Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, in Corsica on august 15, 1769 and died in 1821. At a young age, he decided to pursue a military career, and won a scholarship to the French Military Academy. Napoleon became one of the best military commanders known in history, and become very powerful very quickly with his military conquests. Near the end of the revolution, the government, which was very radical and led by Robespierre was not efficient, and had imposed two years of terror on the French society. After Robespierre's assassination, France was very unstable, and in an economic crisis. Near the end of the revolution, Napoleon had won wars against Prussia and Austra, and therefore was very popular in France. Napoleon had profited from France's instability, and become the emperor of the French. .
Many of Napoleon's decisions stimulated freedom in Europe, for example, his creation of the Napoleonic Code, also known as the civil code today. When Napoleon took power of France, there were not any set laws; only hundreds of codes inherited from the past, which were guided par many powers, like the Church, feudal law and ancient customs. There were also about 14, 400 laws that were passed during the revolution, which often opposed each other. So, what was legal in one village was illegal in another. So, lawyers who were brilliant in one village were completely ignorant in another. Napoleon fixed this with his Civil Code - however, what is less obvious, are the disadvantages of the code. Even though it represented equality, it stated that the husband was the ruler of the household, and therefore reduced the freedom given to women. As well, Napoleon himself believed that he was above his own laws. Although he said he for equality, the laws did not apply to him. What the code actually provided for Napoleon was complete power over France even though the citizens saw the code as means to freedom and justice.
