To be liberal means to favor proposals for reform, be open to new ideas for progress, and be tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others. These traits best describe Napoleon's actions throughout his great reign in France. Napoleon's liberal actions include expansion of his land, creating new laws and codes, implemented the Legion of Honor system and all in all reforming France to make it the greatest nation of its time.
In the year 1796, Napoleon was promoted from second lieutenant to commander of the French army in Italy. Before he came to power, Great Britain dominated the seas and enjoyed unbridled success in overseas trade. France was still at war with Great Britain, and Bonaparte hoped to disrupt British trade routes to India and establish French domination in the exotic east. Napoleons army beat the Egyptian forces protecting Egypt and took control. While he was there, he changed the Egyptian government and their laws, getting rid of feudalism and promising basic rights to all of the Egyptian people. Not only did he make drastic reforms to their society, he also brought along with him many artists and scientists to study the Egyptian artifacts. The most well known artifact discovered by Napoleons army was the Rosetta stone. It was used to decrypt Egyptian hieroglyphs by comparing them to other languages on the slab. .
In 1798, Napoleon seized power and established a new government where Napoleon was the monarch. The amazing think is he tool control without firing a single shot. During the time before his rule, laws were based on tradition and the word of the monarch so Napoleon introduced his Napoleonic Code. This new code gave new liberty to the people, but kept such ideas as the system of inheritance, it also assured the right of equality before the law and freedom of religion. Napoleon re-introduced the church but he made it different from before, limiting its power. One of the reforms was that there would not be a pope anymore and also governments would pay the priests salaries, this would give more control to the government and less to the priests.
