How Far Do You Agree That Napoleon Betrayed the Revolution?

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Napoleon’s domestic policies throughout his time in power give us a number of outcomes and portray him in a number of ways. Some of these outcomes can portray Napoleon to be a hero of the revolution and a defender of the revolutionary principles whereas a number of his policies can be interpreted to show him as an enemy of the revolution. Although many of Napoleon’s policies seemed to portray him to be a defender of the revolution, when looked further into these policies it could be said that Napoleon did in fact betray the principles of the revolution. In 1799 Napoleon held a ceremony where he invited The Pope and crowned himself The Emperor of France. This could have portrayed Napoleon to be an enemy of the rebellion due to the fact that the French revolution took place because they didn’t want one person dictating how they should live their lives. The French people wanted a democratic public but Napoleon seemed to be a power driven army general who had now seized control over the government of France. Although many historians will argue that the right to vote was given to all males who paid direct taxes and that Napoleon upheld this law when he came into power, I feel that Napoleon betrayed this element of the revolution because this whole system was a lot more complex than it seemed to be on the surface. This system of voting goes against one of the main principles of the revolution which was equality. Although the system on the outer layer shows that everyone is the same, in reality we know that Napoleon just used this to keep the public happy and he made sure that they were living in a democratic republic. In 1802 Napoleon established the Legion of Honour which rewarded those who had served him well and had shown true loyalty and skill. On one hand this can be seen as a step towards the initial principles of the revolution as titles were given out to people
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