Napoleon: Confirm or Deny the Revolution

Essay by Anonymous User May 2007

download word file, 5 pages 3.0

Downloaded 29 times

While there is debate over whether Napoleon confirmed or denied the French Revolution there is one thing that is clear and un-debatable; he was what ended it. Whether it was with his death or with the beginning of his reign is what is debatable. There is evidence that leads to both the ideas of him confirming it or him denying it and, in the end; the fact may be that the way the evidence is interpreted by a single person may determine what the person's opinion is. While to each his opinion is his own, I believe that the evidence shown points in one direction more than the other. I believe that despite some of his actions and despite some facts Napoleon confirmed the French Revolution.

Many will argue that Napoleon, while moving things forward in a revolutionary way for men, he moved things in reverse for the women of the time.

While Napoleon wanted all men to be educated, he excluded the women and wrote that, "Women do not need education, all they need is religion" ( He made them seem inferior to men due to the lack of education they were allowed to receive. He did this on purpose and it was proven when he said, "The husband must possess the absolute power and right to say to his wife: Madame, you shall not go out, you shall not go to the theater, you shall not visit such and such a person: for the children you bear, they shall be mine." He put this forward and made this so with his writing of the Napoleonic Code which states, "The husband owes protection to his wife, the wife obedience to her husband" (The Code Napoleon (1804)). While causing the revolution to move backwards for probably half of the population...