Napoleon Bonaparte- Kayla K

Napoleon Bonaparte was a selfish leader. He was all in it for himself. Although France benefited from it; it was not Napoleon’s intent. He only wanted what was best for him and didn’t care about the people.
Napoleon had a good sense of his own importance from his mother. She would always tell him how great and special he was which made him very confident. His confidence had a great impact for the way he ruled. He received a scholarship to a military school at the age of nine. At his school, he was viewed as second class. He also accomplished two school years in one. This fuelled him to achieve and be greater than the others. Napoleon had enormous ambition.
Napoleon created public schools. Napoleon created schools for his own benefit to make his army better. Today, the whole world benefits from the selfishness of Napoleon. When he created schools, it was not his intent to educate anyone else besides his army. He created banks as well. To this day we still use banks and they have improved greatly.
He created a code called the Napoleonic Code. It forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified. The Napoleonic Code was good and bad. It was good because it abolished serfdom, all men were equal before the law and it guaranteed freedom of religion. It was bad because it took away the rights of women and children. Napoleon also overthrew the directory, taking all the power for himself, also, this was illegal.
The Continental System was Napoleon’s attempt to stop Britain trade with Europe. However, his attempt did not work and lead to the Battle of Moscow, which lead to his downfall. The Continental System was pointless because if he never had made it, he wouldn’t have had the war to his downfall. A few good things Napoleon did were fixed the financial crisis. He made everyone pay taxes, he created a bank, which stabilized finance, and the prices were under control. He created the concept of nationalism; devotion to the interests or culture of one’s nation. Although he did create some things that weren’t out of his selfishness, it was not enough to make up for how he was all in it for himself, and wanted France for his ego.