Hey, it’s Napoleon Month!If anyone asks you what’s so great about Napoleon, just rattle off this.*Kevin (North Carolina):“Acknowledging that Napoleon and the Grande Armee changed warfare forever, Napoleon’s greatest achievements were in the field of law, the arts, government, and civil reform. Wherever the writ of the French Empire ran, there was basic civil rights, freedom of religion, hospitals and orphanages.The Code Civil, better known as the Code Napoleon has survived and thrived to this day, and gave France its first written code of law. It is also a part of the laws of Italy, Germany, and parts of the United States. He revamped French education, reestablished the Church, granted full citizenship to the Jewish people, granted freedom of worship for all denominations, encouraged industrialization and agriculture, built roads, bridges, harbors, drained swamps, encouraged and sponsored the arts, established the first governmental office to oversea France’s natural resources, planted trees, balanced his budgets, put France on a stable economic footing, brought the smallpox vaccination to the continent, encouraged the use of gas lighting, and opened careers in France to talented people, not caring if they were peasant or noble, middle class or fanatic, as long as they would serve honestly and loyally. He also established the Legion of Honor as a system to recognize those who had served France in an extraordinary capacity, be they military or civilian. He also established fire departments, hospitals, and orphanages. He established his regime and its reforms so solidly that fifteen years of restored Bourbon rule couldn’t get rid of it.”- via PBS*More to come about The Emperor, both good & bad, this month.
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Hey, it’s Napoleon Month!

If anyone asks you what’s so great about Napoleon, just rattle off this.*

Kevin (North Carolina):
“Acknowledging that Napoleon and the Grande Armee changed warfare forever, Napoleon’s greatest achievements were in the field of law, the arts, government, and civil reform. Wherever the writ of the French Empire ran, there was basic civil rights, freedom of religion, hospitals and orphanages.The Code Civil, better known as the Code Napoleon has survived and thrived to this day, and gave France its first written code of law. It is also a part of the laws of Italy, Germany, and parts of the United States. He revamped French education, reestablished the Church, granted full citizenship to the Jewish people, granted freedom of worship for all denominations, encouraged industrialization and agriculture, built roads, bridges, harbors, drained swamps, encouraged and sponsored the arts, established the first governmental office to oversea France’s natural resources, planted trees, balanced his budgets, put France on a stable economic footing, brought the smallpox vaccination to the continent, encouraged the use of gas lighting, and opened careers in France to talented people, not caring if they were peasant or noble, middle class or fanatic, as long as they would serve honestly and loyally. He also established the Legion of Honor as a system to recognize those who had served France in an extraordinary capacity, be they military or civilian. He also established fire departments, hospitals, and orphanages. He established his regime and its reforms so solidly that fifteen years of restored Bourbon rule couldn’t get rid of it.”

- via PBS

*More to come about The Emperor, both good & bad, this month.