Modern Presence of Napoleon

Within France traces of Emperor Napoleon I are ever eminent, evident to people of virtually every walk of life.  The law system of France is still the Napoleonic Code of the First French Empire, although modifications have been made to it with the shifting times.  Paris’ paved roads, even-odd numbering system for houses, and fire brigades are all testament to his reign, as are the trees along main roads, originally planted to provide shade for travelers. 

            Thanks to Napoleon, France has one of the world’s best water-bound transportation and trading lines in the world.  The préfecture system was initiated under Napoleon, creating a highly efficient and centralized police administration, in addition to La Sûreté Nationale, now the French National Police, which inspired the creation of organizations such as Scotland Yard and the F.B.I.  In terms of finances, taxes are still being collected by professional tax collectors, a change Napoleon made from using part-time people who were paid a percentage of what they collected, and France still maintains its central National Bank.  The fact that France is financially stable, considering the horrible deprivation and poverty under many years of the despotic ancien régime and even the French Revolutionary governments, is directly due to Napoleon

            Religion-wise, France still is religiously tolerant as Napoleon had decreed, accepting not on the Catholicism of the large percentage of the population, but Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, and others.  For landmarks, he built the Colonne Vendôme and initiated construction of the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most famous monuments in the world.  For French students, there is a centralized curriculum and higher education available, especially with Napoleon’s lycées; in addition, to ensure that effective teachers were heading the schools, he instated the École Normale Supérieure for the express purpose of training teachers.

 

            If Napoleon had never existed, France would probably be much worse off.  Without his leadership, the country would have been completely decimated by starvation, poverty, and crime.  Without his military guidance, the despots of Europe would have defeated the French Revolutionary armies in the War of the Third coalition, the punitive measures taken on France would have been even more devastating then they were with the nefarious Congress of Vienna, and a more lasting monarchy would have been imposed.  Revolutionary fervor in la patrie would have been all but extinguished, the feudal laws of the Bourbons would have continued to oppress the people, and the county might well have wound up at war with Jeffersonian United States of America over the lower ports of New Orleans.  Therefore, in light of the miraculous reforms he brought to France and the abhorred plight he ended, Napoleon Bonaparte I would be rated as the foremost European military leader and statesmen in history, setting the scene for the modernization of France, Europe and the world.