Napoleon Bonaparte: Societal Change

Societal Change Societal change is an interesting subject. The “change” can come in forms of societal behavior, societal relations, societal order, and even more. Throughout history, individuals have caused society to change as a result of their actions. Large institutions, whether they represent a government or religion, do not cause society to change by themselves, but, instead, an member of the group can cause a change within the group which, in turn, changes society. It takes a person of a certain stature to be able to shift how things work around them, but many of those people are the ones who live on in the history books, and whose story breaks the boundaries of time. Many people come to mind when one thinks of history altering figures. …show more content…
Napoleon’s most renowned impact lies in his Napoleonic Code, which was the basis of laws in France during his reign. His ideas of how the law should were put to work throughout the empire he created, which spread from Poland to Spain. Equality of all citizens under the law, no privileges of birth, separation of church and state, and the freedom to work in an occupation of one’s choice, according to the Napoleon-Series, were revolutionary at the time for a European country to put into practice. Most people remember Napoleon as a warmonger who conquered Europe until he met his Waterloo. However, his empire only lasted for a little more than a decade, but his code that completely changed how European societies worked lived on in the countries he had once subjugated. These countries then spread their versions of his code to their colonies and neighboring countries, further expanding its impact. Napoleon, an individual, created something that is the basis for many countries laws even today. There was no group that came up with this code and spread it. Napoleon created his own code and used the empire he created to advance his ideals and