[E.His]Key People In French Revolution Important

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Napoleon Bonaparte

A general in the French army and leader of the 1799 coup that overthrew the Directory. Napoleon’s accession marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of Napoleonic France and Europe.

Jacques-Pierre Brissot

A member of the Legislative Assembly and National Convention who held a moderate stance and believed in the idea of a constitutional monarchy. Brissot’s followers, initially known simply as Brissotins, eventually became known more generally as the Girondins. After unsuccessfully declaring war on Austria and Prussia, Brissot was removed from the National Convention and, like many Girondin leaders, lost his life at the guillotine during the Reign of Terror in 1793–1794.

Charles de Calonne

The controller general of finance appointed by King Louis XVI after Jacques Necker was forced out of office in 1781. Calonne proposed a daring plan to shift the French tax burden from the poor to wealthy nobles and businessmen, suggesting a tax on land proportional to land values and a lessened tax burden for peasants. The French nobility, however, refused to pay these taxes.

Lazare Carnot

A French soldier appointed by the Committee of Public Safety to help reorganize the failing war effort against Austria and Prussia. Carnot did so very effectively and made enough of a name for himself to earn a seat as one of the first members of the Directory. Although he was removed from this position during the overthrow of September 4, 1797, he went on to hold various posts in future governments.

Marquis de Lafayette

A liberal nobleman who led French forces assisting in the American Revolution. The common people of France revered Lafayette as an idealistic man who was dedicated to liberty and the principles of the Revolution. Although Lafayette organized the National Guard of armed citizens to protect the Revolution from attack by the king, he balked as the Revolution became more radical.

Louis XVI

The French king from 1774 to 1792 who was deposed during the French Revolution and executed in 1793. Louis XVI inherited the debt problem left by his grandfather, Louis XV, and added to the crisis himself through heavy spending during France’s involvement in the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783. Because this massive debt overwhelmed all of his financial consultants, Louis XVI was forced to give in to the demands of the Parlement of Paris and convene the Estates-General—an action that led directly to the outbreak of the Revolution. Louis XVI was deposed in 1792 and executed a year later.

Marie-Antoinette

The wife of King Louis XVI and, in the French commoners’ eyes, the primary symbol of the French royalty’s extravagance and excess. When Marie-Antoinette was executed in 1793, she was dressed in a plain dress, common to the poorest in French society.

Jacques Necker

A Swiss-born banker who served as France’s director general of finance in the late 1770s, with high hopes of instituting reform. As it turned out, Necker was able only to propose small efforts at eliminating costly inefficiencies. He did produce a government budget, however, for the first time in French history.

Maximilien Robespierre

A brilliant political tactician and leader of the radical Jacobins in the National Assembly. As chairman of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre pursued a planned economy and vigorous mobilization for war. He grew increasingly paranoid about counterrevolutionary opposition, however, and during the Reign of Terror of 1793–1794 attempted to silence all enemies of the Revolution in an effort to save France from invasion. After the moderates regained power and the Thermidorian Reaction was under way, they had Robespierre executed on July 28, 1794.

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

A liberal member of the clergy, supporter of the Third Estate, and author of the fiery 1789 pamphlet “What Is the Third Estate?” Sieyès was one of the primary leaders of the Third Estate’s effort at political and economic reform in France.

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August Decrees

A series of decrees issued by the National Assembly in August 1789 that successfully suppressed the Great Fear by releasing all peasants from feudal contracts.

Bastille

A large armory and state prison in the center of Paris that a mob of sans-culottes sacked on July 14, 1789, giving the masses arms for insurrection. The storming of the Bastille had little practical consequence, but it was an enormous symbolic act against the ancien régime, inspired the revolutionaries, and is still celebrated today as the French holiday Bastille Day.

Bourgeoisie

The middle and upper classes of French society who, as members of the Third Estate, wanted an end to the principle of privilege that governed French society in the late 1700s. The bourgeoisie represented the moderate voices during the French Revolution and were represented by delegates in both the Estates-General and the National Assembly.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

A document, issued by the National Assembly in July 1790, that broke ties with the Catholic Church and established a national church system in France with a process for the election of regional bishops. The document angered the pope and church officials and turned many French Catholics against the revolutionaries.

Committee of Public Safety

A body, chaired by Maximilien Robespierre, to which the National Convention gave dictatorial powers in April 1793 in an attempt to deal with France’s wars abroad and economic problems at home. Although the committee led off its tenure with an impressive war effort and economy-salvaging initiatives, things took a turn for the worse when Robespierre began his violent Reign of Terror in late 1793.

Constitution of 1791

The new French constitution that in 1791 established a constitutional monarchy, or limited monarchy, with all executive power answerable to a legislative assembly. Under the new constitution, King Louis XVI could only temporarily veto legislation passed by the assembly. The constitution restricted voting in the assembly to the upper and middle classes of French society and abolished “nobility” as a legal order.

Declaration of Pillnitz

An August 27, 1791, warning from Prussia and Austria announcing that they would intervene militarily in France if any harm came to King Louis XVI, who had just been captured trying to escape with his family from Paris. The declaration prompted then–Legislative Assembly leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot to declare war on Austria and Prussia.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

A document, issued by the National Assembly on August 26, 1789, that granted sovereignty to all French people. The declaration, which drew from the ideas of some of the Enlightenment’s greatest thinkers, asserted that liberty is a “natural” and “imprescriptible” right of man and that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”

Directory

The new executive branch established by the constitution written during the moderate Thermidorian Reaction of 1794–1795. The Directory was appointed by the legislative assembly. However, after 1797 election results proved unfavorable to elements in the Directory, it orchestrated an overthrow of the assembly and maintained dubious control over France until it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799.

Estates-General

A medieval representative institution in France that had not met for 175 years before King Louis XVI reconvened it on May 5, 1789, to deal with the looming financial crisis. Consisting of three estates—the clergy, nobility, and commoners, respectively—the Estates-General was the only group that would be able to force the assorted French parlements into accepting the controller general of finance Charles de Calonne’s tax decrees.

Girondins

The name given to the moderates in the National Convention. The Girondins controlled the legislative assembly until 1793, when, with the war going poorly and food shortages hurting French peasants, the Jacobins ousted them from power.

Great Fear

A period in July and August 1789 during which rural peasants revolted against their feudal landlords and wreaked havoc in the French countryside.

Jacobins

The radical wing of representatives in the National Convention, named for their secret meeting place in the Jacobin Club, in an abandoned Paris monastery. Led by Maximilien Robespierre, the Jacobins called for democratic solutions to France’s problems and spoke for the urban poor and French peasantry. The Jacobins took control of the convention, and France itself, from 1793 to 1794. As Robespierre became increasingly concerned with counterrevolutionary threats, he instituted a brutal period of public executions known as the Reign of Terror.

Limited Monarchy

Also known as constitutional monarchy, a system of government in which a king or queen reigns as head of state but with power that is limited by real power lying in a legislature and an independent court system.

Monarchy

The form of government, common to most European countries at the time of the French Revolution, in which one king or queen, from a designated royal dynasty, holds control over policy and has the final say on all such matters. In France, the Bourbon family held the monarchy, with Louis XVI as king at the time of the Revolution.

National Assembly

The name given to the Third Estate after it separated from the Estates-General in 1789. As a body, the National Assembly claimed to legitimately represent the French population. The assembly dissolved in 1791 so that new elections could take place under the new constitution.

National Convention

The body that replaced the Legislative Assembly following a successful election in 1792. As one of its first actions, the convention declared the French monarchy abolished on September 21, 1792, and on the following day declared France a republic. Though originally dominated by moderates, the convention became controlled by radical Jacobins in 1793.

Parlements

A set of thirteen provincial judicial boards—one based in Paris and the other twelve in major provincial cities—that constituted the independent judiciary of France. The parlements held the power of recording royal decrees, meaning that if a parlement refused to record an edict, the edict would never be implemented in that district.

Reign of Terror

A ten-month period of oppression and execution from late 1793 to mid-1794, organized by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety to suppress any potential enemies of the radical Revolution. The Reign of Terror ended with the fall of Robespierre, who was arrested and executed in July 1794. Robespierre’s execution ushered in the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794–1795 and the establishment of the Directory as the head of France’s executive government.

Sans-culottes

Urban workers and peasants, whose name—literally, “without culottes,” the knee-breeches that the privileged wore—signified their wish to distinguish themselves from the high classes. The mob mentality of the sans-culottes constituted the most radical element of the Revolution.

Tennis Court Oath

A June 20, 1789, oath sworn by members of the Third Estate who had just formed the National Assembly and were locked out of the meeting of the Estates-General. Meeting at a nearby tennis court, these members of the Third Estate pledged to remain together until they had drafted and passed a new constitution.

Thermidorian Reaction

The post–Reign of Terror period ushered in by the execution of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794 and the reassertion of moderate power over the French Revolution. The Thermidorian Reaction brought the Revolution’s focus back to the first stage of moderate changes designed to benefit the business classes of French society.

Third Estate

One of the three estates in the Estates-General, consisting of the commoners of France, whether rich merchants or poor peasants. Despite the fact that it constituted the vast majority of the French population, the Third Estate had just one vote in the Estates-General—the same vote that the much smaller First Estate (clergy) and Second Estate (nobility) each had. Frustrated with its political impotence, the Third Estate broke from the Estates-General on June 17, 1789, and declared itself the National Assembly.

Tuileries

The palace in Paris in which King Louis XVI and his family were placed under house arrest after they were forcibly taken from their court at Versailles. The point of removing the royal family to Paris was to allow the people to keep a close watch on their actions.

Versailles

The royal palace built by King Louis XIV a few miles outside of Paris. Known for its extraordinary splendor, extravagance, and immense size, Versailles was the home of the king, queen, and all members of the royal family, along with high government officials and select nobles. On October 5, 1789, a mob of angry and hungry French women marched on Versailles, bringing the royal family back to Paris to deal with the food shortage

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dear Fellas these terms and people are very Important specially the terms in objective type rather along with these two if you study F.R i think nothin will be left behind.
I'll collect the dates too to bring the F.R 1789 on our fingure tips

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Overview Of French Revolution

[B]Historians agree unanimously that the French Revolution was a watershed event that changed Europe irrevocably, following in the footsteps of the American Revolution, which had occurred just a decade earlier. The causes of the French Revolution, though, are difficult to pin down: based on the historical evidence that exists, a fairly compelling argument could be made regarding any number of factors. Internationally speaking, a number of major wars had taken place in the forty years leading up to the Revolution, and France had participated, to some degree, in most of them. The Seven Years’ War in Europe and the American Revolution across the ocean had a profound effect on the French psyche and made the Western world a volatile one. In addition to charging up the French public, this wartime environment took quite a toll on the French treasury. The costs of waging war, supporting allies, and maintaining the French army quickly depleted a French bank that was already weakened from royal extravagance. Finally, in a time of highly secularized Enlightenment, the idea that King Louis XVI had absolute power due to divine right—the idea that he had been handpicked by God—didn’t hold nearly as much water as in the past few decades.
Ultimately, these various problems within late-1700s France weren’t so much the immediate causes of the Revolution as they were the final catalyst. The strict French class system had long placed the clergy and nobility far above the rest of the French citizens, despite the fact that many of those citizens far exceeded nobles in wealth and reputation. Moreover, these exclusive titles—most of which had been purchased and passed down through families—essentially placed their bearers above the law and exempted them from taxes. In 1789, when France’s ancient legislative body, the Estates-General, reconvened and it became apparent that the higher-ranking classes refused to forfeit their privileges in the interest of saving the country, the frustration of the French bourgeoisie reached its boiling point. The French Revolution was thus a battle to achieve equality and remove oppression—concerns far more deep-seated and universal than the immediate economic turbulence France was experiencing at the time.
It may seem on the surface that the immediate results of the French Revolution were negligible, for the next leader after the Revolution was Napoleon, who imposed a dictatorship of sorts, voiding the sovereign democracy of the Revolution. Nonetheless, the Revolution won the public a number of other victories, both tangible and intangible. No French ruler after the Revolution dared to reverse the property and rights acquisitions gained during the Revolution, so citizens who had purchased church land were allowed to keep it. The new tax system remained devoid of the influence of privilege, so that every man paid his share according to personal wealth. Moreover, the breakdown of church and feudal contracts freed people from tithes and other incurred fees. That’s not to say that all was well: French industry struggled for years after the Revolution to regain a foothold in such a drastically different environment. On the whole, however, the French people had seen the impact they could have over their government, and that liberating, inspiring spirit was unlikely ever again to be suppressed.
Other European governments and rulers, however, were not too happy with the French after the Revolution. They knew that their own citizens had seen the power that the French public wielded, and as a result, those governments were never again able to feel secure in their rule after 1799. Though there had been other internal revolutions in European countries, few were as massive and convoluted as the French Revolution, which empowered citizens everywhere and resulted in a considerable leap toward the end of oppression throughout Europe.

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hold on next lecture will come up soon! lolz leme just compile it up!

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Feudalism and Unfair Taxation

No one factor was directly responsible for the French Revolution. Years of feudal oppression and fiscal mismanagement contributed to French societies that were ripe for revolt. Noting a downward economic spiral in the late 1700s, King Louis XVI brought in a number of financial advisors to review the weakened French treasury. Each advisor reached the same conclusion—that France needed a radical change in the way it taxed the public—and each advisor was, in turn, kicked out.
Finally, the king realized that this taxation problem really did need to be addressed, so he appointed a new controller general of finance, Charles de Calonne, in 1783. Calonne suggested that, among other things, France begin taxing the previously exempt nobility. The nobility refused, even after Calonne pleaded with them during the Assembly of Notables in 1787. Financial ruin thus seemed imminent.

The Estates-General

In a final act of desperation, Louis XVI decided in 1789 to convene the Estates-General, an ancient assembly consisting of three different estates that each represented a portion of the French population. If the Estates-General could agree on a tax solution, it would be implemented. However, since two of the three estates—the clergy and the nobility—were tax-exempt, the attainment of any such solution was unlikely.
Moreover, the outdated rules of order for the Estates-General gave each estate a single vote, despite the fact that the Third Estate—consisting of the general French public—was many times larger than either of the first two. Feuds quickly broke out over this disparity and would prove to be irreconcilable. Realizing that its numbers gave it an automatic advantage, the Third Estate declared itself the sovereign National Assembly. Within days of the announcement, many members of the other two estates had switched allegiances over to this revolutionary new assembly.

The Bastille and the Great Fear

Shortly after the National Assembly formed, its members took the Tennis Court Oath, swearing that they would not relent in their efforts until a new constitution had been agreed upon. The National Assembly’s revolutionary spirit galvanized France, manifesting in a number of different ways. In Paris, citizens stormed the city’s largest prison, the Bastille, in pursuit of arms. In the countryside, peasants and farmers revolted against their feudal contracts by attacking the manors and estates of their landlords. Dubbed the “Great Fear,” these rural attacks continued until the early August issuing of the August Decrees, which freed those peasants from their oppressive contracts. Shortly thereafter, the assembly released the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which established a proper judicial code and the autonomy of the French people.

Rifts in the Assembly

Though the National Assembly did succeed in drafting a constitution, the relative peace of the moment was short-lived. A rift slowly grew between the radical and moderate assembly members, while the common laborers and workers began to feel overlooked. When Louis XVI was caught in a foiled escape plot, the assembly became especially divided. The moderate Girondins took a stance in favor of retaining the constitutional monarchy, while the radical Jacobins wanted the king completely out of the picture
Outside of France, some neighboring countries feared that France’s revolutionary spirit would spread beyond French land. In response, they issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which insisted that the French return Louis XVI to the throne. French leaders interpreted the declaration as hostile, so the Girondin-led assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia.

The Reign of Terror

The first acts of the newly named National Convention were the abolition of the monarchy and the declaration of France as a republic. In January 1793, the convention tried and executed Louis XVI on the grounds of treason. Despite the creation of the Committee of Public Safety, the war with Austria and Prussia went poorly for France, and foreign forces pressed on into French territory. Enraged citizens overthrew the Girondin-led National Convention, and the Jacobins, led by Maximilien Robespierre, took control.
Backed by the newly approved Constitution of 1793, Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety began conscripting French soldiers and implementing laws to stabilize the economy. For a time, it seemed that France’s fortunes might be changing. But Robespierre, growing increasingly paranoid about counterrevolutionary influences, embarked upon a Reign of Terror in late 1793–1794, during which he had more than 15,000 people executed at the guillotine. When the French army successfully removed foreign invaders and the economy finally stabilized, however, Robespierre no longer had any justification for his extreme actions, and he himself was arrested in July 1794 and executed.

The Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory

The era following the ousting of Robespierre was known as the Thermidorian Reaction, and a period of governmental restructuring began, leading to the new Constitution of 1795 and a significantly more conservative National Convention. To control executive responsibilities and appointments, a group known as the Directory was formed. Though it had no legislative abilities, the Directory’s abuse of power soon came to rival that of any of the tyrannous revolutionaries France had faced.

Napoleon

Meanwhile, the Committee of Public Safety’s war effort was realizing unimaginable success. French armies, especially those led by young general Napoleon Bonaparte, were making progress in nearly every direction. Napoleon’s forces drove through Italy and reached as far as Egypt before facing a deflating defeat. In the face of this rout, and having received word of political upheavals in France, Napoleon returned to Paris. He arrived in time to lead a coup against the Directory in 1799, eventually stepping up and naming himself “first consul”—effectively, the leader of France. With Napoleon at the helm, the Revolution ended, and France entered a fifteen-year period of military rule.

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from today we will deal with Nepolianic France....
after F.R was finished the political scene of Europewas dominated by a young man Napolean for the next 15-16 years....

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NAPOLIANIC EUROPE

The Consulate (1799-1804)

A Brief Summary
In 1799, the French government of the Thermidorean Reaction, called the Directory, was foundering. A brilliant young French general, having already won fame with a series of victories for Revolutionary France in Italy Napoleon Bonaparte, was then busy fighting a fruitless war in Egypt. Hearing of the chaos, Napoleon abandoned his army and with geat fanfare returned to Paris a hero. On November 9, 1799 (the month of "Brumaire" in the French Revolutionary calendar) Napoleon Bonaparte and Abbe Sieyes pulled off a coup in France. They overthrew the current Directory and replaced it with a new government: the Consulate. Sieyes and Napoleon both installed themselves as consuls, though the popular Napoleon became First Consul
A career warrior, Napoleon now claimed he only wanted peace. At the time, Austria was the only continental country that remained at war with France. On June 1800, Napoleon led the French army against the Austrians at the battle of Marengo and emerged with a staggering victory. In February 1801, the Austrians were forced to sign the Treaty of Luneville, reaffirming the earlier Treaty of Campo Formio, which had created the Cisalpine Republic in Italy. The Cisalpine Republic was really a puppet-state controlled by France. On March 1802, France signed the Peace of Amiens with Britain, ending their warring, and briefly bringing Europe to peace, a rare occurrence in this violent period.
As First Consul, Napoleon moved rapidly to institute order in France. He put down rebellions in the French provinces. He created a secret police, led by Fouche. He centralized the government of the various French departments under a system of prefects. To reduce the number of potential revolutionaries floating around Europe, he issued a general amnesty, allowing various exiles, from aristocrats to Jacobins, to return home. Napoleon ended the exclusion of the nobility from power that had been the trademark of earlier post- revolution regimes. He simply wanted the best men he could find, even if they happened to be from aristocratic families. As an example, he took in Talleyrand as his foreign minister despite Talleyrand's aristocratic heritage.
Napoleon was not universally loved, however. On Christmas Eve, 1800, he was nearly killed by a bomb planted by conspirators wanting to restore the old Bourbon line of kings. Although it was clear that the plot had been royalist in origin, Napoleon felt more threatened by the Jacobins and used the event to persecute and intimidate them.
Though unreligious, in 1801, Napoleon signed a Concordat with the Catholic pope. This agreement smoothed over the rift between France and Rome the Revolution had caused, in which the French state assumed control over appointment of bishops and confiscated church lands. Napoleon did not give the property back, but he did make Catholicism the official religion of France, admitting, "the majority of France is Catholic." In exchange, the Vatican recognized the Consulate. Even under this new agreement with the Church, Napoleon upheld religious tolerance, which remained a fundamental principle of French life under his "enlightened despotism."
Napoleon also set about improving and modernizing French government. He wanted government power to apply to everyone equally, legal class differences and hereditary government offices to be abolished, and salaries to be given to his bureaucrats, who were to be selected based on talent, not birth. Napoleon stabilized French currency by creating the Bank of France, and he simplified the tangle of French law by producing the Napoleonic Code.
In 1802, having brought prestige, power, and a sense of patriotism to France, Napoleon was elected "Consul for Life". Monarchy was returning to France. In 1804, Napoleon did away with niceties and started calling himself what he had already been in reality for some time: the French Emperor.

Napoleon Himself/ and a debate/ Comments on His work

Napoleon was born in 1769 on the island of Corsica, a former Genoan island in the Mediterranean that had recently been handed over to the French. Technically minor French aristocrats, Napoleon's family got him a scholarship to go to school in France. Trained at French military schools to command artillery, Napoleon proved capable of commanding far greater military contingents: after leading the revolutionary army to victory at the battle of Toulon, Napoleon was promoted to general. Next, on the Italian Campaign, in which he defeated Austria and gained territory in Italy for France, Napoleon became famous as a brilliant strategist and French national hero. The government, frightened by his massive popularity, next sent him on the Egyptian campaign. The government stated the reason for the Egyptian campaign as a means to threaten British trade with India, but in reality it seemed mostly a ploy to get the dangerous and ambitious Napoleon away from Paris.
The overthrow of the Directory and establishment of the Consulate marked the real end of the French Revolution. The Consulate was outwardly an institution of self-government, with its Council of Notables and Senate. This bicameral (two house) legislature was largely for show: Napoleon controlled the Consulate. Under his rule, France entered a period of "Enlightened Despotism", or dictatorial rule by someone who really was intelligent, wise, and in many ways looked to the welfare of his people. Napoleon's executive decisions were carried out by his chief agency, the Council of State.
Why was it that the French army was so dominant in this period? Although the "great-man" bias in history makes us want to attribute it all to Napoleon's strategic brilliance, there were other underlying factors. First, the reforms of the French Revolution created a higher amount of equality of opportunity in France than had been seen previously in Europe. The most talented men, rather than simply men of noble birth, now gained power at every level. French efficiency improved as result, as did the population's general enthusiasm. While other nations still fought largely with mercenaries, the French army was a national army of proud and patriotic citizens, who had very high morale and a sense of heroism. At the same time, France also boasted the largest population of any European country: an advantage for a nation trying to build a large army.
Why did Napoleon move to sign the Concordat of 1801, normalizing relations with the Church, when he wasn't himself religious? Napoleon was a smart politician. With the Church officially at odds with France, the clergy (influential with the masses) would become a source of resistance to his government (as could be seen in the revolt in the Vendee during the Terror of the French Revolution). By gaining recognition from the Pope, who was bound to comply since Napoleon's armies threatened the Papal States, Napoleon ended this potential source of conflict.
Though he was a dictator, Napoleon's reforms represented a victory for the goals of the bourgeoisie in the revolution: legal equality reigned; government posts went to the "men of talent"; education increasingly determined people's social status; tax-exemptions based on noble birth ceased to exist, providing more funds for the government, which then engaged in bigger and more ambitious projects. The Napoleonic Code was one of Napoleon's most important creations. After the various governments of the Revolution, French law was a complete mess. Lawyers, not to mention the people, hardly knew what was legal and illegal anymore, since there were so many confusing and conflicting laws on the books. The Napoleonic Code created a single, streamlined system of law, which enshrined the basic tenants of the Revolution, such as the legal equality of all citizens. The code, however, did have some negative aspects: it was harsher than Anglo- American "Common Law" in regards to the rights of criminals (Napoleonic law favored the prosecution and downplayed the "rights of the accused"). The Napoleonic Code also outlawed labor unions.
The other powers in Europe were understandably scared of Napoleon. He was a leader that fought tradition, and, furthermore the leader of the European nation with the biggest population, and which had been Europe's intellectual leader for the past century. Under a more merit-based system of selecting France's bureaucrats and officer, France became especially efficient, powerful, and patriotic. Napoleon threatened not only everything the old regime in Europe stood for, but that regime's very existence.