Napoleon's Influence

Napoleon Bonaparte was an amazing military leader and general, and won many victories.  Some found him to be a hero while others thought he was horrible.  Napoleon had a lot of influence on, not only France, but most of Europe also.  Napoleon had a large impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe.  Napoleon managed to establish the social policy, meritocracy.  This was really good, especially to the citizens, because they were now awarded based off of skill and not just your social class.  He also allowed citizens to have more rights to education and property.  There were mixed feelings about this because the old nobility were losing their benefits and becoming more equal to the lower class and they didn't like this at all.  However, all of the citizens were very happy at all of the social policy changes.  Napoleon also made changes to the economic systems of Europe.  For example, he encouraged new industry, built more roads and canals, and he also improved the sharing of ideas and new economic systems.  His changes to the political were both positive and negative however.  He overthrew the directory, which was positive for the citizens of France because they were a bad and corrupt government.  But this was also negative because he became an emperor and limited the leader's power.  There is a lot of debate over weather Napoleon was as a great of a leader as he's made out to be, but according to Madame de Stael's and Marshal Michel Ney's accounts of Napoleon, it is mostly biased depending on what your social class, or background is.

The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians