Nidia Castillo
Period 5

1992- “Napoleon was a child of the Enlightment.”
Assess the validity of the statement above. Use examples referring both to specific aspects of the Enlightment and to
Napoleon’s policies and attitudes.

Napoleon included several Enlightment aspects in his policies and attitudes throughout his rule like encouraging equality for all men and freedom in religion. However, because of absolute tyranny and abolishment of newly gained rights, people questioned whether or not he was a conquering tyrant or an enlightened liberator.

I. Napoleon’s Codes
A. Civil Code of 1804
1. Equality in all men
2. Security of wealth and private property
B. Napoleonic Code
1. Abolished the system of serfdom
2. Equal opportunity for all
3. Separation of “church” and “state”

II. Religion and Education
A. Concordat of 1801- between
Pope Pius VII
1. Declared Catholicism the main religion of France
2. Protestants and Jews state would be given protection to practice religion
B. Education
1. Established Imperial
University
2. New system for secondary education
Pope Pius VII

Three Consuls
III. Absolute Power
A. The Directory- a five-man executive body that replaced the king.
1. Napoleon went to Paris in 1799 to over throw the
Directory
B. First Consul of the Republic
1. a plebiscite in December 1799 approved a new constitution consolidating his position as emperor of France
Crowning of Josephine de Beauharnais

A. Reinstituted slavery in Haiti in
1802
B. Introduced imprisonment without trial
1. In 1810, Napoleon had a secret police force that could arrest without trial

V. Abolishing newly gained rights
A. Napoleonic Code
1. Rights taken away from women
• family monarchy
B. Freedom of press
•By 1811, four newspapers were left

Napoleon sought to become the greatest leader France had ever seen. Some of his changes he made were inspired by the Enlightment. For example, he established two different codes that supported equality for all men, the abolishment of serfdom and the separation between the church and state by granting religious freedom to Protestants and Jews. Napoleon promoted education by creating an education system for secondary schooling which prepared the future leaders of the nation. On the other hand, he eliminated a number of rights his people had gotten in the French Revolution. Women were stripped of their rights and depended on men, slavery was reintroduced in Haiti, and the elimination of freedom of speech and press left France with four newspapers that were used for government propaganda. Because of his absolute power, he was addicted to conquering whoever he could and being at the top. In the end, Napoleon was one of the greatest leaders of France; through both Enlightened policies, his own attitude, and relentless ambition, he conquered much of what he wanted for France.