleonic Code.

During the Napoleonic reign, the biggest reform appeared to be the loss of hereditary rights of the upper class citizens. Before Napoleon became a king, a lot of jobs were inherited. The purchase of the offices was rather common and skills were not required. Revolution believed in equality. Napoleon established that equality by granting everyone equal right to attempt the job. Now the positions were given out based on merit only. This change created fairness and limited the rights of the nobles at the same time. France was not the only country that felt the influence of the Napoleonic reform. Italian and German aristocrats were overthrown as well, and the weakening of the Spanish nobility even led to the revolt.

Napoleon's entire reign started with the constitution. After all the economic trouble in France there was a need for a new constitution, so Abbe Sieyes asked Napoleon to secure the success of the new constitution that was based on a principle of "confidence from below, power from above." Bonaparte was a very decisive individual, so he did not pay much attention to Sieyes and established his own Constitution of the Year VIII. This constitution made him the First Consul and had an overwhelming success. After convincing his subjects that the establishment of the dynasty was unavoidable, Bonaparte created another constitution, which made him an Emperor of the French. During the French Revolution, constitution was an important idea. In fact, all the revolutionary ideas were summarized in the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. Napoleon pursued this concept.

The biggest and the most important thing that Napoleon did in order to preserve the French Revolution was the Napoleonic Code or the Civil Code of 1804.