Despite of his contributions, napoleon also registered a
number of weaknesses that made him unpopular in France and Europe at large as
seen below;
1.
He imprisoned the pope
Napoleon abrogated the concordant by arresting and
imprisoning the pope. By 1808, there was a serious conflict between Napoleon
and the Pope. The Pope refused the continental system initiated by Napoleon
against Great Britain. Consequently, Napoleon occupied the popal states and
added Rome to the French empire in 1809. Napoleon went ahead and arrested the
Pope and imprisoned the Pope. This disappointed the Catholics in France and all
over Europe.
2.
He became a dictator
Napoleon adopted dictatorship in his administration of
France. He centralized all powers to himself and left no room for democracy at
higher levels of administration. In 1904, he violated the constitution and
declared himself am emperor. There was no election and parliament which
deprived the French men of a representative government. Worst of all, the
revived system of lettress de-cachet especially from 1810. Napoleon manipulated
some codes/laws to strengthen his dictatorship. He arrested and imprisoned his
political opponents
3.
Liberal subjects
In the field of education, Napoleon is blamed for abolishing
the teaching of revolutionary subjects like history, philosophy, political
science and literature. This is because these subjects sharpened the reasoning
capacity of people which could make people expose his weaknesses. In other
words, Napoleon feared parliamentary debates and critics
4.
Girl child education
Napoleon’s education system segregated girls in favor of
boys. He commented that “I do not think we need to trouble ourselves with any
plan of instruction for young females… public education is not suitable for
them because they are never called upon
to act in public, marriage is all they looked to. To him women should be
taught religion and morals to teach them to be submissive to their husbands.
Napoleon believed that women should not play any public role not hold any
public office apart from the kitchen.” This was against the principle of
equality as demanded by the revolutionaries.
5.
The continental system
The continental system that was designed by Napoleon to
defeat Britain failed and instead negative consequences for France and Europe.
The system blocked the British superior and cheap manufactured products to
European countries, France inclusive. This made French and European businessmen
to close their businesses and industries. The end result was famine, inflation,
unemployment, industrial breakdown and financial crisis hence making Napoleon
unpopular.
6.
Laws against women
Napoleon used repressive laws that neglected the principle
of equality and violated the rights of women. The cope Napoleon made women
inferior to men. Napoleon remarked that “the Angel told Eve to obey her
husband: it should be written in our code”. The penal code provided for severe
punishment for women who disobeyed their husbands. Women were to be under the
control of their husbands and could not acquire or sell property without
consent of their husband. To make it worse, he permitted men to divorce their
women for criminal offences
7.
Laws against children
Apart from women, the code Napoleon also ignored the rights
of children. Girls of less than 21 years were not allowed to make any decision
on marriage without approval of their father and the same applied to the boys
below 25 years old. Children of less than 18years were to surrender their
income to their fathers. The code also gave parents the power to imprison their
children for any bad act. These laws made fathers to be dictators over their
children.
8.
Favoritism and nepotism
Napoleon practiced favoritism and nepotism in his domestic
as well as foreign policy. The code also provided Napoleon with power and
authority to appoint his family members and relatives to key positions of
responsibility in France and conquered states e.g. his brothers: Louis
Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte and Jerome Bonaparte were made kings of Holland,
Italy and West Phalia respectively. This was not different from hereditary
system of appointment of Bourbons and betrays Napoleon as a true son of the
French revolution
9.
Censorship of the press
Napoleon suppressed and restricted the freedom of the press
through his police chief, Fouche. Napoleon’s view was that “liberty was not for
the common people”. Consequently, he limited the number of printers in Paris
and their proprietors were made to swear an oath of obedience to the government.
The number of legal newspapers was also reduced from 70 in 1800 to only 4 by
1810. Those who defied the government order and publish anti-government ideas
were either hanged or imprisoned. This explains why the defeat of Trafalger in
1805 was not published in any newspaper till after Napoleon was overthrown.
Thus, Napoleon denied the Frenchmen the right to information (press freedom)
and undermined revolutionary principle of liberty.
10.
Fighting endless wars
Napoleon is blamed for his unending wars in an effort to
conquer Europe. Wars such as the Spanish (1808) and Moscow campaign (1812)
casted France thousands of soldiers and a lot of financial resources. These
ambitions also made Europeans to join hands in series of coalitions that led to
his defeat in 1815. Napoleon’s aggressive wars led to economic decline in
France, heavy losses of lives, destruction of property and isolation of France
in Europe. That explains why some of his soldiers deserted him because they
were tired of fighting endless wars hence his failure.
11.
Conscription into the army
Lastly, Napoleon forcefully recruited Frenchmen into the
army just to raise a big army to fulfill his ambition of conquering the whole
Europe. By 1812, had passed a law that entitled all able bodied men to join the
army. He resorted to recruiting young boys who were hurriedly trained and sent
to the battle field. Such young boys could easily surrender or would withdraw
from the battle field e.g. about 80,000 surrendered to the allied powers in the
eve of the Moscow campaign. This was because they were forced to join the army.
It should be noted that Napoleon’s army was heterogeneous e.g. from Belgium, Italians,
Portuguese, Germans were part of his troops
12.
Decline of French economy
By 1815, the French economy had declined. The Napoleonic
wars drained the French resources and caused social-economic problems like
industrial breakdown, unemployment, inflation, famine and starvation. Beside,
the wars had isolated France from the rest of Europe. Such deteriorating
economic situation made France unable to properly finance, arm and pay soldiers
which affected their performance and led to Napoleon’s downfall.
usefull notes
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