Editing Napoleon (section)

==Memory and evaluation==
{{Main|Legacy of Napoleon}}

===Criticism===
[[File:El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya, from Prado thin black margin.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Third of May 1808]]'' by [[Francisco Goya]], showing Spanish resisters being executed by French troops]]
[[File:Plate L from 'An Historical Account of the Campaign in the Netherlands' by William Mudford (1817).jpg|thumb|A mass grave of soldiers killed at the [[Battle of Waterloo]]]]There is debate over whether Napoleon was "an [[Enlightened absolutism|enlightened despot]] who laid the foundations of modern Europe" or "a [[Narcissistic personality disorder|megalomaniac]] who wrought greater misery than any man before the coming of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hastings |first=Max |date=31 October 2014 |title=Everything is Owed to Glory |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-napoleon-a-life-by-andrew-roberts-1414788232 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113133508/http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-napoleon-a-life-by-andrew-roberts-1414788232 |archive-date=13 November 2014}}</ref> He was compared to Adolf Hitler by [[Pieter Geyl]] in 1947{{sfnp|Geyl|1949|pp=7-10}} and [[Claude Ribbe]] in 2005.<ref>{{harvp|Dwyer|2008b}}</ref> Most modern critics of Napoleon, however, reject the Hitler comparison, arguing that Napoleon did not commit genocide and did not engage in the mass murder and imprisonment of his political opponents.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|pp=666-67}}{{sfnp|Chandler|1973|p=xliii}} Nevertheless, [[David A. Bell]] and McLynn condemn his killing of 3,000–5,000 Turkish prisoners of war in Syria.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=39-40}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=280}}

Historians have argued that his expansionist foreign policy was a major factor in the Napoleonic wars,{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|p=574}}<ref>Charles Esdaile (2008), ''Napoleon's Wars: An International History 1803–1815'', p. 39</ref> which cost six million lives and caused economic disruption for a generation.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Little Tyrant, A review of ''Napoleon: A Penguin Life''|publisher=The Claremont Institute|author=Hanson, Victor Davis|author-link=Victor Davis Hanson|year=2003|url=https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-little-tyrant/|access-date=16 October 2018|archive-date=24 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824130449/https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-little-tyrant/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=666}} McLynn and [[Correlli Barnett]] suggest that Napoleon's reputation as a military genius is exaggerated.{{sfnp|Barnett|1997|pp=41, 53, 75, 103}}{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=665}} Cobban and Susan P. Conner argue that Napoleon had insufficient regard for the lives of his soldiers and that his battle tactics led to excessive casualties.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=19}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=62, 105-07}}

Critics also cite Napoleon's exploitation of conquered territories.{{sfnp|McLynn|1997|p=665}} To finance his wars, Napoleon increased taxes and levies of troops from annexed territories and satellite states.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=81-82}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=29, 46}} He also introduced discriminatory tariff policies which promoted French trade at the expense of allies and satellite states.{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=52}} He institutionalized plunder: French museums contain art stolen by Napoleon's forces from across Europe. Artefacts were brought to the [[Louvre|Musée du Louvre]] for a grand central museum; an example which would later be followed by others.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dodman |first=Benjamin |date=7 May 2021 |title='Glory of arms and art': Napoleonic plunder and the birth of national museums |url=https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210507-glory-of-arms-and-art-napoleonic-plunder-and-the-birth-of-national-museums |access-date=5 December 2023 |website=[[France 24]] |archive-date=9 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109005739/https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210507-glory-of-arms-and-art-napoleonic-plunder-and-the-birth-of-national-museums |url-status=live}}</ref>

Many historians have criticized Napoleon's authoritarian rule, especially after 1807, which included censorship, the closure of independent newspapers, the bypassing of direct elections and representative government, the dismissal of judges showing independence, and the exile of critics of the regime.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=574-76, 582-84}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=32-34}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=52}} Historians also blame Napoleon for reducing the civil rights of women, children and people of colour, and reintroducing the legal penalties of [[civil death]] and confiscation of property.{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=578, 584}}{{sfnp|Conner|2004|pp=32-34}}{{sfnp|Cobban|1963|p=27-28}} His reintroduction of an hereditary monarchy and nobility remains controversial.{{sfnp|Conner|2004|p=49}}{{sfnp|Dwyer|2015a|pp=579-84}} His role in the Haitian Revolution and decision to reinstate slavery in France's colonies in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean adversely affect his reputation.<ref name="Repa22">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4491668.stm |last=Repa |first=Jan |date=2 December 2005 |title=Furore over Austerlitz ceremony | work=[[BBC News]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420234710/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4491668.stm |archive-date=20 April 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56977769 | title=Napoleon's incendiary legacy divides France 200 years on | first=Lucy | last=Williamson | work=[[BBC News]] | date=4 May 2021}}</ref>

===Propaganda and memory===
{{Main|Bonapartism}}
[[File:Napoleon's exile to Elba3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|1814 English caricature of Napoleon being exiled to [[Elba]]: the ex-emperor is riding a donkey backwards while holding a broken sword.]]

[[Napoleonic propaganda|Napoleon's use of propaganda]] contributed to his rise to power, legitimated his regime, and established his image for posterity. Strict censorship and control of the [[Mass media|press]], books, theatre, and art were part of his propaganda scheme, aimed at portraying him as bringing peace and stability to France. Propaganda focused on his role first as a general then as a civil leader and emperor. He fostered a relationship with artists, commissioning and controlling different forms of art to suit his propaganda goals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Forrest |first=A.  |title=Propaganda and the Legitimation of Power in Napoleonic France |url=https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/fh/18.4.426 |journal=French History |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=426–445 |date=1 December 2004 |doi=10.1093/fh/18.4.426 |issn=0269-1191 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110509/https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-abstract/18/4/426/591574?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live}}</ref> Napoleonic propaganda survived his exile to Saint Helena. Las Cases, who was with Napoleon in exile, published ''[[The Memorial of Saint Helena]]'' in 1822, creating a legend of Napoleon as a liberal, visionary proponent of European unification, deposed by reactionary elements of the ''[[ancien régime]]''.{{sfnp|Price|2014|p=262}}{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=106}} 

Napoleon remained a central figure in the romantic art and literature of the 1820s and 1830s.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|p=107}} The Napoleonic legend played a key role in collective political defiance of the Bourbon restoration monarchy in 1815–1830. People from different walks of life and areas of France, particularly Napoleonic veterans, drew on the Napoleonic legacy and its connections with the ideals of the French Revolution.<ref name="Memory">{{Cite journal |last=Hazareesingh |first=Sudhir |author-link=Sudhir Hazareesingh  |title=Memory and Political Imagination: The Legend of Napoleon Revisited |url=https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/fh/18.4.463 |journal=French History |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=463–483 |doi=10.1093/fh/18.4.463 |issn=0269-1191 |date=2004 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207110510/https://academic.oup.com/fh/article-abstract/18/4/463/591569?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live}}</ref> The defiance manifested itself in seditious materials, displaying the tricolour and rosettes. There were also subversive activities celebrating anniversaries of Napoleon's life and reign and disrupting royal celebrations.<ref name="Memory" />

Bell sees the return of Napoleon's remains to France in 1840 as an attempt by Louis-Phillipe to prop up his unpopular regime by associating it with Napoleon, and that the regime of Napoleon III was only possible with the continued resonance of the Napoleonic legend.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=107-109}} Venita Datta argues that following the collapse of militaristic [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|Boulangism]] in the late 1880s, the Napoleonic legend was divorced from party politics and revived in popular culture. Writers and critics of the ''[[Belle Époque]]'' exploited the Napoleonic legend for diverse political and cultural ends.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/french-historical-studies/article/28/1/1/9475/L-appel-Au-Soldat-Visions-of-the-Napoleonic-Legend |last=Datta |first=Venita |title="L'appel Au Soldat": Visions of the Napoleonic Legend in Popular Culture of the Belle Epoque  |journal=French Historical Studies |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1215/00161071-28-1-1 |issn=0016-1071 |date=2005 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207104224/https://read.dukeupress.edu/french-historical-studies/article-abstract/28/1/1/9475/L-appel-Au-Soldat-Visions-of-the-Napoleonic-Legend?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-status=live}}</ref> In the 21st century, Napoleon appears regularly in popular fiction, drama and advertising. Napoleon and his era remain major topics of historical research with a sharp increase in historical books, articles and symposia during the bicentenary years of 1999 to 2015.{{sfnp|Bell|2015|pp=109-12}}<ref>{{cite web |title=H-Net announcements 2004-08-12 - 2004-08-17 | url=https://arthist.net/archive/26563 | website=Arthist.net}}</ref><gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Napoleon at the Great St. Bernard - Jacques-Louis David - Google Cultural Institute.jpg|''[[Napoleon Crossing the Alps]]'', [[Romanticism|romantic]] version by [[Jacques-Louis David]] in 1805
File:Paul Delaroche - Napoleon Crossing the Alps - Google Art Project 2.jpg|''[[Bonaparte Crossing the Alps]]'', [[Realism (art movement)|realist]] version by [[Paul Delaroche]] in 1848
File:Moscow (1812). Napoleon leaves the Kremlin.jpg|Moscow (1812). ''Napoleon leaves the Kremlin'', part of the [[French occupation of Moscow]], painting by [[Maurice Orange]].
</gallery>

===Long-term influence outside France===
{{Main|:Influence of the French Revolution}}
[[File:Flickr - USCapitol - Napoleon I (1769-1821).jpg|thumb|upright|[[commons:Bas-reliefs in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives|Bas-relief]] of Napoleon in the chamber of the [[United States House of Representatives]]]]Napoleon was responsible for spreading many of the values of the French Revolution to other countries, especially through the Napoleonic Code.{{sfnp|Grab|2017|p=2016ff}} After the fall of Napoleon, it continued to influence the law in western Europe and other parts of the world including Latin America, the Dominican Republic, Louisiana and Quebec.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lobingier |first=Charles Sumner |date=December 1918 |title=Napoleon and His Code |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1327640 |journal=Harvard Law Review |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=114–134 |doi=10.2307/1327640 |issn=0017-811X |jstor=1327640 |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210214854/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1327640 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Napoleon's regime abolished remnants of feudalism in the lands he conquered and in his satellite states. He liberalized [[property law]]s, ended [[manorialism]], abolished the [[guild]] of merchants and craftsmen to facilitate entrepreneurship, legalized divorce, closed the Jewish [[ghetto]]s and ended the [[Spanish Inquisition]]. The power of church courts and religious authority was sharply reduced and [[equality before the law]] was proclaimed for all men.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=R. R. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernw0000palm_l5v4/page/428 |title=A history of the modern world |date=1995 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-07-040826-5 |pages=428–429 |author-link=Robert Roswell Palmer}}</ref>

Napoleon reorganized what had been the [[Holy Roman Empire]], made up of about three hundred ''[[Kleinstaaten]]'', into a more streamlined forty-state [[Confederation of the Rhine]]; this helped promote the [[German Confederation]] and the [[unification of Germany]] in 1871, as it sparked a new wave of [[German nationalism]] that opposed the French intervention.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Scheck |first=Raffael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWqtAwAAQBAJ |title=Germany, 1871-1945: A Concise History |date=2008 |publisher=Berg |isbn=978-1-84520-817-2 |pages=11–13 |access-date=5 December 2023 |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207104231/https://books.google.com/books?id=QWqtAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> The movement toward [[Italian unification]] was similarly sparked by Napoleonic rule.<ref>{{cite book |last=Astarita |first=Tommaso |url=https://archive.org/details/betweensaltwater00tomm |title=Between Salt Water And Holy Water: A History Of Southern Italy |date=2005 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0-393-05864-6 |page=264ff}}</ref> These changes contributed to the development of nationalism and the [[nation state]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Alter |first=Peter |url=https://archive.org/details/unitydiversityin0000unse_f1p7 |title=Unity and Diversity in European Culture c. 1800 |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-726382-8 |editor1=T. C. W. Blanning |editor1-link=T. C. W. Blanning |pages=61–76 |editor2=Hagen Schulze |editor2-link=Hagen Schulze}}</ref>

The Napoleonic invasion of Spain and ousting of the Spanish Bourbon monarchy had a significant effect on [[Hispanic America|Spanish America]]. Many local elites sought to rule in the name of [[Ferdinand VII of Spain]], whom they considered the legitimate monarch. Napoleon indirectly began the process of [[Spanish American wars of independence|Latin American independence]] when the power vacuum was filled by local political leaders such as [[Simón Bolívar]] and [[José de San Martín]]. Such leaders embraced nationalistic sentiments influenced by French nationalism and led successful independence movements in Latin America.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Crisis of 1808 |url=https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/spanishsetting/pages/crisis.html |access-date=6 May 2021 |website=www.brown.edu |publisher=Brown University |archive-date=31 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731113614/https://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/exhibitions/spanishsetting/pages/crisis.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[[John Lynch (historian)|John Lynch]], ''Caudillos in Spanish America 1800–1850''. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1992, pp. 402–403.</ref> Napoleon's reputation is generally favourable in Poland, which is the only country in the world to evoke him in its national anthem, [[Poland Is Not Yet Lost]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/napoleon-and-polish-identity |last=Nieuwazny |first=Andrzej |title=Napoleon and Polish Identity |website=www.historytoday.com |archive-date=7 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207104311/https://www.historytoday.com/archive/napoleon-and-polish-identity |url-status=live}}</ref>