Napoleon Bonaparte was a French dictator right after the Revolution. It is somewhat ironic that the French people desperately got rid of a monarchy to then becoming a dictatorship. France was in a sort of ruins. After the Revolution, things got worse for the French people. Bread prices were shooting up, there was not really a government, and they were waging war.
Then came Napoleon, a French general that quickly becomes dictator of France. No one complained much, in fact, the people rejoiced. Napoleon brought a sort of peace to France. He made a constitution, brought ownership of land to the peasants, and gave the French people a sense of pride in their country. However, he did try to take over Europe, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and limited the French's freedom of speech.
He was a revolutionary in the eyes of some. " if we judge Napoleon on what he actually did and not only on this things that are usually remembered we must concede that his armies liberalized' the constitutions of many European countries-("Napoleon as Preserver of the Revolution- George Rudé). Napoleon overthrew many aristocratic systems in Italy and Germany. He also overthrew aristocratic regimes in Poland and Spain. Along with helping the peasants, he also took the Church's land and used it for the state of France.
"I closed the gulf of anarchy and brought order out of chaos. I rewarded merit regardless of birth or wealth, wherever I found it. I abolished feudalism and restored equality to all regardless of religion and before the law. I fought the decrepit monarchies of the Old Regime because the alternative was the destruction of all this. I purified the Revolution- (Napoleon Bonaparte himself).
He was a military genius. "Napoleon was a brilliant military commander who carefully planned each campaign, using speed, deception, and surprise to confuse and demoralize his opponents- (Napoleon: Destroyer and Preserver of the Revolution).
