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blog post #3

My inquiry question is “What impact did Napoleon Bonaparte have on our world?” First, I will talk about the good changes that Napoleon had made to make France a better country. France had been in bad shape ever since Louis the 14th had drained the country economically by building the infamous palace Versailles. Still, by approximation, the price of the luxurious palace Versaille varies from two billion dollars to three hundred billion and 500 million dollars. (1) France was in RUINS when Napoleon had taken over. All the deaths from the previous French Revolution, all of the children uneducated, all of the citizens left jobless, and all the debt that France was in, every single problem built up in France for centuries and exploded altogether. But Napoleon had taken care of all of it by building the first National bank of France to stabilize the economy, providing primary education for all of the children of the country, and establishing and enforcing the notorious Napoleonic Code. Napoleonic code marked a very new era that started in the whole world, a new, advanced, and the best the world had gotten. It had symbolized the end of the Monarchy and the rule of the all-mighty church. The Napoleonic Code had made everyone equal under the law. The law had also removed the birth privileges (2) of rich people so that everyone is born equal and will remain equal under the law. Freedom of Religion(3) was also something extraordinary that the law had mentioned; back in the monarchy days, people were forced to be Catholic in France. People of other religions would either be sent out of the country or to jail for their lives. Still, now, you can be a part of any religion you want now, only in France. The most important one was the separation in pre-revolutionary France; the church controlled the taxes. It was at the top of the pyramid, influencing the country’s politics like no one else. But the new system and laws that Napoleon had created did not only affect France, but it also had a significant impact on other European countries like Switzerland, Subalpine Republics, Piedmontese Republic, Republic of Alba, etc. Although the republics didn’t last for very long before they broke apart during the war, the laws and the systems that Napoleon had established there had affected the region for a long time. And those little pieces slowly built up together, and when the UN was forming the international law, they had a lot of similarities from the Napoleonic Code. 

Nothing in this world is ever perfect; there were terrible sides to the Napoleonic Codes. The Napoleonic Code had built up the men’s rights upon the woman’s rights and the child’s rights in the family. It had deeply limited the rights of women and children in a family. It had also reintroduced slavery in France despite the people’s complaints. Although reintroducing slavery is very bad, it had undoubtedly provided some benefits to the rich so that they wouldn’t cause another riot very soon, contributing to France’s broken economy. But, in the end, who am I to talk about the slavery that many people had suffered through, and there is no way that one can justify the misery of reintroducing slavery in France.  (4 )

1. From

https://www.pbs.org/marieantoinette/life/index.html#:~:text=Actual%20building%20costs%20for%20Versailles,a%20maximum%20cost%20of%20%24299%2C520%2C000%2C000!

2. From 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/napoleonic-code-approved-in-france#:~:text=The%20Napoleonic%20Code%20made%20the,but%20colonial%20slavery%20was%20reintroduced.

3. From

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/napoleonic-code-approved-in-france#:~:text=The%20Napoleonic%20Code%20made%20the,but%20colonial%20slavery%20was%20reintroduced.

4. From

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/napoleonic-code-approved-in-france#:~:text=The%20Napoleonic%20Code%20made%20the,but%20colonial%20slavery%20was%20reintroduced.

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