Napoleon's Ensuing The French Revolution

Ensuing the French Revolution, Napoleon took power in France which led to disputes if Napoleon’s disposition was that of a tyrant and war criminal or that of a champion of the common man and a hero of the Revolution. Napoleon gained high status in the French military as he gave victory to France against the Austrian army, along with other countries in the Coalition. He failed to defend himself from the British army, even with the tactic of cutting off their trade, and had his own supplies and army destroyed. He then later overthrew the Directory, France’s government at the time, and declared himself emperor of France. As a new leader, Napoleon wished to ease the tensions resulting from the Revolution by allowing refugees to return to France, …show more content…
Out of anger and determination to defeat the British after being defeated himself several times, Napoleon figured the only way to gain victory was to lessen the power of the British. To do so, Napoleon would have to cut off their supplies. He created a large embargo, called the continental system, that essentially cut off trade for the British. Although Napoleon’s attempt was a failure, Britain had to suffer long term effects from this embargo. The British became bankrupt because they were unable to trade which is where most of the government’s money came from. This also led the innocent citizens to live in poverty due to the unstability of the economy and many lost jobs. Napoleon’s idea of the continental system caused such horror for those in Britain and thousands had to suffer the painful effects of Napoleon’s cruel system which caused surrounding countries to consider him a tyrant. Citizens of France began to oppose the systems because they were unable to purchase goods and technologies only sold in Great Britain. One might say that Napoleon was not cutting off the trade for people to get medicines and technologies because citizens were still able to smuggle goods across the countries borders. Though some people were able to smuggle goods without getting caught, it was illegal and those who were caught were either fined or thrown in prison. One may also argue that other countries used similar tactics in wars to make other countries suffer. However, if Napoleon were to claim himself to be enlightened, he would not choose war and economic war tactics to solve foreign and domestic problems. He would not be a hero of the Revolution if he caused the downfall of others to bring himself