Napoleon had a huge impact on the social, economic and political systems of Europe. He was the most controlling general of all time, second maybe, to Hitler. He was viewed very differently by different groups of people. Some people hated that he took away their power. Others loved all of the control he was able to gain for France, and the advancements that he was able to make during his rule as emperor.
Socially most people hated him. The way he took over so much land so quickly was violent. He went to war with any place that he came into contact with. That obviously killed many people that would have otherwise been living peaceful lives. His violence was, in his eyes, the only way to get done what he wanted. He wanted to gain control of a place quickly, and war was the fastest, and most effective way to do so. Marshal Michel Ney believed that Napoleon helped France. He said, “the emperor Napoleon, our sovereign, belongs alone to the right to rule over our beautiful country”. Ney was basically saying that France owes all their successes to the fact that Napoleon was their leader. Napoleon was very successful and although violent, he got done what needed to be done. Another reason many people liked Napoleon socially was because under his rule more citizens owned property, and education was much more readily available. Education was then, and still is today very important. That is why I believe Napoleon made such an impact socially.
Economically a lot of people liked the way he ran things. Napoleon wanted economics to flourish, so he did many things to make them. He controlled the prices of goods, so that everyone could afford them. He encouraged new industry, so more people had jobs. Most importantly he built roads and canals. That way people could more easily get from place to place. The new roads and canals encouraged trade, and definitely benefited the economy. People did not like that while Napoleon was helping others, he was becoming very rich. While he was gaining all that power, he saved a good amount of the money for himself. That was where the economics side of Napoleon gets tricky. Madame de Stael said that Bonaparte “would persuade men by force and by cunning, and he considers all else to be stupidity or folly”. That meant that Stael looked down upon Napoleon because he forced people to believe what he believed. Some of Napoleons followers did not actually want to like him. They were forced to by Napoleon himself. Even though some were forced Napoleon had a vast amount of followers. He needed them in order to conquer what he did. he must have been pretty good because all these people fought for him. That makes his economic impact tremendous.
Politically most people hated him. The fact that he was able to take over so much land, and gain so much power made people despise him. There were people that ruled the land that he took over, and these were the people he angered most. They lost all their power to one man, and they did not like that. Although so many nobles did not like him politically, the people of France loved him for the most part. They loved him for the same reason so many people hated him. The people of France liked the fact that he took control of so much land. It made the people of France proud to be part of such a large empire. Politically Napoleon trusted no one but himself. Proof of that was in an article written by Thomas J. Vance. He said, “It is only a genius of the most magnificent order which could handle men and materials as Napoleon did”. That quote showed you that even though Napoleon had so much power, he handles it as well as a man could. No other man could have done what Napoleon did, even being presented the same type of opportunities.
For all these reasons Napoleon had a huge impact on the social, economic, and political systems of Europe. He even redrew the map of Europe, until only Britain was outside of it’s empire. That just shows how much of an impact that one man had. He was able to conquer more land than any one man ever has.
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