In order to assess Napoleon’s role in the French Revolution one must first assess what the spirit of the revolution itself was. The original National Assembly used t

The Napoleonic Code was perhaps its namesake’s greatest contribution to the revolution. It is the most permanent and lasting of all of Napoleons achievements and has been the influence for the code of laws in many places around the world. Its significance lies in the fact that it clarified and codified all the various, confusing and inconsistent legislations of the many revolutionary governments. Since governments had gone in and out of power in the years following the French Revolution, a mess of legislation had been created, making it very unclear as to what the laws were on various issues. Napoleon created uniformity in the legal system that hadn’t existed before and also provided for “equal rights and duties under laws which were universal, rational, and secular.” Yet another positive aspect to the Napoleonic Code was that it compromised between the traditional laws in northern France, the revolutionary laws, and Roman law that was predominant in the south and east of France. Such a feat was considered to be a great accomplishment considering the great provincial diversity that existed in France. Also of importance was that it rationalized the law, rather than the irrational mess it had been in ancien regime in which laws were put in place based on the reigning monarch’s desires.

Gonnard, Philippe, The Exile of St. Helena. Philadelphia: J.B Lippincott Company, 1909.

The two places in which Napoleon is most commonly criticized for violating revolutionary ideals is in his concordat with Catholic church and his re-establishment of an absolutist government. In regards to the former, secularization had been a goal of the revolutionaries. The church was seen as one of the evils of pre-revolutionary France; it had control over a large percentage of French land, didn’t pay taxes. The enlightenment thinkers viewed religion as irrational and felt that the privileges of the church went against their idea of equality of all people. The early revolutionaries saw this and stripped the church of their privileges, while the Jacobins went even further by creating a new “religion” and adopting a new revolutionary calendar. The Jacobin action, while see as enlightened by some, only managed to alienate them from the French peasantry and the Catholic church, which was still influential in their lives. Despite the beliefs of the revolutionary leaders, France was still very much a religious country.

Some topics in this essay:
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