system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
He loved waging war but he also did good things. Like enforcing seperation of church and state and breaking the power of the clergymen. Belgium based their constitution on the Napoleonic code when they became independent. He was a megalomaniac but not as evil as Hitler.
gpt
Interesting figure, Napoleon. He actually started very few wars, most of which resulted from various coalitions of European countries invading France, as their governing establishments feared French revolutionary ideas (such as the ones you mention) spreading into their countries.

We forget that Napoleon was a revolutionary, first in his native Corsica and then in France where he'd received his military training and commission. The Napoleonic Code was a distillation of revolutionary ideas, and his instatement as emperor was intended to put an end to the internecine strife between factions that had dogged the revolution since the 1790s.

That we think of him as a megalomaniac, Hitleresque figure is a classic case of history being written by the victor.

Of course, he wasn't a complete historical 'goodie' - his occupation of Spain is hard to defend and his invasion of Egypt was little more than a colonial war, for example. But mostly he was simply continuing the doctrine of aggressive defence that the Revolutionary Army had succeeded with long before he came to power.