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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (9356)	11/30/2001 11:36:06 AM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

Napolean had many good points. Scholars of the Napoleanic age recognize he was probably the most enlightened leader of his generation of European leaders. That he was involved in warfare means little, as there was always warfare in that region. The point was that there are often two steps forward one step back. Naploean was better than the King; what came after Napolean was better than him. The consulate of Napoleon was in many ways an astonishing success. He rigorously pursued the welfare of the country by tirelessly trying to end all the conflict within and without France. In a steady succession of treaties, he made peace with Austria and then with Britain. By 1802, all the wars were over, concluded in the Treaty of Amiens with Britain. Napoleon, however, worked hard to heal the wounds of over a decade of revolution. He allowed all types of political refugees back into the country, and appointed both radical republicans and royalist aristocrats to his government. His greatest act of reconciliation, however, was allowing the Catholic church back into France in his concordat with Pope Pius VII. The church was allowed back in, however, on Napoleon's terms. Clergy which had supported radical or monarchist uprisings were dismissed, confiscated church lands were to remain confiscated, and the principle of religious freedom, part and parcel of the Revolutionary constitutions, was to remain in force. It was because of these magnificent efforts at reconciliation and peace that the French voted him "Consul for Life" in 1802; he promptly produced a new constitution to reflect this change. In France, Napoleon pursued the dream of centralized power with an efficiency that hadn't been seen since the days of Louis XIV. He centralized the administration of the country and made all parts of that administration directly under the national government's control; although he was an egalitarian, he was a true follower of absolutist principles. Nevertheless, his reforms installed real equality into French government; for instance, the tax system he set up made no allowances for wealth or station. In addition, he ruthlessly stamped out any monarchist rebellions; and, finally, in 1804, his armies crossed over into Baden and arrested the Bourbon duke of Enghien, the heir to the French throne. With the Duke of Enghien executed, the monarchist counter-revolution effectively died. The Napoleonic Code (1804) Of all the reforms of Napoleon's consulate, the historically most significant was the legislation of the Civil Code of 1804, alternatively called the Napoleonic Code or the Code of Napoleon. This legislation sought to make French law completely uniform. It was based on two ideas: that all men are equal under the law (but not women) and all people have a right to property. In the former case, the code eliminated all privileges from the laws, including tax laws. In the latter case, the code spelled out various contractual laws to ensure the inviolability of private property. wsu.edu:8000/~dee/REV/NAPOLEAN.HTM