He was right in saying "the revolution is finished " as his role was to consolidate and institutionalize everything. .
Napoleon implemented the ideologies of the French Revolution which were derived from the Enlightenment by introducing the Napoleonic Code, lycee and baccalaureate education, constitutions and meritocracy. .
The Napoleonic Code guaranteed equality, property rights and the rights of citizens as the previous Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen had sought to do. It consolidated what was already there. There seemed to be equal treatment under the law as revolutionaries had envisioned, but in reality some of the aspects of the civil code were conservationist and had authoritarian views. Women's rights were curbed and as Napoleon once said "women should stick to knitting ". The Napoleonic Code also reintroduced slavery and arbitrary arrest which echoed the much hated letters de cachet. It also included inhumane punishments in the Penal Code. The Napoleonic Code however was distributed to many other states of Europe and influenced other European countries such as Italy and Spain among others. Napoleon's expansionist foreign policy went further than the revolutionaries had thought possible. Revolutionaries had imagined a revolution that had a ripple effect spreading beyond France, across a broader Europe. Napoleon achieved this. As Louis Bergeron said, "Napoleon was both behind and ahead of his time, the last of the enlightened despots and a prophet of the modern state ".
It is clear Napoleons motives for doing things are not always clear. Through the introduction of the lycee and baccalaureate education he showed clear enlightened thinking which could be interpreted as concern for the people, and to bring academic freedom. Yet it could also be interpreted as a desire for loyal subjects and trained servants in his police state. As Napoleon said, "I desire only a federation of men and money ".
