Editing Napoleon (section)

===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]].
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