Napoleon Bonaparte Research Paper

A) Napoleon I and his French Empire: (1769-1821) Napoleon Bonaparte, also known as Napoleon I, was a French military leader and emperor who conquered most of Europe in the early 19th century. Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution. After seizing political power in France in 1799, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, Napoleon I successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire. However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon I abdicated the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba. In 1815, he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing …show more content…
He grew the empire back to its former western territories, and bordered nearly the entire Mediterranean Sea, a larger area than any Byzantine period. His mantra, or characterization of his rule would have to be his desire to see the empire strengthened and returned to its former ancient glory. He was from modest origins, which was a point of contention for his court and the nobles within the empire though. Being a Christian, he built great religious monuments and cathedrals that can still be seen today. He built an ideal for Byzantine, with his Christian views and reforms in taxation and legislation. The Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian was a collection of laws compiled and put into effect by him. This was the most comprehensive code of law ever written. It was made to unify the empire through law. It actually is the basic document for all modern civil law. These laws were easier to understand and spelled out things for the common citizen. It put the average citizen on the same legal ground as the elites of society. It aimed to take out the randomness of legal rulings, something the common man was used to seeing. Ruling the empire was a challenge as it always is, the great expansion made it difficult to rule such a large area so quickly. The Code of Justinian did appease many citizens for some time. Justinian gave more power to local leaders of provinces to help fight corruption in tax collection. This trend was for less administrative infrastructure. The plague decimated the population creating a scarcity of labor and higher wages. War is expensive and not popular with the average citizen trying to eke out a living. Those on the outside of the empire who had lost to the Byzantine armies were biding their time and within years of Justinian's death, much of what he had gained was lost to their