How Did Napoleonic Wars Affect The French Revolutions

Europe as a continent includes many nations and yet the structure and boundaries of European countries have morphed multiple times creating and dissolving governments through war and conflict. The Napoleonic wars were from around 1803 to 1815, though this may not be exact since the wars’ start date is a matter of opinion due to earlier conflicts with Europe during the entire French revolution. They were a geographical and political restructuring of Europe that lead to the creation and organization of the Europe nations that eventually became the primary combatants and effected territories of World War 1. The nations of France, England, and kingdoms of Germany experienced sweeping changes in their positions in the world due to Napoleon’s actions

The actions of these nations only served to ironically lead to the spreading of French idealism across the continent during France’s peak of military prowess. By alienating and siding against France, France entered into war with the “Coalitions” of European Monarchies and under Napoleon’s rule, conquered their opposition and under their rule, learned of the French ideology of Democracy due to the reformation of French government over France and with it, the territories it governed during the Napoleonic Wars. One of the driving ways democratic ideas spread over French territory was the Napoleonic Code, a codified set a laws that aimed to apply equally to all citizens within France. “What the French people want,” said Napoleon, “is equality, not liberty.”(Bill of Rights) The Napoleonic Code instituted the concept of divorce and voting in France and many other changes to the status quo of not only France, but all of Europe where the autocracy ruled in place of democracy. The origins of this constitutional document and its goal are remarkably similar to the social contract by the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Thomas Hobbes and

The Reign of Terror during the French revolution can be seen as the restructuring of France to create equality by eliminating the nobility who created an inequality in the society of France as well as political rebels against the new “equal” system under the later rule of the elected dictator, Napoleon I. The system granted all French adult male citizens in the empire the right to vote, once even “giving (Napoleon I) over 99 percent of the popular vote.”(Life) The voting was definitely rigged but as in the modern governments currently show, no system is perfect. The important fact is there really was a vote, showing that the French technically made progress with their revolution towards a true democratic government and could call themselves a republic as they wanted to become. Their direction of political change is familiar to European history